Below is some of the latest news we have regarding our Rwanda trip.  We deeply appreciate everyone who has contributed to helping us get there.

Dear Friends & Family,

Back in February we sent you some information about our upcoming trip to Rwanda.  This last weekend we had our 2nd team meeting (pictured above).  We have 35 traveling with us!  Since we last wrote you we’ve been dialing in the details of what we are doing.  Here’s a quick overview:

Visiting Jovia
It’s confirmed that we will be visiting our sponsor child Jovia and her family.  When we visit, we have the option of delivering her family food for a month or buying a goat.  Thoughts?

Basketball Camp
A BIG part of our trip is putting on a basketball program with the local orphanages.  The cool thing is, we have an NBA player going on the trip with us!  It’s pretty exciting to see how God is lining up the right people for a great cause.

Work with the Local Church
We’re going to be working closely with the local churches, worshiping with them on Sundays, and helping with their weekly ministries.  We’re very excited about this chance to come along side our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

As you can imagine, we’re getting pretty excited!  and it’s been amazing to see the support we’ve received.  To-date, our friends and family have given $3,140 towards our trip!  This puts us at about 40% of our need of $8,000.  We need all of our funds raised by June 23, 2012, so if you have been waiting to see how our fundraising is going, we still need your help!  Words cannot express how encouraged we are to have your support.

Between now and August we’ll send out a monthly update.  In the mean time, don’t hesitate to contact us via Facebook, email, or phone.  Our info and links are below.

We love ya,
Milo & Bethany

Milo’s Contact info
www.facebook.com/milocurtis
milocurtis.online@gmail.com

Bethany’s Contact Info
www.facebook.com/milocurtis
bethany@captureyesterday.com

How To Contribute
We really appreciate your investment in this adventure.  As you can imagine, this is a big step of faith for us.  Once we’ve received notification of your contribution, we will contact you and let you know how things are going.  Thanks!

Mailing in Support
Step 1: Make your checks payable to Africa New Life Ministries (please do not write our names on the check, but DO enclose a note that your support is for Milo & Bethany Curtis)

Step 2: Mail the check to…
Africa New Life Ministries
Att: Missions/Angie Rettmann
7145 SW Varns Street, Suite 201
Portland, OR 97223

Online Support Link

Step 1: visit www.AfricaNewLifeMinistries.org

Step 2: Click the “Donate” in the top right corner

Step 3: Scroll down the page till you find PDX-August-Milo-Bethany-Curtis and follow the onscreen instructions.

Putting these things together is a struggle.  How do you begin?  How do you ask for money (which always feels weird)?  How do we adequately cast vision?  I’m not sure we adequately answered those questions, but here is our letter.

We’re taking a trip to Rwanda in August and this is our pitch to close friends and family.  If you didn’t get a paper version in the mail, we’d still love to have you a part of our support team.

Dear Friends & Family,

This is one of those letters that struggles to find a good place to start.  It’s a struggle for us because we’re incredible thrilled, humbled, and don’t want to appear presumptuous.   Your friendship means the world to us, and we wanted to let you in on something big that is happening in our lives.

On August 8^th we are boarding a plane and embarking on a 12 day adventure to Rwanda.  Yep, Rwanda, a country in Africa that has experienced some of the most horrifying violence of the past century…and we are asking our closest friends and family to help us get there.

If you’re like us, the details about Rwanda were fuzzy at best.  Here’s a quick snapshot of what caused so much turmoil there: In 1994 Rwanda was thrust into a 90 day genocide that took the lives of 800,000 men, women, and children.  Amidst the violence, an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 women were raped. These dark days has left Rwanda with an estimated 600,000 orphans, a tremendous AIDS epidemic, and thousands of families displaced in refugee camps.

Two years ago our church introduced us to Africa New Life Ministries, an organization that has been serving Rwandan children and families who were devastated by the genocide that took place there.  Through Africa New Life Ministries, we started sponsoring Jovia Mutamba, an 11-year-old girl in Rwanda.  Her family was displaced by the genocide and she lives with her mom and 4 siblings in a refugee camp in Kageyo (near the Tanzanian border).  Our sponsorship provides school fees, scholastic materials, a uniform, shoes, basic medical insurance and the opportunity to participate in positive community activities.

This August Africa New Life is leading a team of us to serve local churches and schools who are helping families who are fighting and working their way out of these dire circumstances.  It’s been a dream of ours to visit this country, meet Jovia (which we are thrilled about!), come alongside the good work that is happening there, and express the love of Jesus.  Words cannot express how excited we are!

The 12-day adventure will cost $8,000 ($4,000 each).  We thought of you and wondered if you would help us get there.  Any measure of financial generosity you can provide will go a long way to making this dream of ours come true.  If you can help, see below for details.

We are chronicling our preparations and adventures on our website www.captureyesterday.com/rwanda. Check out the site, or look for updates on our Facebook feeds.  If you’ve got any questions/comments, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thanks for looking this over, considering helping us, and being a source of encouragement in our lives.  We deeply appreciate you.

Blessings,
Milo & Bethany Curtis

Want to help?

• Visit AfricaNewLifeMinistries.org by clicking here
• Scroll down the page till you find PDX-August-Milo-Bethany-Curtis and follow the onscreen instructions

Got questions?  Feel free to email us at milocurtis.online@gmail.com

In the autumn of 2010, my Friday morning Bible study group started using the book, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun.  She has a chapter on writing your own “Rules for Life,” which I found very helpful.  She asks tons of questions for you to consider as you reflect on your journey with Christ, how you listen to the Holy Spirit, and what you are focusing your life on.

Out of the pages of quotes and references have come my current rules for life.  I share them with you to show that it isn’t rocket science, but it is intentional language to describe my life and goals.

Teaching Series Synopsis
When was the last time you heard someone say, “Fight for your faith” who wasn’t a raving crazy person?  But that’s what the book of Jude is about, fighting for the faith that God has entrusted to us.  In this teaching series we consider what it means to “contend for the faith.”

Hey Jude Poster
Below is the slide background that Aaron Scamihorn made for this series.  He’s an amazing artist with a keen eye that invested his gift of graphic design to several teaching series.  You can check out more of his work atwww.ronlewhorn.com and follow him on twitter.com/ronlewhorn.

• About Pathway
• About Milo

Pathway was a church plant located on the NE side of Indianapolis, Indiana. Started in 2004 and closed in 2009, this short and amazing journey was filled with joys, sorrows, victories, and trials. While we were deeply grieved that we had to close the organization of Pathway, we are eternally grateful to the many families that became life long friends who, to this day, walk the path with us to God’s best.

Many of the resources on this site were developed during the life of Pathway.  Our hope is that these resources will further serve to extend God’s Kingdom into the minds and hearts of all that find them useful. 

Approach to teaching
With 11 years of pastoral experience, I’ve had the opportunity to be on the bleeding edge of what God is doing and how He is expanding His Kingdom today.  One of those opportunities has been to pastor 2 different churches.  When teaching in these contexts I regularly ask, “How do I live this on Tuesday?” I believe every teaching should draw from the authority of Scripture, leverage the wealth of wisdom in church history, while speaking to the circumstances and rhythms of our day.

• Ordination: The Evangelical Church
• Graduate: M.A. from Ashland Theological Seminary.
• Undergraduate: B.A. from Kentucky Mountain Bible College

You can email Milo be clicking HERE.

A Study Guide for Small Groups
Written in 1962, A.W. Tozer’s classic, Knowledge of the Holy offers timeless truths in a simple structure that can formatively shape the theological underpinnings of a person’s faith.

“What possible meaning can the self-existence of God have for me and others like me in a world such as this and in times such as this?”  To this I reply, that because we are the handiwork of God, it follows that all our problems and their solutions are theological.  Some knowledge of what kind of God it is that operates the universe is indispensable to a sound philosophy of life and a sane outlook on the world scene. (Knowledge of the Holy, p. 27)

The study questions below use Tozer’s structure, with the Bible, to ignite thoughtful conversations that will extend our beliefs, attitudes and walk towards God.  Feel free to use these questions and let us know what you think.  Your feedback is welcome, so please contact us by emailing.

Here is a link to the specific edition we used for this study: Knowledge of the Holy

Study Question PDF download

Chapter 1: Why We Must Think Rightly About God
Chapter 2: God Incomprehensible
Chapter 3: A Divine Attribute: Something True About God
Chapter 4: The Holy Trinity
Chapter 5: The Self-existence of God
Chapter 6: The Self-sufficiency of God
Chapter 7: The Eternity of God
Chapter 8: God’s Infinitude
Chapter 9: The Immutability of God
Chapter 10: The Divine Omniscience
Chapter 11: The Wisdom of God
Chapter 12: The Omnipotence of God
Chapter 13: The Divine Transcendence
Chapter 14: God’s Omnipresence
Chapter 15: The Faithfulness of God
Chapter 16: The Goodness of God
Chapter 17: The Justice of God
Chapter 18: The Mercy of God
Chapter 19: The Grace of God
Chapter 20: The Love of God
Chapter 21: The Holiness of God
Chapter 22: The Sovereignty of God
Chapter 23: The Open Secret

It’s easy to get caught up in the opportunities of a long weekend. So here’s a challenge: post a comment below that expresses one thing you’re grateful for that is the result of those who sacrificed themselves for the freedoms we enjoy.

I’m relatively new to the Apple club.  My first Mac was in 2005 when I bought a 12″ Powerbook (which Bethany is using to this day).  Since then I’ve deeply enjoyed every product I’ve owned from Apple and am an avowed fan of their products, marketing, and business strategy.

Of course, being an avowed fan, I have combed through every Steve Jobs Keynote that YouTube can offer.  For those not familiar with Apple lore, Steve Jobs is considered to be the most dynamic CEOs of all time.  What Henry Ford is to the auto industry, Steve Jobs is to technology.

Context
Steve Jobs helped start Apple in 1976 and was a key figure in helping Apple achieve it’s initial success.  But in 1986 the board of directors asked Steve to leave because he was to “distruptive” to Apple’s prospective future.  Three CEOs and ten years later Steve was asked to return to Apple and take over.

What he inherited was a company that had no noticeable market share, was struggling with product quality, had become anemic because of a general lack of vision, and had around 3 weeks of operations cash.  Things were so dire, people like Michael Dell (CEO of Dell Computers) suggested that Apple sell off it’s assets and give the money to the shareholders.  At the time, most folks thought that was a reasonable idea.

How do you cast vision in the context of such dire circumstances?  Where do you start?  How do you rally the troops and infuse passion among those that are told they are increasingly irrelevant?

These are the questions Steve Jobs had to answer if Apple was to survive.

The clip below is from an internal presentation Steve did at Apple in 1997.  It was the beginning of the Think Different campaign.  In it Steve lays out what Apple has to communicate if they are going to re-build their brand and ignite interest in a company most people had written off.

Timelessness
I think a worthy test of core values and vision is timelessness.  The above clip plays just as well today as it did in 1997.

How timeless is your vision and values for your family, business, or non-profit?  If we were to record you today, would it play as well 15 years from now?

Download the Manuscript
To me marketing is about values.  This is a very complicated world.  It’s a very noisy world.  And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us.  No company is.  And so, we have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.

Now Apple, fortunately, is one of half-a-dozen best brands in the whole world.  Right up there with Nike, Disney, Coke, Sony…it is one of the greats of the greats.  Not just in this country, but all around the globe.  But even a great brand needs investment and caring if its going to retain it’s relevance and vitality.  And the Apple brand has clearly suffered from neglect in this area in the last few years.  And we need to bring it back.

The way to do that is not to talk about speeds and fees.  It’s not to talk about bits and mega-hertz. It’s not to talk about why we are better than Windows.

The dairy industry tried for 20 years to convince you that milk was good for you.  It’s a lie, but they tried anyway.  And the sales were [falling].  And then they tried “Got Milk” and the sales went [up].  Got Milk wasn’t even talking about the product.  In fact, it focuses on the absence of the product.

But the best example of all, and one of the greatest jobs of marketing that the universe has ever seen, is Nike.  Remember, Nike sells a commodity.  They sell shoes!  And yet, when you think of Nike you feel something different than a shoe company.  In their ads, as you know, they don’t ever talk about the product.  They don’t ever tell you about their air soles and why they are better than Reebok’s air soles.  What does Nike do in their advertising?  They honor great athletes.  And they honor great athletics.  That’s who they are, that’s what they are about.

Apple spends a fortune on advertising…you’d never know it.  You’d never know it.  So, when I got here,  Apple just fired their agency and there was a competition with 23 agencies that…you know…four years from now we would pick one.  And we blew that up and we hired Chiat\Day, the ad agency that I was fortunate enough to work with years ago and created some award winning work including the commercial, probably the best ad ever made, 1984 (by advertizing professionals).  And, um, we started working about 8 weeks ago, and the question we asked was, “Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it that we stand for?  Where do we fit in this world?”

And what we’re about isn’t makin’ boxes for people to get their jobs done…although we do that well.  We do that better than almost anybody, in some cases.  But Apple is about something more than that.  Apple at the core…it’s core value…is that, we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.  That’s what we believe.  And we have had the opportunity to work with people like that.  We’ve had the opportunity to work with people like you, with software developers, with customers, who have done it.  In some big, and some small ways.  And we believe that, in this world, people can change it for the better.  And that those people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones that actually do.

And so, what we’re going to do in our first brand marketing campaign in several years, is to get back to that core value.  A lot of things have changed.  The market is in a total different place than where it was a decade ago.  And Apple is totally different, and Apple’s place in it is totally different.  And believe me, the products, and the distribution strategy, and the manufacturing are totally different…and we understand that.  But values and core values, those things shouldn’t change.  The things that Apple believed in at its core, are the same things Apple really stands for today.

And so we wanted to find a way to communicate this.  And what we have is something that I am, um, I am very moved by.  It honors those people who have changed the world.  Some of them are living.  Some of them are not.  But the ones that aren’t, as you’ll see, you’ll know that if they ever used a computer it would have been a Mac.

And the theme of the campaign is “Think Different.”  It’s honoring the people who think different and move this world forward .  And it’s…it is what we are about.  It touches the soul of this company.

Download the Manuscript

Goodbye.
That’s a hard word…especially when you don’t want to say it…or when you’re too eager to say it.

In the fall of 2009 we were preparing to move from Indiana to Oregon.  A church we had started in 2004 had closed.  It was one of the darkest seasons of our life because we found ourselves saying “goodbye” to dreams, hopes, ambitions, and most of all…friends.

For some of our friends it was more of a “see you later.”  For others it was saying “farewell” knowing that we would probably not see them again.

As we prepared to move west we were given wise counsel by Dr. Lois Bushong.  She shared with us the importance of “leaving well” and provided the simple acrostic: R.A.F.T.

Reconcile: Before leaving a job, relocating, transitioning…reconcile with anyone who you have tension with.  Humble yourself and settle a dispute or grudge that lingers within your soul.  It is hard to move on when you are tied down internally. If it means asking for forgiveness, then ask.  If it means offering forgiveness, then offer it.  Bitterness is the galling fruit of a heart that has not been reconciled.

Affirm: Take the initiative to affirm friends, colleagues, neighbors, mentors or key leaders.  Express to them, specifically, what they’ve meant to you.  Doing this before you leave will let you draw from past experiences while they are still fresh in your mind and heart.  You may never see this person face to face again, so use the present opportunity to speak into their soul words of life and encouragement.

Farewell: Let people surround you and say their goodbyes.  The temptation will be to leave when no one is looking.  Offer yourself and others the opportunity of closure. It will probably be uncomfortable, but you won’t regret it.

Think Destination: Let the “next thing” give you perspective.  What is before you?  Where is God leading you?  What are you looking forward to with this transition? Looking forward keeps you from wallowing in the past and gives you the courage to step into the next thing God has for you.

For the most part we did this well.  Our closest friends we had over for dinner, others we took out for coffee, and many more came to our “going away” party.

There were a few relationships that required some time and healing.  Reconciliation couldn’t happen in the time frame that we were given.  I had some resentment that wouldn’t resolve quickly.  Over time though, some hard phone calls were made and we can honestly say we are at peace with all of our friendships in Indiana.

Thankfulness is a thread that can bind together all the patchwork squares of our lives.  Difficult times, happy days, seasons of sickness, hours of bliss – all can be sewn together into something lovely with the thread of thankfulness.

- Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Embrace Christ, take up your RAFT, and start the journey forward on a healthy step.