The Three Worlds Team Concept

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.

The Berlin Vibe

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.

Arrival in Berlin

...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.

Photos of Australia

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.

Photos of Africa

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.