Dr. Livingstone, I presume.

Before she married my grandfather, Dorothy Raplee's maiden name was Livingstone. As long as I can remember, Raplee family legend had it that our Scottish roots were somehow connected to the legendary missionary to Africa, Dr. David Livingstone. If course, I couldn't begin to draw the family tree linking me to the good doctor, though my grandmother had a cousin named David. Truth be told, however, although he obtained a PhD. (making him, in fact, Dr. Livingstone), he's still alive and living in Pittsburgh.

My mother's father, Warren Buchholtz, was an ordained evangelist at the Bowery Mission, a "skid row" ministry established at the time of the Fulton Street Revival of the late 19th Century, now one of the country's oldest continually operating Christian ministries in the United States.

Then, of course, there's me. I've been working second string at a church plant in central Queens for more than two years now and still wondering which side of my ministry pedigree will emerge in my work.

To that end, I'm heading down to Atlanta this weekend to attend a denominational missions conference. I've always said, and it's true, people from all over the world come to Queens, making this a most unique place for Gospel ministry. It will be interesting to see what cross-cultural ministry looks like when people go to other countries to preach rather than have the other countries come to them the way they do here.

I expect it to be a most enlightening weekend. Watch for my next blog entry to see if I learn anything useful at this conference.