Rocky Mountain High

One of my favorite photos is a picture of Cherie sitting in front of a rock formation in Colorado Spring’s Garden of the Gods. Not only do I believe that Cherie was and is very beautiful, but the backdrop of the majestic snow-capped Rocky Mountains peaking through an opening in the red rock made this photo even more amazing. Tuesday, I will return to Colorado Springs for some meetings (unfortunately without Cherie). Colorado Springs is known not only for its beauty, but for the fact that seemingly every Christian ministry and mission organization has its offices in this city. So it is a natural place to go when we want to gather people from many missions and organizations to talk about how we can work and plans together. You have heard me write about how the driving goal of our work in progress.Bible is to provide an environment where mission partners can share information about what they are doing and what they want to do. In other words, it is designed to help us work and plan together–cooperatively and collaboratively–like Christians and Christian organizations should work. You may have also heard me write about how God’s Spirit is changing the hearts of mission organizations and leaders to make this possible. So our meetings next week share the same goals, and we will explore information “standards” that will help us share information in ways that others can use and understand.

So on Tuesday I will take a red-eye flight to Denver. I selected that airport partly because tickets to Denver are much less expensive than to Colorado Springs; and partly because it gives me the opportunity to rent a car and drive for an hour along the base of the Rockies and enjoy the incredible beauty. So Tuesday through Thursday, if you wish to pray for agreement and good spirits in our meetings, it is my hope that God will be glorified by the way that we will work together and the decisions that we reach together.

August 15: Report from these meetings:

It was an amazing gathering as we met with missions and ministries that focused on work from Bible translation to church planting to evangelism to training to missions mobilization. We met with organizations like Campus Crusade (CRU), Joshua Project, the International Missions Board (Southern Baptists), and a dozen other organizations. What we shared in common was a commitment to pursue Jesus’ Great Commission and to seek ways that we could more effectively work together. We prayed together and planned together, and in the end this gathering asked SIL and Wycliffe to provide services that were very much needed to serve this diverse body. It was pleasing that we are able to respond affirmatively in meeting these needs, so I returned to Minnesota with new work to do.