Urbana 2006

This year Urbana left the small town of Urbana, IL to travel to St. Louis, MO. Our team arrived with much excitement for the conference. 20,000 were estimated to be in attendance.






Our team was made up of members of OM USA, a contingent from OM Canada, and as well as a partnership with Cafe 10/40.
We had a great time talking with many students. Some of us even lost our voices in the process. One highlight was our cool button machine. Cool button phrases like "Corn on the Cob, Kitchen Detergents, and American Idol Winner" were greatly sought after.

Free the Dalits

John Brown University recently hosted Kumar Swamy in a Chapel raising awarenes on the Dalits. Kumar is the South India Regional Director for OM. Originally from a Hindu background, he became a Christian and joined OM in 1981. He holds degrees in Psychology and Missiology. In addition to his role with OM, he is a pastor in the Good Shepherd Community Church movement and is involved in the Dalit empowerment movement across India.

Kumar recently attended the Asia-Europe People's Forum in Helsinki, Finland where he presented a paper in a Seminar on Human Rights. click here to read it.

For more information, check out the Dalit Freedom Network.

True Grit

Over the last couple of days I read "True Grit" by Deborah Meroff. She tells the true adventures of nine ordinary women, who are making a difference in such places as Tajikistan, India, Egypt, and Lebanon. Brief fact files between stories highlight global abuses of girls and women, sex trafficking, prostitution, female circumcision, poverty and domestic abuse. This book not only raises awareness of global issues but points out simple ways in which we can help turn the tide for women worldwide. I want to recommend this book. For a free copy of this book, go to the website of George Verwer. Send him an email with your mailing address and he will send you a copy of that book.

John Brown University

I have arrived on the Campus of John Brown University for their Mission Fair. I'll post more later.

It is beautiful here. I love the Fall in Arkansas and on Campus.

Fresh from the Ship

One of the absolutely BEST things I've ever done was joining the OM ship Doulos a few years back. I had an awesome 1,5 yrs traveling to 16 countries, living with 300+ people from 40+ nations. I had to work hard, learn to give in to other ways of doing things and trust God in a new way as I was living outside my comfort zone.

Here's a little clip of some recent Doulos Steppers (Step= Short Term Exposure Program, usually 6 weeks long).

Check it out! Maybe you are the next person to live on the ship and experience the ride!

Last Night at the Cheesecake Factory

The night before we flew back to Atlanta from Palm Beach, we had an fun hang out time talking about movies, dreams and taking over the world.

Keelan, me and JP.

Keelan and Maria.

Danilda and Ben. (The Dominican Republic meets Birmingham, Alabama!)

All of us!

Erik, Danilda and Ben.

Fascination.

This is some of the students at Palm Beach Atlantic watching a video about the OM ships. Some of them are going on Logos II for a week to shoot a video during spring break. Keep them in your prayers!

Finally: Photos! Smile if You're in!

That's me and Erik eating the famous Mexican corn with mayonnaise, cheese and of course: hot sauce!


JP, Christian and Jonathan took us to eat. They knew the way into our hearts was though authentic Mexican food!


And the dish itself here.

Finally: Photos! Smile, if You Recognize the Place!

It does look like southern Florida, doesn't it?

Leaving

Erik and I are sitting at the airport in Palm Beach waiting to board the plane back to Atlanta. We've had an amazing week here at Palm Beach Atlantic. Beautiful place, fantastic people and great shark stories (they've all been in the water with a shark or stepped on a shark and kind of just shrug about it - hello?) .

Last night we had a prayer night with a few hundred students. We showed videos from around the world and prayed over the situations. I love doing prayer nights like that...coz praying for the world has definitely changed my perspective on the world.

Now we're boarding so...adios!

(pictures later....)

La Comida Latina en Florida

The awesome folk here at PBA took us to a taco stand for dinner tonight. You know, the real Mexican taco stand -kind and more. They did not have just tacos, but also corn with mayonnaise, cheese and hot sauce. Definitely not good for you, but fantastically delicious.

Click. Click. Click. Aaaaaargh!!!! Here would go the pictures that I have, if this freakin' thing would work.

Ahem. Maybe later then.

Who Wouldn't Want to Go to School at the Beach?

Palm Beach Atlantic is the name of the college we're at in West Palm Beach, Florida. Apparently most of the students here come from the Northeastern states of America. In the middle of the cold Connecticut winter, who wouldn't want to stroll into class in flip flops and board shorts?

Erik and I flew here yesterday. We had delicious Cuban food last night (they brought me a chicken and a half! hello?) and just a chill time talking about the ships and Erik having visited 63 countries. (No kidding!)

Check this space for stories about what's going on here in Florida this week.

You Can Change the Muslim World

Muslims all over the world are starting a month of fasting, called the Ramadan, on Sunday. During these 30 days they will not eat or drink anything from sunrise to sunset. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam and it is done as an act of obedience and submission to Allah.

Many Christians around the world are taking these 30 days to pray for the Muslim world. Maybe you don't know what to pray about or even why. Click here and you will find a guide that gives you prayer requests for each day starting September 24th and ending on October 23rd.

Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob.
Psalm 84:8

Let's ask God to move in the hearts of Muslims and show them His love and grace.

Calling

Calling is finding out how God uses you best where the need is the greatest.

-Richard Sharp


What do you think? Is that it?

Uganda

This morning we had a performance of four guys from Uganda at our devotion time at the office. They are part of a band called First Love . On their website you can learn more about their ministry that reaches far from Uganda.

Just recently I read about Alexander M. Mackay (1849-1890). He was a pioneer engineer-missionary to Uganda. Arrived in Zanzibar in 1876; he reached Uganda in 1878. Built 230 miles of road to Uganda from the coast. Translated Matthew's Gospel into Luganda. Died in 1890 having spent fourteen years in Africa without once returning home to native Scotland.

What are you waiting for?

If you look at the story of the Haystack Prayer Meeting in 1806, you will see a group of ordinary young students. All likeminded, praying for global missions and the involvement of fellow students.

There were just 5 of them. Not a huge group. Their motto was:
"We can do it, if we will"
And they went on in their prayers and got other students involved. Through their prayers, enthousiasm and perseverance a movement started.

If you are convinced that something needs to be done in your generation. You might be the person to start it. A movement starts with a few people; not with hundres at the same time. Find others and start praying. In this Bible verse Jesus gives us the command to ask/pray for more workers.

What are you waiting for?
You can do it, if you will!

What Is Your Legacy?

Many of you have heard the story of the Haystack and how a couple of students prayed for the nations in 1806 and God heard them. As a result, God raised up 100 000 students who committed their lives to missions. Out of that number 20 000 went overseas and the rest supported them from home.

Last week I was in Williamstown, Massachusetts with a bunch of other people celebrating how small prayers have made a huge impact on the world!

Those days missionaries left home thinking that they'd never return. They wanted to give their lives for something that would last beyond their years. Today many Muslims are willing to lay down their lives for what they believe in. And they can't even be certain of Allah accepting them.

I have a strong conviction. I believe God is calling our generation to lay down our lives for His sake. I believe we need to stop talking and thinking about all the good things we should and could do. I think we need to take action.

It could be something simple like starting a prayer group for the unreached on your campus. Or maybe it means getting to know that international student. You want your life to matter, so why not start today?

Urgent need of Marine Engineers

This urgent message came from the MV Doulos:

"We have an urgent Prayer Request for the Doulos and the Ship Ministry in General. We are in urgent need of Engineers. If we don’t get engineers by the end of Sept, the Doulos won’t be able to leave Thailand. So please pray with us that God will provide qualified people. And if you know of people that might be able to help us, ask them to contact the nearest OM office"


For more information about the qualifications visit the website of the Doulos
Pray with us to find these Engineers.

georgeverwer.com

George Verwer(World Missions Advocate) is the founder of Operation Mobilization. He has a very good website with a lot of resources. Links to websites, sermons, articles and books. He just started an online webcommunity:"I hope that soon many people will be online and able to connect with one another for greater networking in missions."
If you want to know more about world missions, you must visit www.georgeverwer.com

Dear Francis

Check out this site about a movie about Swaziland, a country with a HIV-positive-rate of 40%.