Istanbul, Turkey i think.

After a massive ordeal with the Israeli airport security and having my computer, battery, guitar, and luggage all shipped separate in individual, bubble-wrapped boxes, I landed in

Rob and I in Barcelona.

Spain a day ahead of Rob and Joe with no luggage. They hammer you on the way out because they’re worried about bombs and terrorism.  ”What have you been doing in Israel? What about Thailand?  Morocco? Jordan? Egypt? How do you get the money to pay for this?  Is that all you have with you to travel for so long?”  I work with YWAM so none of my answers add up in the way they want.  ”I am supported by a church…and friends…I work when I can.”  ”What? Ok sir, you’ll have to come with me.”  Needless to say, I barely made the flight by the time they were done.

Since we had graduation in Jerusalem, all our students and staff

Stockholm.

have gone on to pursue other endeavors.  We wished each other the best and off we went.  I’ve pulled all the stops on my “Around the World Ticket” in due to a September 19 start of Bible School (YWAM SBS) in Montana.

Barcelona.

So I parted with Rob and Joe and head back to the airport a couple days later, my backpack and guitar had arrived minus the computer battery.  I guess they deemed it a bomb because it was as dead as a doorbell.  So here in Stockholm, I’ve been trying to see a few things in the 3 days I have.  They sell a 72hr unlimited bus/train pass for 200 Krona (about $30).  So I just get on it and go anywhere and get off when it seems fitting.  It’s like an all-access pass.  You just flash it and you’re in business.  I saw the castle (Kungliga Slottet), Ikea

IKEA in Sweden

(which is walls of cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling in warehouse fashion with a

Not much flash.

food operation at the check-out much like they have at Costco).  They must shop in a catalog then come here to pick it up or something.  Who knows.  I rode on trains, subways, and buses with a tons of commuters and other people moving from one place to another and watched them get on then get off.  Swedes are quiet.  Way more so than the Spaniards.  The Barcelona flight was like Margaritaville.

I nearly slept on the street last night because it’s peak Summer tourism and I didn’t figure all these hostels would be full but they sure are..almost.  Our relatives are on the other side of the country and theres no time, so here I am.  It’s all good…one ordeal after another, but I’m getting to the point where I have to dig deeper to keep it going.  You really have to work at it to keep the price down.  My buddy, Donavan shared some wisdom with me one time. In the movie business there’s a saying that goes like this: Fast. Quality. Cheap.  Pick 2.  This reminds me of that.  Money kicks open lots of doors.  Then again, all this scrapping keeps you young, or sharp, or stupid.  Something. Blah, blah, blah, enough on that.

Tourism.  See this, see that, get a guide-book, and follow the steps.  In a weird way, it can be the same thing over and over. See the castles, the museums, the ruins, etc.  Those things are great and a privilege to see, but sometimes it’s more fun to go where the locals are and see what’s going on TODAY.  So, back on the
train, I’m looking out the window thinking about what this nordic place must be like in the winter when it gets dark at 3 in the afternoon. Sweden has lots of  ”Goth” kids like north England.  They like death metal music, dress in all black with pearcings and sometimes even wear face paint like on Halloween.  Could there be a connection?  Out the window, there was a massive cemetery, so I got off and started walking through it.  It must have been a mile long because it took forever to get from one end to the other.

All sorts of thoughts came and went.  Look at all these graves.  I’ll end up in one someday.  I’m going to visit my Dad’s grave when I get to America.  Look at all these Swedish names. The names are the same as the people at Bethany Beach.  One said, Nils and Eina Lundquist.  It doesn’t get much more Swedish than that, does it? Where is the really old part of this place?  I want to see the ones from the 1700′s.  Nobody decorates those ones.  My ancestors are from

Not much on the older ones.

Sweden.  I doubt anybody decorates their graves.  I wish I had prepared more for this and I would have found them if that were possible.  Let’s see, my Grandpa Carl’s Dad went to America and he’s not buried here.  It would be his Dad and on back from there.  What’s that, 4 generations including me?  He probably died in the late 1800′s?  Then again, does that really matter to the person represented by the marker?  I doubt it.  It’s more for us than for them. Hmmm.  Our pastor used to say everyone should visit a cemetery once a month.  We are

Some flowers and even an occasional candle burning.

mortal, right?  It makes sense to be reminded of it so we live better and make “today” count.  The time really is short.

What started as a light mist was turning into a full scale rain so I picked up my pace.  Wow, all the graves in the next section have Hebrew writing on them.  A whole Jewish section.  Interesting.  I guess the Israelis stick together.

Finally, I squeeze between some bushes, out the other side and, lo and behold, there’s a MacDonalds sitting there in all it’s glory.  Thank God for shelter from the rain in whatever form it comes.  Unfortunately, a “Big and Tasty” extra value meal is a staggering 76 Krona ($11.82).

Kari, Kadi, Anna, Jeremy, and JulieAnna.

On August 12th, we celebrated with our students after a week touring the Holy Land.  We rode up to the the actual Mount of Olives with Jerusalem as a backdrop for the event.  It only took 30 minutes or so and we did it in the morning because the sun gets so hot.  The rest was finished at a restaurant in the evening.  It’s a great way to end a DTS.  They actually count one week in Israel as one of the lecture weeks in the school.

The second of the weeks is all focused on debriefing students.  It’s meetings about re-entry, fundraising, and addressing potential pitfalls ahead. After that everyone goes their separate ways on their around the world ticket.

As for staff, we moved to Tel Aviv to have a debrief time of our own.  It’s more meetings with prayer sprinkled in here and there.  Every combination you can imagine.  We go over lecture

My picture.

phase. What worked? What didn’t?  What went wrong?  Why? Which speakers worked?  Which didn’t?  What about the schedule? The structure at the base.  We are helping the leaders accumulate information to make the schools and the base better and more affective in the future.  Then it’s outreach.  Same thing, what went wrong?  How are you now?  Get together with your co-leader and forgive each other if necessary.  Dig in and finish strong.  Each person gets prayer.  Pick the person, start by praying, get words for each other, affirm each other,   share these, someone records it all, then one person closes it and we move on to the next one.  Each one takes 20-30 minutes.  There are 10 of us all together.

It’s all worth it in the long run, but can seem laborious at the time.  I have been through a bunch of these.  After leading a 10 week outreach, I find I don’t have the energy for a lot, and mostly it’s like, “I’m over it.  Let’s head out,” but it’s part of the program.  The highlight to me is heading to the beach at about 5pm when it’s over and playing in the waves til the sun goes down.  The water is really nice and warm and there are actually waves in the Mediterranean Sea.  I don’t know what I expected being that the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on these waters, but it’s neat to be here either way.

Staff Dinner..

Control Tower: Kolkotta India

This control tower in India-I can’t remember if it was Bagdogra or Kolkotta-shows how they do things over there.  Big coils of wires and pipe draped up the side in a huge cluster just sort of laying there.  I talked with a man on the train and he said they do everything like that.  They build cities without a plan.  They just keep expanding and expanding until there are 20 million people living all sprawled out without proper sewage and power.  No wonder power outages are so regular.  There are generators outside most shops because of it.

To get from Kalimpong, which was the last stop on our 10 week outreach assignment, we started in a place in North India called Darjeeling.  The girls and I started about 1000am with a 20 minute walk from our guesthouse through the morning fog to a taxi stand where we caught a jeep taxi to Bagdogra.  4 hours later, we were deposited at the Bagdogra airport where we caught a Kingfisher (local Indian airline) flight down to Kolkotta.  It was a shortcut around the 12 hr train we took to get there weeks before.

Usual scene at the airport..

We waited for our 1am flight to Tel Aviv, Israel via Frankfurt, which got delayed by 4 hrs.  Of course our connection had long sice left by the time we got to Germany.  We waited there for 11 hrs before setting sail at 10 pm.  Once in Israel, it was a short train, a city van, a hostel overnight in Tel Aviv, a walk, a medium bus to Jerusalem, and a short walk to the Imperial Hotel, where we now reside.  Finally.  The girls on my team are fabulous and rarely complain.

What a great feeling it is to finish and to finish well.  We arrived here August 1st and things have just now settled enough to sit down and catch my breath.  Someone asked me, “So how does it feel to be in Israel again?”  I said, “Great!  It feels great to be here!” I had to ask myself if it is great to be here or if it is just great to be done with outreach.  I think both.  Outreach is great with all the fruit and ministry, but at the same time, it’s a ton of work.  We set a schedule, I arrange all the transportation, and we throw ourselves into it the whole way.  It’s a long stretch to be out there all that time.  It’s 4 countries, not including Israel, many more contacts than that, and a rainbow of people in totally different sets of circumstances, and we do our best to keep some sort of continuity to it all.

Here is Jerusalem, it’s back to the lecture phase of DTS with a complete tour of sites in the Holy Land and lectures to match.

Riding in comfort-nothing like India.

All this week, we have walked the “Old City” getting an overview of where the Lord walked and did his ministry.  We traveled south by bus to En Gedi where David hid from Saul, hiked to the top of Herod’s old mountain top palace called Masada, toured Capernum where Jesus  called the 12 disciples, and countless other sites of Biblical significance.  It’s amazing and such a privilege to actually see all this first hand.

Our students graduate August 12th to go out into the world to put the things they have see and heard into practice.  We, as staff, have a 3 day debrief back in Tel Aviv before going our separate ways.

I am so excited to visit Hans, Katy, and the kids over in Macclesfield, England on the way back to “sweet home” Chicago.

Seeing all these Biblical sites in Israel is really special to me because I’ve applied and been accepted to a YWAM School of Biblical Studies that starts September 19th, 2011.  It’s one of the most intense studies of the entire Bible I know of and I’m very excited (and a little nervous) to get started on that.  It’s been a while since I’ve been in school and I hope the ole brain can fire up for it.

I am grateful to be sitting here writing after such a successful outreach and time of ministry.  God is so faithful to provide everything we need to carry out what He has given us to do.  I am thankful to everyone who made it possible…

It has been extremely hard to get on line these days and even now I am sitting in an internet café in North India with tons of people waiting right behind me as I type frantically between power outages.  We are in Kalimpong in a small slice of India surrounded by Nepal on the west, China to the north, and Bhutan to the east.  This is the last of 4 countries on this outreach.  We arrived here about a week ago after a small unplanned break in Kolkata.  One of the girls got sick and could not travel, so we waited it out in a hotel for 24 hrs.  That city is a monster and the dirtiest I have ever seen.  We rolled in during the night and started looking for a place to hole up and there were homeless people sleeping everywhere.  I am told there are thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand homeless there.  Can that be possible?  The traffic is beyond crazy to the point of total mania.  I just thought, “I have to get these girls out of this place as fast as I can before something happens to one of them.”  Gosh, and Mother Teresa did her whole tour of duty there.  Good for her.  I don’t even know what to say to that.  We boarded a train on the sleeper class, which costs about $7 each and headed north about 6am.  It might sound nice, but it’s hot and without a/c, it’s an all day extraveganza.  The guys are coming through selling everything under the sun.  I must have had 25 Chai, coffees.  They are the size of a thimble and cost 5 Rupees (9 cents).  India is India.  Period.  If you’ve been here, you know what I mean.  More people are crowding in behind me here and I can hear the shouting over the loud music i’m playing from my ipod to drown it out.

We spent 13 hrs on that train then got a taxi from Silliguri to Kaliumpong and hiked down this hill to the YWAM base where we now stay.  We’ve spent our time so far in 2 groups of 3 teaching little kids in villages their studies.  I honestly just let the kids read to me and help them memorize the Word.  They are about 4-12 years old and so enthusiastic.. and soooo poor.  The village is just shacks on the side of this mountain in the foothills of the Himalayas. It’s stunningly gorgeous and a reminder than God is God.

Many of the ministries we work with have the same philosophy about reaching the kids and it’s simple.  If you reach the kids, you’ll get the village and the city eventually.  The kids are the ones in control in the future.  We try to get in 2 sessions.  The first part is playing games, singing, reading a Bible story aloud, and memorizing a verse together, the second is tutoring with homework.  Yesterday, we played Duck Duck Goose and one boy I know I just went over that, but don’t have time to really critique this before we loose power or something else happens.

We are here for another week and then head to Dargeeling for a 3 days debrief of the whole 10 week outreach before flying over to Israel for DTS graduation.

God bless..