Mention “Youth Hostel” and most people conjure up images of dorms and communal bathrooms.  And you’d be right most of the time.  In my younger days I could have/would have done that.  Given that I’ll camp out in a tent and sleep on the ground, a youth hostel doesn’t sound all that bad.  My better half though has other ideas. When we found out that U Squad would be staying in a hostel in Beijing, I volunteered (or perhaps better said, Karen acquiesced) to join them if we could get a private room.  It turns out many hostels have private...

We arrived in Harbin China at about midnight, after a series of three flights covering about 24 hours.  The ride from the airport took about 45 minutes and at first I thought we were driving through a deserted countryside.  As my eyes grew accustomed to the dark it became evident that we were driving through a dense, dark forrest of high rise apartment and office buildings.  There were few street lights, and only occasional brightly lit signs for the few still-open stores, bars, or restaurants.  There were few other vehicles on the streets, although several construction...

3 .. 2 .. 1 .. LAUNCH Today four more squads of World Racers and one squad of Passport Immersion (nearly 250 people!) left the States to go around the world and spread the love of Jesus! They will live with the poorest of the poor and serve in as many ways as possible. Please pray for safe travel on this amazing journey they are embarking on. Please pray for their families who are trusting God to look after them. Pray for the staff at AIM that will serve them well while they serve for the next 11 months. Just before they left U Squad got news of another route change. God is sending them to...

It Takes a Village to Train a Class (originally titled: “It takes an idiot to train a village”!) I’ve been acting on stage, making speeches, and facilitating small and large training workshops for years. And usually I’m not particularly nervous before taking the stage or the front of the room. But this time things were different. This time I’d be facing a group of Liberian business, community, and church leaders on their home turf. The course material relied heavily on their participation in small and large group discussions. As I told our team the night before...

So in Part 1 I mentioned my tee shirts getting turned inside out in the washing machine. It turns out Ron Walborn's Monday night session was about to do the same to me – but not at ALL how I anticipated it might. (really – if you haven't yet, stop now and go read Part 1!)   At the end of Part 1 I had “encouraged” Karen by pointing out what she just witnessed: “I just saw three guys lead that woman out of the auditorium. Perhaps you should go join them so there's a woman with her.”  And she kindly replied, “It...

I do laundry at home. Not every week, but probably half the time (my wife, Karen, can post her own blog if she wants to challenge my estimate or contradict me!). My mom trained me (yep – we had lessons!) before I went off to college. Years ago I remember scolding our kids – and Karen – about peeling their tee shirts off and throwing them into the hamper inside out. When I got to the point of folding the laundry, I had to turn every shirt right side out – slowing the entire laundry process. But then one day I noticed that frequently my tee shirts came out of the...