German CHOG Teen Camp-Photos by Marco

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.

The Search Continues...

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.

GBR - EPISODE 1

"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:http://www.three-worlds.com/GBR_Ep1.mp3|titles=Gateway Berlin Radio / Ep. 1]

Download the podcast here: Gateway Berlin Radio / Episode 1

Ordering the new book "Mosaic" Faster

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!

Re-Claiming Auschwitz

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.

Egypt's President Dying

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.

Looking for a Home and School

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.

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.