Off to Singapore

I'm off to Singapore for a few days to meet with the TransWorld Radio people. We're exploring potential collaboration between PIBC and TWR. And they have this conference to introduce ministry partners to their operation. I'm looking forward to meeting a new group of people and learning about how they function.

I'll be traveling with Mike Sabin, who works with the TWR operation on Guam. It's a 3,000 mile trip (just a little further than flying from San Francisco to New York) with a too long layover in Manila. We leave early tomorrow morning.

I'm expecting some culture shock -- going from one of the most disorganized and chaotic places I've ever lived to a city with a reputation for over-regulation and extreme order. As someone said to me, "they're worse than the Germans!" Which I mention because we work with several Germans at PIBC and they're forever rolling their eyes at the chaos of Guam and Micronesia, too. You can't get away from your default culture. In one way or another it follows you everywhere that you go.

It's been 10 months since I've been on a plane. When I was a pastor in California and president of the Covenant Ministerium and on the Covenant's board of the ordered ministry it seemed like I was flying a lot. (I don't know how Southwest Airlines has stayed in business now that I'm out of their loop.) But I haven't felt at all restless to get off the island so I've been content to keep my feet on the ground -- so far.