Off to Africa

I'm off to Africa!

I have been asked to present three Insight Seminars in Africa. Two in Mozambique and one in South Africa. This is a tremendous opportunity, both for developing the seminars and for me, personally.

For the seminars, these pilots will help us develop and refine our presentation, especially in the context of Mozambique's people and culture, which is very different from the culture of the U.S. and South Africa (though in different ways). These seminars provide a great opportunities to show the seminar in action and demonstrate the impact it has on the participants. As we continue to hold seminars, we will accumulate a ever-increasing amount of data to use in defense of the seminar’s principles, and to facilitate partnering with other organizations to develop additional seminars. Contextualizing the seminars to address the specific interests and needs of the people of Mozambique will also prove both stimulating and challenging.

On a personal level, I believe that this experience will help me to understand the core principles behind the seminars better, as well as giving me a broader perspective on the human condition – that is, how people think and live. The more cultures I interact with, the more I can understand how people, in general, are put together. While in Mozambique, I want to spend time with the locals who Safari Insight Mission is working with and get their perspective on the situation in Mozambique. I would also like to get their perspective on Americans, especially American missionaries, and find out not only what they think of us, but what they want us to know about them.

Marginal Notes:

As I review the previous paragraph, I notice far too many usages of “us” and “them”. It is, I think, an unfortunate necessity that requires such phrases. At the end of the day, there is really just “us” whether we mean those of us in America or those of us in Mozambique. Without a clear understanding of the differences between Mozambique culture and American culture, however, we will never reach the point when we can comfortably cease to talk about “us” and “them” and instead talk about just us, in our various locations and cultures. It is my hope that this upcoming trip will help us all to learn more about each other and how to work together. Accomplishing this will provide some basic tools to help combat the racism and apathy that creates so much hardship in our world.

San Antonio Seminar Cancelled

The Insight Seminar scheduled for San Antonio has been cancelled due to low enrollment. I will still be in San Antonio for the week to meet with some local church leaders and other people interested in the seminars. We hope to plan another seminar in the future, after analyzing what happened this time around - what did we do wrong/what did we do well/how can we improve?

More information on the Africa seminars coming soon!

Africa Seminar Update

We have confirmed the dates for the seminars in Africa:

•  March 6-11 we have an English seminar in Mozambique for various organizations and English-speaking locals.
• March 20-15 we have a Portugese seminar, also in Mozambique, for local church and community leaders.
• April 3-8 we have an English seminar in South Africa for local leaders and organizations.

Things are getting put in place! Now I just have to confirm my travel arrangements...

NMC Expenses and Follow-Up

Happy New Year!

It appears the holidays kept me a bit more distracted than I had anticipated. I was planning to post the expenses for the Lexington, KY trip in November after the National Missionary Convention, but I see it is now the 1st of January. My apologies.

I have the totals for the November convention expenses, and a quick summary of how things went at the convention:

NMC Expenses:
Transportation: $518.00
Lodging: $449.16
Food: $85.90
Misc: $89.00*
TOTAL: $1097.56

*Misc. expenses include cash food purchases and other untracked items. As not all misc. expenses may be convention-related, the final total only includes half of these expenses.

Post-Convention Debrief:

Going into the convention, I had three main goals:

• Meet with organizations that have expressed interest in seminars to see if they would like to pilot a seminar.
• Identify new organizations who express interest in the seminar.
• Identify organizations with resources that can help Insight International advance or promote the seminars.

So how did we do? Pretty well, I think.

During the convention, I was able to follow up with organizations that have expressed interest in the seminars in the past. As we expected, there was a unspoken concern regarding the effectiveness of the seminars. Everyone was too polite to straight out ask us to prove our claims (that the seminars create lasting change in the participants's perspectives and lives), but the implication was clear. This was far from discouraging, however, as we expected this response, and most people still seemed interested in the potential to do what we claim. We just need to provide some "proof-of-concept" in order to get people on board. I think the data we gather in the 2011 seminars will help us tremendously in providing the kind of data these organizations were looking for.

I also identified a few organizations who may benefit from the seminars in the future. I plan to keep their contact information and speak with them again once we gather some of the aforementioned data. For the most part, I looked for education-focused or lifestyle-focused organizations, including orphanages and inner city missions. Many of these organizations have programs that could benefit from using the seminars as a foundation. I have also targeted a few select colleges to ask to sponsor or host pilot seminars.

Finally, I have identified several organizations whose resources can help us. These fall into two main categories: logistics (travel agencies, insurance, etc.), and what I will call "networking" groups - groups which help other organizations coordinate and share resources in the field. The first can help us keep overhead down or give us access to better resources - the latter can put us in contact with additional organizations who may need the seminars.

Eventually, I plan to invite representatives from various organizations to pilot seminars over the next several years. I find it is much easier to explain why the seminars are important once someone sees what the seminars actually do. Once we get through our first seminar in San Antonio (see below), we will start planning additional seminars based on the feedback we receive there.

That's the end of the convention summary - it was a great experience, and I look forward to going back next year armed with some real data from the 2011 seminars. The first of these is coming fast - our San Antonio leadership seminar hosted by the Heart of Texas Evangelistic Association (HOTEA). The seminar is scheduled for February 9-13. Registration will be available on the Insight International website; there is a $295 registration fee that covers the seminar, lunch and snacks for all five days. Registration will be capped at 30 people on a first-come, first-served basis. We will have a standby list for anyone who is interested but registers after we have reached capacity. More information coming soon on the Insight International website.

Have a happy new year, everyone!

October Expense Report

Rather a gloomy title, from my point of view, but since we are a non-profit organization, it is important to keep expenses in perspective. In this month's edition, we have two sets of expenses - one for expenses incurred, and one for projected expenses.

Let's start with what I have already incurred: my move to Wyoming. This move was a result of our need to staff our office in Torrington. Being the most mobile, I was chosen to move up north and help set things up. As I have normal monthly living expenses I pay for out of my regular salary, expenses such as food, rent, etc. will be excluded from this list. The primary expenses, then, are:

1. Hotel expenses (during the trip north) - $243
2. Gas costs (for the car) - $111
3. Startup costs (setup costs for a new internet connection, utilities setup, etc.) - $252
4. Shipping costs (for the things I could not fit in my car) - $240

Total:  $846

Overall, not taking much with me proved to be a good way to save money on the trip. The cost was far less than I anticipated, which is great for my savings.

Now for the projected expenses. As part of my work with Safari Insight Mission (Insight International's parent organization), I am working at the National Missionary Convention. This year, it is in Lexington, Kentucky. So far, I have estimated my expenses as follows:

1. Lodging (confirmed): $449
2. Air travel (confirmed): $368
3. Food (estimated): $150
4. No car rental (walking is healthy, I hear): $0

Total: $967

So there's the bad news. The good news is that we are planning seminars for San Antonio, TX (February), South Africa (March), Mozambique (April), and are now starting planning for another seminar in Haiti (June). So far, we are adding a new seminar every couple of months. Let's hope we can keep this up!

As we determine the costs of seminar presentations in these different areas, I will post the estimates. I think it is important to see how we are spending our money, and it useful for those who want to contribute. On that note, we have not fully established our system for accepting contributions yet, but plan to have that complete in November. I'll keep you posted.