On Thursday it was time to say “goodbye” to our Gateway Berlin Intern Jael Tang.  For those of you that listened to the Gateway Berlin Radio podcast, you got to hear from Jael as she helped co-host the show.  Jael was here for nearly 3 months and traveled all around Germany learning about the different kinds of churches and ministries that exist in the Church of God here.  I know she absolutely fell in love with this place—it’s kind of hard not to.  She was sad to go and we were sad to see her go.

She did a fantastic job of integrating into the culture.  Coming from a place like Singapore, you kind of have to learn to navigate different cultures—-something we explore in the upcoming Episode 2 of GB Radio.  She had a great spirit about being involved and was willing to help out anyone.

She’s also a cheeky one—-a little smart aleck—so she fit in real well with this Three-Worlds/Berlin team.

Jael was also a good jeh-jeh (big sister) to Marco while she was here and he was sad to see her go.  Jael will go back to the Anderson University School of Theology and finish her Master’s degree.  Of course she is welcome here anytime.

Thanks for setting the bar so high for future interns Jael!

Let’s go back to 1980 when I was a kid—and African-American music was still super awesome.  I loved this song as a kid and still love it now.  It’s too bad that so much African-American music is now dependent on computers and technology doing away with a lot of the beautiful voices, harmonies, and great musicianship.

I have a whole rant about this that I promised to go into at Chinatimesonline.com but I may save it for an episode of GBR.  It’s a sad thing that we’ve lost musicianship from R & B.  It’s a big deal.  At least to me.

A group of teens by the bonfire as the sun gets ready to go down at 9PM.

The blue tent where services are held.

Getting ready to sing a song.

Finally—a nice blurry photo.  He takes after his Dad.

We went to visit the German Teen Camp last Sunday.  It was an easy 1 hour 20 minute ride to Braunschweig where we were met by Pastor Victor and his wife Ute.  He is German, but from Argentina (lots of German immigrants to Argentina), so the bulk of the day was spent speaking in Spanish. I have loved that about Germany.  This language I never get to speak is suddenly everywhere.  Victor and Ute are absolutely wonderful and I always feel very at home at their place.

After lunch we drove by the camp for 9-12 year olds.  It was out in the German woods, but the whole thing was built to look like an old Western town, complete with saloon and jail and all of that.  It was so cute.  The kids and counselors are camping out in the Wild Wild West.

From there we went to the Teen Camp where I got to re-connect with a lot of the teens, college kids, and seminary students I have become friends with over the past 4 years in Germany.  They still remember all the stories I told when I have spoken to them on previous visits.  It’s amazing.  I’ll see many of these kids in September and October when I attend some upcoming conferences.  That will be great.  We’ve invited them all to stay with us in Berlin anytime they want.  Our home will be very open to youth.

Marco had a blast playing with the kids—getting soaked—and enjoying nature.  He was pretty sad to have to leave the camp behind.  I think he is very ready to be settled and have friends to play with.  Poor guy.  Always stuck with Mom and Dad.

The drive out to the camp was lovely.  The roads in the country were so gorgeous—the classic European scenery.  I was salivating at the thought of being able to drive up and down the roads of Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria in the coming year.  That will be awesome.

Jael–our Berlin intern for the summer of 2010 has been helping at the camp and did an awesome job.  Everyone loved her.  Unfortunately, today is her last day.  We will be taking her out for a farewell dinner about an hour from now.  I know she is very sad to say goodbye to this awesome place with all the great people–and we are sad to see her go as well.  It won’t be the same without her.  Oh well—Jael, you are always welcome back.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the “latest” episode of Gateway Berlin Radio.  The 2nd episode is already in the can, but it won’t be posted for a couple of weeks yet.  Sound quality should be better on Episode 2.

The weather finally cooled for a bit here in Berlin.  It dropped to 71 degrees from the high 90′s where it has been since we arrived.  What joy, what bliss to feel my favorite weather—cloudy, cool, with the threat of rain.  Marco’s from Hong Kong so he prefers the heat.

Meanwhile, we are still busy looking for our new house or apartment.  We’ve seen a lot of places.  We lost one that we all really loved.  Oh well.  Now we’ve found another that we all really like and are officially applying for it.  I don’t know if we’ll get it or not.  We’re prepared for whatever happens.  There’s another that’s come online that looks interesting.

It’s going to take a while to really set up home here.  My guess is that it won’t be until October that wherever we live will be truly settled and feel like home.  But that’s okay.  We are wayfarin’ strangers.   So that’s fine.

Marco sure has been patient with all the upheaval.  He’s doing great.

Tomorrow we take a train ride to Braunschweig where we meet up with some friends.  This will be my third time there.  I really like the church there and the pastor.  We will have lunch and then head off to the youth camp.  We’ll see the Philips and Jael and the rest of the team at the camp.  It’s “visitors” day so that’s why we are getting to go.

I know a lot of these kids and the youth counselors from previous trips to Germany.  I think it was last year that I was the main speaker at the youth conference.  That was very fun.  The German kids were just a total blast.  So it will be nice to reconnect with them.  And there’s quite a few Spanish speakers among them, the pastors, and the youth workers.  It’s fun to be able to finally use my Spanish again since that rarely happened in Asia.  Here it is becoming quite common and that makes me happy.

We’ll take some of our usual blurry photos of the youth camp and maybe score some interviews.  Keep us in your thoughts as we look for the right home.

“Live” from the McQuarium Studios in Berlin:  This is Gateway Berlin Radio Podcast, Episode 1.

In this episode, host Patrick Nachtigall and intern Jael Tang introduce the GBR podcast, discuss issues of faith in the multicultural city of Berlin, and check out strange but true headline news from around the world in the “Around the Horn” segment. in the In-Depth segment Patrick and Jael look at a church in Mexico City trying an unusual method to reach youth, and finally there is a visit the Turkish Market.

Listen online:  

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download the podcast here: Gateway Berlin Radio / Episode 1

I wrote to my editor Joe Allison for clarification on how people can order Mosaic quickly.  When a book first comes out, there can be a lag-time between the order and the delivery when done through Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Borders.  This lasts for a few weeks or a couple of months.  Orders from Warner Press ship out immediately.  Now here’s some more clarification:

If you order from Warner Press or Books-a-Million, you will get your book immediately.  With the other places, there will be a 2 week lag-time.  Sorry about that. Early reviews are very favorable (Thank God), so get your order in now!

In 2007, I got to go to Poland and trek around a bit.  One of my stops was Auschwitz concentration camp which was a place I had wanted to visit for a long time.  It is obviously a place of tremendous sorrow and horror–and always will be.  But Jamie and I were both impressed by a certain Mr. Kohn, who survived Auschwitz and returned more than 60 years later with his grandchildren to dance at Auschwitz to the tune of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”  Some have found it offensive, but most have been deeply moved.

I like the idea of re-claiming the darkness in our lives and re-branding it.  Bringing life out of death, perhaps even ridicule to what once haunted us.  As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that this is what has to be done in this life:  A re-branding of what once defeated us, so that we are in control instead of being controlled.  So hats off to Mr. Kohn. Watch the video to the end if you can.

There’s an article in the Washington Times about Hosni Mubarak’s impending death.  The aging Egyptian leader who has been in power since Anwar Sadat’s assassination 30 years ago has ruled Egypt with an iron fist.  Democracy has not been of a high value in that country and Mubarak was paving the way to usher in his son as the future President, but on the upside, Egypt’s economy is developing quite nicely compared to where it has been in the past.

Of course the fear is that Egypt will be taken over by fundamentalists if Mubarak dies, or end up in Civil War and chaos, or that the wrong person will take control.  And of course this could have huge implications on our work in the region.  But it’s a more democratic age, Egypt has a Nobel Peace Prize winner that wants the top job, and this is not 1980.  Who knows what will happen, but this bears close scrutiny.

Photo:  Yet another blurry photo brought to you courtesy of Three-Worlds.com.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if I learned how to work my camera one day.  I will, I will….but remember the old days, when there weren’t even photos ever on our website.  Count your blessings…or not.   The view from the Varner’s Apartment where we are staying.

We are busy looking for a home in the Berlin area.  At the moment we are staying in the apartment of our teammates Aaron and Nicole Varner.  They will be returning to Berlin August 31st, so for at least 5 more weeks or so, we have a place to stay for free as we hunt for homes.

We are looking for a home that is somewhat close to Marco’s future school.  However, we are still not sure which school he has been accepted to.  He has been accepted to one school which is VERY expensive.  Then there is another school which is FREE, but says they have no space.  So they are telling us that we will have to wait until the week before school starts before we can find out whether Marco will be accepted to the FREE school which we prefer.

Meanwhile, we are looking for a home somewhere in the areas close to the schools.  This means that most days, we are visiting several homes or apartments looking for the right fit for our family and our job.  We will be working out of our home so we need office space.  And we expect that we will have many visitors:  Three-Worlds teammates from other countries, supporters, German pastors, European/Middle Eastern leaders, interns, youth groups, and friends wanting to visit us and Europe.  So we need extra space to house all the visitors.

Then we need to be relatively close to a subway or bus line that our visitors can use when living with us here in Berlin.  And we need to keep in mind that for much of the year, it will be cold and rainy so our visitors will not want to walk for miles to the bus or subway.  So there’s a lot more to consider.

Today we found a place that was pretty nice—except that it was deathly far from a subway line and a decent bus route.  Our visitors would find it way too difficult to get around from there.  It’s too bad, because we liked many other things about it.

Then there was a place that was absolutely perfect and the realitor said that we could have it–but then the next day called and said it was a mistake.  That the house was already taken.  That was disappointing.

Most all the homes and apartments are really well kept up.  The neighborhoods are lovely and the people friendly.  And there’s lots of green areas which we love.  In most homes, we can all picture ourselves living there.  But usually something doesn’t feel quite right.  So we keep looking.  After living in a Hong Kong apartment with 35,000 other people, pretty much any place we find is going to be great, quiet, private, and relaxing.

You would think that not having a home, a car, all of our stuff, or a school would be super stressful.  But I think all 3 of us are more relaxed right now than we have been in four years.  We are in our element in these kinds of situations as weird as that may sound.

Meanwhile, we continue to live in Kreuzberg close to the center of Berlin in this artsy, hip, cool neighborhood filled with young people and people from all over the world.  We’re greatly enjoying walking around, eating out, and visiting the local shops.  I’ve gotten to speak more Spanish in Berlin than I have in a two years in Hong Kong.  So that’s fun.  There are two Spanish places just within a 1 minute walk from here.  Very cool.  As I mentioned before, this is a neighborhood I have stayed in a few times before on previous visits to Berlin, but it’s nice to be kind of “settled” here this time around.  The other day we went to a Thai Restaurant called “Phuket”–which of course was the name of our favorite family vacation spot in Asia.

I was hoping that “Phuket” would have the same spicy fish dish that I loved getting in Phuket—and they do!  So I’m planning on visiting that place A LOT.  Pretty much anytime I come down to visit the Varners and the Philips, I may need to say to them–”meet me at Phuket.”  Just finding my favorite dish is absolutely lovely, and there’s much more to discover in and around this place.

So say a little prayer for us as we continue looking for a home and a school.  But we’re doing great.

Welcome back to Berlin.  We’ve been here for more than a week now, and it’s the most relaxed I’ve felt in a long time.  The weather has cooled off, we are enjoying spending time with our Gateway Berlin intern Jael Tang, and the Philips are back in town so it’s a big fiesta every day.

In this post I want to begin fleshing out how the Three-Worlds team will operate. As Regional Coordinators for Europe and the Middle East we are focusing our entire region on specializing in 3 areas:   1) engaging young people in cross-cultural ministry 2) Connecting and encouraging EMPOWERED leaders under the age of 45 and 3) Creating inner-connectivity between the CHOG in Europe and the Middle East (and beyond).

Everything we do is somehow aimed at those three goals.  Through all of this, we want to help the churches, pastors, and people we deal with learn how to engage the Three emerging worlds of Christianity:  the Traditional World, the Post-Christendom World, and the world of Non-Western Christianity.

Our team members are located in different places: Berlin, Bulgaria, the Middle East–but regardless of where they are, they are working toward these goals AND we are doing it together.  So our approaches is FOCUSED, STRATEGIC, and UNITED.

Focused because we are not trying to be all things to all people.  We are a small crew with limited resources, so instead of trying to do everything badly, we focus on the things we can do effectively.

Strategic because we will be thinking through everything we do very carefully to make sure we are not hurting when we should be helping, wasting resources, or setting up fields where the relationships are undefined and prone to chaos or fragmentation.  We will clearly articulate what we are trying to do in countries and have the expectations that those countries will be just as clear.

And united because it makes mockery of our testimony if we reject unity and accountability.  We will be accountable to each other as a team, process things as a team, and work alongside each other as a team.

This is something I am really looking forward to.  Instead of missionaries living in isolation, our team will visit each others fields, lend assistance, add suggestions, and give lots of emotional support.

It takes a high degree of intentionality and a common ethos to achieve these goals and that’s what we will do at Three-Worlds.  And adding team members will come slowly and very cautiously because intentionality and a common ethos will drive everything.

So that’s a quick overview of the Team Approach of Three Worlds.  In future posts, I’ll speak more about other aspects of our work.

Stay tuned.  Gateway Berlin Radio should be up and running relatively soon.

PHOTO:  Here’s a beautiful photo of the Bundesstag in Berlin.  This center of German government has a glass dome that people can walk in to get views of the legislators doing the people’s work below.  The idea for this architectural style is meant to symbolize that the new Germany will be a place where the people rule the government instead of the other way around as it was in World War II.  It’s a beautiful idea.

Another day in Berlin.  We are loving it here as we knew we would.  The people are laid-back, the streets are colorful, and everyone minds their own business.  My kind of town.

I’ve mentioned before that Berlin reminds me a lot of Portland, Oregon:  The nature-loving folk, the emphasis on greenery in the city, the book culture, the love of cinema and the arts, the beer culture, the libertine culture, the high value on multi-culturalism etc.

And just like Portland, people love their bicycles.  Bikes have the right away and cars and pedestrians are a distant second and third.  There are bike lanes here in the streets and in the sidewalks.  It’s not something I am used to.  I’ve already been nearly decapitated about three times because I keep finding myself wandering into the bike lane on the sidewalk.  Marco’s not sure he likes bikes flying by his little body at full speed all the time.

It’s not just a few people on their bikes either.  It’s many people of all ages.  And pretty soon we are going to join them.  We are going to do as much biking as we can.  We will go to the store and the bank on bicycle like the other Berliners do, and we will find ourselves getting in great shape.  The culture here really promotes health.  I’ve noticed that we all have already lost weight in the first few days now that we are back to walking and eating a non-American diet.

This is something we are really looking forward to about living in Berlin—the health factor.  Clean air, lots of nature, and regular excercise.  I feel the stress leaving my body just walking through the streets here.  I’m down with the Berlin vibe.

In my next post I’ll talk about our Three-Worlds Team and what we aim to do.

…And so we begin again.  We have arrived in Germany and are off to the races.  We got here on Friday and were met by a heat wave.  We are staying in the 6th floor of an apartment without air conditioning and it must be 100+ every second of the day.  Not exactly the cool, maritime climate we were hoping for, but Germany is sweltering in the summer of 2010.

We flew from Indianapolis to Chicago to Warsaw, Poland.  A special thanks to Jen and her 3 year old husband Randy for coming out with the kids to see us off.  The flight to Poland was just under 9 hours and all three of us slept for about 90% of the flight.  We’re used to 24 hour flights with 16 hour stretches, so this seemed incredibly easy.  “A little too short,” Jamie says.

We were met at the airport by Jael Tang who is the first Gateway Berlin intern–and probably the last since we are changing the name.  The important point is that Jael is an Anderson School of Theology student who is in the process of getting her Master’s degree.  She is interested in missions so she joined a group from Anderson University and the SOT in Berlin to learn about urban, post-Christendom ministry.  She then stayed on for the full summer.

The Philips and the Varners (more on them later) have been in the USA, so Jael has held down the fort on her own.  Good job, Jael.  Well, Jael is a global person.  She’s from Singapore and very self-sufficient.  We’ve known Jael for a while, so it’s been like being reunited with our little Jeh-jeh (sister) here on the other side of the world.

You’ll learn more about Jael later.

In fact, over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be introducing you to our team, telling you about our new role, and you’ll be hearing all about our Three-Worlds strategy.  But for now, let’s start slow—mainly because it’s 130 degrees right now and I’m dying.  I thought we left all this hot weather behind??? I’m going to sue.  If I moved to Antartica they would probably have a heat wave.

This is not our first time to Berlin.  I’ve been here about 5 times and even stayed in this neighborhood twice before, so it’s all quite familiar to us–even Marco.  We know the neighborhood where we want to live and know our way around to a decent extent.  Berlin has always felt like Portland and Seattle to us.  We love both places.  The culture is environmentally-conscious, bicycles have right-of-way, parks are everywhere, arts, books, and beer are high values, and the weather is usually gray and cool.

Today we started visiting potential future homes and we will need to go to the government offices soon, as well as get our phones set up and everything else.  The Philips will be back in 2 days and it will be fun to have them back.

Well, we start slow and hot, but it will pick up around here with lots of new info and cool stuff.  Thanks for making the switch from Chinatimes to Three Worlds.

And just like the old days, there will be complaining about how much I hate blue skies and the sun.  Some things never change.

Two Koalas on display.

Marco holding a butterfly in Sydney in 2007.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Downtown Sydney.

The bridge on a sunny day.

The Taronga Zoo is my favorite zoo, and these views are one of the reason.

My favorite animal–the Kangaroo.

I adore Sydney.  I’d love to live there one day.  So would Marco.

Marco looking cute.

Me and my little HK Koala.

Only in super sunny Australia do my pictures look decent…sometimes.  This is in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales.

Blue Mountains.

The Three Sisters.

Amazing views.

Jamie and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary with a 2nd trip to Australia together.  Here we are in Hunter Valley part of Australia’s wine country.

We spent a wonderful time staying in Port Stephens on the New South Wales Coast.

One of my favorite photos of Marco.  We were at an Australian animal farm.

Beautiful wildlife in Port Stephens.

Port Stephens.

This was the most relaxing trip in about 5 years.

We went looking for Whales.

Another one of my favorite Marco photos—eating Bubble Gum ice cream in Port Stephens.

Marco playing Bob the Builder in Sydney.

Marco feeds a Kangaroo.

Brisbane, Queensland.

Suburban homes in Gold Coast.

The fast growing skyline of Australia’s Gold Coast.

Me with the Pacific at my back on the East Coast of Australia.  A few weeks earlier I had been at the West Coast of Chile across the Ocean.

A third trip to Australia in 2009.

The Famous Sydney Opera House.

Thank you Australia.

Downtown Nairobi. I absolutely love Nairobi.  I spent a week here getting to know it.

The flat dry land outside of Nairobi.

Visiting a dynamic church outside of Nairobi.  Best worship band ever—it was like Kool & the Gang.  Best bass line in a church service—ever!

It’s hot under the tin roof, but the music makes you forget all that.

The hills outside of Kisumu.

The road to the Kima International School of Theology.

It’s a beautiful campus.

I love contextualized Gospel art like this.

I got to teach these students for a class session.  That was very enjoyable.  I hope to get that chance again.

On the road toward Uganda with my good buddy John Walters.

A CHOG in rural Uganda.

Uganda.

Crossing the Nile in Southern Uganda.

Beats the roads we had in Costa Rica through much of the 70′s and 80′s.  Perhaps 90′s

Entering into Kampala, Uganda.

Speaking to some Ugandan students about my adoption story.

Some children in one of the schools the Stevenson’s built.

Lake Victoria at my back.

What a cutie!

The road to Emusire where my father was the Principal of a Secondary School which is still running today and doing very well.

Arriving at the school where Mom and Dad worked.

Retracing my Father’s steps.  That’s what sons do.

My dad is listed as the 2nd Principal

A photo of my Father remains on the wall.  He was the Principal that transitioned the school to local African leadership.

This is the home where my dad Harry, my mother Jene, and my sister Marcel lived.

My friend Logan looking like a real photographer.

Lake Victoria.

The Church of God in Lusaka, Zambia.

A  CHOG in Lusaka.

Taking the bus from Lusaka to Livingstone was fun.

Rural Zambia.

Victoria Falls near the border with Zimbabwe.

Check out how small that canoe is.  Victoria Falls is enormous.

Me canoeing….not really.

An elephant staring our jeep down.

The missionary Stan Hoffman.

Johannesburg, South Africa.

Jo’berg, South Africa from the air.

Some kids in Guangx Province.

Guangxi.

A typical street in China.  Chinese cities tend to look alike. All built in the last 30 years at the speed of sound.

Shaouguan, Guangdong Province.

On the Li River in Guangxi.

Rural Guangxi.

Jade Dragon Mountain in the background.  Lijiang, Yunnan Province.

The more developed side of Lijiang, China.  It was a dream of mine to go to Lijiang.

Some ethnic minority children in Yunnan.

Marco being passed around a Chinese train.  It was always a big deal to see the cute foreign baby.

Marco enduring the cold in Kunming, Yunnan.

Street children in Kunming.

Yunnan has the highest percentage of ethnic minorities.  It was my favorite Province.

The Chinese flag flying over Tianannmen Square.

The Forbidden City, Beijing.

First trip to the Great Wall of China.  An unusually uncrowded winter day.  I went alone.  I had the whole wall to myself and tried to take a picture of me with nothing but the  people-less wall behind me, but I messed up the picture trying to get the tripod set up and took it too late.  A few minutes later a large Korean tour group showed up and messed up the shot.

“It is a wall, and it is great.” – Patrick Nachtigall

My favorite Chinese mountain, Jade Dragon in Yunnan Province.

Carrying Marco through old town Lijiang.

Walking with my “adopted son” A-Yat to visit a Leper Colony in rural Guangxi.  It was a long hike and very isolated.

Jiman, A-yat, Grace, and Thomas join me in visiting the Lepers.  Those were great trips.

We passed by beautiful scenery on the walk.

It is still a very poor province, Guangxi.

About midway through the long walk.

Jiman, A-yat and me in Guangxi.

Perched on the very edge of a cliff 2000 feet high, this pagoda offers amazing views of Kunming, Yunnan.

The Stone Forest in Yunnan Province was one of my favorite places in China, because it seemed genuinely clean and green.  Very relaxing.

It is a maze of stone rocks that is fun to get lost in.

Such a beautiful place.

It’s always fun when Uncle Alan the China expert comes to visit–especially for Marco.

Despite the crowds, once in the Forest, you can have moments when you are all alone.

Looks like the set of Star Wars or something.

Too bad someone doesn’t really know how to operate his camera.

“Neon, futuristic Shanghai” doesn’t impress me nearly as much as Tokyo.

Marco on the fastest train in the world which goes from Shanghai’s Pudong airport to downtown in about 9 minutes at more than 300 mph.  Nice photography skills Patrick.

Downtown Shanghai.

Floating down a canal in Zhenjiang.

She’s singing to us as we go down the canal.

The rare family photo because we all loathe having our picture taken.

More Zhenjiang.

Giving a lecture to students at a Chinese University on “the Role Religion Plays in American Civil Society.”  That was a dream come true.

Nice homes in Santiago, Chile.

Downtown Santiago.

Barranco in Lima, Peru.  I loved this place.

A house in the lovely Miraflores district.

The Presidential Palace in Lima, I think.

Walking around downtown.

One of the CHOG’s in Northern Lima.  What great people.  I was ready to just move there on the spot.

Some of the awesome kids of the Lima youth group.

The beautiful Miraflores district. My Peruvian friend Stefan said it was awesome and he was right.

So interesting to see such dryness in a Latin American metropolis.

A nice street in Lima.

Lima from the air.

La Paz, Bolivia at 13,000 feet above sea level.

Another view. I spent a week here.

It’s a city of hills.

A little town on the flat Altiplano at 14,000 feet.

The Bolivian CHOG has their annual junta in this barren, mountainous landscape at 14,000 feet.  The annual Junta draws up to as many as 8,000 people camping out under the stars in what I call “CHOG Woodstock.”

Look at all the people.  It’s a truly amazing experience.  Too bad I was in crippling, mind-numbing, pain.

Two indigenous Bolivian women.  They are not Latin people.  They are Quechua or some other indigenous people group.

Is that Joan Baez on stage?  Probably not.

Crowds gather to watch the baptism.

A different view of La Paz.

In the very isolated town of Iquique, Northern Chile by the Atacama Desert which is the driest place in the world.  In some places, they have never had rain.

Walking along the shore in Iquique thousands of miles away from home.

Is this the wine country of Northern California?  No, it’s the wine country of Southern Chile.

Heading to the Oregon Coast?  No, heading to the cool, gray Chilean Coast.  What great diversity Chile has in its different regions.

The coastal city of Valparaiso felt like coastal Oregon.  The weather too.

One of the most inspiring figures I met on my two year journey writing my third book “Mosaic” was Pastor Martinez in Valparaiso.  This is his church in a tough part of town.

Isla de Maipo in Chile’s Central Valley was a gorgeous little town that reminded me of Australia’s wine country.  Similar latitude and vegetation.  Very delightful.

Hong Kong where we lived for nearly 10 years.

Our old neighborhood of Shatin. Marco was born here in 2003.

Our first home was only on the 20th floor.

The three of us in front of the church at Hin Keng.

Our home at Royal Ascot, Fo Tan was on the 39th floor.

Going to Ocean Park with the church kids:  Grace, Ling, Louh Ge, Jamie, Marco, Charles B, Barry, Lobby and Little Karen.

Marco’s best friend Hin Fung, was born one month before him. Courtesy of John Johnson.

They love each other. (JJ).

Always together. (JJ)

A visit from my lifelong friends Kelley and Scott Stine. (JJ)

The famous star ferry.  The best 40 cent ride in the world. (JJ)

Grace is like a daughter to us.  She took care of Marco a lot.  Her name fits her. (JJ)

One of my favorite pictures. Proud to be with my son (JJ).

A visit from good friend John Johnson.

The only decent photos on the website were taken by John. If it’s a nice, clear photo in this section, it was John’s.

The HKCOG kids over at our house making edible dirt cake with Jamie.

Marco in his Chinese New Year outfit.

The coolest girls:  A-Sum, Little Karen and Camilla and me in Macao.

Me in HK.

HK at Dusk.  One of my favorite places in the world.

Marco and Auntie Flora.  She was our Cantonese tutor and our dear family friend.

So comfortable with world travel.

Marco and Hin Fung.

Marco and Hin Fung.

The little Santas handing out gifts at church.

At Brazilian soccer camp.

Marco with his Care Group friends, Austin, Eliss, and Taylor.

Pensive in the hills of Shatin.

Marco completed a 3 hour hike up into the hills of Shatin with the church people.  His big sister LoLo held his hand for part of the walk.

Big Karen and Mui-Mui.

Marco grew up on the 39th floor.

Not afraid of heights on our balcony.

Marco the builder.

The famous cathedral in Cologne.

Walking around Dusseldorf.

Visiting the CHOG in Braunschwheig.

Wolfsberg.

The Reichstag in Berlin.

The Berlin Wall.

Fritzlar, home of the Bible School.

Floating down a river near Essen.

The Essen conference center where I spoke at in 2007.

Munich.

Munich 2009.

Just outside of Pforzheim in Southern Germany.

At the Berlin Wall in 2007.  My first trip to Berlin was in 1992.  What a huge difference!

One of those blurry photos we are so famous for in this family.  Marco and I checking out Berlin together in 2009. It’s art okay?

Marco at Legoland in 2009 when we were checking out Berlin as a place to live.

Berlin, Germany. The tower from where we  broadcast Gateway Berlin Radio.

Three-World Headquarters in Berlin.  My office is on the 2nd floor.

Heading West out of Berlin.  Nice and GREEN!!!!!

It’s GREEEEEEN I tell ya!

Marco and I visiting the famous door where Protestant Reformer Martin Luther became famous after being the first personto hand out Halloween Candy to visiting children.  It’s a famous door!

Lovely downtown Wittenberg.

Wittenberg 2009.

I look like a loser, but Jamie and Marco look cool.  Marco’s preparing for his own album cover on this one.

The lovely facade of the Gare du Nord train station.  I always try to stay in Arrondissemont 10 near Gare du Nord.

These pictures were taken on a lovely day.

Standing in the middle of the Champs-Élysées.

Inside Galeries Lafayette.

A bit more posh than your average mall in the U.S.

L’Opera.

Pont Neuf.  A romantic place to go with Jamie.

Notre Dame.  Home of the fighting Irish.  Just kidding m-kay?

Jamie’s favorite Crepe stand. Yummy.

The Pantheon in Paris.  Here lies the remains of many of France’s greatest men including Victor Hugo, Louis Pasteur, and Pepe Le Pew.

Maybe the best feeling in the world.  “Good morning, Paris!”

Les Halles on the way to the Paris CHOG.

L’hotel de Ville on the way to the Paris CHOG.

The Paris CHOG meets inside this historic church.

The Latin Quarter.

One of the few places in the world where I will make it a point to sit down and watch the sun set.  Monmartre.

Quite possibly my favorite place in the world.  Sacre Coeur overlooking Paris.  If only I knew how to work my camera.

Marco’s been traveling around the world since he was born.  By the time he was 3 he was an expert traveler.  He was named after Marco Polo–the great traveler who bridged the divide between East and West.

Marco was on his 2nd passport by the time he was 4.

One of the rare decent photos I’ve ever taken.

Phuket (Kamala) was our home away from home.  This was our family vacation spot.

Marco and an Elephant.

Marco feeding a real elephant.

One of the greatest of all the animals.  The Elephant, I mean.

I love to see the temples in Thailand.

A Theravada Buddhism photo.

The coastline of Phuket on the Andaman Sea.

Marco grew up riding in a lot of Tuk Tuks.

Marco kissed by a monkey in Chiang Mai–Northern Thailand.  A lawsuit is pending.

Marco meets a Giraffe and his tongue.

Bangkok.  Another one of my favorite cities.

The view from Mediterranean Bible College.

The Mediterranean Bible College in Beirut.

Am I driving through Eastern Kentucky or West Virginia?  No, it’s Lebanon.

Downtown Beirut is more lovely than you can possibly imagine.  It used to be called the Paris of the Mediterranean.

These ancient ruins are right in the middle of the city.

Heading into the mountains.  It’s only 90 minutes to the Northern, Southern, or Eastern borders from Beirut.  It’s a small country.

Is this Eastern Washington or Eastern Oregon?  No, it’s Lebanon.

Close to the Border with Syria

I love the mountains of Lebanon and the views they offer.

Along the coast.

The lovely shopping area in the ancient Phoenician city Byblos.  My favorite place thus far.

Is this Santa Barbara, California?  No, but it sure feels like it.  Santa Barbara probably has more Lebanese people. 

Beirut from a distance.

Too bad someone doesn’t know how to work his camera.  These pictures would be awesome.

One of the greatest moments in all of my travels—entering Red Square for the first time.  The photo doesn’t do it justice.  The sky was a deep purple as Kelley and Rhonda took us to the Square.  It was an absolutely stunning sight.  And of course it would have been hard to believe, for most of my life, that the day would come when we would be able to just walk right into Red Square, Moscow.

St. Basil’s Cathedral at night.  It looked a lot smaller than I was expecting.  I thought there should be a golf hole behind it…looked like a minature golf set.

Marco and his buddy (and teammate) Dave Simpson.  I’m sure he’s a better photographer than I am.

The colors were so vibrant.  That was a big surprise to me, considering our stereotype of Russia being bleak.

One side of Red Square.

Lenin’s mausoleum.

The walls of the Kremlin.

GUM department store.

Inside the Kremlin walls.

Near the Museum of History I believe.  Marco liked that place.  He likes history like his Dad.

A photo in the museum commemorating WWII.  Nobody lost more people than Russia in that war.

Even the ceiling makes a bad photographer look good.

Marco riding a pony in Siberia.

Marco in Chelyabinsk, Russia in the foothills of the Ural Mountains.

I’ve always had a love affair with cathedrals and churches.

In St. Petersburg, formerly known as Leningrad.

Me in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral in the daytime.  I scored a 3 under par.

High above Tokyo in Tokyo tower.  One of my favorite cities in the world.

Tokyo and Mt. Fuji in the background.

Tokyo Tower.

Below Tokyo Tower.

“The Big Egg” Tokyo Dome.

Marco asleep over Tokyo.

World traveler from a young age.

Ginza at night.

The rice fields of Bali, Indonesia.

Me and Tiny.

Bali

Shopping for trinkets.

Paradise.

The Pacific Ocean.

Goodbye Bali.

The Gateway of India in one of my favorite places Bombay (Mumbai).

Near Mother Teresa’s Home for the Destitute and Dying in Calcutta (Kolkata).

Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying and Destitute in Calcutta.

My neighborhood in Bombay.  I loved it.

The Colaba neighborhood in Mumbai.  Great place to read the novel Shantaram…one of my favorites.

Near the Colaba slum in Mumbai.

The amazing youth of the India Church of God.  Best worship service ever!  Hands down.  India!