I’m not exactly a fan of Obama, but I thought he had some good insight into a common problem when westerners go into another place to do development. The problem described below is very similar to issues we have to work around or through when doing community development or even just ways and methods of sharing Christ in cultures that are different than our own. Enjoy… and think….

As most of you are aware, I have been doing freelance video production for the past four years while waiting for God’s timing to head to Africa as a missionary. My work continues until we actually leave while we are still raising our support. Recently I got a phone call from New York, usually I screen my phone calls and don’t pick up random phone numbers, but I decided to pick this one up since knew it was from NY with the possibility that it was production related. It ended up being Morgan Spurlock’s assistant. I worked on a documentary film called “What Would Jesus Buy” a few years ago and was released this last Christmas. Morgan was the Exec Prod. (ie. The money man). He got my name from the director of that film because he was needing to do a quick shoot in Dallas.

If the name Morgan Spurlock still doesn’t ring a bell, he’s best known for doing his film on eating McDonalds food for a solid month, Super Size Me.

His more recent documentary took him all over Europe and the Middle East for 5 months talking to people about Osama Bin Laden. It was called, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden.

It’s possible he and the originator of the Dallas idea, Justin Hochberg (The Apprentice), may return to Dallas to shoot a full TV series. We’ll see.

As many of you know, Allison and I took a short mission trip with our church, Fellowship Bible Church (of Dallas), to Sudan last summer. This was an incredible opportunity as it solidified the ‘calling’ we felt God had put on our hearts to do ministry in Sudan, as well as a huge bonding experience for us to come closer to our church’s mission. Fellowship has various ‘initiatives’ in addition to supporting various missionaries. One of these initiatives is in Malakal, Sudan, where Allison hope to end up in the near future.

I was asked to go again with the team this year but was unable to commit not knowing what our timeline would be in finalizing our support and actually moving there.

The team has returned to Malakal and are there right now. If you have been in the news at all in the last few days, there was a stir in the public, knowing that the ICC (International Crimal Court) would be handing down an indictment to al-Bashir, the President of Sudan. The charge, among other things, is genocide. Many have speculated that he will retaliate in Darfur and potentially in Southern Sudan.

Please be in prayer for the people of Sudan. Please also be in prayer for the small team of short-term missionaries who are working in Malakal. They prayed all night before their flight into the country, knowing there could be possible strife.

If you’re curious about the news, read about it on CNN.com or BBC.com.

If you are on our newsletter list, then you’ve likely received our most recent letter this afternoon. If you have not received it or would like to be added to the list, please shoot me an email and we’d love to keep you informed. Click the link below for the most recent newsletter….

July 2008 eNewsletter

How do you like the new header? Please let me know what you think. Below is a pic of a header I had been working on, but landed with the version above. I’m wondering if you like it more than what I had before. Any feedback is helpful. Thanks!

PS. Click the image for the full size version….

As some of you know, our budget took a good hit through an unexpected increase a few months back, moving our projected leaving date back a few months. Right now we’re hoping to leave Aug/Sep. Recently, Taylor has had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with potential donors and things are going very well. As we continue to raise the last $1000/month, would you consider supporting our ministry financially?

God has also continued to surprise us. Individuals and groups have come to us in the last few months expressing the desire to support us without our having asked or contacting them directly about support. We continue to move forward, in faith, that God would have our support at 100% by Aug/Sep.

We would appreciate your prayer to that end!

Have you checked out the new video to the right (Top right of home page)? This is the long version of the short video we’ve used for a number of introductions. This video describes a little more about what we’re doing in Sudan.

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A few weeks ago we were in Tulsa sharing with a young marrieds class about missions. Some of the couples shared how they helped get their young children interested and involved in missions. One father told me his daughter is a pen pal to a missionary’s child. I ran across a great blog post by John Piper with 10 suggestions on how to get kids involved in missions. As many of you are young parents, I thought you might like these ideas and be able to implement some of them.

10 Ways to Help Kids Love Missions

If you are going on a short-term mission trip (or even long-term) this short little blog post may be of great help to you. John Piper keeps his own blog and discusses ‘international outreach’ issues occasionally. Will you be teaching at all on your trip, then his post will be of great help as he discusses various ways to ‘teach outside the western way.’

Click HERE to read his post….