Tag: meet-up

  • Go to Port-au-Prince with me


    OK, dear blog reader. It’s time you and I do something to change the world together.

    Back in February I shared my trip to Port-au-Prince with you. You saw my joys, sorrows, giggles, and heart-longings. And since that trip I’ve had a strong, STRONG desire to go back. Opportunities have come and gone with the circumstances never quite right.

    This is right. This exactly fulfills the vision I had for this trip as our van lumbered out of Port-au-Prince for the day-long drive back to the Dominican Republic to return home in February.

    Some details:

    • July 19-25, 2010
    • Cost is $390 + travel to Port-au-Prince (seems like the flight is about $800 from San Diego, maybe more or less where you live.)
    • The maximum size of the team is 20. I’d like to know who is going by mid-May.
    • The team is open to anyone 21+… whether you know me from church, my work at Youth Specialties, or are a blog reader.
    • This is an adult trip– which means we’ll be a team when we’re together, but it’s not quite the same as a youth group trip!
    • Just like my first trip, this is being put together by Adventures in Missions. I know the team there and some of the people we’ll be working alongside.
    • Kristen is going with me. Though it’s not a “couples” trip this may be an amazing opportunity for a ministry couple to go and do ministry together.
    • Ideally, you have a heart for serving the Haitian church and have been praying for God to open an opportunity for you to go.
    • If you are thinking of leading a team in 2011 and want to go on a preview trip, this is perfect for that.
    • I don’t know 1000% what we’ll be doing every day of our trip. (That will become more clear later) At this point I can only guarantee you that we’ll be doing some type of earthquake relief and working through a local Haitian pastor.

    How do you get involved? Shoot me an e-mail, mclanea@gmail.com.

    Again, because of the nature of the team this trip is limited to only 20 team members. So if you are interested, it’d be good to contact me right away.

  • Make the virtual your reality

    Last night I drove up to Escondido to meet a friend for dinner. And like a lot of the people I’m meeting lately, this is a friend that, up until the moment we shake hands, I’ve never met physically. It wasn’t the meal that was fun or memorable. It was getting to know someone in real life that I’d known online for years.

    For some people meeting people from the online world seems odd. To me, it has always been perfectly natural. People whom I like online I almost always like face-to-face. It’s never scary. I’ve never been worried about them being an ax murderer. And typically, we fall into normal conversation pretty quickly. I’ve done it hundreds of times!

    So here’s my encouragement. If you have the opportunity to meet-up with a blogger, facebooker, twitterer, YouTuber, or forumite… do it.

    My experiences offline with people I first met online has only ever enhanced the community concept. It’s a big lonely world made slightly nicer and smaller through key strokes, videos, emoticons, and photos.