Leadership Types

Today in class we learned about leardership types. The four types of leaders are: doers, thinkers, relaters, and movers. We took an assessment, and I found that I'm 90% doer (big surprise there!). After that we went through strengths and weaknesses of each type, and then we went through a list of ministry responsibilities. We were supposed to go through them and pick out the ones that we like to do, and now we're supposed to give an example of one of them. And talk about if our type changed from going through our experiences.

Well I'm pretty much a doer through and through. Going through the experiences I had five things that doers like to do and three that weren't high on doing. The thing that I like doing best is working behind the scenes doing things that are pretty routine and mundane, but without them stuff couldn't happen on stage. I love to work and do things for people when they don't know who or sometimes even what I do or am.

I also said that I enjoy "acting, singing or performing music". Now I know that I can't act or sing, but I absolutely loved band, and I miss it. I'd really like to learn how to play guitar and continue learning the trap, so I can play music, but at the same time I find that it's the background music that I want to play, not the main stuff. I also enjoy writing which along with performing are things that thinkers usually enjoy.

 I had one relater thing that I like to do which is caring for hurting people. Just this past week a student from Clear Lake died, and my heart goes out to all the students and everyone who has been affected by this tragedy. If anyone from Clear Lake is reading this I'd like to encourage you with the verses from Ephesians 4:6-7 "......in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." May the peace of God guard your hearts and minds!

Riverside

So yesterday we went to Riverside camp just north of Story City, IA for a tour. Usually on tours we're supposed to have few questions ready to ask, and then that night we blog about our questions and the camp and cool things like that.

Now I've never really been able to figure out if I am extroverted or introverted. For anyone who doesn't know an extrovert gets energized from being around people, and an introvert is energized by spending time alone. Anyway on Monday I was at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA (which is a pretty sweet school and town) for a scholarship competition, so I had to be around people all day and talk to people and try to impress people. Then yesterday I was just like, "Leave me alone. I want to be by myself." So while we were on the tour I didn't have any questions or comments. I was just tagging along, and I would go check things out on my own while the guy was talking. So I figured out that I'm an introvert, but I didn't complete the assignment very well.

Now for this blog we're supposed to have questions that we asked about the camp, but I didn't ask any. It was also due this morning, and I didn't do that either. So I'm just gonna tell you about Riverside.

Riverside is a Lutheran church camp that was started in 1943 on 120 acres of land. Their main program is summer camp, and probably the biggest thing about summer camp is the mime they do on Thursday night to close out the week. The mime is different every year, but it always depicts the gospel. Many people say it is the highlight of the week. Riverside runs a daycare on their grounds for people in the area. They just built a nice new dining hall about 5 or 6 years ago. They have also had about 10 new cabins built by a church family for them recently, each containing 6 bunkbeds and a bathroom and shower.

 I just realized that the only things I'm gonna talk about are their nice buildings, and that helps no one get to know Riverside well. So I'll just skip to what Hidden Acres can learn from Riverside.

I think that Riverside does their buildings MUCH better than we do. Most of their buildings and all of their new ones were built excellently and designed expertly. I think that here at Hidden Acres we put too much emphasis on getting things done quickly rather than doing them well. I have also seen this attitude spill over into other areas of camp like cleaning. I believe we need to slow down a little bit and think about quality rather than quantity. I think that we need to finish the last project before we start another one. I definitely think that when we start designing our new dining hall we should take a look at Riverside's and commit a little construction plagiarism :)

The Big Question............About College.

So I haven't blogged on my own in a while, and I feel as if it would be beneficial te get all my thoughts out in word form in front of me. So here goes!

I've been thinking a lot about colleges recently because I'm planning on attending one next fall. I have really only looked at two colleges, ISU and Northwestern in Orange City (NWC). Along about Christmas time I decided to forget about NWC and just focus on ISU. I was going to live in an apartment with a friend from camp and major in business. I even tore up the housing form that I had filled out for NWC because I was just gonna forget about it. ISU was closer, more affordable, I knew people there, camp was close enough that I could work there on some weekends. It just seemed like ISU was the right school for me. So I forgot about Northwestern.......for about a week. After about a week it popped into my head again, and the next day I received another housing form from NWC. Then I started to remember the year before when I was looking at schools, NWC wasn't on my radar, but my parents made me apply there anyway. "Don't burn your bridges!" So I applied, but I said that I didn't want to go for a scholarship competition. Again, my parents made me. So I went, and I was definitely surprised at how much I liked the school. So I started thinking seriously about NWC, and I was actually prepared to commit to go there. I started having these thoughts that maybe that was where God wanted me to be. But then my financial aid package came, and I didn't get as much scholarship money as I wanted. So instead of going to college I went to camp and got paid to learn how to be a leader. Then during this summer I had a couple guys from my church who I respect very much tell me that I should go to college. So I started looking around again, and ISU came up from a friend of mine. He said that we could rent an apartment together, and I was all like,"Yeah!!!!!" So that was about Christmas, and then Northwestern made a come back, and I started thinking how interesting it was that I could never get rid of Northwestern, even after I had decided to skip college this year and do LAUNCH. I kept having thoughts about how maybe NWC was the place for me, and maybe God wants me there. However I'm glad that I didn't go to college and have had the experiences I've had this year. Anyway, so after I had all those thoughts about not being able to get of NWC it started to warm up to me. I started looking at both colleges and comparing them. I started to think that maybe such a big school like ISU wouldn't be right for me. I know that I don't particularly enjoy driving in Ames, and I like the feel of a small town where everyone knows everyone. I also started thinking that maybe going somewhere where I already know a bunch of people might not be what's best for me. I've never gone somwhere and started over completely, and I think that that experience would be good for me. Then I visited ISU, and I could tell that it's a top notch super quality school. I just didn't feel like it would be right for me. So I went to Northwestern today hoping and praying that something would happen to make up my mind. And I loved my day. I kept meeting new people that I was connected to somehow either through camp or soccer or my last time at Northwestern. I was really impressed how the "higher ups" at the college seemed to remember me either from last year or from sending emails back and forth. I know that I wouldn't get that at ISU. Even though I don't know really anyone there, I felt like I already knew them and really belonged there. I think it'd pretty easy for me to fit in there.

So I was actually gonna post this and ask what other people think I should do, but now that I have it all written out I know what my decision will be. I'm not even sure a full ride to ISU would convince me not to go to Northwestern. I suppose I should wait for financial aid packages to officially make my decision, but in my head I know where I belong.

Doing Flows out of Being

Today in class we talked about how "doing flows out of being". We talked about caterpillars and butterflies and how a caterpillar IS already a butterfly in what it is, and eventually it ACTS like a butterfly. At the end of the lesson there were five suggestions for "being". They were Experiencing (like nature) feeling (keeping track of your feelings throughout the day and bring God into the moment) listening (for God and doing what He says) reflecting (thinking about your day and talking to God about it) and waiting (praying and trusting God to take care of things).

So I have recently been trying (with limited success) to sit down before I go to bed and thank God for the things that happened that day. So I have been doing some reflecting to try and become more thankful and keep things in perspective. I have also been "waiting" to hear from God about college for next fall. A few weeks ago I was totally stressing because I had no idea if I wanted to go to ISU or NWC in Orange City, and my mom reassured me that I didn't have to make a decission and to just trust God. So I have prayed for God's guidance and the last few weeks have been relatively stress free! I had alsorecently  been feeling like God wanted me to tell my family about my struggle with lust. But at first I was like, "No, way. That's something I could never do." I grew up under the impression that talking about sex was sinful because it was never mentioned in my house, so for me admitting to my family that I struggle with lust was a giant. But then yesterday I realized that I hadn't shared my first semester of LAUNCH reflective essay with my family, and in it I talked a little bit about my battle with lust, so I emailed it to them. So I guess the cat's out of the bag now, but I'm glad that it is.

So for our assignment I think we're supposed to pick one of the five things that we haven't already tried, and try it out. So since it's still a little bit cold outside, and I don't really like being cold I'm gonna try to notice my emotions throughout the day and bring God in with them. That kinda sounds like an action plan to go with so I believe that I'm done here!

Leadership Involves Being

So yesterday we talked about how there are two sides to leadership just like the saying there's two sides to every coin, or something like that. And yesterday we talked about the doing side of leadership, so today we talked about the being side of leadership. And the same as yesterday we got a list of ten characteristics for the being leader. They are: humility, commitment, intergrity, faith, obedience, courage, wisdom, compassion, perseverance, and vision. Now I must choose one of them that I am not all that good at (which doesn't make a whole of sense to say because we're talking about being and "good" denotes action) and explain why not and then come up with an "action plan" to become better at it (?).

Now I'm thinking that since I'm having a hard to picking one that I don't have I should choose humility, but I think I'm gonna go with my own answer. I'm going to say that I need to learn HOW to be rather than just doing doing doing. I have been a doer my whole life. My spiritual gift is service which is ALL about doing. I love working and being in action and doing stuff. I'll go crazy if I can't move around and do something. For my whole life I have also been held under the belief that God's love for me and even my salvation depended on how little or much I sinned. Yes, I knew all the verses about how salvation is not able to end, but that's not how I lived my life or what my heart believed. I was always scared that when I sinned God was upset, and I would always get really scared when I would read in Psalms about how "the hand of the Lord is upraised" which would make me try to control my sin which wouldn't work. But I have been learning this year how much that is not true and that in fact the opposite true. So I need to "work on" being a child of God instead of trying to become a child of God. I need to learn how to live out of who God says that I am and trust that His power is sufficient for me.

So I suppose my "action plan" for "learning how to" BE would be spending time with God in His Word soaking it up and learning about God and His grace and love and also praying........a lot.

Things Leaders Do

So today in class we learned about how leaders are doers and got a list of ten things that a leader must do or skills they must have. This list is: focus, mission, risk taking, goal setting problem solving, communication, conflict resolution, modeling, finish strong, and multiply yourself (figuratively, not really literally although that is a command from God). And now for our assignment we get to answer three questions about this list!!!!

Question #1: Which of these actions or qualities am I naturally or deliberately better at? I believe that I am best at modeling or as I like to call it (because I don't want to be a model) leading by example. I may not be the best motivator or problem solver or people person, but if you give me a job I will do it, and if someone else is doing something that I can help with I will be there. This next weekend with the volunteers that I'll be in charge of I'm planning on setting up some visual aids to help with the training, and when we're cleaning up after a meal or doing whatever I will be right there with them working to get the job done and to keep them working.

Question #2: Which of these ten actions or qualities do you need to improve on the most as a leader? I would have to say probably conflict resolution. I totally shy away from conflict. If there is the possibility for conflict I will do my best to avoid that situation either by not saying anything or by saying something else. If I think that something I might say could hurt someone else's feelings very rarely will I say it (although I am getting better at speaking my mind).  But I also tend to ignore the "elephant in the room" when there is some conflict.

Question #3: What is you action plan to work on this quality? I think that i need to keep in mind that conflict resolution is a good thing and, yes, it might be uncomfortable and awkward for al ittle bit, but in the long run resolving conflict keeps that awkwardness to a minimum. And as I'm growing and maturing and experiencing life I'm coming to realize that most of the things that I think of as being scary aren't that scary. And this also ties into risk taking because trying to resolve conflict can be taking a risk cause you could end having people hate you or you can get everyone to be friends again. So I think that most of my action plans will be keeping in mind that action is worth it and not really as scary as I've made it out to be.

Leadership Style

So today in class we learned about leadership styles. We took an assessment, and I discovered that I am a "balanced leader" but have a very high bent towards task orientation. That means that I can be relational but am mostly focused on getting the job done regardless of if I get to know the people I'm working with. Usually task oriented people have little regard for people's feelings, but I really don't like to hurt feelings, so I can be a little too lenient at times and just take more work on myself. However at my core I am extremely concerned with getting the job done on time and doing an excellent job of it.

After we took the assessment and figured out what our leadership style is, we went through the strengths and weaknesses of each style. And now our assignment is to come up with goals and action steps to correct those weaknesses.

Weakness #1: I am not focused enough on the relational aspect of leading. I don't a good enough job of getting to know the people I'm leading. Because I don't know them that well, I cannot address the specific needs that may come up when they are working. So my goal is to get to know the people I lead better. My action step for that will be to intentionally talk to everyone and ask them about themselves.

Weakness #2: Since I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings I will often not point out their mistakes and just take it on myself to correct them or let them slide. This however is not beneficial to the person making the mistake or for the correction of the mistake, and the person will just continue to make the same mistake until someone else tells them. So my goal is to stop being too lenient and to let people know if they are doing something the wrong way or not up to par. I realize that I have very high standards for good work, but I feel like in order to reflect well on Hidden Acres and to serve our guests things should be as perfect as possible. My action step will be to tell people right from the start that I will correct them if I see them doing something not up to par or the wrong way and that they shouldn't take it personally. I should also teach them and show them how to do things correctly before we get into the actual work.

Weakness #3: I can see myself after telling people that I'm going to correct them becoming too bossy and start to order people around. So my goal is to not become too bossy or pushy, and my action step will be to learn how to be gracious while still being firm.

Leaders change everything

Today in class the name of the chapter was "Leaders change everything." We talked about the effect that leaders throughout history have had on the rest of the course of history like what would the world be like if John Adams hadn't envisioned a new country and led the break away from Britain. Or what would have happened if Winston Churchill hadn't rallied Britain in WWII and the Germans had taken over the island. And now our blog assignment is to tell about three examples from our lives of leaders who changed everything.

Well I suppose that since I can't think of anybody else at the moment I'm gonna have to go with God and Jesus for me first one. Jesus, because He died for my sins and gave me His righteousness so that I don't have to suffer for eternity in hell. God, because at this moment in my life He is turning everything upside down. I'm discovering things about myself that I never suspected, I'm trying to decide on a college, but He keeps throwing my decisions around like a football in the hands of Aaron Rodgers. This is actually good for me though because it's forcing me to trust God and making me work on not worrying so much but really letting God take care of everything.

I believe that my little sister Tori has also changed everything about my life. Tori was born on June 21, 1997 in Xiamen, China. A few days after she was born, she was abandoned by her parents and taken to an orphanage where she lived for the first ten months of her life. Then on the wonderful day May 4 1998, my mother walked into that orphanage, picked her up, cried her eyes out (sorry mom, had to put that in there) and took Tori home with her to the rest of us waiting in little Clear Lake, Iowa. Tori has changed my life in so many ways, and probably even more that I'm not aware of. If we had not decided to adopt Tori I would be the youngest person in my family. I would not have had the opportunity to be a big brother and learn how to handle living with a little sister. Granted, it took me about twelve years to start being a good big brother, but I was still a big brother. Tori challenged me growing up. Since she was abandoned and missed out on TONS and I mean literally tons of bonding and development that little children need she had issues trusting us. It had been ingrained into her head that in order to survive she had to watch out for herself and fend for herself because no one else was going to. She didn't like listening to me which was frustrating for myself because in my mind the big brother has the authority to tell his little sister what to do, and she would not listen to me for anything. But growing up with her and dealing with all those challenges has blossomed into a desire to adopt children of my own and make the same difference in other children's lives. I understand now that God was not only shaping me as a person when He put Tori in my family, but He was placing the groundwork for my life and my dreams. And for that I will always be thankful that Victoria Jun Fyfe is my little sister!

The third person I will say that has changed my life is actually three people, but they all helped to write a book that is doing God's work in me right now. Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and John Lynch all co-authored the book Truefaced. During LAUNCH we went through Truefaced doing a chapter every week and talking about it. The book is about being who we really are and taking off all the masks that we wear to try and convince people that we don't have problems. The entire theology behind the book is not quite radically different than what I grew up with, but I'm realizing that I either misunderstood everything I read in the Bible and heard from the pulpit or I don't know what happened. But for my entire life I've been focused on works and trying to live without sin, even though I've proven many times that it's impossible. Now I'm learning that since I have been saved from my sin God already sees me as righteous; He sees me as Christ. Everything that I'm learning from this book is life changing, and it makes me wonder how I lived without this theology before, and how many people are living their entire lives without it. It makes me want to bring it to other people.

Learning Styles

Today in class we talked about the three different learning styles, visual, auditory and kinesthetic. We took an assessment, and I discovered that I am mostly kinesthetic and visual. Our assignment for today is to share the gospel in each of the three learning styles.

I guess I'll start with auditory.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have ever lasting life." This verse is the essence of the Gospel if you understand everything that is packed into it. The beginning is pretty self explanatory, God loves us. The next part, "that He gave his one and only son". The word "gave" has a lot of meaning. First we have to talk about the reason that God gave His one and only son. God is holy, or set apart, which means that He cannot stay in the presence of sin. Actually it would probably be more accurate to say that sin cannot stand in the presence of God. Anyway, everyone sins, everyone is sinful, everyone has sin imprinted on their DNA. Since sin cannot stand in God's presence there is no way for us to get to heaven. Only the righteous can stand in God's presence, but we cannot make ourselves righteous. However, God loves us, so He came up with a plan to give us righteousness. This is where God gives us His son. Jesus came down to earth and became a man. He lived and then died to take the penalty for our sin. Since God is holy and just He must punish sin, and the penalty for sin is death. So Jesus came and died to take the penalty of sin for us and give us His righteousness. But He also didn't just die for us to make us righteous; He rose from the dead to give us hope for triumph over the grave. "That whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." This phrase is a simplified version of Romans 10:9. "If you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Now for the visual!

Picture this. A packed courtroom waiting to hear the trial of a serial killer. The Judge enters and makes His way to His desk. Order is called and the Judge asks how the defendant pleads. The killer stands up and everyone gets ready to hear his not guilty plea. However, as the defendant opens his mouth he starts to cry and says, "I am guilty. I did kill those people, and I take responsibility for all the hurt that I caused. I don't know why I killed all those people, but I don't want to kill anyone anymore. Please help me. I know that I can't change on my own, but please give me some help!" The Judge brings his gavel down, and declares the killer guilty and sentences him to death for his crimes. Everyone in the crowd cheers, and the defendant sits down and puts his head in his hands. From the back of the room a voice starts to shout over the crowd. "MERCY. GIVE HIM MERCY!" A young man stands up from the back and makes his way to the front of the courtroom. The Judges eyes mist over with a look of sadness and pride mixed in them. The young man reaches the defendant and puts his hand on the man's shoulder. "Father, grant this man mercy", He says to the Judge. "You heard what he said as well as I did. He knows he did wrong and desires not to do it again. How can you not grant him mercy?" "Someone has to pay the penalty for his crimes", replies the Judge. "You know the law as well as I do." The young man looked His Father straight in the eye and said calmly and surely, "Then let me take his place. Let me take his penalty, and give him the help he needs to live a right life. Give him mercy."

And for my kinesthetic example I drew a picture and gave it to our teacher because if I described the picture on here then it would become auditory!

Abilities Assessment

Today in class we talked about unique abilities and how to use them. We took an assessment, and now we have to blog about our top five abilities and how God might be able to use them.

Ability #1: Assisting/Helping- My REAL spiritual gift (it's an inside joke, don't worry if you don't understand!) For me being able to jump in and help someone with something is extremely satisfying. One time on a Sunday some people were moving tables and chairs to set up for a potluck later that night, and I couldn't stand around just talking with people while someone else was working, so I went and helped. I missed some of the chruch service, but I wouldn't have traded sitting and listening or standing and singing for helping.

Ability #2: Being Adaptable- I have the ability to jump from project to project effortlessly. In fact, if I'm stuck doing the same job for an extended period of time I get really really bored. Monotony kills me. For example, the past couple of days this week I was splitting wood all afternoon by myself for two days straight. I nearly went crazy. But then yesterday I split wood with someone else for an hour before lunch, worked on our deck with someone else for a couple hours, then helped someone else finish doing dishes, and then went back out to the the wood pile with the same guy for another hour and never once did I feel the urge to take a sledge hammer to the wood pile! I can also take problems in stride. If something comes up, it doesn't faze me. I just say, "Ok, we have a problem, how can we fix it?"

Ability #3: Learning- Now I might not be particularly good at learning, but I love learning new skills and getting better at doing things. I do get frustrated because I like being good at things, and when I'm learning something new most of the time I'm not very good at it. But I really like the opportunity to learn something new that I will put to use sometime later. For example, the other week I spent a couple days screwing in pieces of cement board in the bathrooms of the new chapel here at camp. I had not grown up using a drill, so I had issues, but the fact that I was getting better at a skill was great!

Ability #4: Summarizing/Reporting information- This ability I did not credit myself with, but the other LAUNCH people pointed it out. I do have the ability to pick up on someone else's idea and put it in simple terms. For example, last weekend I over heard a couple of the other LAUNCH students trying to explain to the volunteers where the break room is in the lodge. They were like, "So you know where the piano used to be in the dining room?" "No." "Ok, well the break room is right through the wall that the piano used to be against. There's a door in the wall that leads to the break room." And I went in and said, "You know the swinging door in the serving area that leads to the ice machine?" "Yes." "Just go through that door and keep going straight." "Ooooooh." So yeah..........

Ability #5: Working with my hands- Now again this might not be an ability that I have right now, but it is one that I have a passion to learn and get lots of satisfaction when I do work at something with my hands. Physical labor is something that I think I'm pretty good at and love to do. I'd rather go build something, which I don't know how to do, so it would take me a while to finish because I'm OCD, than sit in an office and crunch numbers every day. I need physical stimulation, like the other day when I was splitting wood all day, sure i had to lift the logs onto the splitter, but that just wasn't enough for me. So that night after I got back from Cubbies, I went and used someone's punching bag to get some exercise and release all those moments when I wanted to take a sledge hammer to the wood piles!

How God could use me and my abilities, I have no idea. But I do have a dream of being married and having a family, living out in the country, maybe breeding dogs, adopting a child or six, being a foster parent, and basically just helping people who need it. I hope that I would be able and willing to open my home to anyone who is in need of help. I could see maybe opening a school or college for underprivileged or poor kids who still want an education. Yeah.........

Leadership Lesson #3

Today in class we talked about the tasks of a leader. And the assignment is to use the list of tasks for a leader, and plan a fake supply run to Guatemala.

The first task is to come up with the scope and goals of the project. The goal is to collect basic life necessities and ship them to Antigua, Guatemala. As for scope, we will need to find donors and sponsors to collect all the items. We will pack all of the supplies in a crate or box of some kind and fly it into Guatemala City and then drive the crate to Antigua.

The second task is to think of how many people and how much money we will need. First of all we will have to have the people to donate and collect the supplies. We will also need to find a pilot for our plane and a person or three to drive the crate to Antigua and distribute supplies. We will have to raise money to rent a plane and pilot and automotive transportation to Antiuga. We should also provide people who can teach the Gutemalans how to build the houses out of the supplies we're sending.

The third task is to cast a compelling vision. We are trying to help needy families and children to survive, thrive, and share the love of God with them.

The fourth task of a leader is foreseeing obstacles of the project. Now I'm somewhat of a pessimist so I could come up with a lot of stuff. We could have people not find our vision compelling enough in which case we will need to either come up with a different way of communicating our vision or we might have to take trips and tell people personally about our project. We would have to get passports and possibly visas in order to get into Guatemala, so we would need to order them quite far ahead of time. we would also need to work around the language barrier, so we might need to to hire a translator which would take more money. And, let's be honest, Central America can be a dangerous place, so that means that we bathe the trip in prayer, and don't take any stupid chances and send three or four people down with the crate because there is strength in numbers.

And the fifth task of a leader is to evaluate performance. We could evaluate our performance if the container of supplies actually makes it to Antigua, and also by the connections we make down there and the help that we give. We could count the number of houses that we build or the amount of food we give out. But I think that ultimately success comes down to the question, "Did we love them with the love of God, and did they know that it was God's love?"

Leadership Lesson #2

So it looks as though I will be putting up a new blog every day for this second semester, so prepare for lots of random assignments!!!!

Today in class we talked about 2 different expeditions to the south pole and compared the two to see which one would have the better chance of success. After doing that our homework for today was supposed to be planning a trip to Mars, however Brett, our wonderfully wise superbly smart teacher, decided we should plan a mission trip to an unreached people group.

I have decided to take my trip to Djibouti. It is a tiny country sandwiched in between Ethiopia and the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden with Yemen just across the water in Northeast Africa. Djibouti is a hot dry desertish country where 97% of the population is Muslim, but 55% has been unreached by the Gospel.

Now as leader of this expedition I would want to have a background in Bible teaching, maybe a little medical background and some mechanical stuff too. I would like to have a 5 person team, 2 of which would be me and my wife. It would be nice if someone on the team was a linguist and could learn the language quickly, someone who knows the area, and someone who can fix things. It wouldn't take too horribly long to plan, just long enough to raise support, find a job and transportation for when we're there, and make reservations for plane tickets. Once there we would have to take some time to learn the language, the culture, and get grounded in the area. Once we have earned people's respect or at least gotten people used to the idea that we're staying. After we have built connections and repute and learned the language then we could start doing ministry. As for technical aspects of the trip, we would have to find a place to stay, and mode of transportation. It is a very hot climate, so we would have to adjust to that and make sure that we have access to lots of clean water whether that means flying in bottles of water or building a well. So yeah, there's my fantasy mission trip to Djibouti!