re JIG

I figured it’s time to have a re-jig of the blogroll.

Here are the “innies”

jonestribe – I stumbled across this blog quite by accident, and really enjoyed the content. So, I continue to revisit it. You should too. Steve Jones describes himself as a

dad, husband, coach, trainer, speaker, church planting addict, new media geek, lifelong learner.

I promised to add Steve to my blogroll, so here goes

ARMYBARMY Remix – Danielle Strickland is a Salvation Army officer, an inspirational preacher, writer who specializes in mission and incarnation to conferences and youth and women. Her blog is thought provoking, and should be especially riveting and she and her husband Steve Court make the move from Canada to Australia.

And here are the “outies”

Brian Orme

He provides the Q&A in his final(if he’s really kicked the blogging habit) post:

Why did you decide to stop?
Great question. Really, it’s a number of things. But, most of all I want to delve into other creative projects and I feel my time is getting crunched. Not to mention that it’s hard for me to be a lite blogger. I’m either all in or, well, you get the picture.

Both Brian & one of my real favourites, Randy Bohlender
decided to call it quits on blogging. It’s a shame. They both were coming up with consistently good stuff, and Randy’s blog was a real winner in my eyes.

An acorn short of an oak tree – Darrin, my real life flesh & blood buddy, started blogging with some really insightful writing, but I figure his internet access is no more. Hopefully, he’ll hook up again eventually, and he’ll go straight back on the johnnylaird blogroll! Looks like his blog got seriously spammed as well.

Special Mention to Emergency Man Chris Parker – brother in-law of Mrsparker - at NoParking If he doesn’t start writing soon, he’s gonna be off the list! ;-) It's more NoBlogging than NoParking.

The boys

Last night I had a night out with “the boys”, which is a rare pleasure indeed now that I have my beautiful kids to demand my attention.

It was cool to be able to spend time laughing together, bouncing around the City, heading to our Brick Lane destination, Le Taj for some top Bangladeshi scran.

(Check out their site for a 360 degree tour of Le Taj)

We laughed hard, recalling our stories, which over time have become stretched & embellished way beyond the true events that spawned them. We feel into that rhythm of quickfire banter that we'd developed over the single years when we lived in and out of each others houses, where the big game on TV was the ultimate arbiter for deciding where we should be, and when time was stretched into an amorphous day-night-day time. They were good, good days - and so are the ones we are living in now.

Cheers geezers! You are the men!

NOOMA HEADZ

This is a goody for all you NOOMA Headz out there.

Daniel Decker has some great shots of the filming of the latest NOOMA vid here

It's only just hit me how big an undertaking the whole NOOMA deal is. This is not some guy with a hand held video cam.

Incidentally, looks like Daniel's blog is worth a visit once in a while.

Pocket Mummy

Check out this brand new blog from one of my good friends at Church.

Drop by and say "hello". Tell her I sent you!

FREEDOM DAY

Sunday 25th has been designated Freedom Day, and will be championed by the Stop the Traffik to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the slave trade and call for an end to modern day slavery.

As part of that day, my Church - Croydon Citadel Salvation Army - has made a block booking of 200 seats at the local cinema to watch the Amazing Grace movie.

With our youth campaigning in the town centre while our Band conducts an Open Air Service, shared lunch and an evening Cafe Church led by Major Nigel Bovey, editor of The War Cry it's gonna be a busy day.

If you're in the area, £10.00 gets you lunch and entry to the movie.

For more details of the fight against Human Trafficking in Croydon, check out Croydon Community Against Trafficking

614

..lovin' this post from the Heather at 614Network

Some tips for showing love in the community:

*smiling at people (who initially may not be smiling at you...)

*a simple nod of the head to a stranger in acknowledgement as you walk past one another

*a wave accompanied by a friendly hello to those sitting on a porch nearby

*introducing yourself first and then inviting them to share their name with you..."Hi, my name is Heather, good to meet you ma'am. What's your name?"

*Remembering the names of those neighbors you've met and the next time you see them, calling them by their name. "Hey Miss Sadie, good to see you. Remember me? We met last week. I'm Heather. How you' doin' today? Need a hand with anything?"

*Stopping to chat a minute on a front porch - if someone is calling to you in the street from their house (a Hey, hello or c'mon up here a minute) don't be be shy! Grab that opportunity to walk right up to them and enter into a conversation...this makes a 'front porch hello' the norm for your next visit, and before you know it, you'll be regularly doin' some "front porch settin' sippin on some sweet tea 'ike it ain't no thang"...

This is the begining anyway...it all flows out of that.

Sometime the simple things really make the most sense.

Thanks Heather!

“They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places lost devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” (Isaiah 61:4)

Check out 614.

A Meditation for Lent

by the Rev. Roger Bowen

Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from criticism; feast on praise.
Fast from self-pity; feast on joy.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from jealousy; feast on love.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from selfishness; feast on service.
Fast from Fear; feast on faith.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from concern; feast on compassion from others.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude


HT to Danielle Strickland(again!) for pointing me in the direction of this Lent Meditation

Preach Brother

Hat tip to Danielle Strickland for sharing the great Bono acceptance speech from the NAACP.



Bono has recently been awarded the NAACP Chairman’s Award, bestowed in recognition of special achievement and distinguished public service.

Bear

Gotta recommend a new(ish) show that had it's UK terrestial debut on Saturday.

Real life James Bond (without the licence to kill), Alpha poster boy and TV adventurer* Bear Grylls' new show is Born Survivor, which in it's first incarnation on Discovery was known as Man Vs. Wild.

There is a bunch of good stuff online including the production company's site.

Highly recommended.

*this summation of Bear doesn't even go half way to telling the story. If you don't know much about him, this inspirational guy deserves further investigation.

2 Randys in one day

The blogroll is expanding today.

First off, Randy Elrod has written a great piece on community on Rick Warren's Pastors.com site. Randy was kind enough to leave a comment on johnnylaird.blogspot.com, so I'm delighted to add him to my blogroll.


Similarly, Bobby Williams passed by after I'd commented on his post about the Just Stop and Think vid that had made an impact on me a few weeks ago.


Transition Pete makes the list because I've been checking his blog for ages now, but never got round to adding it to my 'roll. I like the way he describes his life "me moving though life -- purposefully, clumsily, and sometimes gracefully -- sharing random ideas, expressing thoughts that are bouncing around in my noggin’, and showin' off the bits and pieces that make up my life and faith… the things that matter to me -- life..." - I can relate to that, Pete. On top of that Pete has an elegant pics'n'all blogroll that led me to today's final new link, Dustin Bryson AKA Renegade Robot. Dustin also contributes to SpitBox along with superblogger, Carlos Whittaker.

I figure at least 80% of the value of my own blog is the links the other sites I've discovered, and invited anyone reading to go and visit. Check out these dudes: each of them have good things to say.

Peace & Blessings

J

So hip it hurts

Anyone who can work a cool Church,WIRED, Burning Man and a picture of a funky VW bus into one post has gotta be so hip it hurts, and OK by me!

Randy Bohlender is a consistently entertaining & inspiring blogger, and ALWAYS worth a read. it's not the first time I've name checked Randy on my blog, but his stuff is worth a second or even third mention.

(On top of all this he's a big noise at International House of Pancakes! ;-)).....or maybe I mean IHOP