Greetings from Mexico

The family and I are here enjoying a nice respite from the daily work and school grind. As usual, the weather is fabulous and we are having a great time. Wish you were here, of course!

Sri Lanka and India

Okay, what was I really doing in Sri Lanka and India this past month?

I was in Sri Lanka to help facilitate a consultation on refugees and displaced peoples throughout South Asia. It was the first time that most of these groups had ever even met each other, let alone talk about working together. It was a great group with key representatives from (or working in) Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and, of course, Sri Lanka. They decided to launch a South Asia Refugee Highway Network to coordinate activities and projects, as well as to better network the agencies / churches throughout the region. It was cool to be there.

Then I was in Southwest India in the small mountain city of Coonoor (try finding it on a map!). Our team led a partnership training course for 32 key Indian community leaders -- mostly pastors and sports ministry leaders. It was a challenging group, but one in which is hungry for the knowledge and skills of how to work together better for Kingdom impact. Most of them traveled between 30-50 hours from Dehli, Bombay, Calcutta and other major cities to get where the event was being held.

We stayed at a Catholic Retreat Center given as a gift from French missionaries. The grounds were beautiful, very quiet, and the view utterly spectacular -- lending itself nicely to the time of training and reflection we led the group through.

Finally -- One for Big Guys!

Yes, this plane is actually in development; kind of a cruise ship in the air. Oh, to finally have enough legroom in an airplane. . . . Sadly, the earliest it might be done is the end of 2010. Maybe I'll still be flying.

The World I've been to

In the spirit of the "red state/blue state" debate (and Valentine's Day, of course), here in red are a look at the many countries I've had the great privilege of going to. In case you're wondering, I can't find a site that can do it in blue.

Home Sweet Home

Just back from South Asia. A gripping and powerful time. The story and pictures to come. Suffice to say that as usual I gain more than I can ever give from these ministry adventures.

Despite being in rural India on top of a 6500 foot mountain at a Catholic retreat centre, I was still able to watch the Super Bowl -- and Seattle's big loss -- because the Catholic priest who runs it has a sattelite dish and ESPN Global carried the game.

One of the few aspects of globalization I guess I don't mind.