Quick update on David’s trip to Canada:

Thank you so much for praying.  I had a very fruitful time.  Shannon and the kids managed well while I was gone but as always it’s much better to be back under one roof.

Here are a few photos from the conference at Columbia Bible College – in British Columbia, that is   Directly below is the Canadian “Ops Team” – about nine full time staff devoted to providing operational excellence for all of their campus missionaries.  In total, Campus for Christ Canada has about 160 staff on campus.

Joshua Wong is one of the trainers on the Ops Team.  He facilitated several excellent seminars on Social Media, Team Collaboration and Digital Basics.

We learned so much!!  The teams in Canada are trusting the Lord for huge things.  It was great to see them so eager to share ideas.  They’ve really created a good learning environment for their teams.

Want to hear some of their secrets? I made a short list of their good habits – very simple stuff which could help any team!  See the short list here.

I’ve also posted a video clip.  See it here.

We spent part of one day sightseeing.  See these photos here.

In this short video, you can get feel for how the Canadian campus staff do their operations training.

Russ Martin – director of campus operations in Canada – talks about some very simple habits his staff have developed:

• For a team to function well, there must be smooth, well defined modes of communication.
• Sharing ideas – even sharing failures – is a must for collaboration.
• One team can learn so much from other teams.  Ideas should not be hidden.  Wheels should not be re-invented.
• A threaded conversation (such as a message board or Facebook wall posts) is often most effective for sharing ideas.
• Russ trains his staff to use a threaded conversation rather than email in most cases.
• Canadian teams have common resource pools online where they can all share documents.
• Using online documents such as Google Docs provides a great solution for saving meeting notes.
• Rather than emailing a document as an attachment, the Canadians upload the document to a common resource pool and then share the link.  Subtle but powerful difference.

All these practices tend to reduce email inbox overload and promote the highest level of interactivity and sharing. Can all this help increase capacity of field teams to reach more people for Christ?  You bet!  It’s happening even now in Canada.

All of the Canadian teams use Google Docs.  If anything, this has been their “killer app” – the tool which has been the most helpful to enhance team communications.  Google Apps for Non Profits has also been a huge boost for them.  These tools are free, easy to deploy, easy to use and allow ultra fast sharing of critical resources.

Here’s the direct link to the video.

Here at the international headquarters for Campus Cruasde, we’re two of about 900 staff who serve in a wide variety of administrative capacities.  Our team is the Global Technology Office – helping ministry teams integrate technology into their mission.  Here’s a quick video we made showing the 25 staff on our team, our vision for ministry and the people we serve:

Here’s the direct link to the video on YouTube.

You make our outreach and service through the GTO possible!  Thank you!

To learn more …

• Our team web site
• Our team prayer calendar
• Facebook Application developed by our team (quick video)
• More videos done by our office

Toby is one of about 3 Million Americans who have Type 1 Diabetes. Last week we took the whole family to a two day conference here in town sponsored by Children with Diabetes.  It was an excellent education event geared towards helping families learn about Diabetes together and grow in confidence in dealing with it.

Shannon and I left with our heads chock full of new information.  The kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.  I think they all learned a lot just by being around other diabetic kids – watching them stop periodically to do their own blood sugar checks.  A couple days after the conference Toby, without fanfare, just started doing his own blood checks – it’s done via a finger prick and electronic meter device.  He does it like a pro now.

Even though we heard very good medical descriptions of what Diabetes is and how to manage it, this video below is by far the best explanation we’ve come across yet for Type 1.   Several common misconceptions are dispelled.  This is a very cute six year old girl explaining Diabetes in plain English!
Would you take 2 minutes to watch this?  It’ll make you smile and you’ll know a little more of how to pray for Toby:

Here’s the direct link to the video on YouTube.

We’ve got an appointment with Toby’s pediatric endocrinologist this morning.  It’s been four days since he came home from the hospital and actually he’s doing fantastic.  The shots are still … well, shots but Toby seems to be tolerating them like a man at this point.

Please pray that the doctor keeps him on the same schedule for shots and that his glucose levels have been acceptable.  Pray too that we can learn as much as possible about how to care for Toby.

Photo:   Our new world of syringes, glucose monitoring, log book, and meal planning. We’re learning about stuff that we couldn’t even spell last week! God’s good though. Nice that we don’t have to learn it all in one day.

Well, even though school’s out for summer we still got quite an education this week:  After an emergency visit to the hospital on Tuesday, we found out that Toby (just turned 6 last month) has Type 1 Diabetes. Wow is right.

Although there are no surprises for the Lord, this pretty much came out of nowhere for all of us.  Toby has always been very healthy.  A good eater too – he actually loves his vegetables.

A couple weeks ago we started noticing Toby was drinking water like a fish.  He was thirsty all the time. Earlier this week, he became extremely lethargic too.  Not complaining too much but he was not a normal 6yr old running around everywhere. He would get up in the morning, eat breakfast and then was totally zapped – just would lay down on the floor and not want to move.

Finally we decided to call his pediatrician and she suggested we bring him in for a look that same afternoon.  By this time, Toby really wasn’t feeling well at all and he even looked chalky white – kinda like the boy Elliot in the movie E.T. when E.T. got sick and was on life support.  Later in the ER, Toby was wearing one of those pulse-O2 meters on his finger – it glows with red light. Then he really looked like E.T. and Elliot together!

Oh, so how did we get to the ER? In the ambulance! Toby actually enjoyed seeing the fire truck and ambulance both show up at his pediatrician’s office. After she did a quick couple of tests, Toby’s doctor realized that there was a strong possibility that he was having a serious diabetic induced condition or possibly something worse. His blood sugar levels at the ped’s office were more than 7X what a normal kid should have. “I’ve never seen a kid with it that high,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable letting you drive him to the hospital so let me call the ambulance and not waste any time.”

The ER doctors at Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital confirmed what our pediatrician had said:  His body was basically shutting down because of absolutely no insulin in his system.

Insulin: We’re learning lots about that!

Insulin Fact One:   Your pancreas manufactures it to help your cells unlock sugar energy from the food you eat. Without it, you will eventually die.

Insulin Fact Two:   People with Type 1 Diabetes (including Toby) do not produce insulin.

Insulin Fact Three:  A large majority of diabetes cases (about 90%) are Type 2. In this case their bodies do still produce some insulin.

Insulin Fact Four:   Daily injections of insulin are needed. Yep, Toby gets to have 3 or 5 shots a day. For the rest of his life. I write this almost fesiciously because it really hasn’t sunk in yet. I mean what 6yr old (or 60yr old for that matter) enjoys getting needle stuck every day forever?

Insulin Fact Five: If he takes his shots as prescribed, Toby will lead a quite normal life. Some dietary rules will need to be watched very closely but he can eat all the same foods, play sports, bother his sisters, etc. The ER doc reminded me NFL quarterback Jay Cutler is type1 diabetic.  So Toby’s future NFL career is not in jeopardy.

Toby actually spent the night in the ICU.  But the doctors there were able to stabilize him soon with IV insulin. So many of you have been praying for him and definitely the Lord has been carrying all of us.  We’ve felt a lot of peace and Toby started looking better after a few hours.  Praise the Lord, he’s definitely going to be OK!

After what seemed like weeks to Toby, they allowed him to eat again. Even hospital pizza brought a big smile to his face:

Prayer Requests:

^  Thank the Lord for extending Toby’s life. Thank Him for insulin, the peace He’s brought us, Toby’s great attitude, and for all of this to happen during the summer – when we’re not in as rushed of a schedule.  Also, thank you God that this did not happen during one of our long road trips.

^  Pray for “the shots.” Toby doesn’t look forward to them. Neither do his parents, who’ll be giving them to him 3 or 5 times a day.  The Lord may not make this enjoyable for us.  At this point we look forward to a day when we “get used to it” but it may never be enjoyed.  But DO pray for us to be very aware of the grace God gives us.  Ask the Lord to open even more avenues of grace and peace to us.

^  Pray against discouragement and against the train of thought that leads down the “I can’t” or “what if” dark, doubtful path.

^  Ask the Lord to help me and Shannon learn more about all the tons of details of caring for a diabetic child:  Diet, preparing meals correctly, giving the shots, testing his blood sugar, preparing the insulin, keeping a good routine, etc.

See more photos here:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=37987342&l=bc2982acab&id=12809211

I’m currently reading Dr. Tim Keller’s book “The Reason for God“ and it is excellent!  He wrote the book to try to encapsulate several long standing questions that have been posed regarding general belief in God.  Keller says that living in New York City for over 20 years has convinced him that the majority of people – no matter how much or little they believe – usually dwell on at least a few of these questions at some point during their lives.

Several months ago Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, was invited to Google headquarters in California to talk about his book. Here is the video captured at the “Authors at Google” presentation with Keller:

The direct link to the video above is:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxup3OS5ZhQ&feature=player_embedded

Also check out our post from last July when we heard Tim Keller speak at our Campus Crusade training conference.

Every month, our team here at the Global Technology Office conglomerates all our prayer requests and publishes them here:  www.mygcx.org/PrayforGTO

Would you pick out a couple of requests and pray for them on the appropriate days?  Thanks!

Our prayer requests include a praise for a new sister in Christ, requests for a new system administrator to join our team and requests for one of our teammates and family going on a summer mission trip.

Just visit this link for a printable calendar (download pdf file).

The April prayer calendar also has a couple more photos plus more details which might help form a little context around May’s prayer requests.

The kids are not usually early risers.  But believe it or not, they all rolled out of bed immediately at 6am earlier this week to hurry down the street to our favorite viewing location for the Shuttle Launch. Cool video. Clearly visible for entire 8 minute burn of main engines. Lights up the whole early morning sky:

Trouble viewing video above?  If you’re recieved this post as an email, and you are reading it in an email program, you might try this link instead:  http://www.facebook.com/v/667284135209

Wow, good morning to you to!! Wouldn’t you like to be greeted at the entrance like this everyday?