It’s late again. Didn’t leave the church until almost midnight. That’s late even in this nocturnal town. This trip has been a whirlwind, but I don’t tell you that to gain sympathy – though I’ll take all I can get!

It’s hard to put this into words even if I weren’t so tired. Suffice it to say that this has simply been one of those times when God has been at work in a visible, tangible way. From the beginning, when Beto wrote to me months ago and I immediately sensed the need to encourage him, this has been something God-initiated. Then, for a small window in my schedule to open up like this – doesn’t happen very often. Honestly, I wanted to stay home. I fought this. I discussed this with several confidants and we all sensed that this was something that I needed to do. They were right.

Each night there have been around 350 present. About 150 of them are pastors. The rest are other church leaders and some church members. That’s a pretty high percentage of pastors in a meeting like this. The receptivity and interest have been striking. Just about everyone has had a sense that this is something that God is doing and that it is just beginning.

I really don’t know what else to say right now except that the host church, Beto’s church, is enthusiastically ready to join up with the BKA. As in the other Latin American churches I have visited concerning the alliance, the burden for the K people arrived before I did, and not knowing that I was going talk about the Ks. This has happened several times now and simply underscores that this is something much bigger than I am, or even all of us together.

Tomorrow the morning will be a bit more relaxed. We need that. Tomorrow night I take the overnight flight home. I’m not looking forward to spending the night in coach class on a jam-packed airplane, but that is the price of admission I guess. One bright spot is that my longtime close friend Ruben is going to pick me up and take me to the airport. Ruben and I have worked together on many occasions and there are few people in whom I have more confidence. I’m excited to spend that time with him. What a great friend he has been. Fighting Lima rush hour traffic will probably be a two hour or more trip, so we should have some time to catch up.

• I can’t believe how late it is. Just got back from the conference and it’s after midnight. Going to have a quick snack before getting a couple of hours sleep. After all, we haven’t had anything to eat since about 2:00 this afternoon when we had our last grilled beef tongues (remember what I posted yesterday about exotic food?). Don’t judge what you don’t know. They’re called anticuchos and they are fabulous!
• I can’t believe I have to get up about 4:30am in the morning to get to prayer meeting by 6:00am. International travel is glorious!
• Remember the cup of coffee I wanted to have with Beto so we could talk about missions? Well, we had the cup of coffee tonight along with about 350 of his friends. VERY receptive audience. I spoke on God’s heart from Psalm 69 and Tony spoke from 2 Thessalonians 3 on 5 contexts of ministry of the word of God. There are some very positive things happening here. Great hunger to hear what God is doing around the world.
• Tomorrow is a prayer meeting from 6 until 9:00am, followed by a breakfast with some national mission leaders, followed by a lunch with some national mission leaders (I am beginning to suspect a pattern developing here), and followed by another two round meeting tomorrow night.
• Good grief! I’ve got to get some sleep! Goodnight.

“So, what’s the weirdest food you ever had to eat?” That’s one of the FAQ’s when someone finds out what I do and that my passport is about the size of the latest Senate appropriations bill.

Missionaries love to make people think they eat horrible, exotic goop that you have to choke down in order to survive. Since I was once sort of a missionary and still travel the globe in missionary circles, the assumption is that I have to woof down awful food like Asian toad brains or Aardvark butter stew. My first time in South Africa years ago my friends delighted in getting me to eat Monkey Gland Sauce, a condiment that has nothing to do with monkeys and is more like a sweet Worcestershire sauce, so mainstream you can get it on your burgers at McDonald’s.

While in South Africa I did resist the temptation to gnaw on boiled sheep skulls. Seriously! I once walked into a place that served them, had them lining the walls of the joint and the stench was so bad it slapped me in the face the minute I opened the door. “Sir, would you like you skull with or without eyeballs in the sockets?”

Sure, I’ve had to eat some pretty gnarly stuff in my day. I find the best policy is simply to not ask. But, to be honest, most of what I’ve had to eat has been pretty doggone tasty. No, let me be really honest. I like LOVE food! “Bring it to me! Bring it ALL and bring it NOW!”

This can present some real challenges in the area of weight control. I was thinking about this the other day as my wonderful Costa Rican assistant took me to a new Austrian restaurant in town for my birthday. She had never had German/Austrian food before, and I was suddenly translating the menu for her. It dawned on me – I’m perfectly bilingual in Spanish and English, speak enough German to get into trouble, but DANG! I’m totally fluent in like 52 cuisines! Are you beginning to get my problem?

To further complicate this matter, when I travel I do not usually frequent 5 star hotels, Michelin 4 star restaurants and the like. Since I am usually with the locals, I am usually eating with the locals and like the locals. And, usually, that is a very good thing. Sometimes I am staying in a home and eating off the table of a real live family that has decided to kill the fatted calf and make a banquet since the man of God has come to dwell in the family hacienda. This is all pure goodness!

Furthermore, when said family has prepared the very greatest of local culinary delights, there is no way on earth that I am going to gracefully be getting out of sampling the whole spread. Some of the places I go are what are called “shame cultures,” meaning that a person’s honor is the highest value and to suffer shame is life’s worst nightmare. To refuse that dumpling made with a bucket of lard and 5 pounds of butter would be unthinkable. Forget about explaining how you ate late last night and feel bloated. Doesn’t work. Worse, I don’t want the responsibility of knowing that Mrs. Unpronounceable Name is going to spend eternity in Hell because the man of God brought shame to her and her ancestors by refusing that second helping of award-winning seal mush. No! Don’t want THAT on my record!

You’ll find that when you are somewhere in inner Slobbabistan, where you just forgot how to say “thank you, but I’m full,” there is no way you are going to communicate, “I just became a vegetarian last week,” or “is this glutton free?” “Sugar substitute” was not on the handy traveler’s vocabulary list you found on the Internet the night before you left. In some cultures to say “thank you,” means “I’m full,” and “no thanks” means “pile it on!” But, then I forgot which culture that was.

So, I’ve learned to eat, eat well and enjoy it thoroughly. Well … most of it.

Even at home the problem persists. People love to invite us to eat and we love to accept! Except that we rarely get to eat at home, and often have days where we are running from one event at which food is served to another. Just this weekend it cut our souls to the quick to have to refuse some amazing Caribbean food at a wedding anniversary celebration because we were to the point of retching from having gone to so many food events and had more on the agenda.  So much food, so little time!

So, how does the pastor keep from becoming beyond just a bit pudgy? If I let myself go, I think I could balloon up pretty fast. Moving around with a completely erratic schedule, the fad diets are not going to cut it. Try looking up the calorie count and fat % for mondongo (tripe soup) on that handy little calorie counter you just downloaded on your Blackberry.

“Excuse me, would you mind if I stopped preaching for just a few moments? I’m trying to drop a few pounds and the alarm just went off on my cell phone. I need to go right now and eat one of my six meals for the day. It’s important that I be consistent and keep on schedule. I knew you wouldn’t mind!”

By now you see that my options are few. I make the healthy choices when I can (Let’s see. Should I take the fried cheese balls or the yogurt?), and I try to exercise portion control as much as is humanly possible within the confines of the culture context where I am currently stuffing my face.

But, here’s the real tip I’ve learned. I fast. Yep! I really do. Twice a week if I can, and at least one day for sure.

Yes, I hear all of you who have studied the nutrition of diets and how fasting jacks with your metabolism and causes you to get a double chin in less than three weeks. I can promise you that no company making billions off of overweight people is going to let you see any research that would suggest that something as simple as fasting (no special foods, nothing to buy, nothing to carry with you) is going to help you control your weight. Here’s a link for some actual research to demonstrate the benefits of fasting if you are really interested.

Could it really be that something mentioned in the Bible could be beneficial to your health? What would Jesus know about weight control? No, I don’t fast for 40 days, or even 4. Once or twice a week for 24 hours. Period.

Here come the legalists! Watch out!

“You can’t do that! That doesn’t count! Fasting in the Bible is a spiritual activity. If you aren’t on your face praying and suffering and being miserable and all that, how in the world do you think God could be pleased with you?”  (I’m also on a permanent legalism fast).

Go back and reread. I never said this was a spiritual activity. I said I don’t want to get fatter. I really think God is OK with that. And, I’ll tell you what. I’ve even discovered that if I pray while I’m fasting for physical reasons, so far God has not gotten mad at me.

I’m writing this on a flight to Lima. Once there, I am anticipating some good eating. So, this means no food since last night. I’ve learned that I can do this. It’s not all that hard. Well, I must admit that the temptation to start chewing on some of the subscription cards in the magazines in the seat pocket in front of me sometimes gets intense. But, I am sitting in coach and the temptation to eat real food is thereby minimized.

When I do this little fasting regimen, I find that I can eat just about everything in moderation – smaller portions, chew slowly  … You know the drill, don’t you?

What a neat day! I loved the testimonies from Taiwan and China and hope you did, too. All three services seemed not only packed with people but packed with energy.

So, this is Sunday evening and, speaking of packing, that’s what I just finished doing. My crazy, insane schedule is taking me to Lima, Peru tomorrow. This is a somewhat impromptu trip that has only been in the works the past few weeks. Here’s what happened.

A friend of mine named Beto is pastor of a fine church in Lima. Previously, he and his family served in Spain working with people from a Muslim background in the Barcelona area. After going through years of preparation, raising support and all of the other steps involved in moving a family with young children to the other side of the world, they finally made it. But, after less than 2 years in Spain, a family health issue necessitated their return to Peru. You can imagine that the return was as difficult as it had been to go in the first place. Not long after returning, the church where he now serves had asked him to be their pastor. He is doing a great job and the church is growing.

Not that long ago I received an email from Beto asking for advice and prayer concerning a burden to use his missions background to mobilize believers in Peru toward reaching the least reached. Beto is a first class guy from a professional engineering background. I was thrilled to see what God was doing in his life. Thinking that his church might light to participate with us and others in the BKA and our friendship with the K*urds, and reflecting on some of the missions contacts I have, I asked him if I might come down for a day or two and discuss how God could use him for global missions as a mobilizer in Peru.

Beto was immediately receptive. I asked him about getting together a group of his friends in ministry so we could sit around and talk about missions. I was thinking we might get together a group of 20 or 25 pastors. My dear friend Tony Vasquez is also a friend of Beto from having been together in Spain, and Tony agreed to go with me.

You can imagine our surprise when Beto wrote back and said he has a group of about 30o pastors, leaders and folks from his church waiting for us to come and do a conference on global missions to the least reached. That’s the type of guy he is!

So, I’ll head out tomorrow and get to Lima around 10:30pm tomorrow night if flights are on time. Tuesday and Wednesday we will do the conference. Then, Thursday night late I’ll head home, getting into Kansas City late Friday morning. Pray for us and the conference. I’ll try to keep you updated along the way as I have opportunity. Sometimes the best things are the ones God springs on us without our prior knowledge.

At College Fjord

Well, I know some of you are anxiously awaiting word on the cruise thing. Without wasting any time I’ll get right to the meat – I loved it! Can you believe it!

Two issues concerned me.

Issue #1 – Do I really have to dress up for a formal dinner two times?

Yes, but I found out that few guys are packing tuxedos these days. I got by just fine with a sports coat and tie like half of the other males. Some of the older men didn’t even go that far, wearing a wrinkled shirt and maybe a tie about 30 years past prime. This confirms a theory – you reach an age when you do pretty much what you darn well please and dare anyone to question you. (I’m not that old – yet).

Issue #2 – Do I really have to sit at the same table with the same people each night? What will I say? I’m an introvert, remember?

OK, it wasn’t that bad. The two other couples at our table were very nice. That’s good. I would have been majorly ticked off if they would have been jerks, whiners or grumpy. They weren’t. However, they made us look like world class conversationalists. Can you imagine THAT! We really didn’t have anything in common and they weren’t too forthcoming with the talk.

Sample conversation:

Us: “So, have you cruised before?”

Them: “Yes.”

Us: Well, did you enjoy it?

Them: “Yes.”

Us: “Do you have any children?”

Them: “Yes.”

After that snapshot of table conversation, I found that I was content to smile, stare over the heads of my table mates and watch glaciers or something like that, or even just water. It wasn’t bad. Plus, the two waiters that we had every night were Mexican and we passed the time having more conversation in 30 second Spanish sound bites in the midst of serving than with the others. Not only that, the food was good – really good!

Here’s the list of what we really enjoyed.

• This was a really cool way of celebrating a 40th wedding anniversary.
• The scenery was out of this world! There is no picture or words to describe what we saw. Really. I was totally blown away. I’m glad we spent the money to have a room with a balcony.
• The entertainment was first class. There was always something interesting to do from music shows, comedians, magicians to lectures on really interesting stuff, including 4 by naturalist Kathy Slamp who was raised as an MK in Alaska.
• Whale watching – not only orcas, but we saw tons (quite literally) of hunchback whales from the ship. We even saw one breech (jump totally out of the water). In Juneau we went with Herv and Merv’s whale watching one day in a little boat for only six people. We had an amazing time with several whales surfacing within 20 yards of the boat – about as close as I care to get. Our guide was as amazed as we were. They always see some whales, but not as many or as close.
• We loved walking around the little Alaskan towns of Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway on the three stops our ship made. Did I mention the weather was perfect? Everyone we met talked about how horrible the weather has been this season, until the day we arrived.
• Glacier By and then College Fjord. I have no words. We stood in awe. We saw icebergs calved. The weather was such that we saw everything, even three bears scavaging a dead whale washed up on shore.
• Following the cruise we went on land excursions to Denali Park and McKinley Park. Another wow! On one tour a grizzly bear approached from the right, crossed right in front of the bus and we were able to watch him scoot along for a long time. Shortly after that we saw several caribou including the most mature male (from his antler system) our guide had seen in 20 years. We also saw moose (more than one – mooses? I know it’s not mice, but don’t fully understand why), and other assorted critters. Our guide was out of her mind, crazy excited. She does this tour all season long a couple of times a day and has only seen four bears all season and never up close like this. Seriously, she was goofy-giddy, all smiles and much more excited than even we were. On another tour our van was able to pull up right alongside of a huge black bear feeding on berries (like 6 ft away).

Everywhere we went locals and guides told us that we have had the best weather of the season. They also said we have seen more than just about any other group. At McKinley Park our only slight, selfish disappointment was not being able to see The Mountain, Mount McKinley, Denali (it’s so big it has three names!) in all its glory.

The last morning we sat and watched as clouds threatened to give us a show. Honestly, it was like the mountain was an old time burlesque dancer, teasing by showing just a little bit of herself form time to time.

From there we went to Anchorage to spend the night and next day before flying home late Thursday night. We woke up the next morning to a crystal clear day, looked out the window of our 8th floor hotel room and saw the entire Alaskan Range including McKinley. This was the first day in 39 straight days in Anchorage it had not rained and the first day in two months they had seen the Sun. Yes, it was the day we were there. Yeah, we saw it all!

Here’s what I’m taking away from this. I would have missed this fabulous display of God’s creative genius if I would have not have set set aside my little issues, personalities quirks, likes and dislikes. You might remember that I said this was going to be a streeeeeetch!

Well, I’m glad I stretched, even when it was not comfortable for me. We saw things many people will never see. We saw more in one trip than many see in several trips to Alaska.

Many people, I think, go through life comfortably hidden away in their little bubble. They don’t like change, or stretching, or stepping out beyond their comfort zone. Consequently, they miss out on the fullness and beauty of life that God has for them. How sad.

All year we have had the theme of Grow. I’ m very excited for this Fall because on September 12th we start our next series called Breaking Through Glass Ceilings. It’s all about growth. I suppose you could just sit back in your little bubble, but I would urge you to come and stretch with me. You never know what you’ll see.