Jim and I had a long week of staff meetings planning for 2010 CityConnexx.org short-term mission trips. So we decided to take Friday afternoon off and do what we love to do to unwind - "Go Golfing". It's a bit like Jesus and the disciples. When they needed a break they "went fishing" (John 21).So we loaded up the clubs in the van and headed to Applewood. They paired us up with Bill and his wife. On the fifth hole, Bill had a putt that didn't quite go his way. He threw out a few profanities and s...

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It was 7:00am on a beautiful day in Vancouver BC, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.   We pulled around the back of the church parking lot, ready to start a full day of Executive Training for our urban partners and to wake up the CityConnexx short-term missions team that was sleeping in the basement.    I was just coming to work, she was just leaving work. The streets were already busy and never sleep for a depressed neighborhood like this. She was just leaving the front ste...

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I took a call this week from a college youth pastor in Oklahoma who wanted to join us on a CityConnexx urban missions trip to Denver over spring break and had an interesting request. He asked, "Dean do you think it would be possible for my group to ski while we'll be serving in Colorado?" Immediately a light bulb went off in my head for these custom designed unique service projects. "Yea, I responded, I like that idea. We always have some free time built into our missions trips to see local att...

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I flew into Chicago Midway partly to save money on my way to spend a few days with one of our partners in Grand Rapids. I've driven down Cicero and 55th Ave many times on this South Side of Chicago, but never one week after an historic national election.As you might imagine, dark blue Obama yard signs were everywhere along the city streets. Most of them were next to apartment low income housing that had no grass growing in the postage stamp sized yards. I was driving through the hood that sent a...

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Because of City Connexx and YPN (YouthPartnersNet), we have developedan ongoing relationship with one of the churches we hosted during thesummer of 2008. This church came through with about 35 volunteer'smostly all youth and helped us by building a sound booth, groundskeeping, painting and community outreaches. Thanks to City Connexx wewere able to stay in touch with this church group and have a on-goingrelationship. After the group went back home, I was able to go down andvisit some youth along...

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