Watching Gustav and Hannah

Today I am in Salisbury, NC having just spent the weekend at St. John's Lutheran Church. It was great to be with the team who served in Guatemala with Mission Discovery recently. Thanks out to Paul, Tyler, David and Julie for the great meals and accommodations.

Received a call yesterday from my friend Chris in Tennessee asking what Mission Discovery teams would be doing in light of Hurricane Gustav. We are, like you, watching the reports from the coast and in contact with your resources who live in the area, but currently no plans have been laid as yet for a response. We do anticipate that we can respond and will keep you in touch through this blog and our news area of the Mission Discovery website.

FYI for those of you who know John and Sally Sullivan from Gulfport, Mississippi. I spoke with Sally yesterday and they have evacuated to northern Mississippi.

20 Years Down the Road

Every church staff member would love a look into the future to see the return on investment for those they minister to and with. It was 20 years ago that I was a youth pastor in Hendersonville, Tennessee and today I received the gift that someone said would happen. Just today Glenn Johnson walked in the door of Mission Discovery. Glenn not only has a history with Mission Discovery's early years, Glenn was one of the student leaders in the youth group and I was his youth pastor! That was 20 years ago. Now Glenn is a pastor for college aged students in Knoxville, Tennessee. We had a great chat about his recent journeys, getting his masters in counseling, falling in love and engaged to be married and more. But how encouraging to hear that Glenn actually remembered some of the things we did at youth group and how they had shaped his life. Glenn thanks for the visit! How wonderful it is to see how God is using you.

Everyone Has a Place

Stuart Redpath and I had been driving for about an hour through the rolling hills of the English countryside thanks to the Garmin GPS his dad loaned us. Stuart was a wealth of historical information. "We are now in the New Forest." Stuart said. "The New Forest is a former royal hunting area. It was created in 1079 by William I (known as William the Conqueror) as a hunting area, principally of deer." According to http://www.newforest.hampshire.org.uk/. "Somewhere along here we will see wild ponies." And sure enough there they were. Stuart is a businessman in the US, he came here in his 20's from the UK to work for his father n law. The sunshine at the beginning of the day's journey gave way to rain by mid morning, "Another beautiful English day!" Stuart remarked jokingly.

"So Stuart why did you volunteer to do this with and for me this week?" I asked. Stuart used frequent flyer miles, rented a car and lined up appointments with Christian leaders in both England and Wales to explore the possibility of a Mission Discovery base in the U.K. "I have heard all about the trips you offer, and I always wondered how effective I could be on those trips since I am not good with my hands, and I don't speak another language, but when you spoke at church (Community Church Hendersonville, TN) and mentioned your dream to have an overseas base, possibly in the U.K., I thought...that's where God can use me. I would never want to live here again, but I can help you make your idea a reality."

I saw Stuart's face light up when a missionary we visited used the term to describe himself as a "Bisinoary" a businessman who is a missionary. Stuart is just that. Everyone has a place at Mission Discovery. This summer in 104 degree heat in Reynosa, Mexico we had our oldest participant in her 90's. The senior high students she traveled with loved her and she did them as well. Stuart is still a young man with many Bisionary journeys ahead. Thanks Stuart, you are a blessing.

Great Visit to the UK

It's midnight and I'll board the Continental flight later this morning for the US. Stuart Redpath, a UK citizen and friend from my church in the US and I spent the week here exploring the idea of planting an office here in the United Kingdom for Mission Discovery. We met we several leaders who gave us great insights in how to make that happen. One of the highlights of the visit was an invitation from the Evangelical Alliance of Wales to bring a Mission Discovery team to Wales to serve. Wales is the poorest nation in the UK and identifies itself as having only 2 percent of its population as evangelical Christians. I look forward to telling you more but I need some sleep now to get ready for my travel tomorrow.

Mission Discovery Looks Global

I've been out of the office for a few days of break before heading out to St. John's Lutheran church to visit the team who served with Mission Discovery in Guatemala this past Spring. Today I'm in the United Kingdom with a friend from my home church exploring the idea of establishing a Mission Discovery office here in the UK. Our hope is that, if there is a need, to establish an office that would recurit individuals and church groups from the UK and Western Europe to serve on Mission Discovery projects in Africa, the UK and Europe. I return home on Friday evening. I would appreciate your prayers as Stewart Redpath and I travel together meeting with Christian leaders here to explore our idea. God bless you. That's me at Buckingham Palace holding the world's smallest Palace Guard.

Mission Discovery Gulf Coast Report

This was Mission Discovery's last summer to supply teams in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. While the work continues, the skill level required to complete the remaining work has changed, making it more difficult for our young teams to work there. We just completed some great work in Gulfport, and Biloxi. Here's a snipit of an email I received from U.S. Project's Director Jim Sweeney about the work of Mission Discovery on the Gulf coast this summer (2008):

I had a great week with James Evans. Sally Sullivan came and talked to the group in Clarksdale one night about her adventures with MD. We had a really good week there with a lot of kids in the neighborhood coming to Christ! Mrs. Jamison spoke the last night about how MD changed her life. We have worked on her house for the last three summers a little at a time. She told the group how she was looking at paint for the house with no money to pay for it, but believing that God would provide. Just as she was doing that, this white guy named Jim pulled up in her driveway, the rest is history :)

Volunteers For Hurrican Dolly Victims

We are currently making a list of those willing to serve in a relief effort for those impacted by Hurricane Dolly in both Reynosa and South Texas. If you are interested call Tina at Mission Discovery 800-767-8720. Currently we have no dates of project descriptions for such a relief effort, we are gathering that information.

Reynosa, Mexico Hurricane Dolly Update

Here is the latest update from Pastor Valente Sobrevilla who reports that remarkably the clonia where teams work last week is in good shape. Lots of water, but little wind damage. I place a call to David, Camp Director at Cone-Oasis, to get an update but was unable to reach him. I also attempted a call to John Dolph our head bus driver who lives in the area, but call did not go through. Remarkably Valente reports that Reynosa has only limited power outages.

News From Camp Cone-Oasis, LaFeria, TX

I received a message from Carl Pregel (on the road back to Nashville) that he had talked to David Mulvaney, the Camp Director at Camp Cone Oasis where MisDis team stay while serving in Mexico. David reports that some damage was sustained to the camp as well as severe flooding. They are currently without power. Carl and Pat may be returning the the Rio Grande Valley to assist in repair and asked if there was interest among others to join them. If you are interested in serving in the areas affected by Hurricane Dolly please leave a message here or call Mission Discovery 800-767-8720. We will put your name on a list of willing helpers and contact you if/when a project develops.

Update Reynosa, Mexico Hurrican Dolly

As of 10:35 pm CDT Valente and Grace Sobrevilla report that rains flood the colonia where many of our projects are located. Winds had subsided to less than 40 mph by the time I spoke with Valente. I will call mid day tomorrow (Thursday) when Valente and Grace are able to get a better look at conditions.