As I mentioned yesterday, I am in Kentucky today, Virginia tomorrow, and then I will be heading to Germany tomorrow afternoon to spend some time in Europe with the The Upstream Collective. I am speaking to a non-denominational group in Frankfort, Germany and then am off to Rome and Marseilles.

I do two of these trips a year with Upstream as part of my role with the International Mission Board. We think it is important to take pastors and mission leaders globally to give them a taste of missions overseas and to help them find ways to connect with missions internationally.

Please pray for us as our group prepares to go. We will be blogging and twittering about these as we go on the trip.

We shot some video while I was in Rome last year. They are raw, but authentic. Take a look at this one featuring Jason who is doing church planting in Rome. He talks briefly about the religious culture, spiritual climate and how a focus on Jesus helps to overcome some anti-Christian bias.

Obviously you hear a lot about Rome but you may not know as much about Marseilles. Marseilles has a large immigrant population from people in North Africa. The city also has a large Jewish population. Meet Scott who works in Marseilles as a church planter. Scott talks about how they are utilizing Third Places in Marseilles to connect with the French and tell them about Jesus Christ.

We are planning a trip this Fall to Asia. For more information about this trip go to the Upstream website to fill out the initial application. The dates are September 19 - 27th and we will be in Taiwan.