Author: Adam McLane

  • $95 per day

    Jean Michelle and Mark Oestriecher – May 27th, 2010

    For the last couple of days I’ve been captivated by the stories flowing from my friends on a trip to Port-au-Prince. A group of church leaders is there to launch a partnership program which will pair an American church with a Haitian church. (Follow the team | Give to the program)

    This all sprung out of our trip in February. As we travelled around the city we connected with various community leaders and discovered they were all pastors. The church is the only surviving and functional piece of infrastructure in Port-au-Prince right now. Don’t even get me started about the relief/aid organizations.

    So Seth Barnes asked if we could meet with some pastors to hear what their needs were. A few hundred pastors representing more than 1000 churches showed up! Realizing God had just unleashed something on this relatively small NGO– Adventures in Missions went back home and talked to their board about what to do. The result was something they are calling the “Church Partnership Program.” Essentially, they are setting up Haitian leaders to form a simple relationship between an existing Haitian church and an American church.

    $95 per day

    In Haiti, $95 per day is all that is needed to fund the Son of God orphanage. Staff, housing, food, school, clothing, everything… for 125 children.

    Here is one of two stories Marko shared on his blog today. (Read the other one)

    very soon after arriving in the courtyard of the orphanage/school, jean michelle took my hand. he has a bright smile and a sparkle in his eyes. when i backed up to a ledge he was sitting on, he put his arms around my neck; and for the next hour, he was either on my back, or holding my hand. over and over, he said to me, in broken english: my name is john michael, your name is marko.

    jean michelle wrote his name for me on a scrap of paper (he wrote “jhon michil”), gave it to me, and asked me to remember him.

    i asked one of our wonderful translators, john, to help me out, and had a little chat with jean michelle. his parents were both killed in the earthquake in january, and he was living on the street when pastor max found him 3 days ago. now he’s in a community of love, and getting an education.

    but he’s still hungry. and he still sleeps on a rug, outside, in a courtyard, with 125 other kids, every night.

    I can’t speak for you. But this tugs my heart big time. $95 a day feeds 124 other kids like him. It makes me want to consider adoption. It makes me think of the things I spend $95 on all the time. I makes me think that I completely suck as budgeting. It makes me feel guilt and ashamed that I’ve blown that on dinner before. Or that I will blow it again on dinner in full knowledge that I could be helping so many.

    But more than anything it’s a call to action. I can’t sit here in knowledge of that and do nothing.

    If you are ready to get involved, here’s how.

  • Bring a Can to Church Day

    Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    I want to encourage you to do a little civil disobedience within your church congregation.

    Start bringing and leaving a canned food item to your church every time you go. Have every person in your family do it, too. Don’t make a spectacle of it. Just leave your cans in the foyer on the floor or on the counter in the bathroom. Sunday morning worship? Leave a can. Mom goes back later for a meeting? Leave a can. Your son goes for youth group? Leave a can.

    Don’t ask permission. Just do it. The Bible tells you it is OK.

    Eventually, someone on the church staff is going to say… “What’s up with all of these cans? And what do we do with them?”

    I’ll tell you what they will do. Someone will put the cans in a box. And it’ll just sit there.

    Imagine if 20% of your congregation got in the habit of doing this? Instant food pantry. It’s not a program. It’s dealing with a problem. Who keeps leaving all of these cans here!

    See, I think you’ll join me in the understanding that a house of God should also be a place of refuge for the hungry. As we linger in this recession I can guarantee you there are hungry among every single congregation.

    And my experience in working in churches for nearly a decade– every single one of them had random people who drop by every single day looking for food or money. And in nearly 10 years I can think of only a couple of times we had food on hand to give them.

    Almost every time people come to the church looking for help and are turned away. This isn’t exactly Good News in the neighborhood, is it?

    I believe God has hard-wired us in the knowledge that if we need help or need a place to run to, the church is there.

    Sadly most congregations in America have gotten lazy. They think an annual clothing drive or food donation to a local pantry is the right answer.

    “Ding-dong.” Every day the bell rings at the church. People come to them who are hungry. Don’t you want your church to be a place that gives them food? Wouldn’t you want your music pastor to overhear the secretary start to explain to someone that the church doesn’t keep food at the church but makes an annual donation to the food pantry in town… and says, “Wait a minute. The janitor found these cans. You can have them.”

    Bam! Instant food program. The church didn’t spend a dollar. They didn’t have a meeting to discuss it. They didn’t hire a staff member to start it. It’s just a box (or closet) full of cans people mysteriously left at church.

    Bring a can to church. Every time. Every person.

    Problem solved.

  • Google TV: Who is it good for?

    Hmm… bringing all the video you can find on Google, which isn’t already on Hulu or YouTube or Netflix? Sounds like Google TV was made for the porn industry.

    Dear Lord, let this thing come with a very strong filter for the sake of our children. (And college students)

    What am I missing? What’s worth watching that isn’t already able to be streamed to my TV via a device?

  • What does the Easter Mayhem teach us?

    Several weeks have now passed since Easter. My hope is that by now, church leaders are scratching their heads and wondering if it was all worth it.

    Easter mayhem?

    A lot, LOT, of churches consider Easter to be a day for growth. For church marketing types, it is Super Bowl Sunday. With the highest attendance of the year the attitude seems to be “Since lots of people are coming let’s do something awesome and maybe those visitors will come back!”

    And boy do churches go all out. They alter the schedule. They plan a special service. The kids ministry is amped up. There are meetings about the big day. There is a special marketing plan for the day. There are mailers and prizes and flowers and bands and rehearsals and... then it’s over.

    Somehow in the middle of this we try to be somber and remember that Our Lord was crucified and three days later resurrected! But the truth is that staff at those churches are hyped up on adrenaline and hope that this is the year that they will reach a new attendance record.

    Easter mayhem is the 2000s version of Vacation Bible School which was the 1980s version of Sunday School

    I don’t know how it all got started. But somehow Easter went from a holiday we solemnly celebrated to a day where people can win a car for showing up to church.

    Easter, in some churches, has become less a religious holiday and more a church growth opportunity.

    Easter is the highest attended weekend of the year in most churches. But the weekend after Easter is one of the lowest attended weekends of the year. Followed by the month of May– where church attendance and program enthusiasm typically murmurs out as the school year comes to an end.

    What’s the point?

    The point is exactly my point. While attendance is typically at an all-time high engagement is at an all-time low.

    And when you look at the return on that investment– Easter mayhem is as effective at reaching people as Vacation Bible School. There may be a whole lot of people there for the event, but does it translate to long-term attendees?

    Not in my experience.

    What translates to long-term attendees?

    Neighbors loving neighbors. Finding a community where you belong. Community service. And other things that aren’t as sexy as giving people a car on Easter Sunday or shaving a pastors head on the last day of VBS.

  • Support my Haiti trip

    I would greatly appreciate any financial support you can help us with as we head back to Haiti to lead a team on July 19-25. As I mentioned in the video– we are trying to offset these expenses so we can not only honor God with our service but also our financial stewardship at the same time. If you’d prefer to mail a check, here is a link to our Chip page which has our address.

  • Mexico + Fear = Stupid

    Hanging with Phil in Baja

    As I mentioned last week, I spent Friday in Mexico with Phil Cunningham of YWAM. We had a fun time meeting some people for coffee and talking about life, touring the YWAM Baja base, grabbing an amazing taco in Rosarito, and getting a glimpse of the vision they have for reaching Baja for Christ.

    I live about 30 minutes from the Tijuana border. And I’m ashamed to admit that the last time I crossed the border into Mexico was 2003. Kristen and the kids have never been. (In fairness, the five years that we lived in Romeo, a mere 45 minutes from Canada, we crossed the border three times.)

    The Tijuana/San Diego border sees an average of 300,000 people moving between countries daily. Considering San Diego has 1.2 million residents and Tijuana has 1.5 million… you’re talking a lot of people who cross one way or the other each day.

    Two Types of San Diego Residents

    There are really two types of San Diego residents when it comes to TJ. There are those who go often and those who never go. The average San Diego resident who doesn’t go has a visceral reaction when you mention going to Tijuana. Almost universally you’ll hear people say “Don’t go to TJ. It’s dangerous.” It’s a mantra I’ve had drilled into me since moving here and its had the intended result– I’d never gone to TJ since moving here!

    Likewise the news media on the U.S. side does its best to reinforce this concept that TJ is super dangerous. Drugs, human trafficking, gang violence, murders. While it’s true that those are serious issues the end result is that there is an increasing fear of our neighbors to the south building up.

    As if any city of 1.5 million in the United States didn’t have drugs, human trafficking, gang violence, or murders?

    Fear vs. Reality

    YWAM guest housing near Rosarito.

    Now that I’ve been there I can affirm that not much has changed in Tijuana since my last visit in 2003. If anything, crossing the border both ways is a little simpler. Just like any border crossing around the globe there are procedures. You pull up, show some ID, answer some questions, and hope you don’t get waved in to an inspection lane.

    If you’ve never been to a developing nation– or only been to a resort city in a developing nation– than Tijuana will come across as dirty and disorganized. In truth, TJ isn’t unlike many major metropolitans in the United States. There are nice areas and there are nasty areas. There are places where you are likely to get robbed and there are places you can relax. Being that Mexico is a developing nation and Tijuana is a fast-growing city it is no surprise that there are many parts of TJ which are slummy and could use some help. I’m not going to say that Tijuana is an awesome place to visit but I do want to point out that its a typical big city in a developing nation.

    But if you watch the news, particularly conservative news, all of the Mexican border areas are filled with people who want to brutally murder Americans on site. Burned in our consciousness are all the Dateline NBC shows, Geraldo standing at the border and saying beheading as many times between commercials as possible, and documentaries showing us how people are being brutally murdered. Let’s remind ourselves of a simple fact… if you aren’t in a gang or not buying drugs or not soliciting a prostitute, you are unlikely to get caught up in anything having to do with drugs, gangs, or prostitution.

    The news media, particularly the conservative news media, is well-aware that scaring people leads to good ratings. (Which translates to ad revenue) So it pays well to scare you away from Mexico. And it is working. Big time.

    Here’s a little fact for you to think about. Killing innocent Americans is bad business for a drug cartel. With a little street smarts and a good dose of common sense I don’t think there is any reason to avoid going to Mexico altogether. (Obviously, there are plenty of places to avoid after dark! But you’d avoid those same types of places in any city in America.)

    Mission trips to Mexico

    I think the thing that shocked me the most during my day in TJ was to learn how Christians have stopped coming to Mexico to do missions. Participation is down 50%-75% in recent years.

    And why? All of the agencies will tell you the same thing: People are afraid of traveling to Mexico.

    I saw this same phenomenon on my Facebook status the other day. Had I posted that I was going out for a taco with my friend Phil, no one would have thought much of it. But because I said I was going to TJ… lots of people were praying for my safety. Now, I appreciate the prayers. But this reveals the fear factor.

    What’s changing?

    I couldn’t help but go down there, see the ministry locations, and hear the news that people aren’t helping as much anymore without being touched.

    What’s changing first is my behavior. I know I can’t do a lot but I know that I can both raise awareness of ministry opportunities in TJ as well as make time to go and participate in small ways. Maybe that will mean finding a place to plug in as a family? Or a community group? Or inviting friends to go down to check out ministry stuff? I’m not sure on the exact details yet… but I do know that I can’t serve in Jerusalem and Judea without thinking about the Samaria next door.

  • Adventure as a Discipline

    For the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about how wimpy people are.

    There is something strange to me that people allow the most remote possibility of getting hurt, lost, robbed, missing a meal, missing a flight, or even not a clean place to pee define their lives. What a boring life they live.

    I want my life to be full of adventure.

    Not just big adventures– day-to-day adventures too!

    It seems to me that people who like to plan everything, take as little risk as possible, and pre-think too many details are really missing something in life. With an entire ever-changing planet to explore it is inconceivable to me that people like to eliminate discovery and adventure.

    There is something spiritual about adventure. We are hard-wired to explore, discover… and depend on the goodness of others. As children we dream huge dreams! We devour books about adventure. Every adventure we hear about we want to go on. We wanted to go to the moon and mars. We wanted to go Africa. We wanted to live in Central Park in New York City.

    Stepping into an element of the unknown provides an incredible feeling. It acknowledges how God is in control and we are not. When we make adventure the enemy we lie to ourselves– God is in control of every detail all day, every day anyways!

    I love stepping into the unknown with nothing more than a feeling that everything is going to be OK. I even like pressing through the fear of “um, maybe this isn’t safe” and then the joy of laughing at myself when it all works out.

    I like depending on the kindness of strangers when I get lost. I like meeting new people in full recognition that there are no accidental meetings. I like discovering little things and big things. Those that look at these things as failures seem to think that life is meant to be sanitary.

    When we start removing this from our lives we take control. When I hear people tell me that they don’t like to be surprised, that they need to know when they will arrive, where they will eat, and what every detail is– it makes me wonder what is wrong with them.

    A spirit of adventure is not the lack of ability to plan. It is the lack of a need to plan every detail or measure every risk in life’s journey.

    Adventure and Recklessness

    There is a difference between the a spirit of adventure and a spirit of recklessness. It would be reckless to go on a 3 day hike up a mountain with no gear, no food, and no real plan. It would be reckless to jump off of a cliff into the ocean without knowing how deep the water is. It would be reckless to drop off 10 high school students for a homeless experience with no training.

    But embracing life’s adventures is not reckless. There’s always a risk assessment. A general idea of a safety plan. On and on.

    The goodness of others

    I really think one of the things that holds people back is a belief, deep in our soul, that all people are out to hurt us. We think everyone is a potential ax murderer or rapist.

    Hogwash. People are generally good. If you have a smile on your face and an honest question… you can go anywhere in the world and probably find someone who will help you when you get lost, give you a meal, find you a place to sleep, and give you good advice.

    Adventure is an attitude. When you embrace it the world opens to discovery.

    Questions: Do you see a spirit of adventure as a spiritual issue? Do you still dream about the same adventures you dreamt about when you were a kid? What is it in you that draws you to stories/movies/television shows about adventure?

  • Quick Malware Fix

    Photo by yahnyinlondon via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    Is your PC acting funky?

    Like– when you turn it on you start getting pop-ups that tell you to install a new virus protection software? And when you try to turn it off your computer does more weird things? Like downloading crap you don’t want?

    If your PC is doing that there is a good chance you have malware (short for malicious software) and need to remove it.

    Where did it come from? You visited an infected site. A site owner would never intentionally put malware on his site, but sometimes sites get hacked with the intent on causing havoc.

    How do I get rid of it for free?

    Step One: Reboot your PC in safe mode. (Press the power button, count to three, then hold down the F8 key on your keyboard. Select “Safe mode with networking” option.)

    Step two: Download and install the latest Malwarebytes free version from this link.

    Step three: Run Malwarebytes. This is going to take a while. Get a cup of coffee or go see a movie.

    Step four: When it’s done, it will tell you it wants to delete a bunch of files and reboot. Do that.

    Step five: That should remove it. But just to be safe I like to download, install, and run Combofix. (Watch another movie)

    Step six: This should remove any virus or malware you have on your computer.

    Step seven: Do one more reboot. I actually would suggest turning the computer off all the way, counting to twenty, then turning it back on.

    Step eight: Since you’re at it lets speed up your computer a bit. Go to add/remove programs in the control panel and remove anything you don’t use. If there are programs there you don’t recognize– Google the name of the program and the results will tell you if it is something legitimate or if it is spyware. If it’s legitimate, keep it. If it is Spyware, uninstall it. I like to remove all the junk that Dell or HP or Sony installs on a PC that I don’t use. That stuff takes up a lot of space and resources and you probably will never use it.

    Step nine: Make sure your virus protection software is up-to-date.

    That’s it! Typically, you can do this yourself in about 2 hours.

    What if I don’t want to do this? Who can I hire and  trust?

    If you’re still having problems or just don’t want to deal with this– I’d suggest contacting a local computer repair person. (I don’t trust the people at Best Buy or some of the other big chains, find someone local and support your economy.)

    If you’re in the San Diego area, I recommend Todd Tolson’s Wired Community.

  • Off to TJ

    It’s crazy that I live 15 miles from Mexico but the last time I went to Tijuana was 2003.

    I’m correcting that today.

    Phil Cunningham, a YWAM staffer and adventurous missionary, is kind enough to offer up his afternoon to take me over and show me around.

    I’ll post pictures and thoughts tomorrow.

    Don’t drink the water. Check.

  • The jugglers cup runneth over

    Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Malachi 3:10

    I’ve heard and read this verse a ton of times. And the phrase that has always popped out to me is– “test me in this.” It’s one of those passages of the Bible that you read and think that it can’t literally be true.

    If I trust God with my money will he really pour out so much blessing that I won’t know what to do?

    Sounds like a load of bull spoken by a TV preacher trying to build his version of Disneyland, right?

    As I’m learning– maybe not.

    I don’t often write about things that are happening RIGHT NOW in my life. As much of myself as I share, I tend to let things percolate a little bit and mellow into principle before I try to capture my thoughts in words.

    But the last few days I’ve just come home and looked at Kristen and said– “My life is crazy right now. I can’t hardly explain it. All awesome stuff.”

    Two photos really capture visually what I’m having a hard time processing into words.

    1. The juggler.

    Photo by Andy_Tyler via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    My work life is a constant juggling act. Big projects, little projects, add leadership over one area and support over another. Go on the road to do one thing while keeping everything in order on something else. It’s a good kind of juggling. As my co-workers know, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even when I come home I’m still juggling all sorts of personal and McLane Creative projects. From a thriving garden to the latest social media campaign– I’ve just got a lot of balls in the air.

    Juggling requires constant attention. And when people see a juggler they like to ask you one important question… can you juggle one more ball? Sometimes I shrug my shoulders yes and sometimes I shrug my shoulders no.

    2. The overflowing cup

    Photo by shioshvili via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    Is Malachi 3:10 really literally true? It sure seems that way right now. The last month was filled with unexpected showers of awesome. Several people and organizations are asking for quotes for new web designs. Several outlets are looking for me to write for them. Our community group is doing some cool things. In a few weeks Lisa is coming here for the summer. In June, Kristen and I have planned an amazing local vacation capped off by a fun celebration. My second trip to Haiti is coming together and basically full. And in the last 2-3 days a whole new shower of unexpected blessings has come my way– earth shakingly awesome stuff, too!

    If you bump into me these days I’ve kind of got this crazed mad Scientist look going. Buggy wide eyes, haven’t slept, and a scary perma grin.

    OK, not that guy.

    More like that.