For the past two weeks I have been in Thailand visiting three different ministries. The Globalscope campus ministry house at Thammasat University in Bangkok was flooded for weeks. Indeed the whole university was under four to five feet of water. By the time I arrived the campus house was fully cleaned up and ready for students. Michael Ruth, Beth, and Grace put in lots of hours of scrubbing, painting, and washing. I was privileged to be able to be there for the first gathering of students since the flood. What a great job this team is doing!
My next visit was the the Klong Toey slum where we partner with Urban Neighbors of Hope, led by Ash and Anji Barker. We were there to help envision and establish an International Society for Urban Missions. Fellow travelers were Stephen Burris (CMF research missiologist), Kendi Howells Douglas (professor from Great Lakes Christian College), and Gary Weedman (President of Johnson University). All tolled, twenty-seven people participated in this gathering. We look forward to helping promote the need for ministry to the urban poor throughout the world, which includes the launching of a new journal.
 In Chiang Mai I was able to spend time with Jeff and Pilar. Pilar teaches at the international school, and Jeff is involved in a CHE ministry that links orphans/poor children and their home communities. He is working to help these homes become self sustaining, and already two churches have been established in this ministry. Jeff and Pilar partner with others in such endeavors as rice planting, pig farming, and aquaculture. Jeff and Pilar are anxiously awaiting the arrival of two more families to this ministry.
Did I get some birding in on this trip? You’ll have to wait to find out the answer to that!
Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his astounding work in microfinance, as told in his book, Banker to the Poor. His second book, Creating a World Without Poverty, was also a good read. His third book is entitled Building Social Business, and I believe the idea is very creative and is a perfect fit for so many who want to help in making positive changes in our world. A social business is one “that sustains itself but whose purpose is to create social benefits rather than to generate a profit” (pg. 34).
 The book describes social business and how it is different from a profit generating business, or a non-profit that pretty much focuses on charitable endeavors. A social business is run to make money, but all of the money generated is used to cover costs and build the business. The products are those which benefit society. The investors are those who want their money to make a difference in the world. In time, the investors receive the exact amount that they invested (regardless of inflation), though there is no 100% guarantee. An example of a social business would be a tree-planting business. Trees would have to be sold as the business needs to be sustainable. Profits would pay for the laborers, for new product, and to pay the investor back over time. The investor feels good about her/his investment because of the trees that help to protect the environment, provide shade, provide employment, etc. Yet another example would be establishing a business that makes mosquito nets to aid in preventing malaria, or a water purification plant to produce clean water. Note, the nets or water is not provided to the customer freely; it needs to be purchased so that sustainability is achieved.
The book is available on amazon.com and can be purchased new, used, or in electronic format. I borrowed the book, but may purchase one because the idea is definitely worth chewing over.
Here are some ways that might indicate that: 1) I have been working too hard; 2) my life is a tad out of balance; 3) I have to be one of the most boring individuals in the world.
1. I visited the Indianapolis Children’s Museum today. Our group of four were all in our 50s and 60s. People stared at us because we had no kids in tow. I have lived in Indianapolis for 16.5 years, and this was the first time I have ever been to the ICM. That is a travesty to this wonderful museum!
2. Last night I did something that I have sort of half-heartedly scratched my head at for years. In downtown Indianapolis it is possible to go on a horse-carriage for a half an hour tour around the center of town. You put the gloves and stocking caps on because it is cold outside, and you cover yourself with a blanket, provided by the Blue Ribbon Carriage Company. We were celebrating Robyn’s birthday, and this was SOMETHING SHE HAD WANTED TO DO FOR YEARS!! Duh, Doug.
3. So, we are sitting in the children’s museum — we were only there two hours — and I was reading something on my phone. Linda Brock and Robyn and Garry were standing there, ready to go to the next site, and Linda pipes, “We’re ready to go Doug, when you are done working.” Actually, I was, AND I SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN!
We have a wonderful city in Indianapolis; all sorts of workers were out getting the city ready for the Superbowl on February 5. It really was time to take it all in, because when the real Superbowl festivities for the public are ready to go, I’ll probably just be working away. 
Thanks Garry and Linda, Aaron and Andrea, Nicole and Greg for making Robyn’s birthday so special.
Every few years, often when the lemming population is sparce, the Snowy Owl makes a foray southward from its home in the Arctic. It goes searching for food and has been spotted in places as far away as Alabama and Georgia. It’s journey is called irruptive, and birders often wait to see unusual visitors from the north.
The Snowy Owl is the heaviest of all the owls, weighing in at four pounds, compared with just over three pounds for the Great Horned owl. The wingspan of the Snowy Owl is five feet!
About ten days ago a Snowy Owl was spotted at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport, formerly known at the Mt. Comfort airport. I have birded at the airport before; in fact I got my first view of the Upland sandpiper at this airport. I learned of the bird at the airport on Sunday evening, so by Monday morning I was there, in the rain. Nobody else was, and I did not see the owl. But I went back in the afternoon and was able to see it. The next day I was there again, and the owl was sitting on a nearby building. Twice in the next several days I went again, and yesterday (Saturday) the owl was sitting in a field and I was able to get the other photograph.
Here is what John Stott wrote about the Snowy Owl when he finally got the opportunity to see one. “How can I capture in words the excitement of sitting in a hide, or blind, for hour after hour only a few yards from the bird of my dreams?! . . . It was a fantastic experience to eavesdrop on the domestic life of this majestic but elusive bird. She stared at me (although of course she could not see me), and I stared back. I could even watch mosquitos crawling on her feathered face until she blinked and shook her head vigorously to dislodge them. One of her eight white eggs had hatched, and another followed two days later.” (taken from The Birds Our Teachers: Biblical Lessons from a Lifelong Bird-watcher, page 32).
The Snowy owl—a great Christmas present to be sure.
Like many others, I was a fan of John Stott. The first I knew of John Stott was when I was a youth minister at the Trent Church of Christ in Dexter, Oregon. I was attending Northwest Christian College and had come across his book Basic Christianity. The text was a great one to use in preparing lessons for the youth.
 Then in 1973 (and also in 1976) I went to the Urbana Missions Conference where Stott was the Bible lecturer. His lectures were fantastic! In 1974 Stott helped write (he actually did most of the writing) the influential Lausanne Covenant. He wrote commentaries and he wrote books on missions.
The September 2011 issue of Christianity Today paid tribute to John Stott, and I wanted to share a quote from the article by Tim Stafford. Stott “relished the world around him in all its variety. Perhaps nothing showed this so obviously as his lifelong love for birdwatching, which biographer Timothy Dudley-Smith says bordered on an obsession. In his later decades, Stott spent a great proportion of his time traveling, much of it in third-world (he called them “majority world”) countries. Time for birds was always included.” One of my favorite books is the one written by Stott on birds and the Bible.
Stott was a proponent of holistic mission. He did not separate the Great Commission from the Great Commandment. They go hand in hand. To do one without the other is to ignore much of the Bible.
Rest in peace, John Stott.
We (CMF) are involved in research to minster with local partners in a ministry among the urban poor in a Latin American country. There has been “on the ground” research by some on our staff while I have been focusing on library research (pretty much, my own library, that is).
Back in college and seminary days I was introduced to the anthropologist Oscar Lewis and his notion of the “culture of poverty.” In 1976 I read his book, Five Families. I have reread the book, along with a UN book on urban slums in Latin America, as well as a master’s thesis by one working among the urban poor in Mexico City, Jean Luc Kreig. In addition, I have just completed the fascinating book The Culture Façade by Susan Rigdon (1988). In her book, she notes that Lewis’ concept of the culture of poverty was highly critiqued by other anthropologists. It seemed that the primary critique was that there was not a culture of poverty as Lewis defined it. Lewis also talked about the “subculture of poverty.” I wonder if the argument could have been avoided if he would have used a term like the “ethos of poverty.” Anthropologists have a long history of argumentation on the definition of the term “culture”.
The subject is of relevance because we have picked up from Kreig and the UN book the notion that by 2050, one half of the world will be made up of squatters and the urban poor. We have taken that idea, along with Lewis’ notion of the culture of poverty, to say that the urban poor constitute the largest unreached people group in the world.
I have five other books by Lewis writing about Latin America (assuming Puerto Rico to be a part of Latin America), so I have plenty more to read.
Input from any of you?
Guest blog entry from my wife, Robyn: http://occministers.wordpress.com/ .
In the last thirty five years there have been basically three paradigms in missions: evangelism, discipleship, and justice. On a theoretical level, in the classroom, and even in the churches, it was easy to fall into the trap of seeing these paradigms as in opposition to one another. To generalize, those following the evangelism paradigm made the purpose of mission evangelization and church planting. Once a people was reached (i.e. a few amongst the people evangelized), then it was time to move on to other fields. In opposition, those following the discipleship paradigm tended to see the major work of mission to help people to grow deeper in their faith. Teaching, mentoring, education, and schools were all involved. The third paradigm, justice, tended to see the purpose of missions as helping to liberate the captives, to bring food to the hungry, to work to alleviate poverty and suffering. Battles raged (and for some still do) over which paradigm should be considered primary and which should be considered secondary.
What is happening in missions today is that Christians all over the world are saying that we need a single new paradigm that includes elements of each of the former emphases on evangelism, discipleship, and justice. Such a paradigm leads to the transformation of individuals and communities. Various names have been suggested: Missio Dei, that is where we become involved in the mission of God; Kingdom theology (as opposed to Church theology; transformation. Another term that is used is holistic mission. Holistic mission involves not just justice, not just church planting, and not just discipleship. Instead, all are included in holistic mission. If any of the three are missing, then the mission cannot be called holistic because it is not whole.
A feature of post modernism is to not be bound by “either/or” categories or thinking. Rather, the thinking and categories should be “both/and.” This thinking does not tend to see things in black and white, but in gray. Our mission efforts should be inclusive of evangelism, discipleship, and justice. We should not be exclusive of any of these key biblical tasks.
 During my recent trip to Kenya I happened to be outside of Nairobi when the explosion occurred in the slums that killed more than 100 people. The people were resident in a slum called Sinai. Many of them lived on or in close proximity to a gasoline pipe line that had ruptured. With gasoline flowing, many took their containers to get some free gasoline so that they could save some money. Some reports were that somebody threw a cigarette away which caused the explosion.
What could be more indicative of the urban poor slums around the world where life is so tenuous? Crowded conditions; forced by poverty to live wherever there is available space; the desire to care for one’s family in desperate situations; and the ever present threat of things like disease, fire, corruption, and robbery.
We work in a slum in Nairobi in partnership with Missions of Hope International. We have nine schools in the slums. That pipeline could be have erupted in the Mathare Valley where we work. It could have been people we know who were burned to death.
We are working to bring the love of Christ—to advance the Kingdom of God—in this area. Even so, the reminder of last week will last a long time.
So, what did I talk about at the Winema Week of Missions? I was asked to focus on Africa for one adult session, and on current CMF ministries for another. I decided to use David Letterman’s Top Ten list for the Africa talk. I spoke about politics, health, education, and the status of Christianity. For the CMF talk I made a whirlwind tour of positive things that are happening in our ministries. I mentioned aquaponics and had a biology professor from a university tell me that she wants her students to become involved, which made my day. It will be fun to follow up on that.
What, you ask, is aquaponics? It is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. (That sounds like a joke, but it really is true). Aquaculture refers to raising fish in small ponds; and hydroponics is raising plants in water. In aquaponics you combine the two, with the fish supplying the fertilizer needed by the plants. As a result you can harvest both fish and plants from the same pond. It is just like a real life pond, only the plants are things like tomatoes and spinach rather than weeds. We are experimenting with aquaponics in both Thailand and Kenya.
For the children and youth, I showed the movie, One in a Million, which went over quite well. Robyn was with me for several days of the conference and she spoke at the bonfire one evening. The theme of the conference was “To the Ends of the Earth.”
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