Countdown to Tübingen

My choice of English words to talk about Unterwegs.

What an interesting time to be given the sermon slot. Two days after Christmas after 7 months in Germany – the opportunity to talk about campus ministry with the condition that everyone get a message they can take home for themselves. So, my epiphany from this week: grace – the biggest theme in the story of Jesus – also happens to be the centerpiece of Unterwegs.

It was written on the wall in front of me. No, seriously, it was on the wall in front of me. I wrote it there. Here’s what the Unterwegs wall says (translated to English) (stop me if I’ve posted this before):

Unterwegs is a group for students and young people, bound together by Christ’s love. We’re open for everyone and everything.

We are here because of our love for God. God’s grace is like a party, and everyone is invited. Come exactly as you are.

Speaking of things, I just got word from the language school in Tübingen: I am TestDaF certified fluent in German at the university level. I will start the application process for university within the next week.

not available in your local missionary

You wouldn’t buy milk you knew would go sour the next day. You wouldn’t buy a car you knew would turn lemon the next month. So why would you support a missionary you knew would get sick?

Globalscope is proud to send to the field only missionaries that pass the strictest of medical and health tests. In order to meet these requirements, I am going through the cleaners, you might say, if by “cleaners” you meant a series of medical doctors.

Yesterday I visited the dentist, which is always a treat. There is a peculiar mix of guilt – for having to ask the poor dental technician to clean the “build-up” (from those nights when you were too tired to brush) off the back of your teeth – and fear of the news of how much your teeth have decayed since the last visit. Adult teeth are practically the opposite of progressing through grade school – you are always regressing unless, in the miraculous best case scenario, you are able to somehow maintain your previous grade. That was yesterday.

Today I visited the good folks at Passport Health in Roswell to get some of those immunizations I’ve been craving for so long. Here’s a question for you: how do you spend $265 in under a minute? There are several less wholesome ways I can think of – or, if you’re kind of a health nut like me, run out and get yourself some Typhoid and Menactra shots.

The doctor at Passport was one of the jolliest doctors I have ever been patient to. As I entered the front door, she was inviting the office to check out the “eye candy” of a man-patient that had landed in her patient chair with his shirt off. The office did just that, and then I took Mr. Candy’s place. The good doctor talked a little with me about Germany before opening up her mini-fridge full of syringes (where one might, were it not a doctor’s office, expect to find a beer stash) and gave me two quick, successive injections as she hummed a song she was making up on the fly and told me “we’re just having a little fun here”.

Feeling a little more invincible than I was this past weekend, I’m ready for anything the modern world can throw at my digestive and immune systems. That’s a missionary you can feel secure about investing in.

here are the tools you will need for today's project

As the Christmas doldrums set in, support raising comes to a slow halt until the busyness of the holiday season passes and church staff have the time outside of Christmas services and Sunday School parties to meet. Even Mighty Joe Espresso (accept no substitute) is empty, save for the one full-time campus minister reading a book in the corner.

That lone soul is me, and that book is Boundaries in Dating by Dr. Cloud & Dr. Townsend. I try to hide the cover of the book – white and pink with a huge lipstick applicator (not really sure of the terminology there) drawing a lipstick line up the middle. It is an image so unsettlingly feminine that it took two doctors to make a book cover look so girly that even a guy sitting alone in an empty building would feel uncomfortable holding it anywhere but with the front cover tightly down against the table surface.

It’s all part of the relationship coaching that has been required of me (and Shalynn) by CMF. This coaching is the final requirement of the PDP (may it soon die… and then rest in peace).

Meanwhile in the land of support raising, I will be travelling to Blue Ridge tomorrow to share the mission of Globalscope Germany with a Sunday School Christmas party, and I am in talks with some of the staff at FUMC Lawrenceville to see how I can get involved there. I am also cementing details about January’s week-long trip to Germany to visit the team and the support-raising dessert event on my return.

the echo eleven family

Today was my last day of work at echo11media, the eLearning company that has employed me for the last year as I have worked to repay student loans before taking off for Germany. With finances in hand and counseling in the works (and reading assignments complete), my personal development plan is complete. As of tomorrow, I am a full-time campus minister.

Allow me a paragraph to reminisce about the old times as a software developer. A system of independent accountability and direction, a jump from school to leading developer on company products, and a close-knit group of employees – all-in-all a very close feeling to the work environment at a campus ministry. Aspects of work not like campus ministry: sitting at a computer all day and the notion that not talking to people means you are doing good work.

Happy? Yep. It is a sprint to Christmas to make 100%.

Scared? Check. 60% will not come easy in a slower economy.

Thanks to all the good folks at echo for seeing me through the year. Break out the big envelopes. Now support raising gets serious.

liquid church, paper back

A great book outlining a bold step away from the traditional methods and institutions of church: a church without membership, a church not based on congregations, a church not based on a weekly worship service. Great ideas, but the language Pete uses is way too professorial – and his suggestions for examples don’t fit the concepts he lays out.

Many of his ideas do fit the model of campus ministry that Globalscope follows: especially the ideas of a group without memberships and a ministry based more in informal social networks than in a weekly meeting. For a traditional church, though, ol’ Pete’s ideas are practically a revolution – provided they are implemented in creative ways that involve and engage current members of the church rather than abandon them.

Edit – full review here: linky.

quality time around the laptop

Yesterday, August 23rd was the original target departure date for our team to leave for Germany; however, I am writing today’s post from the American comfort of my room in Tucker, Georgia. Did I miss the plane? Was I unable to find a ride to the airport? Did it just skip my mind altogether?

No.

Not only have I never missed a flight, but I also have an intricate knowledge of the airport and an unflagging memory for major life-changing events. As you may well be aware, I am currently nearing 20% of the monthly support necessary to get me to Tübingen, and I need 100% before I can go.

And I am not alone. My teammates have also struggled to come up with 100%. Our team leader is currently at 70% and going to the top with a bullet – in fact, she is signing up for language school as we speak in preparation for living in the field. The Colemans are at 50%, and Chandler is at 30%(+).

Last weekend at our team retreat we talked about our adjusted target departure dates. Globalscope honcho Naomi says mid-October, which is pretty ambitious for a 20-percenter. My personal goal is to celebrate Christmas 2008 in Germany with my team.

Support raising: I know my reporting/accountability has been spotty at best for the last few weeks. I apologize to you, my anonymous readers. Just know that I have sent out a relatively steady stream of support letters, and several monthly supporters have stepped forward (as of the last post, I was at 15% monthly).

PDP: Reading Liquid Church by Pete Ward.

You can check addressing student loans off of the list of things that must be done before leaving for Tübingen. That would leave…

• Reading Liquid Church. Sounds like the perfect book for our little summer drought.
• Pre-marital counseling. Never too early, I guess.

As per the requirements of every CMF missionary, I have finished reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Bathroom reading sessions have never been so productive.