Our whole family will be in Europe from June 8 to July 13, primarily to work among refugees in one gateway city.
Please join us in three prayer focuses:
- Impact among Refugees and Immigrants
- Strategic Insights to be Gained
- Lasting Impact for our Children
Impact among Refugees and Immigrants
We will participate in two distinct activities:
- An experienced researcher (and long-time friend) will guide us in making friendships with Afghan refugees to learn about their needs toward equipping future ministry among them. These Afghans may prove a strategic bridge for others to reach the peoples of Afghanistan.
- We will then join a team with Greater Europe Mission to launch a “Training For Trainers” (T4T) style Church Planting Movement among refugees. If God blesses this effort, exponential Kingdom growth will continue among these refugees long after we leave.
Strategic Insights to be Gained
My primary ministry is gathering and promoting strategic insights to multiply the Kingdom impact of other ministries.
Through this outreach I expect to deepen my understanding of six elements of mission strategy:
- Diaspora Missiology: how God uses displacement to increase Gospel openness.
- Ethnographic Research: uncovering the needs of peoples by befriending them.
- Training for Trainers: a “best practice” in Church Planting Movements.
- Short-Terms for Long Term Results: a recent Mission Frontiers theme.
- Family-based Ministry: The theme of another recent Mission Frontiers.
- Strategic Youth Mobilization: Igniting hearts for strategic service.
Read more on our revamped ministry website.
What I learn on this trip will thus inform
- my writing for Mission Frontiers,
- the development of our revamped website,
- my consulting for mission leaders, and
- our efforts to engage America’s Christian youth in Kingdom purposes.
Lasting Impact for our Children
Seventy percent of Christian teenagers walk away from their parent’s faith when they leave home. No wonder the mission cause suffers and our country struggles!
As parents, Jackie and I are determined to learn and share with others how parents and grandparents can raise adults who
- walk more closely with God than we do, and
- accomplish greater things for His kingdom than we have.
We see this trip as an opportunity for Joelle and Dana especially to deeply experience God’s
- presence,
- guidance and
- provision for ministry.
Notes
- For brief family updates throughout our trip, subscribe through the box at the upper right of this page.
- For a glimpse of how our daughters are maturing, check out the videos of their speech and debate entries:
- The Threat to Down Syndrome
- Serving Street Kids
- Opening Arguments for a Sweetened Beverage Tax
- The Remaining Missionary Task
- The True Cost of Bottled Water
- Closing Arguments for a Sweetened Beverage Tax
- To encourage or support our daughters in their first cross-cultural trip, see these suggestions and links.
- At present (5/24) we have received special gifts to cover 12% of our trip. Here’s how you can help.
Have a great trip! Put photos on Facebook while you go.
Thank you for sharing this ministry. Our prayers will be with you in your trip to work with refugees in Europe. This brings back fresh memories to me when I spent time there years ago in work at the * Museum, and later with my own family.
time stamped today 16:06 Sat. June 9, ’12 received your prayer requests (time here is 12:56) about the trip “challenges”.
So sorry about the computer. Please try to leave it in God’s hands until it is once again within yours. smile.
Love and prayers are all around you. Your angels are working hard!
Love and God’s divine appointments for the rest of the trip.