This and That, April 2010

Sometimes, when I run into old friends around town, they ask "what are you up to these days?" and I get a little tongue-tied... there is no short answer to that question. So periodically I try to post the latest projects here that I'm working on. Thanks for caring...

Articles: I've had two articles posted this month, and another one is coming soon.

• "Meet the Parents" -- Fuller (Seminary) Youth Institute E-Journal. This is actually a two-part article. Part two will talk through the details of how to put on a year-long seminar series for parents.


• "Endless Summer" -- YMToday.com, a publication of Memphis Seminary. They asked me to write an article on how to map out a ministry strategy for summer youth ministry.

I am glad to write for both of these publications, because I am so impressed with the breadth and depth of resources they offer.

Overflow Conference, April 22-24, Orlando, Florida for Eden Reforestation Projects: I was asked last September to come out to this conference and talk with the attendees about our work. It was hosted by the Free Methodist Churches of the East Coast, and there were over 1,000 there. This was a wonderful (and quite exhausting) time. I brought Alexandra, a former student who now works with me in Eden Reforestation as our publicist. Though we were located literally across the street from Universal Studios' City Walk, we never left the hotel! We spent the entire weekend staffing an info booth, and talked with hundreds of folks who came from Maine to Louisiana. On Friday night I shared for 5 minutes about the work of Eden in Ethiopia and Madagascar (we hit the 10 million trees planted mark in March) and how we are expanding into Haiti more extensively in June. Over $7,000 was raised for the work in a special offering, and over 200 gave us contact information because they wanted to hear more.

This has been a VERY busy month for Eden. We hosted info tables at Earth Day festivals in Santa Barbara, Isla Vista, and Mercer Island (WA), school assemblies in Manhattan Beach, and a church missions fair in Lake Elsinore. We were also asked to table at Earth Day festivals in Solvang and at UCSB, but just couldn't be in two places at once. We're stoked at the interest everywhere we go. The Earth Day fest in Santa Barbara raised over $800 just through coin donations, and hundreds of contacts signed up with us at all of these venues.

I was also able to connect us with Brite Revolution, a socially-responsible music download site. Support them -- they are amazing. They featured us as their "Cause of the Month." So cool.

I'm also working on an application for a $50,000 grant (due June 1) so we can start up a training nursery in Ethiopia. Praying this can happen -- we have a unique opportunity to train nationals from all over Ethiopia who want to start more tree seedling nurseries in their country. This could extend the work of Eden Reforestation and our pace of reforestation exponentially.

Night of Worship, April 25: After a good night's sleep and a wonderful morning of worship at church and lunch afterward with friends, I went to an all-city night of worship for youth. The coolest part of this evening was that it was planned and led by teenagers themselves. The worship band was 9 students from various youth groups around town, who pulled together 100% on their own and put together a 15-song set that truly blessed those of us there. I was deeply moved by the authenticity of worship, song and sharing. They led us well. I spoke for about 20 minutes halfway through the time. It was a delight to be with at least a dozen students from my old youth group too. Oh how I love them.

Youth Ministry Consulting with Youth Ministry Architects: I am working with a fun variety of churches -- a Christian Reformed church in Illinois, a Presbyterian church near Seattle, a Free Methodist church in So Cal, and a dear non-denominational church in Central Cal. I am impressed by the faithful and tireless service of church members everywhere I go. I will return to the Seattle area church in May for an on-site consulting visit.

Westmont College Mayterm 2010: I am returning again to teach this class, May 10-June 10. Currently 8 students are signed up, and will serve in internships with Habitat for Humanity, local churches, housing projects in poor neighborhoods, Providence Hall High School and Cottage Hospital. My course will talk about how to integrate their faith with their work in these projects.

Providence Hall High School: I am close to completing my first full year there. I am currently working on some special projects for the Headmaster, Dr. David Winter, along with my regular responsibilities as the Campus Pastor. I will return there for the next school year as well. I am currently teaching a series that reflects on the UN Millenium Goals to End Poverty, and how we as believers are equipped (and called) to pursue these goals in ways far more powerful than the UN. We've talked about poverty & hunger and combating HIV/AIDS and malaria so far.

Pastoral Coaching with Free Methodist Churches of Southern CA: I finished recently with 3 churches, but took on 4 more this winter. I also have 3 others I'll start with in June. I cannot believe how much I enjoy this! The broad diversity of the church is impressive and so exciting! I'm working with pastors who are ministering with immigrants, 2nd generation Latinos, the homeless, African-American families, Millenials, skaters... and just a bunch of families trying to make it in a challenging economy. I am growing in so many ways by working with these pastors.

For FUN! I have a bunch of things I'm looking forward to in the next few months...

• a new kitten (shhh.... stay tuned)


• James Taylor & Carole King concert at the Santa Barbara County Bowl on May 18


• Prairie Home Companion Live Show at SB County Bowl, June 5


• ALASKA!! More beloved national parks adding to the life list...June 23-July 3


• Sequoia National Park with the Loomers, July


• Camping with my niece and nephew at Montana de Oro State Park, August

It's a good life. These verses from this morning sum up how I feel:

By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:8)

Sustainable Stocking Stuffers from Eden Reforestation Projects!

I bet you're just starting to think about what to get everyone for Christmas. I won't go on a rant about how much money is spent on mindless gifts. You know all that rot already. Instead, I'll just share a sustainable, tax-deductible, life-giving gift option for you.

For each $5 you give to Eden Reforestation Projects, you can then take the graphics on this post, right click or save 'em or whatever and print them up on cardstock in your printer and hand them out to friends, family, co-workers, your paper boy, your mailman, whoever!

This is so easy, but so life-changing. Five dollars plants fifty trees in Haiti, Ethiopia or Madagascar. These trees provide jobs, shelter, renewed soil and groundwater and most importantly, HOPE.

If you would like to personalize your cards, or increase the amounts listed on your cards, just contact me by email at kelly.soifer@gmail.com, and I can send you the MS Word doc for you to make an insertions or adjustments.

Instructions:

1. Go to Eden Reforestation Project's donation page.
2. If you want to just send in a check for your stocking stuffers donation, send it to the address listed in Azusa. Please write "stocking stuffers" on the envelope in the left corner.
   
3. If you would rather pay by credit card or PayPal, scroll down and select the gold "Donate" button. Fill in the TOTAL amount you want to donate based on how many stocking stuffers you want to send. For example, if you want to give 12 stocking stuffers for $5/each, that will total a gift to Eden Projects of $60. (Which plants 600 trees!!)
4. Please add the note "stocking stuffers" in the "Add special instructions for Merchant" box.

Thank you so much. We planted over 4.6 million trees this year, and our plans are to plant at least 8 million in 2010. Your gifts will give us a great jumpstart as we try to keep up with the many opportunities coming to us on the ground in Africa and Haiti.

Two more sustainable gift options through Eden Reforestation:

• Match the amount you spent on your Christmas tree with a gift to Eden. Just think -- if you spent $50 on a tree, a matching gift would plant 500 trees. (When you send your gift to us, put "matching Christmas tree" in the instructions box.)
  
• Donate $1 to Eden for every Christmas card or photo you send out. Along the bottom include in tiny print, "I donated $1 to www.edenprojects.org for every card I sent this season as a way of offsetting all the trees I killed in sending these cards :) " If you send out 100 cards, you would plant 1000 trees. That would put you well on your way to giving an entire forest to a village. (When you send your gift to us, put "holiday card offset" in the instructions box.)

P.S. Duplicate the impact of your gift by SPREADING THE WORD about this to your friends and social networks. Just send an email with a link to this post, or load up the info on your status updates on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Sept 09 Update on This 'n That ~ Part Deux

Things keep rolling along and there are fun things to update:

Eden Reforestation Projects - lots of cool stuff going on:

• This year we were able to put 1.6 million seedlings into the ground. Our collective survival rate is about 85% which is really high for reforestation work. The total in Madagascar is 2.15 million -- so our global total is 3.8 million and will likely hit 4 million. This is especially thrilling because our goal was 3 million trees planted.
• We just lined up a sponsor partnership with Simple Shoes -- until October 17 if people go to the website and select "click here to plant trees" then Eden will receive a dollar for each person who submits their email address. We're hoping people will spread this through their own social networks (hint, hint), but that will greatly broaden Eden visibility.
• I spoke last week for Eden in Long Beach at the National Superintendents' meeting for the Free Methodist Church, and am headed up to Seattle in October to speak at the Pastors' Day for the Pacific Northwest Conference of the Free Methodist church.

Youth Ministry Architects:

• I just got back last night from a 3-day project in the western suburbs of Chicago, which was a follow up from another trip in June. This one was a "visioning retreat," where we worked with a good group of folks from the church to pull together a 3-year plan for their youth ministry. I love helping people lay solid foundations for youth ministry!
• I am still working with churches in Nebraska and Arizona, and am picking up a new church in Seattle next month. I am gaining great experience in learning how to equip others in youth ministry from a broad spectrum of location and experience.

Providence Hall High School:

• I'm happy to report that our first parenting seminar, "Providence Presents," came off successfully. Someone who attended counted 112 people in attendance ☺ Our next one is scheduled for Oct. 28.
• We have our student retreat next week - I thought I was done with going to camp. But apparently not.... thankfully, I LOVE these students, so that will make it worth it. Camp #101, here I come!

Writing:
I'm grateful for several youth ministry-related blogs running my articles, and Youthworker Journal is publishing another one of mine in the November/December issue on local service. The pay is next to nothing -- but at least I'm in print, right?!

Final thoughts... yes, I love sharing the work stuff with each of you. I'm enjoying this time of unknowns (yes, I'm really saying that), creativity, exploration and risk. But ultimately, where I am the most deeply moved is in how my faith is growing from so much challenge and change.

I read this today from Henri Nouwen, and it resonated:

Keeping Close to the Word of Jesus

The words of Jesus can keep us erect and confident in the midst of the turmoil of the end-time. They can support us, encourage us, and give us life even when everything around us speaks of death. Jesus' words are food for eternal life. They do much more than give us ideas and inspiration. They lead us into the eternal life while we are still being clothed in mortal flesh.

When we keep close to the word of Jesus, reflecting on it, "chewing" on it, eating it as food for the soul, we will enter even more deeply into the everlasting love of God.

Sept 09 Update on This 'n That

The school year has launched with a frenzy of activity, so I wanted to give some updates. I cannot believe this is my 28th fall with students. Zoiks.

Before school started I took my annual Central Coast camping trip with my niece and nephew. They are 9 and 11 now, and we had a great time. My nephew stayed up with me around the fire one night and saw the Milky Way for the first time. I love camping. (I don't like the dirt part, but the rest is great.)

I came home to a very full in-service week with Providence Hall, where I met with the faculty, coached the student leaders, and co-ran the New Student Orientation (our new students are in the photo below). These were great times of planning and connection, but I what I really enjoyed was the start of classes yesterday. Providence does a great job creating rites of passage, and yesterday was no exception as we started off with a "first walk" and Convocation ceremony. (I guess it's similar to what Westmont does at the beginning of each year.) Yep, that's me in my academia regalia... finally, that ol' Masters' Degree pays off! ☺

I taught my first class of "Foundations" today. I will be teaching on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and the entire student body attends. I will be starting off with a series on the Book of Nehemiah and I am very fired up about it. Today's message was just an introduction. I played a clip of JFK's "we choose to go to the moon" speech from 1962 (it gave me chills -- not sure it made them even blink, but you never know with teenagers...) Scroll to the 7:32 point and listen through his reasons for going to the moon. I noted the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, and how audacious JFK's ambitions were. From there I asked the students what their own "moon landings" were -- those seemingly impossible things, and how we are going to talk about the impossible this fall. I love teaching students, FYI.

Meanwhile, my other projects are plowing forward. As for my consulting with Youth Ministry Architects, I return to the Chicago suburbs on Sept 17-19 for a follow consultation with a church I worked with in June, and in October I start up another project in Seattle. I am continuing with a church in Nebraska, and coaching a great little church in a suburb of Phoenix.

I'm meeting weekly (through video conferencing) with 3 Southern CA Free Methodist lead pastors for coaching in leadership development and I love it! Each church is extremely different, and I have loved drawing upon the diverse opportunities I have had in my ministry history in the past. I feel so blessed.

Eden Reforestation Projects continues to challenge and inspire me. I just got word today, after a lot of emails back and forth, that a major business has agreed to sponsor us -- I will let you know soon which one it is. I'm so stoked! For a limited time, for each product they sell they will make a donations to plant a tree for Eden Projects. I'm praying this could be the beginning of some cool sponsorships by companies seeking to act out some social responsibility.

On behalf of Eden, I'm also slotted to speak at a national pastors' gathering next week in Long Beach, a gathering of Pacific Northwest Pastors in October, and a conference for pastors on the entire Eastern Seaboard in April in Orlando. Pinch me, I'm dreaming! Please pray that this would bear fruit in terms of donors and vision. We need to keep planting millions of trees. I've also connected a church here in Santa Barbara with the president of Eden. The church here has ministered for 4 years in Haiti, and have been praying about how to dig even deeper in caring for this devastated country through reforestation. Through a providential meeting, I met the doctor who has led this ministry, and now Eden is going with them in October to explore tree nursery sites! This would become the 3rd country we work in.

Finally, I have another article coming out in Youthworker Journal soon, and my articles are posted regularly on Youthminblog and YMToday. It's really fulfilling for me personally, but it's especially great to hear from youth pastors serving faithfully in every corner of the US. A cool network of folks is out there.

I'll end with a quote that I read earlier this week. It hit me deeply. I won't even try to say why. I'll just let it speak for itself. Thanks for reading. It means a lot to me.

To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do--
to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive
the world at its harshest and worst--is by that very act, to be
unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more
wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the
harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your
life against being destroyed secures your life also against
being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life
itself comes from. You can even prevail on your own. But you
cannot become human on your own.

... Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), The Sacred Journey, San
Fransisco: Harper & Row, 1982, p. 46

Green Living is More Than Recycling

Tonight I'm reading an article related to my work with Eden Reforestation Projects titled "The lowdown on topsoil: It's disappearing" with the subheading, "Disappearing dirt rivals global warming as an environmental threat." Much of the content in the article relates to the loss of topsoil in Seattle area, which makes sense since the article appeared last year in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper.But this quote really caught my attention:

The United Nations has warned of worldwide soil degradation -- especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where soil loss has contributed to the rapidly increasing number of malnourished people.

I am reminded once again that creation care (AKA environmental stewardship) is So. Much. Bigger than saving, preserving and restoring the environment. Being green is first and foremost about reducing poverty and suffering. As Matthew Sleeth says in Serve God, Save the Planet, "the poor are the least able to escape the ravages of a climate gone ill." The lives of the poor are so incredibly fragile, and as their environment degrades, the effects have a profoundly damaging, domino effect on their lives. They lose shelter, clean water, livelihood and basic safety as soil is washed away, droughts persist, animals disappear, and food cannot be grown or found.

Give up a cup of coffee at Starbucks this week and plant 35 trees. Stay home and skip the latest summer flick and plant 85 trees. Get 10 friends to do the same and plant hundreds!

OK, I'll stop. But just for now. Get me off your back and go to www.edenprojects.org. Nighty night....

Deforestation in Haiti

Just heard an amazing story on NPR about Haiti & their deforestation crisis. This is all the more cool because this past Monday (a whole two days ago) I met with a man who has gone to Haiti six times in the last 4 years on medical missions. When he heard about the work of Eden Projects, he wanted to meet and talk through the possibilities of us going to Haiti next.

Best of all, Eden has already been asked by another group to come down, and plans are tentatively set for this October to scout out the potential for Eden to get started. This story on NPR motivates me even more to be involved with reforestation. The more I learn, the more evident it appears that something needs to be done. Now.

Eden Projects is on track to plant 3.5 million trees this year in Ethiopia and Madagascar. The plan is to double our planting rate each year for the next five years, getting to the point of planting 100 million trees. This is crazy and lofty - but necessary. As Steve Fitch, the founder of Eden Projects says, if we can't plant 100 million trees a year, we shouldn't even bother. Anything less would be like going to Skid Row and feeding one person a single meal.

Please be praying for me as I try to recruit churches and businesses to join Eden Reforestation Projects in this work. I will also be inviting former students of mine to get involved by starting chapters on their campuses that will support Eden by seeking ways big and small to raise funds and awareness. Thanks. Go to www.edenprojects.org and scroll down to the videos at the bottom to learn more.

Job Update #1

Things are starting to settle in terms of what I will be working on, so I wanted to make a post or two to give a more thorough explanation of each piece of the puzzle -- I am SO excited about each part!

First of all though I want to say thank you. So many of you have been wonderful and generous in your calls, texts, FB messages, notes and meals to encourage me as I stepped into this period of change. In this blog I have tried to communicate the many things I have been thinking about and learning. Simply put, I am profoundly grateful. God is faithful, patient and relentless.

I will pursue these work projects with diligence and as much creativity as I can muster. I am delighted at what has come my way.

Today, I want to share about Eden Reforestation Projects (ERP). I have posted snippets here and there, but I want to explain a bit more about what it is and what I excited about. I first heard about Eden at Christmastime in church, when Free Methodist challenged its members to donate to Eden, giving the money we would normally spend on a Christmas tree. If we did so, we were to take an olive tree seedling as a reminder of God's love for his creation and his vision for us as his stewards of that creation. (The olive tree is a profound symbol of the depth, spread and beauty of God's kingdom in scripture -- plug it into BibleGateway.com, and you'll see references throughout the Old and New Testaments.)

My seedling is nearly ready to be planted in the bed of soil next to my bedroom window. It has grown at least 4 times in size -- which is a great analogy for how my heart has also grown for the work of Eden Projects. I met with Steve Fitch, the superintendent for the Free Methodist churches for So Cal, in early May, to talk over some other projects within the So Cal conference. But during our conversation we ended up talking about the many things going on with Eden, and where he needed some assistance. When I heard what Eden needed, I thought to myself, "What a perfect fit for some of the things I love to do!"

Steve is currently in Ethiopia with a team of folks to see what is going on with Eden's projects there. He sent me a long text last night, and this is what it said:

All Having the best Eden trip ever. Everyone is healthy. The highlands nurseries and plantation sites are fabulous. Taught the people at Teshome how to catch, clean, cook, and eat Tilapia fish. They dug the pond but had no idea what to do next since fishing has never been part of their culture. We hiked eight miles (at 8700') to one reforestry site. The survival rate for our trees is in excess of 90%! in three years there willl be four new forest in the highlands. Much more to share later but battery running low and no electricity and British Air lost my luggage at Heathrow again.
Blessings
Steve

To understand Eden's mission, it is best to go to the website and scroll to the videos at the bottom. They are brief, but packed with compelling information. The global church has spent valuable effort in the last few years to move beyond financial aid to more comprehensive care for the continent of Africa, providing clean water and better health care... what I am realizing, as I learn more each day about Eden and about the needs around the world, is that it is even MORE powerful to reforest. So much of the continent is absolutely devastated and DEforested -- yet as trees are planted, the forests then generate clean drinking water, photosynthesis is re-established, animals return, jobs are created, shelter and safety are renewed, and the soil is stabilized. Incredible! As it says on the logo of ERP, "Plant Trees, Save Lives." Eden's work emerged out of insights from missionaries who were on the ground in Ethiopia and Madagascar, who told Steve what was truly needed to provide sustainable support.

So what will I be doing? I've been brought on part-time for the next six months to assist ERP in three areas:

1. Steve has written a dissertation -- many who have read it have told him it should be turned into a book. I will work on that with him. Our working title is Convenient Answers to Inconvenient Truths. Dig it!
   
2. Churches around the country have expressed a desire to support Eden and become "champions" of the individual projects in Ethiopia and Madagascar. I will work to streamline a structure for that to happen more easily.
3. I have a vision to see student chapters of ERP established in youth groups, in classes and at schools. Eden was established as a non-religious non-profit and is thus able to work in a wide variety of contexts.

At the end of December we will re-evaluate as to where things are, and decide what is needed next...

PLEASE feel free to:

• DONATE - 10 cents plants a tree. It's incredible how efficient ERP is. $10 plants 100 trees!
• ASK me questions about how you can get involved.
• PRAY for my future with Eden. I want to be used by the Lord here.
• CONSIDER what you could be doing to increase your stewardship. I'm calling this work in Eden "Green 2.0" - it's moving beyond recycling and organic eating. Not that those are bad, but SO MUCH MORE is needed. I'm moved most by Eden's "subtitle" - "Poverty Reduction through Environmental Stewardship." It's social justice on a large scale. Please join us, and regardless, get involved in something like it.
  

In May 2003 I committed to riding my bike once a day in place of driving my car, as a way to be a better steward of my body, my money and the environment. Out of that simple decision I have grown exponentially in my understanding of what is needed in God's creation. NEVER in my wildest dreams did I imagine that God might have been laying the foundation for me to step into a ministry like this. He is so darn smart.

NEXT: Updates on my new position with Providence Hall. Stay tuned!