40 day Prayer Calendar

September
1 Chiang Rai
3 Hangtown
4 GB Asia JN
5 Slovakia
7 Freiburg
10 Sweden
11 Merida, VZ
12 Chiang Mai
13 Barbados
14 Ekat
17 Serbia
18 Leb
19 Karaganda
20 Nantes
21 KM
24 Freiburg
25 Tokyo A & B
26 La Plata
27 Buenos Aires
28 Desert R.

October
1 YC-MZ/SR
2 Montpellier
3 Horizons
4 Salerno
8 HD
9 Acts 29
10 MK2MK

My Friend Paul

Last night we had a church meeting/dinner. I went straight from work rather than drive the other direction home. I figured I could just get there early and help set up.

The first person I saw was Martha Townsend. Martha is a gem. She and her family have been dear friends since we joined Cornerstone. in fact Paul & Martha are two of the main reasons we landed at Cornerstone and I am sure countless people call them dear friends.

I had not had a real chance to talk with Martha since her mom passed away this Spring. So I spoke to her about that and asked how she was doing. She shared with me whirlwind they had been in lately. Paul's cancer had returned.

I think it was about November or December of 2003 that Paul first had cancer. It went into remission and then came back last year. he went through chemo which almost killed him and then last March had surgery to remove the tumor. This tumor was bone cancer and lodged against his skull. I guess because it was so deep they couldn't get it all.

So in the last few weeks, they learned what was left had grown to the size of a tennis ball. (Not in density but spread out that far.) It is inoperable. The doctors said he has 2 years, maybe 3. Needless to say, Paul and Martha were devastated.

Between the chemo last year and the surgery, they had visited a nutritionist in Colorado Springs. So the other day they met with him again. He gave them hope that he could treat it through nutrition so they are going that route.

As Martha said its not that they have a promise but there's hope because nothing is beyond God's ability.

Last night, I cried with Paul. I know that his story is still being written and that it doesn't end even when he gets a new name in glory. Perhaps the climax of his novel of time on earth still has been read. A miraculous healing would make a better climax. I do know that he will have a new body in addition to a new name.

But the journey here that he is facing (and his family is facing) is not one any of us would choose. I want to walk with him in this.

Ones who Serve - Kelly, Matt & Biba

Kelly, Matt and Biba are leading the team in Kosice, Slovakia. They have a difficult task of leading a mixed team of not only staff and new graduates but also Americans and Slovakians. So, their team will need to learn a new world in order to love their team. They landed last week with the reality that they need huge prayer of learning how to live, work and play together. Kelly, Matt and Biba’s desire is to be unified as a team and learn how to love one another despite their differences.

On a ministry note, this week they are in Bratislava and Vienna for an in-country briefing. Okay life is not so hard. When they return they are planning on handing out 2,500 evangelistic CD's on 5 campuses over the next few weeks. Yesterday, their team dreamed about what God might do in Slovakia. They came up: more guy leaders, spiritual multiplication, new believers in every dorm, small groups in every dorm, students stepping up to the plate, and a thriving life-giving ministry. Kelly writes, “These are things we believe are only possible if God does them; that’s why it’s worth it.”

When I think of our teams loving another or even launching thriving life-giving movements, I think of John 13:34, 35. But Matt already spoke on that passage at Copper. (“I’ll get you yet, Mikalatos” said while shaking my fist in the air.) So I will write on what followed. In Luke 22:14-27, we find them reclining at the table for the sedar in which Jesus uses to illustrate his coming suffering and its significance. Then the apostles start a brouhaha over who was the greatest. To add to the ridiculous nature of this is that this is the third time they have locked horns over this subject and each time was right after Jesus spoke of his death. (Mark 9:30-36; Mark 10:32-45). Like were they trying to jockey for position to be next in line for Messiah? To be the Elisha to his Elijah?

Jesus tells them what he tells them each of the previous times they swabbed swords over who was all that and a bag of chips. “You want to be great? You want to be in charge? Be like the last in line. Choose to serve.”

And as in other times, Jesus contrasts how the Gentiles do leadership. (Being a Gentile by birth myself, I will us ‘we’.) We lord it over those under us. We exercise authority. In fact, the unpardonable sin of those under us is someone who struggles with our authority. We call ourselves ‘benefactors’. A benefactor is someone who bequeaths care or money but it’s noticed by others usually with a monument or a building named on their behalf. So even when we ‘serve’ we do it for something we crave - recognition and attention. We call ourselves...

A servant is so different. He is above no one. She exercises zero authority. Who notices a servant? Name me one monument named after a servant. (Okay, you can’t count Jesus.) That’s the key thing, isn’t it? Jesus took the nature of a servant (Phil 2:5-11; Matt 20:28). He is our model. His attitude is the attitude we are to have.

This summer I was talking with someone about how the Korean staff served. Those of you who were there certainly know what I mean. This leader told me that when they first were looking for a Korean word to use for ‘staff’ they discussed words with honor but Dr. Kim said no we are going to use ‘Nobi’ (I actually don’t remember the exact word he said but it meant ‘house servant’ and ‘Nobi’ is what I found in a search. I called my source to verify that this was the word and will edit if its not.) Dr. Kim said, ‘we are going to known as people who get on our hands and knees and serve’.

What would it look like if we like the Koreans really modeled serving like Christ did? What if we approach our teams, our students, the lost, and our cities as ones who serve? Would we not love another? Would we not be true followers of Christ? What if we laid down our own needs, wants, desires at the foot of the cross and every day asked “Lord, help me to serve. Show me how to serve my team. Show me how to serve my co-leader. Show me how to serve the students on these campuses. Show me how to serve those who are lost and like sheep without a shepherd. Lord, make me a servant.”

We’d rock the world.

Camping with Luke, the Coes and Kentucky Joe

Last Friday, my friend Eric and I took up our boys to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park for a night of camping. Actually we took his two boys (Danya - 5 and Tima - 3) and Luke. Jack and Drew stayed with Robin.

We left early afternoon with our van packed with a tent, sleeping bags, fishing pools, camp stove, etc. We hoped to get a spot at the Aspenglen campsite. Even though we got their in early afternoon, the three best ones close to the river were taken. We had two choices in the tent only section. One was close to the main entrance so we choose the 2nd one. As we started to put up our tent, we met our neighbors... Texas Pete and Kentucky Joe. Not their real names mind you but they were two older men camping alone. One was from Texas and the other from Kentucky. Hence their monikers. One was camping to our right and the other across the gravel drive.

I didn't mind friendly but both Eric and I were a little cautious about interesting looking older men especially ones inviting our boys to stop by their campfire that night. No thanks.

We did a little mild hike, made a campfire, roasted hotdogs and made 'smores. Luke calls marshmallows, smarshmallows. Makes sense 'smores should consist of smarshmellows. The boys went to bed about sunset. Eric and I read and talked by the fire. I heard Luke making up a story to tell Danya and Tima. it was a story about a turtle and frog that went camping. They were friends. Lightening hit turtle and frog's tent and they went into the rain car. The rain ended and they went out and put back up their tent.

The night was long and cold. There were many trips of little boys needing to pee. But what made the night really long was Kentucky Joe playing his radio all night. Both Eric and I thought of walking over to ask him to turn it down. Maybe we should have. but both of us sized-up that Kentucky Joe seemed like a guy who slept with a pistol under his pillow so we decided to try to tough it out.

Early in the am, I was concerned that Luke in his 'play sleeping bag' was freezing so I invited him into mine. I got no sleep now. Not only was it too tight, I kept imagining him needing to pee one more time. My best sleep was when Kentucky Joe left at around 4 am for who knows where and I coxed Luke back into his own bag.

In morning we rebuilt a fire, Eric made oatmeal and we went for a final hike. Danya threw-up on the drive back down the mountain but Eric got the hot-dog bun bag to him in time.

All in all we survived our first father-son camping trip.

A New Name

I have decided after a couple of years of blogging that the name of this blog is rather lame.

Many friends and family have much cooler titles like... The Burning Hearts Revolution; Dangerous RAT's ; Little Eric Learns to Lead (I like his address 'Coe Tangents' a little better because I like puns.); Comin' Up That Branch; Alone on a Limb or Blue Star Chronicles

Some are clear about what they are about... On Movements; On Leading Well or MovementsEverywhere (Not sure why Shane dropped the 'Rant" part.)

So on the right I have a poll until the end of August. Feel free to offer write-in alternatives to "A Few Minutes with Andy" in the comments.

Serbian Team

One of the cool highlights for me last week was coaching the guys going to Serbia on STINT. They leave the 2nd week in September. This team is an all-star team!

Here is a video they made introducing their team.

Back in the Mix

With many of our STINT teams departing this week to far-away locations, I have started back the weekly post on STINT Leaders. Our first one highlights a pair of leaders in East Asia and looks at one of Moses' times in the "Tent of Meeting"

Feel free to stop by every Wednesday and hear about teams around the globe along with thoughts on leadership.

Tent of Meeting - S and R

S and R are in East Asia now. Their team is a mix of folks from all over California. No one knew anyone else before they arrived at briefing. They were really thankful for the nametags.

Despite just learning about each other, this team walks into some pretty cool stuff. There are about 40 young believers left behind from last year’s team and around 40 new believers from the summer project. Their first problem is figuring out what fruit remains and what students might be ready to take on more leadership. May we all have that problem.

S asks us to pray for them that they would connect quickly as a team and learn to value one another’s differences. They ask for wisdom as well in knowing whom they most need to invest their time. Pray too for these believers that they will be like the good soil bearing fruit hundred times what was sown into them

Over R’s left shoulder you can see the Tent of Meeting. Moses used to take a tent like that and pitch it outside the camp. When Moses went to the tent, a huge cloud would come down and stay at the front entrance, while Almighty God spoke with Moses face to face. (Figuratively speaking, because the Lord says no one can see his face and live.)

In Exodus 33 and 34, we get a little peak into a face-to-face dialogue between Moses and God. The story starts off with God telling Moses to break camp. “The buses will be leaving in the morning. Take your team to this country that I have promised to give you. I will send an angel to drive out those controlling the land”, the Lord tells Moses. “Oh and one more thing… I am not going with you. This team you are leading is a bunch of hard-headed folks and I just might be inclined to pick them off along the way.”

What are you kiddin’ me?!? God’s not going? If I was Moses, I might be like, “Let’s me get this straight. You want me to lead a team of a million hard-headed people through a desert to a place none of us has ever seen, inhabited by big hairy dudes, and you are not going with us! Oh, you are going to send an angel. Great! Everywhere we make camp, I’ll post a cute little sign by my tent saying ‘protected by angels’.”

So Moses goes into the Tent of Meeting. It’s not just some nice little meeting over lox and bagels. Moses is desperate. It’s great that Moses doesn’t need to wear a nametag because God knows his name and likes him. But Moses goes after deeper things each building on the other. He asks in a desperate manner. He is not leaving that tent without some clear answers.

He asks that the Lord would teach him His ways. The Lord responds by saying His Presence will go with them. Moses replies, “If you are not going, we are not going. How could we succeed? What would be the point?” The Lord says He will do what Moses asks. Moses decides to risk it all and go for the big money. He asks to see God’s glory. God tells Him that He will let Moses see His goodness and proclaim His name but he can only see the backside of His glory while hidden in a rock cleft.

So early the next morning, before the buses arrived, with two stone journals in hand, Moses takes the chair lift up Mount Sinai. (I think it’s translates Copper Mountain.) The Lord comes down and while passing by, He lets Moses see His glory and know His name. Once again, Moses makes sure the Lord is going with them on this STINT.

Shouldn’t Moses’ repeated cry be your cry? Maybe you have an easier team to lead and surely not as big. But you are walking into territory inhabited by an enemy. You – we - desperately need to know the Lord’s ways. We desperately need to have His Presence go with us. (I know He promises to never leave us but it's also a cry that He would show up and move the way He did earlier in the Exodus story.) We need to see His glory. If we know His ways, if His Presence goes with us, if His glory falls down on where we are going… we cannot fail.

Lord, teach us Your ways. If Your Presence does not go with us, don’t send us out. Lord, show us Your glory. May it fall on us. May it fall on our team. May it fall in places where You are sending us.

Homecoming

Yesterday I came home to streamers in the tree and a welcome sign by the door.

Then I got a call from Steve Douglass the president of Campus Crusade. No lie. I was his liason for the one day he came out. He called me up as he was heading back to the airport/ He wanted feedback on his talk at the Commissioning and somehow the topic turned to Launching Movements. We talked for almost two hours I think. I got to share with him my analogy of oak trees which I think brings clarity into the whole debate about when a movement is a movement. We even talked about reaching post moderns and our passion to become true followers of Jesus as we launch movements everywhere so that everyone will know someone who truly follows Jesus.

He probally will not remember much of what we talked about but I will.

Then my family came home and I was greeted by three little boys and my adorable wife. I swear Drew learned like 50 words while I was gone. Can you learn that many in one week?

STINT Briefing Summary

It was a great week @ Copper Mountain. There were over 300+ STINTers (One-year missionaries) who were there to be trained and briefed. About half were there as full teams while the others will join existing teams with US staff serving overseas long-term and/or National staff.

Some flew directly to their assignment yesterday while many will report when the next few weeks. They will be heading (or already have) to Mexico, Barbados, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Japan and a few other nations that I cannot name. One team even prepped to serve in Hawaii and a number of interns came to prepare to reach Int'l students in America.

My friend Matt was our bible teacher. He spoke one scenes from the Gospels about Following Jesus. We had some great teachers speak on the four STINT objectives: Love the Lord, Love Your Team, Launch Movements and Learn a New World. We had breakouts by Area of Affairs (specific geographic areas), Seminars and every STINTer and team had a coach this week.

Personally I served on the Conference Leadership Team, coached 9 guys from Great Plains, gave two seminars that each were repeated, was Dr. Douglass' liaison and earned the title as Matt's nemesis. (Long story)

All-in-all it was a great week as the Lord met us at Copper Mountain. I feel spiritually refreshed and am excited about the teams we are sending out.

STINT Site and Team Leader Wiki

Be sure to visit the Campus Ministry STINT site. Your STINT Coordinator will need to give your permission and you need a uscm address. Bookmark it, make it your home page or whatever will help you remember to visit it often.

Here you will find the STINT Playbooks (#1 and #2) and coming soon mp3's of "Follow Me: STINT Briefing 2007". This also will have the link to registering for mid-years.

Also we just launched the Wiki for STINT Team Leaders. You can only access it by invitation so it should be secure. (Email me, Andy McCullough, for an invitation. I will send invites to all too soon.) If you are unfamiliar with wikis, they are a place where you can upload docs or ideas and others can weigh in and edit. This wiki will focus on leading your teams in the 4 L's.

So for instance... if you would like to share your first six week plan, you could up-load it. Then others could see it or add their own thoughts. It's just another tool to help make this a community of leaders. The more you use it, the more helpful it will be.

Both of these will remain links on the right.

STINT Briefing

In about an hour, I will head up the mountain to our World STINT Briefing. It actually starts tommorrow but I am both on the design team and helping prep the team leaders tonight and tommorrow.

STINT Briefing is our conference for about 400 or so 1 year missionaries from all over the US going to serve in over 40 countries this next year. Some will be on teams made up of just STINT and some will join long-term CCC staff serving internationally. These teams will help pioneer movements on campuses around the globe.

I have two seminars this week (Tues am and Fri afternoon). One is one "How to Transition to the Gospel" and the other is on "Paul's Movement Planting Principles". The 2nd actually has another name in the program because I changed the name after it went to print.

Here are a few prayer requests posted by my buddy Matt who is running point. (Crazy thing is I wrote them but he posted them.) Matt shares the viz here.

Jack's Sentences

This morning Robin got up with Jack. The rest of us were still snoozing. Jack was sitting @ the window by himself looking at three hot air ballons in the distance. (Yes, they returned.) She overheard the following...

"Happy Birt-day to you.... Hot air boon... see him?... one, two, tee"

Then Luke got up and came in the kitchen and Jack said, "Look Ta Ta*, hot air boon. See him? Up."

* Both Jack and Drew refer to Luke as "Ta Ta". Though Drew has started saying "Ta Da". They started saying that before they could say Luke which they say as "uke" now. I am sure they were trying to say "Luke" or maybe "Big Brother" but since Robin and I thought it was cute and repeated what we heard, the nickname, much to Luke's chagrin, has stuck. We will have to drop it soon because what little boy to be known as Ta Ta?

August Newsletter

Click here for a PDF of our August Newsletter

Living in a Cage to Protest Injustice

I learned about this gal from UK, Abby Davies, who is going to live in a cage in the foyer of her church to protest the unjust imprisonment of a Chinese lady, Mao Hengfeng. Mao was imprisoned and tortured because she would not submit to an abortion and peacefully protested. Officially she is imprisoned for destroying property (two lamps).

I like Abby's style... ‘I’d like people to tell their friends about her and take the letters that they can sign,’ says Abby. ‘My aim is basically to help this lady; I think that’s what Jesus would want.’ Abby’s inspiration was a verse from Luke: ‘He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.’ (Luke 4.18). ‘I want to let people know that God cares for people who are oppressed and that, as Christians, we care about those people,’ she says. ‘I’d like to ask Christians to pray for them.’

The past week, I have been reading this book, True Grit: Women Taking On the World for God's Sake . I got it free off of OM's website. The author has inter-mingled stories of women missionaries with stats of women's conditions around the world. The stats are startling. Not the coziest book to read before bed, I guess. It's a small book which I could read in a day if I didn't keep stopping because I can only take so much of the reality of the injustice worldwide.

Truly the most vulnerable and oppressed people around the globe are women and children. May we be more like Abby do what we can to bring hope to the hopeless. May God hear the cries of the oppressed and come down to rescue them like He did the Israelites. (I am also reading Exodus this month.)

Luke's Prayers

In the last week or so, Luke was prayed three times at meal-times. He usually hides under the table when we pray.



The first prayer was last weekend as he thanked God for the fish we saw at the aquarium and for being with him when the scary fish was around.



But don't get too excited because the other two were for his imaginary friend. I guess: "Jesus, please help my friend Jacob who is caught in a net" doesn't really count if both the person you are praying for and his despirate situation are both imaginary.

Robin's 37

Today is my lovely sweet wife's birthday. Robin is 37. This morning I made blueberry pancakes, put 3 candles on hers and sang 'happy birthday'.

Jack cried. I am not sure if it was because we were not singing to him or because mom got the first pancake. Anyway he was fine after he got a couple of little ones.

I love my wife for many reasons....
She is kind.
She has a compassionate heart.
She serves without complaint.
She is patient.
She is a good mom.
She is generous.
She considers others first.
She encourages me and believes in me.
She is sweet, lovely and beautiful.
She puts up with 4 boys.

Happy Birthday, Robin!