resonance

I attend a lot of meetings as part of my role at Church, and to be honest...somewhat unusually...I kinda enjoy them.

However, I do feel some resonance with this quote from Henri Nouwen

“More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets.

It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.”

Henri Nouwen

Noah's One!

This weekend we celebrated Noah's first birthday.

I hope I can always be the best Dad I can be for him...and his sister, Mia.

Family Man

I've slowly started to include pics of Jan & the kids to this blog, so it only seems fair that includes a picture of me.

2 Posts 1 Week

It's not often that anyone in my circle of blogging buddies gets a 2 posts in a week, but I just have to flag up Lard's entry into the world of the Moleskine.

Creative genius behind Lardmonkey & Larddesigns, Lard is a talented wee fellah!

I should be on commission for this kind of exposure.

FRWY

It's great to see some national (Canadian) recognition for the ministry of Pernell Goodyear at The Freeway in Hamilton, ON.The Freeway is a missional church community and coffee house located in Hamilton, Ontario

There's a great piece in Salvationist.ca - a Canadian magazine published by The Salvation Army which tells their story.

I've watched what's being going on there from a distance for some time, and Pernell is a cool guy worth listening too.

Read the article here

Carbonara 4 Lard & Becks

What a great weekend.

Jan & I spent Friday night at our place with Lloyd & Becky, just chillin’, eating, sharing stories about our kids & exploring the outer edges of geekdom during our meandering late night conversations. L&B are seriously good people, and we loved having them round. Cooked my favourite dish (to cook) - dairy-product fueled carbonara. We gotta do it again soon, guys!

We are blessed with some awesome friends.

On Sunday evening at Café Church we had a visit from The Salvation Army’s Korean Corps in London, based in Wimbledon. Top evening: it was good to spend some time with our Korean brothers & sisters, who had brought along their Singing Group & traditional Percussion Ensemble.

Mia & Noah nearly jumped out of their skins when the Percussion Ensemble started off their piece, but by the end of it Noah was clapping away like a good ‘un.

I’m hoping this new relationship between our two Churches can really flourish.

My beauties

My wonderful kids make Jan & I so happy.

We are so blessed.

ROCKHARBOR

I've been increasingly intrigued & inspired by this sentence I read on the ROCKHARBOR site:


"The rush for this adventurous community was in getting to be the Church – not just attend it. It was clear church was experienced best when we were in living it, not simply watching it happen. ROCKHARBOR had been marked by a heart of passionate involvement.

In the midst of this movement, we began to recognize the importance of having chances to serve and sacrifice for everyone that walked through our doors. It became clear that our young church shined when everyone had a part to play.
....

Today, this is still true of our growing church – ministry belongs in the hands of our people. But more than ever before, God is aiming us outward – in investing the best we bring beyond ourselves to a world that desperately needs to see His love and life on display. The call is clear – to give ourselves away. To be challenged and changed by investing our best outward. To believe that the more we risk, the more we are transformed to be like Jesus."


It's a lesson for all involved in Church life

Janet

She's my love, my rock, wonderful mother to my beautiful kids, my source of inspiration, my life partner...I love you, Baby!

Dreams for my kids

Lard posed a question as part of his regular Thursday Thought post:

"Whatever it is you do for a living. Whatever age you might be, do you still have a dream?"

Some of my dreams were for and with my kids:

to live to 100 with Janet
to walk my little girl Mia down the aisle
to go to the game with my son
to retire to Hawaii
to watch Scotland win the World Cup
to have time to wake up & smell the coffee
to see my Saviour’s face


J :-)

Can't resist

In a week when pride seemed to be restored to Scottish football...a loss against the highly rated Ukrainian side notwithstanding, it was so delicious to see the England keeper cast in the role of numpty against Croatia last night!

Oh what joy!

...makes up for all those years of abuse suffered because of so-called Scottish keeper deficiencies

Ziggy & SpongeBob

Now we're talking!!

The BIG news is that David Bowie is going to be a guest on "SpongeBob SquarePants," playing a character called Lord Royal Highness in a show that will air sometime in 2007.

Both of these guys - David Bowie & SpongeBob - are highly lauded figures in our house, especially SpongeBob now that Mia & Noah pretty much rule the remote control any time before 7.30 PM.

Check out CNN's report here

Tall Skinny Kiwi Rides Again!

Andrew Jones - uberblogger, Emergent type, well travelled pilgrim took a blog fast in September, but is now back with avengeance now that we're in October.

TSK is one of the most consistant & creative bloggers out there, so definitely worth reading. He's a true citizen of the world..and beyond, having lived in the following countries:

17 years in New Zealand
10 years in USA
7 years in Australia
3 years in Czech Republic
3 years in UK
1 year in Latin America
3 months in Canada
2 months in Asia

Read & learn