Time To Go

Three guys with a combined age of 153, with three sore backs, a very sore neck, a recently operated on knee, a soon to be operated on shoulder and numerous other multiple aliments boarded a jet this AM for South Africa to meet up with a group of 75 from Wales, England, a family from Indiana, a CEO from Canada and one American youth, along with 30 South African youth who will join together to endeavor to build homes and to establish the beginning of Amor Ministries with the hope of creating an ongoing international ministry of keeping families together while building Christian hope and character in everyone involved.

It’s the beginning of a long thought-out dream from Scott Congdon along with his fellow founders who are his wife, Gayla and his best friend Steve Horrex. It’s the beginning of a new beginning on a continent and in a country filled with problems including an HIV/AIDS birth rate of 30% where many children receive a death sentence before they are born. There are 38.6 million people infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide and 24.5 million (65%) live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It’s a new Government since Apartheid ended in 1994, a new government of new people learning how to govern. It’s a country filled with problems… however from the perspectives of this Amor Missions team those problems mean only one thing—opportunities to help.

The following posts on South Africa are being written by Dan Irving in conjunction with Scott Congdon. Dan has worked on four Amor Mission trips with the Evangelical Free Church in Chico, California. Dan is presently writing a book called “Home” that includes a biography of Amor and he is blessed to be on this historic Amor Mission trip to South Africa.

Amor Takes Off For South Africa
Steve Horrex, Dan Irving and I departed for South Africa this morning at 7:45am aboard a Delta jet. Our flight took us across the US on this historic flight in 3 hours and 20 minutes. The 2008 mile flight landed us in tornado laden weather that was wreaking havoc in Atlanta, Georgia. It was one of the bumpiest landings in a big jet this size I have been on. We soon heard that the tornado had even damaged the Georgia Dome..

We are now stuck on the tarmac with rain and hail pummeling the jet. The on-time departure is now a myth. We have now been on the ground foe over3 hours and a half hours, about the same time we have been in the air at this point (3 hours and 20 minutes).

Once we take off again we will face a 19 hour flight to Johannesburg with a short refueling stop in six hours in Senegal, the most westerly point in Africa.

Scott Starts Podcasting

My aged laptop computer finally gave way to a new one and much to my surprise it came as an Apple MacBook. After struggling through the Windows to Mac transition I have finally mastered enough of it to figure out how to podcast. Basically this a way of developing and publishing a lot of different media types than can be played on iPods, other media devices, including computers.

I published our first podcast this week with the help of Steve Horrex, our Director of International Relations. This initial podcast is a 15 minute discussion of why Amor is going to South Africa. Click on this link, Simply Scott Podcast, or the picture below to view the podcast page. I am also adding a link to the Simply Scott blog that makes it easy to click on and navigate to the Simply Scott Podcast.

South Africa Update- 3 Weeks To Go

As we near the departure of our team to South Africa in just 3 weeks, an update on our progress seemed very appropriate at this time. So here is the latest news:

• The house building sites have been approved by the government and local Kimberley Pastors have visited each location.

• The building plans for the Amor houses have been approved by the government including the approval of the building material list.

• We are waiting on the final word from the government if we are going to receive any funds from the government for building materials.

• We have confirmed that a videographer and a biographer from the US will be joining the team during the week we are building homes in Kimberley.

• If we need to the have the slabs poured before the team from the United Kingdom arrives our partners in South Africa have stated that this can be accomplished.

• The UK Team has confirmed that they are bringing 70 mission trip participants.

• Depending on the option of funds from the South African government, we will be building at least 5 homes with a maximum of 10 with funding.

A House Indeed

Normally I would have posted a quote in the left hand margin of this blog There, along with all the other statistics I find in my daily reading it would have been listed for the curious to see. But what I just read in the Business Day newspaper from South Africa is what I feel significant enough that I will post it as its own post.

"House is such an important need that existing without it, either for residential or commercial purposes, makes life meaningless and by extension, threatens society's social security." BusinessDay- February 19,2008

Cancun Project is Moving Forward

I am writing this post on the flight back to San Diego from Cancun, Mexico. Gayla and I spent a week here working on our plans for building a campus on 12 acres that has been donated to Amor. Monday, January 14th, we arrived in Cancun and were joined by All Nations Seminary President, John Lee, who flew in from his Seminary in Juarez, Mexico.













Gayla(left), Gilberto(center), John Lee(right)

Gilberto, our Cancun benefactor, met us at the Cancun airport and we proceeded to spend the next two days discussing and working through our vision for a campus set in the heart of the Yucatan jungle, yet just 12 miles from the world renouned, Cancun International Airport. This was a first being that neither Gayla and nor John Lee have had the opportunity to meet Gilberto much less see our Cancun project in person.

We visited the actual campus site after a short one and a half mile bouncy ride through the jungle on the newly cleared path. I say path because it’s the only way I know how to describe the barely cleared dirt, mud, and limestone course we take through the heavily overgrown jungle vegetation surrounding us at all times. Once we finally reached the entrance to the campus we could see a cleared area in the jungle ahead of us with a lone tree still standing in the middle. This tree has a lot of significance to us. Why the workers who bulldozed the 2 acres before us that is designated for the campus parking lot, no one knows. All we know is that every time we have visited this campus the tree draws our attention and from the start has been were we stand and pray for God’s blessing and guidance for this endeavor. We have come to call this our “prayer tree” and seeing it standing proudly in the middle of this jungle clearing seems to remind us that God is continually watching over the campus. We are also mindful that this tree signifies the prayers of all his people who are lifting this campus up to his Glory.



















The Campus Prayer Tree

As our meetings came to a conclusion on Wednesday as John Lee quickly caught a flight to Puebla, Mexico, we all came to the same conclusion that God had exciting plans for this campus. John Lee is going ahead and starting an extension of All Nations Seminary in Cancun. The campus will now take on a broader context of being a place for training and educating many facets of Christians leaders and servants. This may include separate but cooperative entities on the campus such as the Seminary, a short term mission training facility, a team training establishment run by the Center for Courageous Enterprise, and an Appropriate Technology Center.

The seminary is a vital part of this ministry considering how John Lee again expressed how seminaries all over Mexico are struggling to survive with many closed their doors. Fuller Theological Seminary has recognized All Nations Seminary as one of the most successful models of a seminary in Mexico. Gayla and I will be spending nearly a week in February at the All Nations Seminary in Juarez, Mexico to continue working on the plans for our future partnership in the jungles of the Yucatan.

To South Africa With Amor-The Nov. 07 Advance Trip

I can't believe we are less than two months away from undertaking of first official Amor mission trip to South Africa. It seems like just last week that we were in South Africa in November on our first planning trip for the March 2008 trip. I am going to post a several blogs in this series about South Africa, but right now I want to update you on our November 08 trip.

We arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on November 6th and spent the first night at a Inn that our host Humphrey had located. It was quite a nice place, feeling very authentic with straw roofs, animal decorations, and other exotic accommodations. We decided to look at some other housing arrangements since this place was nicer and more costly than we needed. We visited a Nazarene Conference Center that had several "rondawels", or round houses with thatched roofs. The Conference center was a perfect place for our team to stay, especially when it only cost $10US a night per person.



















Its amazing to know that we were seeing South Africa just 12 years after Apartheid ended and just 12 years since Mandela was released from 27 years of prison. Downtown Johannesburg was a city only occupied by white people up until 1992. Now the blacks have moved back in and are running businesses.

During our week in Joburg (nickname for Johannesburg) we had countless meetings with church leaders, civic leaders, and Christian businessmen. We met with the CFO for the Housing Department to discuss the availability of funding for house building projects, and the various governmental issues we need to deal with. The churches we visited were in or around the Johannesburg area. We had one opportunity to build up to 100 homes on a lot owned by and adjacent to a Church. What we finally landed on was a community located four hours by car, just southwest of Johannesburg. This community is called Kimberley and has a population of over 300,000 people and looks quite similar to the communities we work in Mexico. The land if flat, and rather arrid. Its more rural so the homes located in the slums have a fair amount of land surrounding them; giving us enough room to build a double wide home.















The key factors for us working in Kimberley were the immediate response that the community leaders gave us and the swift invitation to provide some funding to build the homes. We sent a team to Kimberley and met with more than a dozen of their leaders and presented our proposal which include the style and type of homes we build. They were very open to our format and requested a formal proposal from us for them to decide upon. We then toured several of their communities, meeting with people living in the community and personally seeing the circumstances of their poverty. Their homes were so much like those in Mexico is was amazing. Dirt floored shacks, with walls of old metal and wood siding, and metal corrugated roofing or tarps. There was no running water or electricity to their shacks.





















We have decided on this trip to focus on building ten homes in Kimberley because the community could quickly support us bringing a team of 100 people from Wales and England. The community is small and could act quickly. There is also the issue that this community is more rural and not densely populated like many urban slums. Kimberley has often been called the "calm city' due to its "out in the country" atmosphere. As a matter of fact, when we drove down Main Street in downtown Kimberly I though for a moment that we were driving down a a Midwestern community in the US.

The needs in South Africa are great with 7 million households living without adequate shelter. It is estimated that 72% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa live in slums and without intervention could rise to some 100% in some states. We count it a privilege to have this opportunity to share God's love and share of ourselves with the people of South Africa.

Some Interesting Reads During My Travels

The last couple months have been full of traveling for me. South Africa in November, Austin, Texas for the holidays, and I just got back from the Yucatan, Mexico this past weekend. I have a lot of writing to do to catch up on what Amor is doing in South Africa and in Cancun. But for now I would like to mention some books that I have read while all this touring has been going on. That's one of the advantages of travel when you are flying is that you can often find some time to get some reading done if you want to. I happen to carry a laptop with me everywhere I go which always has several downloaded eBooks on it. My rolling travel case always has a book or two in it as well. I normally have abouts five books I am reading at any time. Too bad I can't actually read them all at the same time. I'm not that good, but I can go back and forth between them very easily. I may not be ADD, though many people think I am, but according to the latest leadership personality test I took, the Enneagrahm System, I am "scattered" at times. We'll have to explore that one some more at another time.

So, here are the books I just finished this past week:

1. A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. One of our board members mentioned this book a while ago and then our management consultant "Buddy" bought it for all our leadership to read. Powerful book on what the present and future is becoming as we enter what the author describes as the "conceptual age". In a sense its a "how to book" helping us prepare for this coming age. The book provides six aptitudes that the author feels are essential for relevance in this future: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. In my library... this is a must read!!!!

2. What Type Of Leader Are You? by Ginger Lapid-Bogda. I found this book by accident wandering around my son's books store at the University of Southern California. I often enjoy just browsing through bookstores, especially university bookstores for new books and to see what people are reading. I have taken a lot of personality tests over the years such as , DISC, Myers Briggs, and TKI. They are often powerful tools to understand our strengths and our weaknesses as well as how our various personalities work in conjunction with other peoples' personalities. This one was very insightful, even after having taken all the previous tests. There are nine Enneagram Types described in this book and it gives you amazing insight into how we view things and function. You can use the book to find your style but it looked a little bit too time consuming so I went online at the Enneagramin Institute. For ten dollars you answer about 144 questions in about 40 minutes. The results should prove very interesting to anyone and this book and the other resources at the Ennegramin Institute should give anyone ample resources to dig even further.

3. Lifehacker by 'gina trapani'. This book was a spontaneous buy at a bookstore going out of business. I couldn't resist buying a $24 book for $10. I had already heard about this book in a book I am currently reading discussing blogging. It sounded interesting enough since I was intrigued to see how someone who was writing a blog about "technology tricks to turbocharge your day" turned it into a book. For the record, this book is for the "technically savvy" person who is looking for ways to save some time. It explores time wasting areas of email, repetitive tasks, creating digital to do lists, shortcuts for the web, and the one I enjoyed the most, security. This is a book you would probably keep on your shelf as a reference book. Its also one of those books you can get overwhelmed with, considering all the information the author throws at you. I consider the ten bucks I spent worth it just for the password tips the author gave.

Want to know what books I am reading now? Ok, I give in.

1. Living Life, a Journal for Spiritual Formation and Reflection.
2. Blogging Heroes.
3. Revolution of Hope by former Mexican President Vicente Fox.
4. Class, Race, and Inequality in South Africa.
5. Hyper-Border: The Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border and Its Future.

OK, I have written enough about this. I have got to get back to reading some more great books. Talk to you later.

Read any good books lately? I would love to hear about them.

At Cancun Christian University

I arrived in Cancun last night and stayed at Caribe International Hotel which is one block from Gilberto F.'s apartment. Almost as good is that it is across the street from 100% Natural Restaurant where I get my favorite papaya juice!!

We just drove through the jungle to see the progress at the site of the future Cancun Christian University. It is less than one mile from the main highway, the Cancun-Tulum Highway. We are just leaving Puerto Morelos which is a small beach front community, some 2 miles south of the University. Gilberto has a condo project he is developing in this quaint community. If you are a GPS buff the co-ordinance of the this project is N20.51.2278, W86.52.3912. There are 4 of the 8 condos available. I can't send you pictures right now because the cameras we have won't load to my laptop. I hope I can send you these photos tonight.

What is really amazing is that we are driving all around Cancun, Puerto Morelos, and now heading south towards Coba while I am connected to the internet through my wireless card on my laptop. I am writing this as we drive, connected to the internet all the time. Even I am amazed at how technology has advanced in the Yucatan region. The result of how quickly technology can advance when wireless is being introduced into previously un-developed areas around the world. Only a year ago we had no cell phone coverage at the University site. Now we have a signal that is stronger than at my home in San Diego. Amazing progress!!

I haven't been to Cancun in almost a year and the development around here is astounding. I barely recognize the areas around the University. Huge resort developments popping up every where. There is even a McDonalds around the corner from the entrance to the University. In some ways progress is good and others disappointing. Driving from the Cancun Airport seemed more exotic before the McDonalds appeared. Such is the cost of progress. On the other hand, the coffee was great.

UPDATE ON SOUTH AFRICA

What an amazing couple days we have had. This will be a shorter post than normal since I have had to rely on sending an email to my blog by sending it via my cell phone- using my numeric keypad! Gayla and Jordan told me it was easy. I don't think so. We visited a Nazarene Conference Center and Univerisity for a possible group dormatory site. Its a beautiful and safe site. We then went to our hosts Christian radio station, Rainbow FM 90.7 FM, for a tour of the station and to meet their staff. To finish the day we met with with some pastors and a expert Christian liaison with the housing department. I can only finish this post by saying we have been hosted by the South African people with the most amazing hospitality that its almost impossible to describe it and give them justice!

REPORTING FROM ISTANBUL, TURKEY

The flight from Manchester, England to Istanbul, Turkey
(on Turkish Airlines!) was full of great experiences and stories.
Most of us didn't sleep a bit again on the flight, which might have
had something to do with the fact they served dinner around
midnight on the jet. I think I finally fell asleep around 2am to 6am.


















Steve Cosgrove sat next to a girl from Indian whose name was Markeet.
They talked most of the flight and much of it about his involvement with
Amor and his faith in God. She couldn't imagine that people were flying
from all over the world to build houses for poor people in Africa, much
less Mexico. She grew up Hindu and attended a board school all of her
youth. She recently finished her undergraduate degree in Information
Technology. Steve at one point told her she should go on one of the
Amor mission trips. She said she would love to go but didn't know if her
family could arrange or have the resources for her to go. Steve said that if
she wanted to go he would find a way to get the funds for her to go. She told
Steve she was, "Kind of jealous of you are getting to do all this." She later went
on to say she had applied for for graduate school at UCLA, USC and the
University of Chicago. Steve said she should tell him when she gets accepted
at one of these places since he knows people at all of them. He handed her
his business card and they continued to talk as she flipped the card in her hand,
clicking the edges, and looking closely at the card like it was a precious antique or
or something. As we often see, Ministry doesn't just occur at the work site or
at evening camp, it happens whomever we come in contact with.

The Istanbul Airport had an array of unique sight and smells.
Never in my life did I imagine I would visit Turkey someday.
OK, it was for just 5 hours, but we did eat there.

Bill Hebner ordered what looked like a pastry. The first bite
surprised me, it tasted like peppermint! That was as adventurous
as I got at the airport.

While waiting at the airport we found a free wireless Internet spot
and we all did some Internet surfing, checked our emails, called
our families on Skype, and blogged. I found the way point
that our host in South Africa, Humprey Birkenstock had sent us of our
future work sites. The map below has a yellow pin showing the location
of our five work sites for next March. They are just outside Johannesburg,
near Pretoria.



















As you can see in the satellite photo below, it doesn't look
all that different from many of our typical work sites in Mexico.

WALES YOUTH RAISE FUNDS FOR AFRICA TRIP

Last week 13 kids from North Wales, UK set up a shanty town in the rain and the wind to understand what it was like to live in squalor. BBC did a radio interview with the youth to help raise funds for their upcoming trip to South Africa with Amor. Its about a three minute spot. Click the "Play" button on the link below to hear it:

A DAY IN WALES

A long flight last night over the Atlantic ocean without any sleep had us arriving in Manchester, England around 8:30 am.

















A one hour drive north west to Rhyl, Wales and we arrived at Bill Hebner's house, just a block from the beach. We spent the day enjoying time visiting with each other, discussing our plans for the next day's flight to South Africa and meeting some of the people who had gone on Amor Mexico trips in the past. We spend part of the day looking at a shed that was on one of the Mexico team members from Wales property that was build from concrete posts and sliding concrete panels. This was an informal discussion of the possibility of using concrete type products to build homes in South Africa.

Jet-lag was reeking havoc on us throughout the day since none of us got any sleep on the crowded plane last night. It only reminded us why stopping in Wales for a day of meetings and one night was a good idea- recovering from jet-lag being one of those great ideas.

















Fall has arrived in Wales and the colors of the trees are amazing. The reds and oranges are stunning. It is a bit warm for this time of year and it still seemed to get cold to us tonight. We attended a church celebration with Bill Hebner at his church by helping cook hot dogs and hamburgers, enjoying fireworks and bonfires for a special holiday. We also had the pleasure of talking with members of the local community who have been on mission trips with Amor. On one street we visited there were 11 people from different homes who had been on one of our mission trips to Mexico.

Tomorrow we catch a plane in the morning to South Africa with five of the Wales/UK team. Its a long flight, close to 14 hours, with us stopping briefly in Istanbul. I am not sure when I will be able to post a blog next since I don't know what internet access awaits us in South Africa. Hopefully I will be able to sent a blog each day. If not, then you will know that I couldn't find an internet connection!


Perhaps the greatest news of all was Bill Hebner telling us that he got the job he had been asking us to pray for. His new role is the Emerging Leaders Coordinator for Urban Saints, a collaboration of Youth Life-UK and Crusaders-UK (similar to Awana in the US). Part of Bill's strategic responsibilities will be to facilitate mission experiences for some 3,000 youth. The South Africa mission that we are now on is a significant event in the emerging partnership between these organizations to provide life changing mission experiences for the youth of the United Kingdom.

Cosgrove Joins South Africa Trip At Atlanta Airport

We arrived at the Atlanta Airport to catch our adjoining flight to Manchester, England. Steve Cosgrove joined us here from Indiana. "Its exciting to see what God has in store for us. We can plan all we want, but God has a way of having his plan come about regardless of our activities", said Steve.



















Steve is a key part of this trip having run numerous companies and brings extensive leadership develop experience. Steve is tremendously passionate about this trip and is really thrilled with how this project is an international coalition of people in the ministry, lay persons, and business persons coming together in a part of the world that really needs.

The flight from San Diego was very uneventful except that, much to my surprise, we had live television on the flight. I got to watch a great football game between Navy and Notre Dame! I know what most of you are thinking, Scott's preoccupation with college football is getting out of hand. I sure hope the plane from Atlanta to Manchester has the USC game on!!!

This is the last time I can blog using my US Sprint wireless internet card. From here on I will have to rely of Cyber Cafes, free WiFi when I can get, and who knows what else. And, more importantly, I hope I can manage to sleep some since the flight is leaving at 8:20pm.

AMOR GOES GLOBAL

Today is the day that Amor took a huge leap into expanding its ministry from international (Mexico) to global (Africa). Steve Horrex and I have boarded a plane in San Diego for Manchester, England. Steve Cosgrove from Indiana is joining us when we change planes in Atlanta. When we arrive in England we will be picked up by Bill Hebner who will drive us to Rhyl, Wales were we will be joining the Wales/UK team.

Twenty seven years of ministry and we are finally going global. This trip is really ten years in the making after Gayla and I were invited to a conference in South Africa by Gary Barnes who was with AD2000 at the time. We have been dreaming and planning this trip and outreach since then.

Its an exciting time for Amor as we expand beyond our borders.

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