"You do what?"

Wow, where have the days gone? It's now Tuesday morning and we have been going morning, afternoon and evening since the last time I updated this blog. Our Int'l training team met each day all day starting on Wednesday right through Saturday. We had a very productive time together. Jen and Jill have done a tremendous job over the last few months on updating our material. Kyle Abts from our SF Nigeria team contributed greatly to our discussions as did both our Ethiopian leaders. John Yip from South Africa was a part of our discussions for a full day on Saturday. Thank you for all your prayers as we develop our training materials to better serve the development of the church centered sports ministry in Africa and Asia.

The guys enjoyed their first ever Carolina Panthers football game on Sunday (even though the Panthers stunk!) but Ephraim couldn't understand the role of the cheerleaders! The eight people kicked out of the game in our section only added to the excitement of the day.

One of the funniest moments so far on this trip was when Ephraim discovered we walk our dogs so they could do their business and then we pick up their business. "You americans have surely lost your minds!!!!" "You pick up their POOP?????" "Oooohhh Nooo, this isn't right!"

Sadly, after we stopped laughing so hard, in a sobering moment, Ephraim did mention the dogs in America receive better care then the children of Ethiopia and all of Africa. He had interesting insights into why we treat our dogs so well and yet only have shallow relationships with so many of our neighbors and friends. I will develop his thinking in a further blog....very interesting and thought provoking.

Last night we had a "friends" mtg at the Tenneyson's house and God really met us there. There was a special moving of the Spirit in both Ephraims and Berhanus heart & presentations that led to many tears in the room. Thank you Jeff and Kathy for hosting our time together.

Tripp arrived late Sunday night and so today we begin our Sports Friends International meetings. We start with an all day SF Ethiopia country review. Pray for wisdom for Jill, Tripp, Ephraim, Berhanu and I as we discuss every aspect of this large ministry in our Jerusalem location. Specific topics include: how to reach the 15 unreached people groups in the country, handling the numerous challenging situations with the new M*****converts, the multiplication strategy for training coaches to be life influencers, hiring new staff, developing our camp ministry, mobilization of Ethiopian Sports Ministers for cross cultural service and many more strategic topics. Thank You for praying.