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I have spent the vast majority of the last 15 years traveling. I have experienced my fair share of travel problems, things like:

• Pick pocketed in Athens (they got Debbie’s passport and wallet out of my shoulder bag)
• Stolen credit card in Kyiv
• Identity theft in Chicago, only to have the credit card company send the replacement card to the thief.
• Forgetting to renew my Russian visa only to discover it as I was standing at the passport control in Russia.
• Hotels with rats eating my food in the middle of the night.
• Showing up at the wrong terminal at Heathrow (even at the right terminal Heathrow is terrible). Missed that flight by five minutes.
• And a host of missed, cancelled, and over booked flights, questionable taxis, and hotels spewing brown water from all spouts. (And let’s not talk about that embarrassing episode in Istanbul.)

Yes, travel can be this glamorous.

Then, this morning I added to my list: I lost my shoes. My shoes people! My shoes.

I was packing away, getting ready for my flight from Sochi, Russia to Kyiv, Ukraine.

Everything was going as planned. Then a question rose in my mind, “Dude, where are my shoes?”

Please understand, I have been in Sochi for three days and it has been very hot. So I have been wearing running sandals rather than shoes. But now that I am heading to Kyiv to conduct a pastors’ seminar and speak in a church, I needed my shoes.

I looked all over the room. Nothing.

Then I remembered that when the hotel moved me to another room, because the air conditioner was not working,I forgot to grab my shoes.

I contacted the front desk. They were very friendly. They called housekeeping. Nope. Sorry, no shoes. What? They didn’t just walk off by themselves.

Maybe they were still in the room and somehow housekeeping just didn’t see those size 12 shoes hiding in the corner. After all, they didn’t see the bed had been slept in and needed to be made. Surely if they didn’t see the bed they may have overlooked my shoes. So I asked if I could check the room myself. “Yes, of course.”

The room (and the bed) had been cleaned. No shoes.

How could they just disappear? I reminded myself, “This is Russia, and strange things happen here.”

I went back to my room, looked all over the place again. Nothing.

It goes to show that no matter how many mindless things you do in your life, you will never cease to amaze yourself, sometimes without even trying.

Now, I am heading to Kyiv as a shoeless preacher standing on the promise of Scripture, “how beautiful are the feet of those who preach Good News.” Standing on the Word of God is a great thing with or without shoes.

Check out this short video about a new podcast I am launching on September 15, 2014

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A Guest Post by Ralph Moore

Several years ago I met Jeff Roper in California. He challenged me to come work in the neediest mission field in the world—Europe. I tentatively agreed to come.

It turns out that the world’s ten people groups most resistant to the gospel all reside in Europe. But while that may be true there is real growth in other places.

Since my first visit to the continent I’ve discovered that Christianity is in the throes of re-birth in many European countries. The progress may be slow in some places but it is definitely there. I feel honored to partner with European pastors and church planters at this crucial moment in human history.

I recently read that for every two Muslims moving from Africa, or the Middle East, into Europe there are three Christians making the same move. Aside from any work on the part of traditional Europeans, these people will change the spiritual map of Europe. We are fortunate that Christians are migrating in larger numbers than Muslims. This, by itself, bodes well for the gospel.

As these newly arrived Christ followers naturally plant churches to reach their own people they engender surprising results. The new churches also evangelize and assimilate traditional European people. And, because the churches among new immigrants usually lack material wealth they have an unexpected effect on evangelical churches in the surrounding area.

Many traditional European pastors have held back from church multiplication because they felt too poor to make the investment. These people are re-learning faith from their newly arrived neighbors. I remember visiting one country about 12 years ago only to discover that every pastor I met was constrained by money worries. I visited the same place two years ago. To my surprise every one of those previously depressed pastors showed up at the meeting. The better surprise was that each pastor had at least one new church in the pipeline. The reason they gave for the turnaround was, “If these immigrants can plant churches in their poverty we can do it, too.”

It is during times of cultural upheaval that the gospel has always prospered. With the world tilting on the edge of destruction we are in the midst of huge cultural upheaval. It seems that the partnership I am privileged to enjoy with Jeff is really God working to help take advantage of a positive situation.

We’ve worked together in France, Ukraine, Greece, Russia, Turkey and Hungary. We’ll soon partner in the United Kingdom and in The Netherlands. In each country, we train budding church planters and visionary pastors who intend to multiply their congregations by planting churches. This is exciting stuff that literally bends history.

In all of history there has never been a spiritual awakening without the input of at least one ‘catalytic’ church planter. From the days of the Apostle Paul through John Wesley in England right down to Yonggi Cho in Korea the spread of the gospel has always started with one highly motivated individual. I’ve met one such leader in Kiev, Ukraine. This three-decade old church has launched dozens of churches. In Russia the leader the churches we worked with is moving his family away from their largest church in order to plant a new one in Russia’s cultural capital of St. Petersburg. He wants to set an example for other pastors in his country.

This is what makes Jeff so important to the Kingdom of God. He has the ability and tenacity to search out those catalytic leaders. He befriends them and brings resources to aid them as they fulfill the vision God put in their hearts.

The really good news is that God is raising many such leaders at this moment. For me this means that I am constrained to do just about anything to support the work he leads.

Ralph and his wife, Ruby, besides being church planters, are happy parents and grandparents.  A former surfer, living in Hawaii, he now spends his free time walking, reading and hanging out at the pool. As a writer, his personal bout with panic/anxiety opened new vistas. He currently writes books that teach people how to conquer everyday problems. Like his preaching, his written words deliver solid truth in a humorous and unassuming manner. Beginning with just 12 people, the Hope Chapel ‘movement’ now numbers over a thousand churches worldwide. Ralph travels extensively teaching pastors to multiply churches. His latest adventure is Hope Chapel Honolulu, launched in the spring of 2013. Connect with Ralph at www.ralphmoorehawaii.com. 

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Help me name my podcast, please!!!

In mid-September I will start a podcast “Dedicated to helping you reach your full potential in Christ so that you can fulfill the Mission of God in your life and around the world.”

The show will be a mix of interviews with key leaders from around the world and practical insights aimed at cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.

But I need a name! I thought about calling it “Ministry Hacks”, but then thought that was too limiting. Then I thought about calling it “Including You”, (see Romans 1:6) with the idea that everyone is called to fulfilling the Mission of God, “including you.”

But I am not sure if that title will work.

Let me know your thoughts and suggestions by leaving a comment in the comment section.