Around the World with Mr. Clark

Clark Vandeventer interviews George Beals about Azerbaijan.

In 2014, George became the Director of Strategic Development for World Hope International. Before serving with World Hope, George served his local church as the Pastor of Global Ministries for over two decades. He was the very first missions pastor in his denomination. While serving as the missions pastor, his church was involved in sending their people short-term and long-term cross-culturally. George led the church to strategize their part in fulfilling the Great Commission.

George earned a Doctor of Applied Intercultural Studies degree with a concentration in International Relief and Development. His research was on training Christian business professionals who are working cross-culturally. George is the director of the missions pastor forum for West Michigan, which brings together mission pastors and mission agency leaders to exchange ideas. In 2019, George participated in the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York City.

Sometimes, in humanitarian work, and in relief and development work, we can do more harm than good. I have spent a lot of time thinking about these unintended consequences, and how we can do relief and development work that helps without hurting.

I've thought a LOT about this, but George has thought a LOT more than me. He’s studied it. And he has experience in it. He’s traveled to 45+ countries -- some that no longer exist.

In this interview we focus on the country of Azerbaijan. If you want to track down George after listening to this interview, you can find him on Instagram @georgebeals -- that's https://www.instagram.com/georgebeals
For more travel perspectives, follow Clark on social media!

Clark on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/clarkvand/⁠

Clark on TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@clarkvand?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc⁠

You can also email Clark at [email protected] and check out all of his course offerings for tweens and teens on Outschool at ⁠https://bit.ly/clarkonoutschool

Clark Vandeventer interviews James and Angela Ure about life in Spain.

James and Angela live in Southern Utah and are parents to three teenagers and a tween.  James started an education company and ran it for 14 years and he transitioned out of that two years ago and has been on a sabbatical since. James and Angela have a little side venture running workshops for parents around relationships and family life. You can learn more at https://www.familyc.com/home

They have traveled to 20 countries. Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Galapagos Equador, Peru, Thailand, Bali, Morocco, Iceland, England, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia.  *Interesting note: Except for Thailand and Peru, they visited all of these countries with their kids.

James and Angela. They are intentional people. In the interview -- you will hear James refer to Adventure being one of their family values. They have identified their family values being WELL-BEING, CONNECTION, CREATIVITY, and ADVENTURE. And Travel is how they live their value of adventure together.

A lot of really cool perspectives in this interview -- and I sort of feel like Spain was just a jumping off point to get them to talk about lots of cool things they have come to know through their deliberate travels -- but -- I loved their individual answers at the end of this interview about their top experiences in Spain.

Don't miss Angela talking about Sagrada Familia or James talking about Running with the Bulls! But there is so much in this interview about the routines and rhythms of life in Spain and how that has helped them more intentionally shape their life back home in Southern Utah.

For more travel perspectives, follow Clark on social media!

Clark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarkvand/

Clark on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clarkvand?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

You can also email Clark at [email protected] and check out all of his course offerings for tweens and teens on Outschool at https://bit.ly/clarkonoutschool

Host Clark Vandeventer shares some personal stories from travels in Central America and gives a birds-eye overview of some basic facts about the 7 countries below Mexico and above South America that make up Central America.

For more travel perspectives, follow Clark on social media!

Clark on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/clarkvand/⁠

Clark on TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@clarkvand?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc⁠

You can also email Clark at [email protected] and check out all of his course offerings for tweens and teens on Outschool at ⁠https://bit.ly/clarkonoutschool

Host Clark Vandeventer flies over Central America -- at an elevation of about 10,000 feet -- and occasionally dropping down to ground level. This is an overview of Central America, with a focus on Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Costa Rica: ecotourism and biodiversity

Nicaragua: Iran Contra Scandal

Honduras: Bay Islands and Copan Ruinas

El Salvador: Well, they're not communists

You can find Clark's classes on outschool at ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/clarkonoutschool⁠⁠ and follow him on Instagram at ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/clarkvand/⁠⁠

You can email him at [email protected]

Host Clark Vandeventer introduces you to Panama, a country the United States has a complicated relationship with.

The first country in the world outside the US where you could get Coca-Cola!

The Panama Canal!

But first, Panama would probably not exist as a country without the US support of a Revolution that found Panama independent from Colombia.

You can find Clark's classes on outschool at ⁠https://bit.ly/clarkonoutschool⁠ and follow him on Instagram at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/clarkvand/⁠

You can email him at [email protected]

Clark Vandeventer interviews JT & Lydia Gardner about life in Spain.

Clark and his family got to know JT and Lydia when their lives intersected for a few months while they were both living in Guatemala.

You can find JT & Lydia on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jt.lyd.gardner/

Christopher Columbus traveled more after his death than most people will travel in their life. And he was still traveling almost 400 years after his death! Chris Columbus and Che Guevera are two figures with ties to Cuba that provide two book-ends to history.

You can find Clark's classes on outschool at https://bit.ly/clarkonoutschool and follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/clarkvand/

You can email him at [email protected]

Clark Vandeventer interviews Jo Anne Lyon about the West African nation of Sierra Leone.

Jo Anne is amazing -- and has traveled to 88 different countries! That's amazing!

ONE INTERESTING THING IN THIS INTERVIEW --> There's some pretty serious division and polarization in the USA today, but nothing compared to what Sierra Leone has faced in the past.

Jo Anne talked about how she admires Sierra Leone's ABILITY TO RECOVER FROM A BRUTAL WAR WITH TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION.

Additional observations on Sierra Leone being a country where Christians and Muslims peacefully co-exist.

As the founder and previous CEO of World Hope International, Jo Anne directed the faith-based relief and development organization into over 30 countries to alleviate suffering and injustice. During her time as CEO, she was involved with several countries experiencing fragility, conflict and violence with a strong focus on the role of faith. Her previous 30 years of pastoral ministry contributed to the effectiveness of the work. Following 12 years of service to World Hope International she was elected as the General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church worldwide. She served in that position for eight years. At the close of her tenure, she was invited to serve as the Ambassador for The Wesleyan Church for the following four years by action of the General Board to retain the considerable connections and influence she has had to extend the influence of the Church.

Jo Anne serves on the board of directors of many organizations such as Bread for the World, Vice-Chair of the Board of National Association of Evangelicals, National Religious Partnership for the Environment, Council on Faith of the World Economic Forum, previously President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and others.

She holds a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, continued graduate studies in Historical Theology and has been granted five honorary doctorates. She is an ordained minister of the Wesleyan Church. The recipient of the 2016 “World Methodist Peace Award”, 2017 “Keeper of the American Dream Award” from the National Immigration Forum in Washington DC as well as various other awards.

Dr. Lyon and her husband, Rev. Wayne Lyon, live in the Indianapolis area. They have four children and 10 grandchildren.

If you want to know more about Jo Anne, just google her. You can also find her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at https://twitter.com/JoAnneLyonGS

"Travel is one of the best personal development tools. You voluntarily insert yourself into situations where you don’t understand everything, where the culture and thinking is different, and you maneuver through the frustration, the celebration and the new experiences. "

- Sabina King

You've got to hear Sabina King talk about Bali!

Sabina and her family were based in Bali -- or used Bali as a homebase -- for 5 years -- and she still has Airbnbs in Bali. In this interview we talk about her family’s move from Chicago to Denver -- and Denver to Costa Rica -- and then Costa Rica to Bali.

Clark became acquainted with Sabina and her family around 2010 or 11 when he and his wife had crashed and burned and were trying to re-invent their life. At that time, blogs were a big thing -- and they got connected with so many cool people around the world. Sabina was one of those people.

Sabina is someone who knows how to build a life around the things that she values.

Born in Poland. Her family immigrated to America when she was 5 years old. Sabina has been around the world -- lots of travel -- all over Central America, Western Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Mexico, Canada -- to name a few. Asheland, Oregon has been their base over the past few years.

You can find out more about Sabina and her work at:

https://www.facebook.com/bethewildpeace

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabina-king/

https://www.instagram.com/sabinatking/

A Passion For Purpose, Peak Performance, and Inspiring Others

In this episode, Clark Vandeventer interviews Greg Denning aboute life in France.

"You can go somewhere and not experience anything but I wanted it to touch me and and reach me and change me and instruct me, and I wanted to squeeze the juice out of everywhere we went, and it really affected me, it really impacted me, and I'm like, 'man I want this for my family,' and I wanna connect with the people in the places all around the world."

"But there's there's a few things in France that just stand out, like the food culture... It seems like a simple thing but they take it so serious... And and you take something simple like the ingredients that are everywhere in the world and they make it taste amazing. .. they're taking the same ingredients and they're operating at this level of excellence. And you see it in the museums, and you see it in the art, and you see it in the music, and you see it in the language, and then then you go into the alps."

About Greg:

Out on his own by the age of 16, Greg experienced years of hardship, loneliness, hunger, homelessness, and discouragement. He struggled desperately to find the answers that would bring him a life of real happiness, success, and fulfillment.

Through the power of life-changing books (an average of one book a week for over two decades) he was able to catch a vision of the life he wanted to create for himself, and then take action to bring it about. Greg transformed his mindset, heartset, and skillset in order to design and create the extraordinary life he dreamed of living!

Today he is married to the woman of his dreams and they have seven wonderful children. As a family, their big dream is to travel to as many countries as possible and to connect with the amazing people and places of the world. So far they have traveled and lived in more than 55 countries on 5 continents, while Greg has the incredible privilege of being a keynote speaker, trainer, and high-performance executive life/business coach to ambitious parents.

Greg is passionate, even obsessed, about peak human performance, health and fitness, education, adventure, travel, and inspiring everyone he meets to Reach Upward for their full potential. Every day he lives to help people believe in themselves, think differently about their lives, and create the EXTRAORDINARY Family Life they dream about.

Greg is the host of the ⁠Extraordinary Family Life podcast⁠, and he and Rachel are the co-creators of The Extraordinary Family Life Formula.

Check out Be the Man Masterclass with Greg at ⁠https://bethemanmasterclass.com/⁠

Learn more about Greg at ⁠https://www.gregdenning.com/⁠