Impact Europe ’09: Reflections, Part 1

In late May, Micah Osborne and Chuck and Tiffany Replogle joined me for a 10-day vision trip to Rome, Italy, and Marseille, France, to consider new international impact work for LifePoint. The purpose of this trip was defined by three goals. One, identify potential partners to expand the international impact work of LifePoint Church in participating in God’s kingdom work around the globe. Two, engage dialogue to discern the best point for initial and ongoing partnership. Three, begin to create a strategy to engage the people of LifePoint in personal, international gospel impact work. We traveled with Upstream Collective, a collection of missionaries targeting newer churches to help and equip them to engage in global mission. Find out more about them at www.theupstreamcollective.org. The guys at Upstream Collective were excellent hosts for the trip. As well, Ed Stetzer helped lead the trip and offered some teaching. We joined several others from around the country to form our team for the week.

Arriving in Rome a day earlier than the rest of the team allowed us to get acclimated to the city. This was a great idea as it gave us time to spend together and discuss some of the specific goals that we wanted to accomplish, as representatives of LifePoint Church in Ozark, MO. Micah has considerable experience with short-term mission projects, and Chuck had only recently been on his first mission trip within the last year. Tiffany was our respective newbie. As I introduced them to the things I wanted us to accomplish for the week, a great sense of expectation rose among us. There is something about spending time with people in this setting that really encourages bonding: long layovers in airports, long flights, lots of walking together, unknown territory, etc. It’s always interesting to see how people react in different situations. Well, to an extent it’s interesting. At other times it’s just painful to endure. Thankfully, my traveling partners made this trip a blast. All three of these people are people I have met in the last five years in planting LifePoint Church.

Our first task after landing and getting our luggage was to find a map of the city and get transportation to our hotel. There was no shortage of those wanting to transport us. We just needed to make sure we would actually end up at our desired destination. Rome is a very tourist friendly city, so navigating the city was almost natural. This time was excellent for us as we saw a few sights, which is not difficult to do in Rome, ate at a local restaurant, enjoyed our introduction to gelato on the first day and immediately began conversing with a Romanian immigrant who left his family, including his 14-year-old daughter, to come to Rome for work because he could not find work in Romania. In our research prior to the trip, we learned that a great number of immigrants come to Southern Europe, especially Italy, every year in hope of work. Because of this we were not surprised when he told us. What really shook us was his response when Tiffany asked him, “Do you enjoy living in Italy?” “Enjoy?”, he responded. “Life is not to enjoy. I live to survive. I work so I can send money back to my family. I miss my family.” It was an abrupt welcome to this city for us, and one we thought and discussed all week. I look forward to sharing my thoughts about this trip and the future work of LifePoint church in Europe over the next several journal entries.

Jessen Family Plans for Summer in Peru

We received Kelly and Jenni Jessen’s quarterly newsletter today, and in it the Jessen’s shared what they’ve been up to in South America. Since SportReach’s partnership with e3, they are focusing more than ever on discipleship of new Christ-followers and are excited to see new churches planted. The entire family plans to be in Peru this summer. Download the Jessen’s newsletter (PDF) now…

Hauquitz Family Recovers From Trying Time, Needs Prayers

The Hauquitz family sent us their monthly newsletter from language school in Albertville, France, last week. Keep them in your prayers, as Bryn suffered a miscarriage this winter. Continue to pray for her health and heart as she continues in school and serves as wife and mom to Craig and Keenan. Craig and Bryn are impact partners with LifePoint who work with Campus Crusade for Christ. They are at language school for a year until they return to Cameroon, Africa, to continue Crusade work there. Download the Hauquitz’s March newsletter….