Hands Headlines

Prayer for Prodigals

2009-07-09T21:10:17Z

Dr. Steve Douglass and his wife Judy (above) lead the world wide ministry of Campus Crusade, but have a family too. They adopted their son Josh (at far left) after he had been in several foster homes. He had some “baggage”. Josh struggled to make good life choices, and Judy prayed continually for him as only a mother can. Now Josh is grown up and married, but Judy still prays for him. Recently she built a web site to enlist others to help pray. Then, she realized many people are facing the same issue of having a family member who needs lots of prayer. The web site has prayer requests for many people, but only their first names are used.

View the short video interview with Judy Douglass to learn more about the site or just click the image below to learn how you can participate in Prayer for Prodigals:

Christian Thoughts on Poor Economy

2009-07-09T20:38:42Z

We need to give you an update on our ministry financial support status. But before we do that, here’s some Biblical perspective a friend shared with us a few months back when the news media was all over the crisis in the economy. This is so good:

God is sovereign. His goodness and mercy never goes into recession!

As I read the newspaper and all of the economic ‘highlights’ every day, I thought of headlines I don’t think we’ll ever see…

Fed Adopts Biblical Prinicples; Pays Off National Debt

President Leads Nation in Fasting and Prayer / Calls on People To Change Their Wrong Habits

IRS Agent Confesses to Bilking Taxpayers / Promises to Pay Back Every Dollar Fourfold.

That may seem humorous at this moment, but all three of those are direct from the Bible.

In Deuteronomy 28, God promised that if the nation followed him, they would be debt free and lend to other nations.

In Jonah 3, the king of Nineveh heard Jonah’s proclamation of doom and immediately fell to his knees in prayer and repentance, calling on all the people to do the same.

And in Luke 19:8, Zaccheus-a tax collector-met Christ personally and promised to restore 4x over anyone he defrauded.

It can be hard to filter out truth from the news, especially because the news media seems to thrive on the bad news more than the good news.

In light of that, here’s another headline:

God announces global stimulus package: Follow Me and have all you need.

The great news is that God is still in charge. His portfolio has not changed.

That’s good stuff to remember. Especially as we look at our financial needs for the remainder of 2009. The key however – as promised in God’s Word – is to make Jesus the focus. He is the Provider and He loves to give! He wants us to ask, seek and knock for our monetary needs.

Will you join us?

As we mentioned in a financial update at the beginning of the year, we need an additional $1,100/month to stay healthy in ministry in 2009. What we’re really asking the Lord is to provide at least 14 new financial partners who can give monthly or annually to meet this need.

In addition, we have a special one time need of approximately $1,800 which we just blogged about. Your gifts make a huge difference!

You may give a gift online. If you need further instructions or prefer give by check, see here: https://give.ccci.org/pages/Contribution_By_Mail.html

Why Train? Big Conference this Month

2009-07-09T20:14:12Z

“David, let me ask you a question,” asked my instructor at a recent training class, “when missionaries encounter a new or difficult challenge in ministry, how do you expect them to know what to do?” I thought about some recent real-life scenarios from those whom I serve: “For example, like when one of our campus field leaders is arrested and wrongly accused of plotting against the government?” I asked. Another recent case came to mind: “Oh, how about when a missionary sees a unique window of opportunity for sharing the gospel – but time is limited and he is away from home with only a cell phone – and he wants to communicate prayer requests with as many people as possible as quickly as possible?”

“Yes, how will these missionaries know what to do?” I thought about it for a while. While I was still thinking my instructor asked, “What have they been trained to do?”

Then it began to dawn on me that good training leads to good results in pressing situations. Not always, but chances for someone to know what to do are better if they . . . (A) Have been given clear instructions in what is expected and (B) Have been given opportunities to learn best practices on the field?

Our role with Campus Crusade pushes us to stay current on best ministry practices. We continue to seek and receive training for the sake of training others who will become more effective in building God’s Kingdom. Whether it’s training in how to answer college students who have tough questions about God, how to start a neighborhood Bible Study or training missionaries in financial stewardship and donations software, we train for God’s glory.

Recently I received an update from on of our fellow missionary who was in Portugal conducting a training session for some staff there serving in operational roles . It reminded me again of the huge – often understated – value of providing excellent training.

Shannon and I have a great opportunity later this month for some excellent training. We’ll be attending the U.S. Staff Conference for all American based full time staff with Campus Crusade. About 5,000 of our missionaries will be in attendance. Dates are July 21 – 29.

This is a full eight days of seminars, times of worship, equipping sessions and hearing stories from around the world of how the Lord is working through our missionaries and partners.

All staff are responsible to cover their own expenses for attending this event. As this conference only meets once every two years these costs are in addition to our regular ongoing ministry expenses.

The Lord has already provided for most of our travel expenses to and from Colorado. Now we trust Him by faith to provide the estimated $915 Shannon and I each will need for room and board, training materials and the cost of the conference itself.

Please join us in praying that the Lord would supply these additional one time funds. Most of all, pray that this would be a time when we will hear from God and are renewed and refreshed for serving Him.

You may give a gift online. If you need further instructions or prefer give by check, see here: https://give.ccci.org/pages/Contribution_By_Mail.html

Our Facebook Fan Page is Here

2009-07-09T19:46:19Z

Check out our Facebook Page

Even if you don’t have a Facebook Account, you can view the new page we created there: David and Shannon’s Facebook Page

Facebook calls it a “fan” page. Okay, we don’t really desire celebrity status but this is the terminology Facebook uses for people who click on our page and choose to follow our updates by “being a fan.” Just visit our page on Facebook, log in with your Facebook user name and password, and then click on the “become a fan” button.

Notice that several of the posts you’ll see there are the same content as what we have posted on HandsHeadlines.com – our Facebook page pulls it in automatically from there.

NOT JUST READ ONLY: Additionally, if you’re logged in to Facebook, you may post your thoughts, comments or links to your pages on our “wall” and even upload a photo of your own. This offers some great interaction we need to keep in touch with you. Of course, we are really your “fans” because we treasure your relationship!

So, please check it out. We created this page to make it easier for people to find us – especially those who use Facebook.

Etherpad Instant Text Collaboration

2009-07-09T19:27:00Z

This is a new online collaboration tool I recently tested. It has it’s unique advantages and disadvantages, and in some ways it works like Google Docs, but it provides a little more immediate traction. No signing up or signing in required, no passwords, no downloading and installing software, just click one button and instantly you have a collaboration “pad” – an etherpad. They offer a paid version and free version.

I used it to collaborate remotely with an associate before and during a conference call. We used it as a scratch pad to write the rough draft of a document. It worked like a charm!

Imagine the potentials for foreign/second language learning and teaching with this!

Here is the demo video from Etherpad.com:

Jesus and Operational Planning

2009-06-15T22:21:31Z

Jesus and Operational Planning?? Huh? Is this some kind of weird oxymoron? Let me explain . . .

Operations can be used as a word to described various administrative and functional tasks.

When I describe the role of operations and how we need many more full time missionaries to devote to operations jobs, people sometimes roll their eyes and think “that’s not real ministry.” Dealing with numbers, planning logistics, expanding communications capability, handling repetitive financial tasks, tracking health care benefits, providing back end technology support and on and on. It can sound very boring. And often times it is overlooked.

The conference I attended in Africa last fall focused entirely on operational planning functions in ministry. 100% of the missionaries who attended – representing over 25 different countries – all serve full time in operations roles. See my slideshow from the conference here.

Operations is all about ministry. Ministry and operations are intrinsically linked.

Jesus cared about operations. A careful examination of the gospels shows an incredible amount of detail went in to carrying out Jesus’ work. No doubt He strived to impart his love for people AND his methods for serving people to his disciples. His heart was to serve and not to be served. So I can surmise that the Master did share the details of His plans for serving others. He must have cared about operations.

If Jesus did not care about operations, then why did He? . . .

Choose fishermen and a tax collector to be his disciples? Men who were very “get it done” type of people. Men who thought, lived, slept and breathed the language of business of the day. Men who constantly grappled with the bottom line. They knew how to run a tight ship (literally).
Have the 5000 and 4000 crowds organize themselves into groups to sit down and experience a miracle? Not to mention the “distribution plan” he put into action by telling the disciples “you yourselves give them something to eat.”
Care about His transportation plan on His entry into Jerusalem? He sent disciples to retrieve a donkey – causing them to invest valuable time when they only had a few more hours with Him on earth.
Give orders for the disciples to make detailed preparations for the passover meal? Details that could have seemed trivial to a leader of his stature.
Direct the apostle Paul – via the Holy Spirit – to invest much time and energy in crafting detailed letters of instructions to early church leaders? Letters which have laid a foundation for church growth for centuries.

Planning, financial systems, transportation, logistics, communications – even using the technology of the day (papyrus letters) – all of these were put into practice by Jesus and the disciples. Certainly, He loved people more than the methods or plan, but He did have quite a plan for serving others.

Just some thoughts.

Our Team’s Prayer Calendar

2009-06-15T22:10:51Z

Please use this for prayer!

Here’s an easy way you can engage with us in ministry with something new almost every day. It’s easy, yet it is mission critical:

It’s our team prayer calendar: http://mygcx.org/PrayForGTO

Every month new prayer requests are posted here corresponding to new projects in the Global Technology Office (our team).

So, if you would like, please . . .

Print out our Prayer Calendar for June – click here to download and print
Pray for many of the projects and people by name you see mentioned on the Calendar
Visit the calendar next month for new requests and repeat the process

Thank you for praying! If you have any questions, please contact us.

David’s Dad had a Stroke

2009-06-15T21:51:52Z

Thanks to several of you who have been praying. We wanted to give you a brief update:

In May David’s Dad suffered what appears to have been a mild stroke. The doctor sent him to the hospital for an MRI to confirm what happened but he was not admitted to stay overnight.

Thankfully the effects have not set him back too much. And he has now had a couple of weeks worth of physical therapy to restore a little mobility – that helped.

Unfortunately the doctors said to “probably expect more” of these types of mild strokes. He has been struggling with Vascular Dementia – somewhat akin to Alzheimer’s – for over five years. Supposedly strokes are one thing that “goes with the territory” of this disease.

Thanks for praying for Mr. Babby – as everyone calls him – his real name is Larrabee, but reportedly his sisters could not pronounce ‘Larrabee’ when they were young so ‘Babby’ stuck instead. Pray too for Mrs. Joanne – David’s Mom – as she daily serves and cares for him with strength and patience that the Lord is providing. She is doing a fantastic job.

David's Mom and Dad

See more from a previous post about: Pelham, a special place.

How Missionaries Use Technology

2009-06-15T21:43:03Z

Last year we did a big survey – asking ccci missionaries around the world to tell us how they are using technology to build God’s Kingdom. Since then other smaller surveys have been conducted which also provide some interesting trends:

Our missionaries are moderately to highly connected via the Internet. Regardless of country or location, most spend a minimum of 3 hours a day online. A significant percentage is online approximately 5 or more hours a day.
* See our recent post about internet availability even in Rwanda
Overwhelmingly, our missionaries believe Internet access is important or very important for building a spiritual movement.
To a large degree, movement builders use email, mobile phone and text messaging as primary (not supplemental) tools for movement building.
Social networking sites, such as Facebook and blogs, are used very frequently and have become primary tools for movement building activities.
A large percentage pointed to the need for more education, training and awareness of technology strategies and tools when asked what should change about the way we build spiritual movements as a result of the way technology shapes the world today.

See all the results here and even join in some of the online discussion that followed the survey report: https://www.mygcx.org/Discuss_Technology_in_Movements

Internet in Rwanda?

2009-06-19T17:43:33Z

Really? In the heart of Africa? If you can connect to the internet in Rwanda, then you’re bound to be able to connect just about anywhere.

Read our previous posts about . . .

Check this out: Recently my friend Keith got an email from an associate traveling in Rwanda. This person had expected to find virtually NO way to connect to the internet but . . .

“This place in Rwanda has wireless internet!!! I have no idea how widely they have it at the hotel, for example, I don’t know if it reaches my room. I’m in the meeting room at the moment. This is amazing. The “shower” in my room is one where you have to stand in a bucket. That is, adding a shower to the room was an afterthought. It does have an instant hot water heater in the shower head, but it didn’t work this morning. So, a bucket shower with a water heater that doesn’t work but with newly installed wireless access point!”