MissionHub

This is inside baseball for those on staff with the US Campus Ministry, but...

Has anyone seen this? I don't know anything about it other than the picture, but whatever it does will likely be an improvement on the old.

Guess I'll find out at CSU like everyone else!

Moving and weight loss

"He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff - no bread, no bag, no money in their belts - but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics." - Mark 6:8-9

Moving is stressful. Even if it's just down the street.

We just got done changing rental houses a couple weeks ago and have pretty much unpacked everything and settled in. But oh man was that a process. Nothing makes you face the reality of how much stuff you've acquired like getting ready for a move. Well, except the actual move itself. Moving a piano: now there is reality!

I've been watching that reality show "Extreme Makeover - Weight Loss Edition" (confession: because it's on right after "The Bachelorette". Guilty.) on Monday nights. It's like Biggest Loser, but you get to watch the whole weight loss process for one person as they condense a year long weight loss program in to an hour. They still have the annoying "standing on a scale listening to it beep as a bunch of random numbers pop up then BREAK FOR COMMERCIAL and we're back with more beeping and tension filled looks by the weigh-ee before the actual number is revealed and the triumphant music plays" moments, but it's pretty interesting to watch people try to deal with the emotional issues that have led them to get so overweight.

Which is kind of like having too much stuff. In the weeks leading up to our move, I kept thinking about how easy it would be to move if we didn't have all this stuff. While I like having a bed and plates to eat off and a piano that my wife can teach our kids to play and a desk to work at and a trimmer to edge the yard and a TV to watch TV and on and on...it adds up. And in the middle of all the "necessities", a lot of junk creeps in. And all that junk just slows you down.

I think we took five car-fulls of stuff to Goodwill before the move, another one since the move, another one that is ready to go, and another couple loads of stuff we gave to family or friends. On top of this, we sold stuff on eBay and Craigslist (probably around $1k in the last year) and just threw other things away. And yet, our new house is still very amply furnished.

I've started thinking about stuff the way the weight-loss-TV-people think about losing weight: A little each day. If you were to total up all the stuff our family owns, you could qualify it three ways: 1) Total weight of all the items, 2) Total volume of all the items, 3) Total number of all the items. A reduction in any of these numbers is victory for the day. Here is how that plays out:

Papasan chair: We got this from friends a few years ago. It is light, but is really three items my kids can strew around (base, frame, and cushion) and occupies a large volume. One of the first things to go.

36" tube TV: This behemoth probably weighed more than anything we moved outside of the piano. And that includes a fridge. Major victory getting rid of this thing (thanks, Goodwill workers, for helping me unload). Now down to one 27" tube...which is no lightweight. Someday we'll get rid of it and replace it with a modest flat screen that pulls HD and weighs a lot less. Maybe we'll hold out for a TV that you can roll up like a scroll or tape it to your wall. Give it 10 years. Just wait.

Kids toys: You have no idea how these add up. Hand me downs, Happy Meals, birthdays, Christmas...and yet our kids will often choose sticks or a hose or a spoon over any of these toys. I'm not sure which ones we got rid of, but it was nice to ask the kids which ones they wanted to give to other kids. That helped them get behind it. BTW we still have like 1x10^6 army guys and a coterie of Disney princesses.

CD's/DVD's: We sold our 300+ CD collection on Craigslist for $50. I have no regrets (iTunes + Pandora = bye, bye CD's). Huge reduction in both number and weight. With the DVD's, we sold some, gave others away, kept a few of the Disney ones. Streaming is the future. Time to rid ourselves of the relics.

Paper files: Yes, these count. Over the last couple years, we've gone from about five file drawers worth down to about 1.5. I'm hoping to get down to .5 and stay there by the end of the year. This could almost be it's own post as it requires a lot of different tactics to winnow down. Evernote and a good scanner are key, but everything from processing mail to online bill pay are part of this. Huge reduction in "number of items" if you're going by pieces of paper or even file hangers.

Clothes: Sam and I both got real about clothes we actally wear. Good victory on number and volume here.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is "why do I have this?" If it isn't readily clear...time to go.

After all, I'm not sure the missionary lifestyle is really compatible with being a pack-rat. Our stuff isn't our security and it isn't "us".

Fasting, Support Raising, and Moving

My friend and co-worker, Matt, has been blogging about his experience fasting. You should check it out.

It has inspired me to try and write about a couple different experiences: One that me and my wife are in right now (support raising) and one we just completed (moving). In both of them, I've been learning some difficult things about my character, some very good things about the character of the Lord, and some very practical things that have helped me in both. Perhaps some of it will be helpful to others.

So get ready for a torrent of posts...or at least more than the 1 post/month rate I've been doing. :)

[BTW - I haven't been on blogger since they re-did their interface. It looks much nicer, and has some neat new features, but I don't ever remember accidentally publishing a post with the old one!]

Suspicious illustrations

You know when speakers use an illustration that makes you suspiciously wonder "did that really happen?"

I'm in the middle of filling out an application for support from our church, and one of the questions is to "write briefly about significant events in your life that have impacted you spiritually." One of mine involved hearing a talk by Ron Hutchcraft. I thought "why not see what he's up to these days?" So I googled and found his website. One of the headlines is a new blog post titled "watching him drown", a title which has definite parallels with the talk I heard that impacted me ("Rescue the Dying", from Esther 4 - It might be free somewhere, but if so I couldn't readily find it. Here you can find the mp3 for $1.50). An excerpt of that blog post:

"A 911 call alerted first responders that a man was slowly wading out into San Francisco Bay, inching his way to ending his life there. Soon a group of firefighters - along with a crowd of 75 people - were watching as this desperate man went deeper and deeper, occasionally looking back at the shore. They stood there for an hour.

"And they watched him die. Without anyone making a move to help him. I can only imagine this man looking back at those spectators, wondering if anyone cared if he lived or died. And I wonder how life-changing it might have been if someone had been willing to try to save him. It's all just sickening."

Suspicion raised. I couldn't believe that really happened. So I googled it.

And it is real, and it just happened 8 days ago.

The story on the San Jose Mercury News website, titled "The drowning suicide that shook an island", opens...

"Only two people went into the chilly San Francisco Bay waters Monday to help a suicidal Raymond Zack and neither wore a police or firefighter uniform."

Read the rest of the story here. Then read the rest of Hutchcraft's post, titled "Watching Him Drown".

Why team leaders need Skype Premium

First of all, the cost is $8.99/mo (25% off when you purchase a year's subscription).

For those of us leading teams of less than ten people (in my context of campus ministry this means conference design teams, summer project leadership teams, field ministry coaches, and even local team leaders...to name a few) I think it's worth it. Here is why:

- It allows you to host multi-person video conferences. Only one person needs the premium account and it allows you to host a conference with anywhere from 2-10 video endpoints (though Skype says performance is best at 5 or under).

- Meetings are a lot more engaging when you are talking face to face. For the last several months, the distributed team I am part of has been having a monthly video conference. Each one is two hours, and it's amazing how much more quickly they go by, and how much more locked on I am, when I am seeing people's faces and expressions.

- We've all heard about how much communication is non-verbal. You are actually able to see how people are responding to what is being said, adding a lot of richness to the interactions.

- When you do finally get together face to face, you feel like these are people you know and have logged time with in a way that just doesn't happen with voice calls.

And here are some tips I've gleaned over the last several months:

1. The experience is best when everybody is on their own camera. Looking at a group in a conference room isn't very natural. The people are often too far away to pick up expressions, and much of the time they aren't looking your direction. It actually makes you feel more isolated if you are communicating with a group that is all in a room relating to one another and your vantage point is "looking in".

2. Hotel wi-fi just isn't there yet. Make sure you've got a solid internet connection for best results.

3. Most people aren't updated with the latest Skype. As it says on the Skype website, everyone has to update to version 5 or better in order for it to work. It's really easy but make sure ahead of the call everyone has it done.

4. Be patient. Allow a few minutes in the first part of your meeting for troubleshooting whenever you have a new group or person trying it out. Of course, if you're reading a blog you are tech savvy and probably already know this. :)

Any other tips to add?

Facebook study shows Facebook users like moving fingers while staring at screens

A fellow staff member is a little bit anti-facebook and sent a link to me the other day. It is about a study finding that adds a tally mark to the "reasons to stay off Facebook" column (summary: Facebook users are narcissists).

Of course, there are a lot of Facebook studies coming out lately. In fact, the study she sited was dated August 2010. But lo and behold, just this month, another study comes out showing Facebook helps your self-esteem.

And then there is this study that just dropped last week: "Most Americans have Facebook, study says"

Here are my predictions for Facebook studies we'll soon be reading about:

"Study shows people more likely to recommend Facebook studies that reinforce their native preferences about Facebook than those that don't."

"Study shows Facebook studies often disproven by future Facebook studies"

"Study shows Facebook study data can be used to prove two opposing viewpoints"

"Study shows Facebook users behave in ways that reflect the culture at large"

"Study shows Facebook would be less polarizing if it were called 'Starbucks'"

Initiative: Take it

One of our regional opterns (operations interns), Amie, had the following assignment today:

- Pick-up a staff family from the airport and get them to their destination in Portland.

The plan as it stood yesterday was for the family to arrive, pick-up their bags, then call Amie (who would be in the cell phone waiting area) to pick them up at the curb.

Instead, Amie took it upon herself to arrive early, park, and go wait beside the security checkpoint. She stood there with a sign she had made with the family's name and our organizational mark (getting a few snide comments along the way about "Campus Crusade for Christ"), initiating the pick-up at the earliest point possible and demonstrating a fine sense of hospitality.

Perhaps a small thing, but I loved it. From Seth Godin's post yesterday:

Initiative isn't given, you take it

The amazing thing is that unlike taking an apple or a chocolate bar, there's no loss to the rest of us. After you take it, we all benefit.