the Glocal Trekker Blog

Wow! How do you write about this day? We went to the train station and went to Sapa, arrived around 7:00 am. We spent the day riding motorcycles all over the place. Sorry, Nikki. I really didn't want to, but there is a man who wants to be a significant donor to some of our projects here. I felt I should humor the man. I lived to write this, so all is well. I've seen some seeds we planted in some of our projects yield incredible fruit--massive fruit--unexpected fruit--not sure what the next steps should be with a lot of it.

Yesterday, Mark Galli, Managing Editor of Christianity Today, and I were talking about a lot of things. We were getting into that whole missional thing. I was telling him about Alan Hirsch. We're reading his next book--it's not out yet. I told Mark that Alan’s the sharpest guy since David Bosch. Everyone on the trip agrees. We started talking about movements and trends and the differences. He told me what his perception was of movements and trends in the US and what they were globally--two totally different things!!!! How long will it be like that before it changes? What are we missing in the meantime? How far behind are we getting with what God is doing globally?

We use the word movements a lot in the US. I'm convinced it's just trends. Movements overtake a whole community, society, etc. Trends are short-lived and chic. We're calling our trends movements. Why? I think it's because we know branding but not multiplication.

In about 3 hours I get on a train with our delegation to head to the NorthWest provinces. We'll visit key government leaders in Sapa as well as church leaders. It's exciting how things are moving. I'm optimistic that the government here in Hanoi is really trying to facilitate more openness. They have results--not just promises to show for it. Is everything perfect? No, but it's definitely moving in a healthy direction. It's like crossing a river slowly with a lot of weight--you make sure each foot is placed firmly--you don't do it fast but steady. If you stay consistent you get to the other side.

We wound up in DaNang a couple of days ago. We went to marble mountain. Nikki, Ben, Jill, and I had been there a few years back. You can get life-sized marble carvings there. As we were going through the place, they had all these Catholic saints. I saw one that was either Joseph and baby Jesus or St. Christohper and baby Jesus (no ricky bobby pun intended). I don't know my Catholic saints that well--looked all over for a Catholic to help me but couldn't find one. Where's that Father when you really need him! So we went up to the Internet and I found the oldest painting of St. Christopher--it's in St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai--it's Eastern Orthodox. We printed it off, took it down stairs, and, Whala! They're going to do a life-size statue of St. Christopher with baby Jesus up on his shoulder!!!!!!!! NorthWooder's you know the story, the meaning, and what we do with that! I can't wait. Mark, I got it cheap. Don't worry. If it's a problem, Nikki would love it in our family room!!!! She really gets into stuff like that!!!