Rich’s Travels

Ever have one of those days when you accidentally stumbled upon something that was really cool?  Just did it today when I discovered www.studentalpha.org.  Way back in the day, I partnered with a church to run what we called “Alpha Express” (a short modified version of the Alpha course) on a local college campus. Of course, this was way before internet useage was common among students.  Well, now it exists online below.  Check it out.   Maybe you could run an Alpha course in your home, dorm room or office. All the material is right there.  You just need to do the asking! Why do students need the Alpha course? Listen to this and hear their answers to “Who is Jesus?”.  Watch this promo to find out how you can be involved.

Recently I returned from halfway around the world (my bottom swears it was longer!) to present to all of the campus staff how they can integrate using the internet with our traditional face to face strategies.  Out of a 1 1/2 day conference, they dedicated most of the time to addressing this issue of integration so the pressure was on.

“Movements everywhere” is the rallying cry of Campus Crusade.  You will see it in all of our publications.  We want to help build spiritual movements everywhere “in order that someone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.”  Makes sense, but what does that look like on the internet?  Our leadership has come up with the term a “virtually led movement” (or as my Singaporean friends who love acronyms like to say “VLM”) I was tasked with trying to help define “VLM” for Singapore.  CCC has not specifically defined a VLM yet like it has been defined for a face to face movement, so that made my job that much easier (or harder depending on how you look at it!)

I was also able to share some of the great things that others around the world have been doing both inside and outside of CCC.  Some of the new strategies that I am particularly excited about are:

1) a “spiritual starter kit” from our friends at everystudent.com. You can also sign up for other spiritual growth series here.

2) A site called starterbible (developed in the Netherlands). Starterbible is an e-learning course for new Believers.

3) The Global Short film network.  Using short films that you can download to your computer, i-phone, i-pod or other mobile phone for use in your everyday conversations.

4) Soul cravings (from Canada’s power to change).  What does your soul crave?

5)  Easy ways to use the internet found here.

6) Lifechurch.tv - A physical church as well as an online church in Oklahoma City.  Students (and people worldwide) can go to church online 24/7.  No more excuses now for not going to church!

After presenting how we can use the internet to help build both virtual and face to face movements, it was on to a knowledge cafe facilitated by one of my teammates. We didn’t want to tell Singapore what to do, but instead let them come up with their own next steps for the campus ministry in Singapore.  How can the internet help Singapore build spiritual movements? For some of their answers you can go here.

Pray for me as I continue to help Singapore in their quest to build virtual and face to face spiritual movements.

 One of my meals in Singapore. Duck!!  MMMMMM!!  I guess I can’t really say it’s Finger lickin’ good since it’s a duck.

Ok, I’m a John McEnroe fan I admit it.  This post comes directly from my good friend Brian Barela from his blog “The Necessary things.”  I love” people that continue to push the envelope as it relates to new ways of doing evangelism.  Check out this video on using twitter to do evangelism.  Sort of a 21st century way of doing what CCC calls “random evangelism:

Just created a facebook fan page called “The Street’s Ministry“.  Seems a little vain to create a fan page about your family, but this page is simply designed to connect those that partner with us to those that we minister to in the US and abroad.  With so many people on facebook today (over 70% of North America has a facebook account!), it just seemed like an easy way to stay in touch with our partners.  One of Kourtney’s and my values is to maintain not only regular but excellent contact with our partners.  Now, not only can we report on what we are doing, but allow those that we minister to report themselves directly to our partners.  Become a fan and experience firsthand what we are doing as well as interact and get to know the people we serve!  Enjoy!

The Street’s Ministry on Facebook

As you might know, we have been wrestling with health issues with Joseph since he was about 22 months old, battling his asthma very consistently. We learned last spring that he wasn’t growing as he should be, and he failed each of six Growth Hormone Stimulation tests. We know that it’s not Cystic Fibrosis, allergies, or a brain tumor as these were ruled out. However, asthma that is not well controlled and/or steroid use are potential causes for growth problems. We also have some strong genetic factors related to his asthma and growth issues that seem to be playing a role.

This summer Joseph grew 3 cm while we were serving in Colorado and had a huge respite from his typical asthma issues. While this could be totally coincidental, our doctor feels that there is a strong possibility that his asthma is exacerbated by humidity, and we’ve spent most of his life in very humid places (France, Florida, Texas, and Mexico). Consequently, our Pediatric Pulmonologist recommended that we spend the winter and spring in Colorado to see if he does as well in Colorado during the cold, winter months as he did in the summer.

We received permission from our boss, Ken Cochrum, Vice President of Campus Ministries for CCC, to spend the winter in Denver. Almost immediately, things fell into place. We found a wonderful Christian family to rent our furnished home in Orlando for six months. We were given an appointment almost immediately at National Jewish Hospital in Denver (one of, if not the top respiratory hospitals in the world). We have dear friends who direct a Classical Conversations group in Denver so the boys will continue their schooling with little interruption. God continued to open doors to lead us to spend six months in Colorado to get to the bottom of Joseph’s health issues. Our prayer is that we can reduce his steroid use, increase his lung function, prevent lung scarring, and hopefully prevent the use of Growth Hormone Therapy unless absolutely necessary.

I will be continuing my ministry from Denver. Our team is hosting our annual meeting with the main campus ministry leaders from around the world in Orlando this year, and I will return to Orlando the first week of December to participate. I will return most months for our team strategy meetings, and I can easily do my international travel out of DIA. The great thing about my role is that I can truly do my job from anywhere. I look forward to continuing to engage with ministry leaders globally as we seek to help grow student led movements everywhere…especially virtually!Thank you for your prayers and support of us during this journey. We thank God for your partnership with our family in the wonderful ministry that God has called us to. If you have any questions, please feel free to email or call.

I just returned from Turkey as I helped lead the program for ministrynet.  What a great time meeting up with so many practioners from around the world.  Here’s a great summary of what went on from my good friend Keith Seabourn.

Ministry Net and VLM Integration from Dennis Strellman on Vimeo.

Thanks for praying for my time. Pray for all the participants who came to ministrynet that they would continue to connect with one another and learn from each other even after the conference. Pray for them also as they go back to their leadership with some crazy ideas that their leaders would give them the sponsorship they need to lead in this new world of integrating virtual strategies with our traditional strategies!

Sorry it has been a long time since my last post.  Being in a car for over 10,000 miles and being away from home this summer can do that to you.  I did come across this video on tube and wanted to pose the question if this is the beginning of the end for face to face evangelism and its’ relevance.

Thoughts????

Here is some video of Rich and Joseph catching their first fish at Red Feather Lakes in Ft. Collins, CO.  So fun that they caught them at the same time!  Enjoy!  We are in Ft. Collins training CCC staff to go all over the world to bring the Good News in both word and deed.

Greetings from the Street family home in Fort Collins, Colorado. It’s not really our home, but an apartment close to the Colorado State University Campus.  Every other summer, we spend the summer here serving in some sort of capacity for Campus Crusade’s bi-annual training.  This year we are helping coach
“X-track”.  X-track is a way to prepare missionaries to serve all over the world. Kourtney and I have been asked to help prepare missionaries as they head out overseas on their first assignment.  Kourtney and I are able to reflect back on our experience in France as a way of coaching these families that are leaving in the next 6 months or so to go all over the world.

In other important news, Marilyn Adamson is a good friend of mine. Marilyn is the director of everystudent.com. We collaborate on many projects that have to do with using the internet in your daily life and ministry.  Now, she’s put some of her expertise up in a blog.  This is a must read if you want to learn more about integrating your online world with your face to face world.  Check it out here.

“Rich on the train to Luxor in 1992″

“Rich on the same train in 2009″

Many of you who know me, know that Egypt has a special place in my heart. (and someone else’s as well!)  As an army brat(code for having grown up in a military family), I have lived all over the world and rarely in a place longer than 3 years.  So, to travel to a place continually for 17 years is really a strange concept for me.  In many ways, Egypt is like a 2nd home to me.  I just returned from Egypt at the end of April and, as usual, had a phenomenal time.

I remember the first time I saw and smelled Egypt that fateful life changing day in October of 1991 like it was yesterday.  From the taxi ride from the airport where I was horrified to have to put my luggage on the roof to seeing my first of many dead animals on the street, to hearing the call to prayer for the very first time to seeing the pyramids it was the beginning of an incredible friendship with a country that is a land of contradictions, contrasts and incredibly friendly people.  It’s hard not to love Egypt once you get used to unbearable poverty, dust, and the incessant car horns!

When I landed in 1991, there was no internet, no mobile phones, and just the occasional sign of western influence.  My friends and I rarely cooked but went out for dinner almost every night.  Our choices were Egyptian food or our choice of such fine dining establishments as KFC and Pizza Hut.  In 2009, my choices for just western food are McDonald’s, Burger King, Carl’s Junior, Subway, Sabarro, Little Caesar’s, Domino’s, Hardee’s, A&W, Baskin Robbins, TGIFriday’s, Starbuck’s, Chili’s and of course the mainstays of KFC and Pizza Hut!  And, almost all of those places offer free hi-speed wi-fi!  You can even go to the huge shopping mall at buy a blue ray disc of the latest western movie at the Virgin Mega store! Things do certainly change quite a bit over time.

However, with all that westernization the one thing that I also see changing is in the people.  Women dress more conservatively now.  Rarely did I ever see a fully covered girl in 1991, now it is pretty much a common site.  More women do wear their conservative head scarf than they ever did 17 years ago.  My Egyptian friends tell me that even some of the language that is spoken is more conservative and more Islamic in nature.  That is, Islam continues to be a major influence in the hearts and minds of the people there…especially the students.  Why?  I have my theories, but that is not the point of this post.

While I was there, I was asked to be a part of a team that would assess the campus ministry in Egypt.  I was to listen to students and others tell about their vision for Egypt and what they were doing about it. I heard a lot of optimism and great stories and results that give me hope for Egypt.  I was hoping to be able to encourage some of our students and staff there, but instead I was the one who walked away encouraged and hopeful (sounds familiar, eh?).  God has been doing quite a lot there in the last 17 years.  It might not be as big of an outside change as Egypt has undergone in its’ westernization, but I believe that God is not finished with Egypt and that He is doing something inwardly in the hearts and minds of Egyptians.  As Egyptians try to find answers to life’s questions through speaking differently, dressing differently or acting differently, these will only lead to more dissatisfaction.  Will you join with me in prayer for Egypt that students, in their dissatifcaction, will come to know the one that wants a relationship with Himself and that I will have wisdom in helping my Egyptian friends reap a harvest that will be unimaginable over the next 17 years?

 ”Eating at where else, but KFC!” (it was their choice!)