A few years back I took a trip around the globe seeking the Church. I was trying to answer the question, “What is the role of the North American white male in 21st century missions?” Nowhere did this question need to be asked more than in Africa. It was July. I purchased my ticket in [...]

read more....

Yang Ai was the first chubby Chinese person I had ever met. I loved her immediately—yes! At first sight. She was jolly, jovial, with a face like a little pixie doll. She was assigned to me by the university to help with my research project; part of my dissertation work. I was researching exam-driven education [...]

read more....

IICS, the organization Big D and I work for ( www.iics.com) has its annual conference every July. It’s a time of great fellowship, amazing speakers and it’s a time when IICS profs come home from the field and share their stories—stories of how God has moved on the lives of their students, colleagues and neighbors. [...]

read more....

I count. No, I don’t mean it in that “I’m okay, you’re okay” sort of way. I mean…I literally count things—objects. I count our silverware, dishtowels, Daryl’s undies after I’ve folded them and before I put them away. I count washcloths, drinking glasses and stairs. (There was that one time though last year that I [...]

read more....

Okay, I know that song is about a lover not a city, but when you’ve dreamed of a place for a very long time, hoped and prayed and longed for it as much as I had Moscow, you gotta know it was a thrill to finally be in that city! We rolled in early morning, [...]

read more....

The Trans-Siberian Railroad runs east and west/west and east across Russia. It’s the longest railroad in the world. It starts in Beijing or in Moscow—depending on which way you’re heading. It’s been running full steam (sorry) since 1916. Depending on who you talk to it takes anywhere from eight to twelve days to go from [...]

read more....

The Trans-Siberian Railroad offers adventuresome travelers two types of trains: a Chinese train and a Russian train. Word on the street was that the Chinese train was cleaner than the Russian. Really? ‘Cause the Chinese trains were pretty bad back-in-the-day. I couldn’t even imagine what the Soviet trains would be like if they were worse [...]

read more....