India 2.0

My son Zach and I leave for India this Thursday! This will be my 10th mission trip there, but will be an entirely new experience for me because I will be sharing it with my son. We are both incredibly excited!

We leave very early on Thursday from our respective airports (he from Ft. Lauderdale, me from Pensacola) and will connect in Dallas for the flight together to Dubai, and then on to Hyderabad.

As I have been preparing for the upcoming trip, I came up with a list of what I am looking forward to:

• My son will be joining me, and we will get to experience the India I have grown to love... Together!
• We will be conducting medical camps in remote villages in the Himalayan mountains.
• We will once again partner with Pastor Daniel Kalyanapu of Ecclesia Ministries.
• I will have the opportunity to preach God's Word to non-Christians and see them come to Christ, and pray for the sick and crippled, seeing God work miracles.
• My son will be filming a documentary of the work in India.
• I will rekindle the relationships I have developed with friends, pastors, doctors, and the Indian people whom I minister alongside of.
• The noise, the smells, the people, the experience of India.
• We will be extending the work of the two ministries I am connected to here in the US: GraceChurch, and Immanuel's Church.
• Great Indian food! (Although my wife has become quite the Indian Culinary Master.)
• The time spent with my son will be invaluable...

If I haven't already mentioned it, we are both incredibly excited!

Thank you to those who have supported this endeavor financially. Thank you to those who are praying for my son and myself.

 

Follow our trip right here on this Blog. I will be updating regularly.

 

It is going to be a great trip and a great time of ministry!

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

Suitcases

(Please click and read this personal word from me about my India Mission Trip.)

There is a lot of traveling happening among my immediate family over the next few weeks. My oldest Son is going to South Florida this week. My wife is going to visit her family in Tennessee in a few weeks. My other son and I are traveling to India next week.

This makes for a complicated situation with our suitcases. We need to make sure that all of us have adequate suitcase space for our respective trips. And so a bit of creative suitcase juggling is going on at Catamaran Manor (our home).

Suitcases are an interesting thing. The first known suitcase made its maiden voyage in 1897. Since then there have been many suitcase developments.

There have been buckskin packs, steamer trunks, hat boxes, Pullmans, soft sides, semi-soft, matching sets, garment bags, fanny-packs (really...), rolling, spinners, backpacks, duffel bags, brief cases, and carbon fiber carry-ons. They all have one thing in common: They carry our stuff when we travel.

(There is even the vintage Fender Rhodes 73 MK 1 Suitcase Electric Piano, named that way because the entire instrument packs up as a suitcase for easy transport between gigs.)

We fill them, weigh them, measure them, carry them, pull them, stow them overhead, and live out of them.

Yes, for those who travel the suitcase is a necessity.

Similarly, our minds are like suitcases. They carry our ideas, our imaginations, our solutions, and our dreams.

They come in different sizes and configurations. Some are soft, while others are strong. Some have a large capacity. Others hold very little. Some are weathered and worn. Others are kept in the closet and hardly used.

How do you 'pack' your mind? Do you fill it with valuables? Do you only hold 'fluff'? Do you stuff yours full, continually adding more and more?

Question: What type of suitcase would you compare your mind to? Share your thoughts below in 'comments'.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

Between The Lines

(Please click and read this personal word from me about my India Mission Trip.)

As I was driving home yesterday evening after work, I saw the evidence where a vehicle had run off the road and crashed into a wooden fence. A nice, clean "front-end-sized" hole had been punched through the barrier, but it appeared to be a drive-away situation where no one was hurt.

I reflected on the scene as I continued to drive, and the phrase between the lines crossed my mind. It was obvious that the driver of the previously mentioned vehicle did not stay between the lines.

In the not so distant past another phrase was making the rounds as a description of creativity (as an alternative to the overused phrase out-of-the-box): Outside the lines. As in "he colors outside the lines".

Why I thought of the phrase between the lines was this: The driver had not stayed there. Rather, he (or she) had strayed from the imaginary protection of the painted lines on the asphalt and ventured into unsafe territory.

As in this case, sometimes it's okay (or even better) to stay between the lines.

In sports, straying outside the lines has different consequences: In football, the play is over and the ball is spotted at the point of crossing. In basketball, possession is forfeited. In baseball, the ball becomes foul instead of fair. In track, disqualification.

What about in creating?

Pure creativity has to begin somewhere. I believe it starts between the lines, and then evolves. In music, a melody or a chord. In painting, colors and canvas. In writing, words and phrases.

Sometimes creativity pushes boundaries. Sometimes it steps over them. Sometimes it establishes new boundaries.

What do you do to create? Where do you start? Where do you end up?

Question: Can a person be creative and stay between the lines? Share your thoughts below in 'comments'.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

Go With What You Know

(Please click and read this personal word from me about my India Mission Trip.)

A few years ago I was visiting at the home a member of our Worship Ministry where I was the Worship Arts Pastor. Antonio Acevedo was one of our bass players, and he had invited me to a gathering of the Hispanic Ministry, where he and his wife were on the leadership team.

More than 70 people were eating and enjoying conversations in their backyard, and Spanish was the language of choice for the afternoon. As I looked around at the assembled crowd, I realized that I was the only Gringo of the gathering.

The menu was Puerto Rican, Guatemalan, and Salvadorian. The food was fabulous, the laughter was loud, and the sharing of stories was superb. (At least I assumed that stories were being shared. Remember, everything was in Spanish...)

As the afternoon began to move towards evening, "Tony" got together an impromptu band to lead the people in the singing of some worship songs. Tony chose to play the guitar, and a drummer, percussionist and another guitar player rounded out the group. A bass player was needed, and I was drafted.

As all musicians know that it is difficult to refuse a gig, I quickly agreed to jump in. Donning Tony's bass guitar, we tuned up and got ready to play. Tony told me that we were going to play Hispanic worship songs that I probably wasn't familiar with, but not to worry: He would call out the chords to me as we played.

Tony kept his word and turned towards me at the beginning of each phrase and called out the chords. But there was a problem: He was calling out the chords in Spanish!

Now I know a handful of words and phrases in Spanish, but the alphabet is not held in that hand. I found myself needing a solution on the fly.

Instead of feeling frustrated or lost, my creativity kicked in. I found myself relying on my musical ear to follow and anticipate the chord changes, rather than my physical ear to hear Tony calling out what chords to play.

The music flowed, the people sang, and the worship was rich. My experience and creativity was put to the test, and I was able to hang in with the band.

Not only did I survive the foreign language musical experience, I was invited back to play for the Hispanic Ministry's next gathering. Whew!

Why do I share this story?

All of us find ourselves in situations where the available resources are inadequate, and we don't have the luxury of proper preparation to accomplish our task. You will be forced to go with what you know. Don't be strangled by those situations, but rather embrace the task and rely on your experience and creativity to propel you through.

Question: When have you been required to go with what you know? Share your thoughts below in 'comments'.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

Running On Someone Else's Beach

(Please click and read this personal word from me about my India Mission Trip.)

One morning in February 2007, I was out for a run along the beach. It wasn't the Gulf of Mexico, but rather the Indian Ocean on the southeast coast of India.

Just two years before, the great Christmas Tsunami had ravaged the coastline of this part of India, bringing unimaginable devastation to the town of Mahabalipuram.

As the miles and the coastal fishing villages passed by me, the signs were evident everywhere: Empty shells of buildings, water lines over 12 feet up the trunks of palm trees, and bare foundations where homes once stood. It was was sobering to even the most optimistic of people.

The devastation and destruction were great, but life continued. Boats were repaired, nets were mended, and fishermen engaged in their generations-old practice of challenging the sea for their sustenance. 

What I learned later was this: The fishermen weren't the only ones who suffered at the hands of the Christmas Tsunami. It was the farmers who had an even greater challenge because the seawater pushed inland, in some places for miles, effectively poisoning the fertile farmland for years.

Bare brown land was all that was visible, but to the farmers who depended on that same land, they saw the end of life.

Media coverage of the Tsunami devastation was focused on resorts and places of wealth. Most of the news reports were limited to westerners who had their vacations interrupted.

I did not hear about the fishing village devastation from the media. I had to experience it firsthand as I ran along the beach. The farming losses were not visible to me, but were only brought to my attention by the locals. Had I not been there, I would have remained ignorant of the real plight of the people there.

What can I bring to us from this story:

• We must look deeper than what is seen by those who feed us information.
• We need to look further than what is visible on the surface.
• People who live outside of our worlds deal with the realities of life everyday also.
• Sometimes it's good to get off of our treadmills and run on someone else's beach.

Question: What have you seen as you have run on someone else's beach? Share your thoughts below in 'comments'.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

Energy And Creativity

(Please click and read this personal word from me about my India Mission Trip.)

Energy and Creativity. Not creative energy sources. Not energetic creative ideas. Just Energy and Creativity.

They go hand in hand. Where there is energy, one can usually find creativity. And where there is creativity, one can usually find energy.

The two seem to find themselves inseparable when around me. I am the most creative when I am rested, focused, and with plenty of energy. I find myself gaining energy when I am creating.

On the other side of this, when I am tired I seem to be unable to produce a good idea. (Although when one squeezes its way into my mind, I begin to see my energy level rise...)

Most Creatives will affirm that when they are in their creative zone, time seems to stop, and the ideas are endless. Before they realize it, they are well past the time they began, and they never realized how "late" it became.

So get some rest, get refreshed, and create!

Question: Is there a correlation between Energy and Creativity in your life? Share your thoughts below in 'comments'.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

Questions And Answers

(Please click and read this personal word from me about my India Mission Trip.)

I have come to understand that you can tell more about a person by the questions they ask, rather than by the answers they give.

Answers demonstrate knowledge (or lack of it), while questions demonstrate attention, curiosity, and wonder.

Interviewers ask: What would you like to ask me about the position? to get a glimpse of the motives and focus of the interviewee. Teachers ask: Any questions? not only to clarify comprehension, but to gauge their student's depth of understanding.

Wise listeners look beyond mere statements in conversations and discern a deeper level of communication by paying attention to what is being asked.

The person who asks questions like: How did you feel about that? and What was your response? will generally be thought of as a good listener. At the same time, the person who responds to the other's statements with their own comment or story will be lost in the sea of mediocrity.

Bottom line: Listen to what is being asked at least as much as what is being said. Your understanding of people will ultimately grow.

Question: What do you discern from the questions people ask? Share your thoughts below in comments.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

Creativity Frustration

(Please click and read this personal word from me about my upcoming India Mission Trip.)

I am at my Yamaha S90 keyboard, trying to learn and use a new software music program on my MacBook Pro. But it's not working and I'm frustrated.

I want to immediately begin making music, but I'm limited because I don't know the program I'm working with.

I started reading the documentation. It contains over 120 pages, most of which are for more advanced functions than I want to put to use right now. I just want to make music.

I found myself staying up late last night trying to make it work, and had to force myself to go to bed. (I seek to be responsible and desire to do be the best I can at my job.) I could have stayed up all night and probably made huge advances on my new music software. But I didn't. And I'm still frustrated.

The creator me is in conflict with the practical me. Creator me says: Make music! Practical me says: Master the new program and you can make more music! Arrrrr!

I believe that most of us periodically feel that conflict. We want to create, but other things keep us from creating (including learning new software programs). And so we will continually feel the tension between the creator me and the practical me that resides within us all.

I like to think of it as Creativity Frustration. It's a real experience that all of us walk through. It's also something that can be beneficial.

In our tension of wanting to create but being restricted by the practical, we have the opportunity to seek creative alternatives that will allow us to move into the realm of creativity. Solving practical problems is a form of creativity. And in essence we are being creative as we solve those problems, thus freeing us up to be creative!

Question: What could I do that will help me learn the new music program quicker? (I'd like your help...) Share your thoughts below in comments.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

A Personal Word From Brad...

I had hoped it would never come to this, but I am compelled to share something with you. As much as I want to avoid doing this, I can't keep it to myself any longer.

I need to raise money for my India mission trip. Please continue reading...

The first time I went to India, I fell in love with the people, the country, and the Father's heart for the Indian people. Now ten journeys later, my heart is even more drawn to minister there.

When I took my previous ministry trips to India, I was one of 13 full-time pastors on the leadership team of a very large church. A few weeks before I would leave for India, the Senior Pastor would appeal to the congregation to support me. In one offering enough money would be collected to pay for my expenses, plus I was able to take the extra to give away to the local village pastors. (For which I am very grateful.)

Now I work in an insurance agency to support my family while assisting a pastor friend at his church of 50 people. They have neither the people nor the resources to provide financial assistance for my trip.

I have exhausted our personal savings in purchasing airline tickets, but am still faced with in-country travel expenses, lodging expenses, a visa for my son, and other miscellaneous expenses for the trip.

Yes, I am excited that my son Zach will be joining me to minister, but it also means twice the expense.

Once again I will be partnering with Pastor Daniel Kalyalapu, preaching and praying for people in crusades in and around Kazipet, as well as ministering in Pastor Daniel's church.

The bulk of the trip will be spent leading a medical team into unreached villages in Punjab and Kashmir, where we will be in predominately Muslim areas where there is no Christian witness.

This is my favorite part of ministering in India: Going where the people have never heard the name Jesus, and sharing God's love with them. There is much terrorism in this region of India, but being right in the middle of that is where we want to be.

I know that you will participate by praying for my son and me as we travel to India on March 7-23. I hope you will consider participating financially also.

You can do so by clicking the "Donate" button to the upper right, sending a contribution to my church: GraceChurch, 218 Eglin Pkwy. NE, Ft. Walton Bch, FL 32547 (a giving statement will be sent to you), or by sending a contribution directly to me: 1913 Catamaran Dr, Navarre, FL 32566. (If you do send a check, please write 'Brad - India' in the memo line.)

Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

Advice for 2013

(You can receive this Blog via email by entering your address on the right.)

Question: What is your advice for creatives in 2013? Share your thoughts below in 'comments'.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.

Deck The Halls

(You can receive this Blog via email by entering your address on the right.)

Do you Deck The Halls for Christmas at your house? Do you decorate cookies? Trim a Christmas tree?

Have you ever considered the purpose of decorating? (And not just for Christmas, but decorating in general?)

Allow me to offer that the purpose of decorating is to enhance what's already there. A tree with ornaments and lights, a cookie with frosting and sprinkles, a door with a wreath.

And even more at other times of the year and in other situations: A cake for a birthday, new paint and curtains in a room, makeup and clothing for people.

No matter how much decoration we provide, it's still what's 'underneath' that's important. A dead tree will eventually dry up, no matter how beautifully it's adorned. A poorly constructed house will quickly deteriorate, even with layers of fresh paint. Clothing and makeup? You can't cover bad character.

And then there's this incredible story about decoration:

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:11-12)

A baby, wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger.

Hmmm... It appears that here the one being decorated far outshines the decoration. In fact, no matter what He would have been "wrapped" in, it could never enhance who He is. It could never improve Him. It could never create a more attractive Savior.

Question: Why do you Deck The Halls? Share your thoughts below in 'comments'.

If you like this post, you can re-post, 'share' it on your Facebook status, or forward it to your friends. Follow me on Twitter @bigcloudmusic if you find me interesting. Subscribe to this Blog if you'd like.