Back at it.

I can hardly believe it has been 6 weeks since I last wrote here. My writing tends to be sporadic. I get inspired and am more prolific for a bit and then for a period under the weight of other demands and deadlines I have a hard time getting my head into writing.

Over the last six weeks I spent time both in El Paso, TX and in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In one way, these both were artsy trips. In El Paso, I spent a couple days with friend and fellow board member, Geronimo Garcia at his cool company Geronimo Design Inc. We worked on how to get the word out about Ascending Leaders in 2011. You will begin to see results of our work in a month or two. Our HighPoint this month will be our first release of some of the results of these fun couple days together.

While in West Michigan, I was at a conference in Grand Rapids at the same time that “ArtPrize” was coming to a close. ArtPrize is a rather cool period of several weeks during which artwork of many different types are set up around the urban landscape of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Artist of various ability and experience can enter their art. People can vote on the art they like best. At the end, there are several divisional winners and one winner of the grand prize of $250,000. The winner revealed something about the art taste of west Michigan—a huge mural of a picture from a war gone by. The whole thing was done in pencil.

The conference I was there for was that of Partners Worldwide. They had 400 business people from around the world to talk about issues about how Christian businesspeople could use their acquired knowhow to mentor business men and women in developing countries. Why would Ascending Leaders be represented at a conference like that? Spiritual growth is an important piece of Christian business mentoring, both for the mentors and mentees and that is what we are stellar at.

A friend, Terry Butler, was there showing off something that bridged both the artprize world and the partners worldwide. He was showing off Dynablock—a machine that can fit on a single axle trailer (yes he pulled it from Iowa behind his truck) and can make blocks something like cinder blocks on site. It saves lots of transportation issues and costs of ordering and shipping cinder blocks for construction. I first heard about this machine 4 years ago when I was first introduced to Terry. It is a wonder for construction—especially useful in developing countries. It is a practical work of art itself. Terry is creatively thinking of including a copy of Ascending Leaders Thriving Love with the instruction manual of each machine sold. That will be an interesting mix.

While in Grand Rapids, Michigan I taught a 3 day class on discipleship at Calvin Seminary. It was a great experience for the 11 students and myself. The first morning we began sitting in classic lecture style. By the last day of class students were sitting in pods of triads going deep together. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I quite possibly got more out of it than they did, though several students have communicated how much they got out of the experience.

Coming soon: another question from my young seminarian friend.