The Armstrong Blog

Trip report 2011 Excom Meetings, Manila, Philippines, Nov 7-19.
Report #1
4:00 AM should not be allowed! Marg and I had to get up at that time to get to the airport on time for my first flight on this trip on Sat (5th) morning. But at least there was not much traffic! The first flight was Toronto to Washington, DC and just an hour and a half. But then a 3 hour wait in the airport for the next flight which was to Tokyo, Japan – 14 gruelling hours that didn’t want to end. On the plus side (well maybe not really a plus) was getting to watch all 5 films on the plane – Bad Teacher – Hangover II, Monte Carlo – all worse than the worst, Evolution – waste of digital space and finally The Help – now that is a good film – go see it.
Landing in Tokyo 30 minutes late, left me only 30 minutes before the next flight left for Manila so I raced through the airport like O.J. Simpson (for those of you who don’t remember or know, he was a football player – before his wife was killed and the big trial – and did commercials running through airports and jumping over the seats to get to his flights). Well maybe not exactly like him since I was running, well walking fast, and the jumping I was doing was over chocolate bar wrappers, not seats, but you get the idea! Not a time for sightseeing or duty free. The last flight was a short 4 hours and I was amazed that my suitcases and the box of files all got here at the same time as me –novel idea and the airlines are really stepping it up a notch. Finally got to the mission guest house at 2230 Sunday night and crashed.
Today was spent just finalizing all the reports, photocopying, finishing accounts and getting everything ready for the other 6 people to arrive later tonight and tomorrow.
Talk to you later,
Doug
Report #2
A week later and a year older! Yes, I went from 65 to 66 over the weekend. It was a busy week with a lot of time renewing friendships, welcoming the new member of the Executive Committee, reviewing reports and prioritizing the agenda, praying of over many issues and establishing new plans for the next year. The downturn in worldwide economic situation has certainly played a major role in the results of many projects over the past year and will affect the planning for the future as well.
Over the weekend we visit the MegaMall – just what it sounds like – a huge shopping mall that is ultra modern and alive with young people and every merchant in the world including the “high class” haute cuisine of North America ie, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Starbucks, Baskin & Robbins, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts and Burger King.
On Sunday we were able to rejoice and worship at the Bread of Heaven Community Church
http://www.breadcom.org/2010/index.php and it was an uplifting experience as we listened to an excellent message based on the Blood of the Lamb.
The rest of the day was spend resting, reviewing, reading and writing proposals and reports. Pray that all the meetings result in concrete goals and objectives for the future in light of the changing world of economics and mobile technology.
Blessings, Doug

Report #3 – Greetings from Bangalore, India! I left Manila on Saturday afternoon and flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where I had a 3 hour layover before heading on to Bangalore (or as it is now called, Bangaluru!)
It was past 1.00 AM on Sunday morning before we got to the old hotel in downtown Bangalore and surprisingly, they had remodelled the hotel and it is a lot better than it used to be and they actually have high speed internet – what boon that is!
It was interesting as I arrived in India as they scan all your bags (a usual practice) before you get them and go through immigration. The baggage people put a chalk X on your bag if they want to examine it more when you are in possession of it. So guess who had a nice big X on their bag!! I was diverted to the “special handling” area, which is quite embarrassing but thought, “oh well, done this before” as they don’t like you bringing in laptops or other electronics as they think you will sell them while you are in the country. Anyway, after many times back forth in the x-ray machine, they finally asked me to open the suitcase and donned their rubber gloves. Now what, I thought. About now, the police showed up and I am beginning to wonder what is going on. After stripping my suitcase, they found the offending item – a bag of white powder! Aha! Caught you!! I must admit, it did look suspicious and the penalty for drug trafficking here in India is extreme. So we had fun as we all tasted my Coffee Mate, French Vanilla powder! Kind of humorous but it did get a little tense there for a bit till I found out what they suspected. I have travelled with that a zillion times and never had a problem. Ah, the joys of travel.
Yesterday we met with two different missions group reps, enjoyed a fine lunch and made plans for further networking. In the evening we had dinner with our India Director and his wife at their home.
Today we start the Project India meetings till tomorrow evening. Hopefully we will be able to make some changes and see the project move forward with more speed and direction. The downturn in the world economy has certainly had an impact on the project and we pray that the funding will increase or the project may become stalled.
Please pray that the meetings will go well and we can effectively replace the couple of Board members who had to step down with new ones who have a passion to reach the unreached and unevangelised in this huge population in India – over 1.3 billion people.
Blessings and talk to you later,
Doug

Report #4
While in India we had the opportunity to meet many of the International and Indian leaders of various organizations that are also ministering here in India such as:
Rev. Dr. M Mani Chacko – General Secretary of the Bible Society of India.
Rev. Prem Kumar James – South Asia Director for Partners International
Rev. Dr. Jayakumar Ramachandran – Bible Believing Churches and Missions /Academy for Church Planting and Leadership.

These meetings will prepare the way for future partnering and help strengthen the network of organizations that use and distribute our materials. There is very little value to producing new recordings and materials to have them sit on the shelf.

I have been in Chiang Mai, Thailand since Friday noon and I have had the joy of meeting with our Thai team and leading devotions with them yesterday (Mon). It is always wonderful to visit the team here and se how they have grown and developed as a very diverse group – many different cultures, languages, perspectives and ministry goals. But all with the mission of seeing people come to Christ.

There is a large group of young people here (all under 35 and with MANY young children) going through some field orientation with their mission and what a thrill it is to see all these young families, with a passion for the ministry, working in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Southern China. They will be a force to be reckoned with!

I shared my desk with a lizard and when I tried to take his photo, he would not cooperate and the only ones I got were quite blurred, so hence no photo, but just imagine.

I decided to have my last meal in Thailand in a traditional Thai restaurant –
Burger King and wow, was it ever good! Love that Thai cooking!

There is so much traffic between Bangkok and Chiang Mai (the second largest city in Thailand) that they are now using a 747 – packed full – to do the 55 minute flight! Amazing – that must be really hard on a long haul plane like that.

My flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok last night was eventful in that the guy beside me stank of cigarettes and booze! It was awful but only 55 minutes (well about 90 when you count all the time he was sitting beside me) but I figured, only a short while and I can endure it – you know suffering for the Lord.

On my next flight (6 hours to Tokyo) I had the same thing and they guys is downing vodka and tomato juice at 6:00 AM!! Now in Tokyo and I smell as bad as him!! Hopefully I don’t get that again on the Tokyo – Chicago flight as it is 14 hours!! I will be bombed as well!

Please pray for a good seat and safety in the rest of the travel. Also pray for us all at home as we move my parents to a retirement home up in Keswick – it will be traumatic for us all.

Blessings on you all and see you soon.

Doug

Report #1
4:00 AM should not be allowed! Marg and I had to get up at that time to get to the airport on time for my first flight on this trip on Sat (5th) morning. But at least there was not much traffic! The first flight was Toronto to Washington, DC and just an hour and a half. But then a 3 hour wait in the airport for the next flight which was to Tokyo, Japan – 14 gruelling hours that didn’t want to end. On the plus side (well maybe not really a plus) was getting to watch all 5 films on the plane – Bad Teacher – Hangover II, Monte Carlo – all worse than the worst, Evolution – waste of digital space and finally The Help – now that is a good film – go see it.
Landing in Tokyo 30 minutes late, left me only 30 minutes before the next flight left for Manila so I raced through the airport like O.J. Simpson (for those of you who don’t remember or know, he was a football player – before his wife was killed and the big trial – and did commercials running through airports and jumping over the seats to get to his flights). Well maybe not exactly like him since I was running, well walking fast, and the jumping I was doing was over chocolate bar wrappers, not seats, but you get the idea! Not a time for sightseeing or duty free. The last flight was a short 4 hours and I was amazed that my suitcases and the box of files all got here at the same time as me –novel idea and the airlines are really stepping it up a notch. Finally got to the mission guest house at 2230 Sunday night and crashed.
Today was spent just finalizing all the reports, photocopying, finishing accounts and getting everything ready for the other 6 people to arrive later tonight and tomorrow.
Talk to you later,
Doug

We are dealing with the quickly declining health of Doug’s parents health. We are looking at moving them into a Retirement facility with 24 hour assisted medical care. Please pray that the Lord would give us wisdom in caring for them so that they have safety and comfort in their declining years. My Dad is 92 and my Mom is 88 but dealing with dementia. Blessings, Doug

Trip Report #2 Sept 7th, 2011
By now, you all know my passion for spicy rice! Well today, you’ll never guess what we had for breakfast, lunch and supper – yes, you guessed it, spicy rice!! But lunch was truly memorable as we had two kinds of spicy rice – extremely hot and suicide! It is now 2102 in the evening and my lips are still burning! Ah, the joys of travel.
Otherwise it has been a great day as we spend many hours looking at case studies from all over Africa, shared teaching and learning in Orality, had excellent Bible teaching from some of Africa’s great leaders and prayed for the nations of North Africa. Considerable time was poured into praying for the challenges in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and elsewhere as they struggle to emerge from the oppression of a cultural “dark ages” and Islam.
But what a joy to hear hundreds of languages from 58 countries and every continent all raised in prayer for these nations. To understand the blessings, the challenges and the opportunities has been illuminating and at times, quite sad and depressing but we also enjoyed hearing stories of incredible fortitude and strength in the face of famine, oppression and war.
Interesting that every session I was involved in today, I was asked to lead in prayer. Not sure why but here are some options:
a. They think I am a man of prayer
b. In African culture, I am a Mzee (wise old respected senior) – no comment!
c. I was the most handsome and sophisticated
d. Most of the leadership there know me from the past in Africa and international gatherings
e. I have the loudest voice
Take your choice – I have my favourite!!

I was able to spend some time around the meal times to meet and greet many friends and get caught up on family and ministry news.

Each morning we are to be ready for the bus at 6:30 (the bus has never arrived before 7:45) and we are not brought back to our rooms till the end of the sessions at 9:00 PM – makes a very long day and by the time I get email done and reports (like this one) done, it is a very short night! But praise the Lord otherwise all is fantastic!!

Blessings and talk to you again later,

Doug

Trip report #1 Sept 5th.
Well here I am in another country again. It was an easy trip from Toronto to Frankfurt, Germany and then a few hours later to Abuja, Nigeria. Yes, I know, it was where they bombed the UN buildings a couple of weeks ago – drove by the building this morning. I arrived here Friday evening and spent Saturday and Sunday doing reports, accounts, email and finishing up my “to do” list from the Council meetings back in April.
The hotel I am staying in is actually a step up from what I usually stay in but still has a few challenges. When I used the toilet, the seat fell off – solves that international problem of leaving the seat up or down!! The shower was fine and I actually got some warm water but then the hose burst and the room was awash with water and I was left covered in soap! The bathroom was laid out a little different from the traditional North American style in that it was as shown below. You could not stand facing the sink but on the other hand you could sit while you brushed your teeth. But at that height your chin is on the edge of the sink and you can’t see into the mirror! Unusual arrangement!!

I remember someone telling me, “never miss an opportunity to go to the bathroom or to have a meal” and I have taken that seriously with all my travels around the world and not knowing when the next meal will be or what is will consist of. Or the next bathroom! But it should now in 2011 also include, “or go online”. The Internet at the hotel was down all weekend and the system at the conference centre was not slated for start up till this morning – very frustrating weekend without it.
The MANI (Movement for African National Initiatives) conference is now underway and it is great to see many old friends (and some of them are really getting old) that we worked with in Africa and have known since the early 80’s. MANI is a grassroots African movement committed to catalyzing the Body of Christ in Africa to work in strategic partnership to disciple the nations and to send Africans in mission around the world.
Most of the delegates for the conference have now arrived and we are trying to sort out the travel, accommodations meals and set up.
Please pray as we partner with this indigenous movement to help churches and ministries work together and link strategic networks for the mobilization of the African Church. It serves to bridge the African Church with global networks and African Christians in the Diaspora.
Blessings,
Doug

Hi and please pray for Doug as he heads off on a missions trip with our church in Canada to Nigaragua. They will be installing 50 (yes, 50) water purification filters in the remote villages of Nicaragua and be there for 8 days. Envangelism will also be a major component of the ministry as well and we will be using a lot of the GRN materials and the hand wind MP3 players to reach the unreached in that area.

Blessings,

Doug

Hi to you all and thanks for your prayers while we were away. We arrived home on Tuesday morning around 3:00 AM and stayed at our daughter’s place in Orangeville since she picked us up. We drove home later that morning. While it is nice to be home and in our own bed, coming back to terrible weather was not a joy. It was really nice having 95% and sunny weather everyday and being outside all the time.

What happened at the meetings? Good question. Nothing was decided in full but some new plans and structures have been presented and they are now in the process of being voted on. The National Directors were at the meetings but for most of them, it means having to go back to their National Boards and discussing the new paradigms and how it will impact on their local operations and then deciding how they will vote. This voting process will be sent out on May 6th.

Following that, we will then move forward with the voted in process. For me, no real change for at least a year but then a good possibility of being able to significantly reduce the travel and time away but still carry on a lot of the administration. No one was challenging me to take on that role so I guess I will be “stuck” with it for the foreseeable future. Actually, I enjoy that – I know, weird!!

Marg and I did enjoy some “down” time in Thailand and it was awesome – a real rest.  see attached picture. Now, we are both faced with desks that are buried in 5 weeks of mail, accounts, reports, and a long “to do list” from the council meetings.

But praise the Lord, that all our delegates got to the meetings and back safely, all the logistics that took almost 2 years to complete, were realized, many excellent decisions were made both on individual levels and corporately, there were no illnesses or emergencies during the council meetings, and the facilities were excellent for our needs.

It was a very beneficial time for all of us as we spend a lot of time in prayer, in consultation, in resolving some thorny issues, and in just building and establishing relationships. When so many of our delegates come from oral cultures, where face to face is the only way of communicating, it is necessary to meet like this, to gain any level of trust and cooperation. Skype or telephone conferencing does not work, for not only that reason but also in most of the developing countries the quality of the internet connections does not allow that to happen. We have tried it and it is impossible. We can do it within the developed countries where we all have basically the same cultures and good infrastructure but not with and international organization such as GRN that enjoys such cultural diversity.

Again thanks for your prayers and if you have any questions, please write.

Blessings,

Doug & Marg

 
Doug

The 6^th GRN International Council meeting is now in the history books. The logistics all worked out very well and everyone was mainly happy with the accommodation, food and venue. That is a first time as we have so many disparate cultures, ages, food preferences and countries represented. And everyone got here as planned.

There were many thorny issues to be resolved, especially about the structure. We have had the same structure since 1993 and I have been the International Coordinator since 1997. Many of us, including me, wanted to see some changes made to the structure and to the roles that a number of of the senior leaders held. Others, again like me, don’t want to retire from the ministry but take up new roles and lessen the travel. We don’t want to retire but retreaded and re-engaged.

Working through a new structure is always fraught with challenges and can become quite divisive. And it was no different for our discussions. At times it is like 2 brothers fighting over who got the biggest bowl of ice cream!! More about this one later.

Some of the greatest joys of the council meeting are meeting the new Directors and being able to get to know them, their families, their challenges, their goals, their vision for their country and reaching out to the millions who do not know Christ. We may all have a different methodology but our vision is the same, “to see every tribe and tongue and nation worship our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is why we are all here.

We had training in new technology as we seek to make the centuries old gospel message relevant to the younger generation today who is so engaged in mobile technology, text messaging and MP4 smart phones. It presents a significant challenge for churches, NGO’s and missions all over the world. The old ways of doing things is quickly passing us by and the struggle to keep up is hard on some of our veterans. But we are doing it and moving forward.

Please pray for the implementation of new ideas, new paradigms and new strategies to reach the unreached for Christ.

For me, there will be very little change in my role for at least a year but hopefully by then we will start to see some changes coming down the road. Pray.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here are a few thousand!

Blessings,

Doug

Hi again, well the weather finally improved and we had a nice weekend. On Saturday a number of us went in shopping in the local “Tesco’s” and exchanged money. In the afternoon some stayed and enjoyed the pool while some of us went to see the elephants. See attached photos.
On Sunday we had a worship service in the morning and then supposed to have the rest of the day to rest, reflect, refresh and refocus but I spent most of the day in more meetings and trying to get the bills all sorted out for the venue.

The meetings continued again today and we had looooooong meetings and finally with the Lord’s help resolved some contentious issues and come to an understanding for the future structure of the organization. The changes will not take place for another year or so as there are many bridges to cross and people to pray in before the new structure will be feasible. Pray that we do enable the right people with the right skills and not just warm bodies!

Attached is a photo of Marg and I hard at work.

Blessings,

Doug

Greetings to you. Marg and I are now
in Pranburi, Thailand. We went over to our youngest
daughter’s place on Sunday evening (20th) as we had to be at
the airport at 3:00 AM for a 6:00 AM flight out of Toronto
Monday morning.  It was a 2 hour flight to Atlanta,
Georgia (bet you didn’t know you pass through Atlanta on the
way from Toronto to Bangkok, Thailand – hub cities in the
States – go figure!!) We only had enough time to run through
the airport to catch the next flight.

Atlanta to Seattle, Washington was another 5 hours flight
and again we were only in the airport about 15 minutes
before boarding for the next flight to Tokyo, Japan (10
hours). We had about an hour and a half in Tokyo and just
hope we did not suck up enough radiation to glow in the
dark! We did not see any signs whatsoever of the terrible
devastation that has rocked Japan so recently. It was a
little more relaxing in not having to run through the
airport. We also lost a day as we crossed the international
date line and so suddenly we were not Monday any more but
now Tuesday! My watch and cell phone were both protesting.

Finally the last flight – Tokyo to Bangkok – 7 hours for a
grand total of 24 hours of actual flying – butt weary and
brain dead – now I can just hear you saying and so what is
new???

We checked into a cheap hotel near the airport and tried to
sleep before heading on to the mission Guest House down here
at Dolphin Bay, just outside Pranburi, Thailand. We arrived
here about 1530 yesterday and were totally exhausted. Went
to sleep easily last night but woke at around 1:00 AM and
watched the clock all night as I could not get back to sleep
- looking forward to a good sleep tonight. They say it takes
a day per hour of time difference for your body to adjust so
it will be 11 days as we are 11 hours ahead of you.

Working on finishing all the documents and finalizing all
the preparations for the Directors to all arrive starting on
Sunday. We will have our Executive Committee meeting on
Monday, the Regional Teams on Tues and start the actual
Council meetings on Wed.

Pray that the meetings to well and we are attuned to what
God is telling us and seeking to know His will for the
future of GRN.

Blessings,

Doug