4 minutes at 4:44: operation world

big money

2008-09-23T17:13:00.003+01:00

well, with all the talk about the global financial crisis, everyone seems to be weighing with their opinions. i will refrain, because as soon as i start writing it will smack of critical self-righteousness and "i told you so" pedantry! not that that's usually stopped me before! of course the people who get hurt the most are usually not the ones at fault - which in turns makes me wonder about the justice and righteousness of God.

oh, the convenience of being poor by the standards of these big players and not to have to worry because i have no shares to lose money on!

my own views on money and wealth have already been encapsulated here

but i am HUGELY enjoying some great music by canadian rock legends RUSH this afternoon, and despite their lack of faith in God, they write a lot of wisdom.

so, from the majestic Power Windows album (1985), i give you Big Money:

Big money goes around the world
Big money underground
Big money got a mighty voice
Big money make no sound
Big money pull a million strings
Big money hold the prize
Big money weave a mighty web
Big money draw the flies

Big money goes around the world
Big money give and take
Big money done a power of good
Big money make mistakes
Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul...

hawthorne had it right...

2008-09-22T16:44:00.000+01:00

...it was one of those perfect afternoons that was simply too good to be wasted - especially in light of the miserable summer that the UK has endured. low 20s, hardly a cloud in the sky, and the faintest of breezes.

so i put aside the 200 e-mails i should have answered, the 100 countries i should be writing, the surveys, articles, trips, messages, analyses and the rest. i grabbed a blanket, a glass full of ice and a can of coke, my mp3 player and a good book (one that I wanted to read!) and headed outside.

i finally nestled myself not onto the ground, but onto what passes for a dock on the edge of the lily pond. it's a pretty big pond, about 30 metres in diameter, with a small island in the middle and a host of water lilies all around.

and there i lay, just soaking up the sun for a couple of hours, alternating between reading and dozing off. the stress slid off of me as if i were made of teflon.

just to add to the simple joy and comfort of actually relaxing (what a concept!), a huge, iridescent dragonfly who had been hovering around decided that it would pay me a visit and first alighted near my feet, then flew up to land on my hand, where it stayed for some time. i've always loved dragonflies and this was the closest and longest look i've ever had at one. they're a marvel of engineering, really, and quite beautiful, considering they're just massive bugs.

nathaniel hawthorne wrote: "Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

on saturday my happiness was not a butterly, but a dragonfly.

time moves on...

2008-09-17T16:42:00.002+01:00

it's been a very busy few months, hence my silence...

1) we have seen 2 team members come and go
2) another has joined part time for a month
3) another 2 have joined long term
4) another 1 has joined as an associate long term

5) i had a birthday

6) i was in canada, australia and singapore

7) we reorged my office, realigning the desks, filing cabinets, etc etc.

8) still trying to write Operation World in the midst of that!

so, i've decided i'm going to travel as little as possible, work as much as possible (goodbye, already negligible social life!), and be thankful as much as possible for this great team and all the people who support us through prayer and goodwill.

on another note, we are trying to use the tools that already exist to mobilize more prayer and get more people involved! find out by joining us at our newly redesigned team website
HERE

or at our cool and fast growing new facebook page
HERE

all for now,

jason

slovenia - where nothing seems to happen

2008-07-21T16:39:00.003+01:00

well, not NOTHING, but it was a real trial to find newsworthy stories and especially accounts of spiritual life in this allegedly lovely little country on the fault line between the balkans and western europe. a couple of tidbits...

it's the only ex-communist country to have held the presidency of the EU (in 2007).

shortly after being accepted INTO the EU (in 2004) the government decided to vote out of existence an anti-corruption initiative that had been set up in order to speed up accession into the EU. clever pragmatists, those Slovenes :)

on the church/religion level here is a sneak preview of what i wrote for OW:

A long history of Catholic tradition is under threat. The three main Christian groups (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran) are lacking in spiritual vitality and in rapid decline into irrelevance. Atheism and New Age beliefs are increasingly prevalent as is general spiritual apathy. Pray for an awakening in the mainline churches that will draw the many nominal Christians into personal faith in Christ.

Evangelicals are few, underfunded and divided. There is an evangelical presence in only 28 out of 210 municipalities, so church planting teams are clearly needed. The tiny evangelical population often reflects the divisive culture of the South Slavs – pray for unity and the formation of an Evangelical Alliance. Almost none of the few dozen fellowships are self-funding; the vast majority rely on external financial support. Pray for Slovene Christians to rise to the challenge of supporting their own pastors and even sending missionaries.

weddings

2008-07-16T19:44:00.003+01:00

everywhere i turn, there seems to be friends getting married. old friends from canada, old friends from england, recent friends from doulos and more recent friends from england (errr, scotland too) once again. i'm very happy for them...and continue wonder if my own matrimonial ambivalence is healthy or unambitious, a sign of contentment or of laziness or selfishness. i normally don't ruminate so much on the issue, but this recent spate of weddings and engagements has prompted me to consider many things.

i also seem to be a rather difficult case. due to Operation World, i am rather slavishly (albeit willingly and only for the time being) pinned to the location of London, the time demands of my work/ministry and the financial constraints (if you can rightly label them in a theological sense constraints) of being a "faith Kingdom worker". not to mention what some have decided on my behalf are impossibly high standards. not only does this rather dramatically narrow down the number of eligible females, but it also quite comprehensively disqualifies me from eligibility according to many otherwise quite desireable single women!

i'm also quite conflicted about the right approach to the issue of male-female relationships. is it best to sit back and let God do the work, asking for His provision as we would for our daily bread or our financial support or the faith to continue in our walk? or should we be proactive, planning our campaign and counting the cost, not just asking, but seeking and knocking as well?

i dunno. i'm not sure anyone else really does, either.

Zimbabwe - still posting

2008-03-31T16:41:00.002+01:00

Well, it is not clearly precisely what is happening in Zimbabwe. Apparently, a rigged election (what?! no, that's impossible!). Although the MDC opposition party might have stolen a march by claiming victory even before a proper count had been done, which was a bit naughty but perhaps necessary. Will we see another meltdown a la Kenya? Not like Zimbabwe could get much worse.

The condemnation of the electoral process by independent and South African observers cannot be a positive thing and points to some crooked business. The question is whether any international groups (such as the British government, the UN, who knows, even China, one of Zim's biggest investors) will actually do anything about it. Quite how the USA and others can clamour for autonomy for Kosovo while ignoring all these crooked "elections", I don't know.

Anyway, here are some links to the most recent news articles.

BBC article

Reuters article

Intl Herald Tribune article

zimbabwe elections - urgent

2008-03-28T10:00:00.002Z

the fine people at Jericho Walls have released this statement. i was going to write something along similar lines, but they have done such a good job, i will just post their stuff. it is a crucial - one where we can hope that democracy and people power triumphs over dictatorship and indeed madness..

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FOR ZIMBABWE ELECTIONS: SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2008

Most of us know about the serious situation in Zimbabwe and the suffering of its people. We as Christians around the world need to stand before God’s throne to pray for grace and mercy for that nation. It is clear that only a divine intervention can bring change in that nation. Let us pray with hope and faith when we pray – “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (Heb.11:6)

Please let us not under estimate the situation in Zimbabwe. There is a very real potential that violence can break out and that will cause much bloodshed.

There is ample evidence from history that God changed nations in answer to prayer. We have seen this in Kenya recently, in South Africa in 1994, then in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Hungary, Sudan and many others.

· Let us pray for every form of corruption and tampering with the votes to be exposed.

· Let us pray for God’s peace to reign in the nation from now untill the elections on Sunday and also afterwards.

· Pray that God will fulfil his purposes with that nation.

· Pray that the church in Zimbabwe will take their place before the throne of grace and that God will help them at His right time.

· Pray for economic and social restoration of the whole country.

· Pray for the church to move forward in unity and much wisdom and that they will understand their times and know what to do.

In 1 Tim.2:1-4 we are taught that we must pray for governments and all in positions of authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and it pleases God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

Issued by:

Jericho Walls / Tansformation Africa / Global Day of Prayer / International Prayer Council

italian restaurants and easter services

2008-03-26T16:49:00.004Z

i am a part time reviewer of restaurants (nice gig when you can get it). one thing that i have noticed is that there are a number of chains of Italian restaurants prominent on high streets in the UK - three to be precise - which are owned by the same restaurant group. really the philosophy behind these three chains is the same. the food is styled the same. the decor is different, but the layout is the same; the staff wear slightly different uniforms, the types of pizzas or pastas or salads is a little different from one place to the next. i assume that most people don't really notice these things, thinking that the different names and colours and slightly varied menu means different ownership.

this is a malaise that many have mentioned in connection with UK high streets. in the name of "consumer choice" and "variety", we are actually LOSING diversity. all the unique, one-off, mom and pop places out there are disappearing and being replaced by cookie cutter replicas which you find in every high street everywhere. increasing commercialization actually is decreasing our choice.

i went to church twice last weekend. that's slightly more than 1 visit more than my average weekly church attendance. it was for a Good Friday service and an Easter Sunday service. the two most important dates in the Christian calendar. i was certainly expecting to sing some great hymns or choruses of the past which resonate with this special time of year. Wesley's "Christ the Lord is Risen Today", etc.

all we got were the same choruses we sing every other week. if i didn't know any better i would think that there were actually only about 25 Christian songs in existence and we are forced to sing these same ones over and over, at Christmas, Easter, for Lent, for Pentecost, etc, ad nauseum.

the songs we sang were all good songs. they were done well by the band. but they were THE SAME as every other week.

i wonder if increased commercialization of the highly profitable and well-marketed WORSHIP INDUSTRY has yielded the same results. we are now compelled to only sing songs by about 4 or 5 different writers/artists because they are the most popular. no more local artists. no more rediscovered gems of hymns from days gone by. no more worship materials developed in house by our own musicians (unless you are a megachurch with a band signed to a label of course).

the more churches i go to, the more i feel like the songs we sing are just like pizzas in those Italian eateries. good enough in their own right, but in the end, a bit tired and a bit "samey".

(don't even get me started on the number of times we have to sing a song over and over in one go before it gets a bit annoying. if those songwriters can't be bothered to write more than 2 verses, why should we feel compelled to sing the song for 7 minutes! even the horrible 3 minute pop songs on the radio realize this truth!)

when we lose touch with our traditions, we are poorer for it. when we lose diversity, whether in ecosystems/wildlife, cuisine, or the musical canon of evangelicalism, we are much poorer for that as well.

hawaii

2008-03-16T03:04:00.002Z

i had to spend a few days in hawaii (due to some speaking commitments), but after i agreed, i have some doubts about whether it had been a good idea to agree on such a long trip and over a week out of the office (and away from the book).

in the end i was glad that i did. the speaking went quite well, and i rediscovered that i do love these opportunities. in that sense i am looking forward to finishing OW so that i can spend more time speaking, teaching, communicating.

i also learned a lot about hawaii's history. it an arguable case that hawaii is actually an illegally occupied sovereign territory (see here), annexed by the USA in violation of the will of the elected sovereign of Hawaii (yes at this point their kings and queens were elected). funny that the USA should clamour for independence for Kosovo and Kuwait, when they themselves are far from innocent on such issues.

anyway, i found that people in Hawaii (and the USA in general) were very friendly, generous,
open and hospitable as well as world-aware and desirous of having a redemptive and positive presence in the wider world. maybe it was just the people i was with, but the stereotypes that pervade much of the rest of the world (sadly reinforced by such clips as Miss Teen South Carolina) are often very far from the truth.

hawaii is also beautiful in many ways...i could go on about this, but instead, why don't you just look at my photos, one example of which i have included here. not the best shots of some of these sights, but they do the job adequately! see them here.

retinal scans

2007-10-10T16:57:00.000+01:00

despite all the scifi elements and cloak and dagger mystery associated, i myself am not a strong advocate of retinal scanning technology. having wasted many hours of my life standing in a queue at immigration at Heathrow Airport, i longed for a quicker way to get through the endless lines of tourists, students, businessmen and all sorts of shady characters looking for ways into the cash-rich bonanza of the UK.

finally, one immigration official - as i was LEAVING the country for Hong Kong - suggested that i sign up for the retinal scan tech which fast tracks me through immigration. so i went in and got my eyes scanned and data registered in about 5 minutes.

coming home, on a flight that arrived around 7 am (peak arrival time for overseas flights), i sidestepped the hour-long queue and went to the scanning machine. one woman was in front of me and she took 5 seconds to get through. you walk onto the spot, place your face near the camera which scans you and matches the scan to the data in their computers. since i'm a permanent resident here, i can come and go as i please. within a few seconds, i was through. i was literally the SECOND person at the baggage carousel. ahead of all the fat cats from first class and all!

of course, if your suitcase is the last one off the plane, it's all in vain!

i'm just assuming that i'm not getting some Manchurian Candidate style implant as a result of those brief encounters with the scanning technology :)

Kenya - some sensible changes and happy news

2007-09-11T23:43:00.000+01:00

Quoting from The Week:

"A mass giveaway of free mosquito nets has almost halved child deaths from malaria in high-risk areas of Kenya. Since 2003, then Kenyan ministry of health has handed out 12.5 million insecticide-treated nets, increasing the proportion of children sleeping under protection from 5% to 52%. The scale of the progamme is unprecedented in Africa, and early results suggest it has been an astonishing success. Childhood mortality in some areas has fallen by 44%, with hospital admissions down by up to 57%."

No Western-controlled pharmaceuticals, no highly controversial and banned (but truly effective) DDT, just a simple solution. And not even that costly! If each net costs around $5US to make, that's around 65 million bucks. A lot. But that huge total is nothing compared to the $1.5 billion in INTEREST paid to service debts owed by Kenya to the IMF etc. And even less compared to the $650 billion the USA spent on its military this year.

Sometimes things really need to be put in perspective. The USA could pay for mosquito nets for every child in high-risk malarial areas in the whole freaking world a thousand times over and still have enough money left over to blow up the whole world.

shameless self-promotion and plugging myself

2007-08-28T16:43:00.001+01:00

Well, it's been almost 11 months, but the DVD of The State of the Gospel is out there and ready for people to use.

We've produced a DVD which includes the transcript of the address, the powerpoint file, the audio file, the pdf of the whole presentation and the movie/video as well.

If you want to see what it looks like, just go to here.

And if you think that your ministry, church, small group or whatever would benefit from a copy of the DVD, then let me know! We're not trying to make a profit on this one, just get the material in the hands of people who will use it and try to recoup some of the cost in the process.

Jason

the Muslim Jesus

2007-08-20T16:44:00.000+01:00

i watched a very interesting documentary (on ITV of all places!) called The Muslim Jesus. it was all about the views of Muslims, both in the Quran and the Hadith and folk traditions, about Jesus. i know some of the stuff, but certainly not everything. there is a load of material about Jesus in the Muslim tradition. some of it is lifted straight from the Bible, other parts are created or borrowed but not contradictory to the Christian tradition and still other parts contradict outright the Christian tradition. such as the fact that when Jesus, at his second coming, declares himself a Muslim and tells all Christians to follow Mohammed and not himself. or the belief that Jesus after he returns, will marry, have kids, and die to be buried beside Mohammed.

on the flip side, Muslims do believe he was sinless, born of a virgin, was a prophet, performed miracles and was taken up to heaven without dying.

it made me think about Christians in general and how ignorant they are of Muslim belief. probably about as much as Muslims are about what Christians actually believe - i mean, just ask your average Muslim about the Trinity...

Bahamas - typical Caribbean

2007-08-09T17:08:00.000+01:00

A lot of the same themes keep appearing everytime i write up a Caribbean country and Bahamas is not much different.

The country is overwhelmingly Christian in name (and even in practice), but nominalism is widespread reflected in a high rate of illegitimate births and widespread crime and drug use.

Its proximity to the USA means that a lot of money has been poured into the country. Firstly, to fight the establish of Bahamas as a drug transshipment point to the USA. It's ideally located for such a role being composed of many tiny islands all close to Florida. Second and more recently, tourism. The Bahamian economy hinges on tourism - 80% of tourists are from the USA. Especially actively courted are the rich. Any investment of more than 500,000 USD into property development or infrastructre gets u permanent resident status. Which in turns gets you a tax haven, for which Bahamas is becoming famous.

Johnny Depp has a private island here. As does John Travolta, Faith Hill, Tiger Woods, Sean Combs, Nicolas Cage, etc etc.

But what about the islanders themselves? I suppose they have it better than a lot of other Caribbean natives. However, although 95% of the country are affiliated to Christianity, and most households have a Bible, there's not a lot of active faith in the nation. Or so it seems. The younger generation is increasingly alienated from the church, gaining their values more from TV and MTV culture and tourists than from the Christian traditional sources.

Will we see a slow ebb of the Christian faith? Or a renewal that will break the pattern?

North Korea - spiralling into madness

2007-08-02T16:44:00.000+01:00

well, i don't have the time or space to go on enough about the horror of what has happened to the people of North Korea. i usually support policies of non-violence, but in this case and in the case of Zimbabwe, i sometimes wonder if just one bullet from a sniper rifle might solve a lot of problems. oops, did i just write that?

anyway, here we have a situation where the centralized religion is formed around an unholy trinity of worship of father (Kim Il Sung, the original dictator), son (current leader Kim Jong Il) and holy spirit (the spirit of "juche", literally independence).

despite this juche concept, north korea hasn't been able to feed itself since before 1995. as many as 3 million have starved to death since then, and it would be more if aid from South Korea, China and the West hasn't been sent - millions of tonnes of food.

the economy is in a death spiral - the only way North Korea has survived until now is through a chain of illicit money-spinning ventures bringing in cash from abroad. these include counterfeiting US money, gambling rings and parlours, drug dealing and fake cigarettes sold on the black market. as Japan and the West squeeze out these sources of income, Mr. Kim is alleged to have told his the Chinese Premier (his sugar-daddy) "the regime can't survive if this continues".

in the meantime the North Koreans themselves are forced to forage for edible grass and plants (often causing serious gastro-intestinal harm to themselves), to steal food (and end up in concentration camps if caught) or even cannibalism (human meat is available on the black market, although it is the death penalty for selling or buying).

somehow, beyond understanding, the number of Christians is growing. there are no real churches. how can a "church" grow when:

possessing a Bible or NT
gathering together for Christian meetings
saying the name "Jesus" or "God"
sharing the Gospel with another

can all bring summary execution?

the truth is that we don't know most of what is going on in North Korea, but i think that when the walls finally crumble, we will be amazed at what has been occurring. the question is, will the world be ready to rebuild this broken nation?

will Chinese and South Korean Christians be ready to SERVE a free North Korea by holistic ministry? South Koreans keep praying for unification, but judging by the state of their own church scene, how could God allow for unification when there is hardly any unity within South Korean Christianity. will they just compete for glory and honour in a new playing field of North Korea or put down their own agendas, plans and divisions and truly be servants?

sweating again...

2007-08-01T16:44:00.000+01:00

well, i finally joined the gym after almost 8 months away. after the last two operations, i was required to take it easy. which is a shame because i lost everything i had gained from the previous time. anyway, i am grateful that the local gym let me have a student rate. there are free classes there as well, with everything from yoga to pilates to boxercise to actual karate lessons! but i think i'll just concentrate on the rowing machine, the stationary bike, elliptical cross trainer and the weights for now. still taking it easy on the knee.

it is such a nice feeling to be really physically tired and drained from a good workout at the end of the day. and my body definitely needs some tuning up after 8 months in the shed. even so, i constantly remember Paul's words to Timothy about physical exercise being a little good, but spiritual exercise being better.

and just so you don't get bored with my own egocentric posts about me...i'll include some other stuff in another post...

congratulations

2007-07-30T16:40:00.000+01:00

i thought that it was great that IRAQ won the Asian Cup football tournament. against much bigger nations and better sides such as Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia, the Iraqis triumphed amidst their countries terrible woes. which made me wonder which would do more to bringing peace and stability to Iraq - this victory in a boy's ball game or tens of thousands of American gun-toters? if Escape to Victory and Cool Runnings deserved to exist, then surely this episode in football history does as well. especially when we know that previously underperforming teams under Hussein's regime were tortured when they failed.

and i also wanted to say that annie's orange date muffins are the best.

Greece, Palestinians, cats

2007-07-26T16:40:00.000+01:00

I'm working on Greece right now, where it seems the main issue in the country is a shift (slow but sudden considering the nation's long history) from Greek Orthodoxy dominating public affairs to a separation of church and state. This seems because of changing demographics realities (read massive immigration, mostly Muslims), pressure from the EU (oh God bless those fine EU people) and the Church itself being undermined by scandals in its midst. It seems a hard place to share the Gospel, when one's religious identity has been tied in so deeply to one's cultural identity.

Also reading up on the Palestinian situation - in this car, the fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam, a Palestinian Islamist group holding out in a Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon. Whatever your view on "Israel" are, it's hard to deny that the Palestinians got the shaft. They haven't exactly endeared themselves to the world, either. But I wonder how the world would respond if, say, all the Anglo-Saxons of the world decided to move back to their motherlands of Denmark or Netherlands and take over there. On a purely non-theological basis, of course :) But I suppose another big part of the story is the European meddling in the history of the Jews in Europe, as well as the European meddling in the Levant - the British and French were real ba****ds when it came to manipulating other nations, for making and breaking promises, all for their own gain. Anyway, this was just supposed to be a "oh those poor Palestinians" thing...

Finally, the CAT WHO SMELLS DEATH!!!! A bit freaky, I wouldn't want this feline cuddling up to me!!! Read about it here.

Lebanon - what a mess?

2007-07-24T16:48:00.000+01:00

It seems like such an amazing country in so many respects - history, culture, music, food. But the neverending sectarian and political tensions just simmer on and on and on and on, bursting into full blown civil war now and again. 2007 is a year when many feel the same could happen yet again.

You have one coalition of factions supporting American-sponsored government. And another supporting the pro-Syrian line. There are Muslims, Christians and even Druze on both coalitions. When the violence does descend upon Lebanon. Muslims kill Christians, Christians kill Muslims, Muslims kill other Muslims, Christians even kill Christians. The majority seem happy to kill Israelis.

But it has been interesting to see how organizations like the Bible Society and NGOs like Caritas, World Vision, Operation Mercy as well as Arab-based and founded Christian orgs are seeing doors open as they minister mercy, love and reconciliation in this war torn land.

What will happen next in Lebanon? Well, I don't know, but I do care. However, I can't wait to find out. I have to write the OW section and move on to the next country!!!

sand, qat, pixels

2007-07-23T17:44:00.000+01:00

Just writing up Yemen today and astounded to see the impact and influence of the mild narcotic plant on the nation. 85% of men us it, 55% of the nation's water use is devoted to its production (this is a seriously water-starved nation!), 40% of the national economy is invested in or spent on it and 20 million man-hours of work EVERY DAY are spent chewing it. Also, the daily average amoung spent is almost the equivalent of a day's working wage. What a catastrophic influence on the Middle East's poorest country! Especially given that is was once famous for coffee, myrrh, frankincese and smart queens (Sheba).

Did you know that Saudi Arabia (99% desert) is larger than the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Belgium put together. Imagine how many grains of sand that is....I guess the promise about Abraham's descendents was figurative.

Finally, gave the now-standard State of the Gospel presentation at a church yesterday. And realized that I need to develop State of the Gospel Lite for those with less time or less background knowledge. Either that or risk overwhelming them!

various and sundry

2007-07-17T16:41:00.000+01:00

the opening of the US Senate session yesterday was disrupted by Christian activists, protesting the fact that a government body, ostensibly founded on Christian values was being opened by a Hindu priest. hard to know what to think about this. what's worse, the fact that the USA is openly courting a non-monotheistic religion that is arguably fundamentally racist and actively persecuting Christians (and others!), or the fact that it takes some hardcore Christian fundamentalists (or is that too harsh) to bring this issue to light.

on a more positive note, i've been reading about an evangelical ministry based in Jordan, founded by Jordanians and staffed by Jordanians which is helping in many different ways with the nearly 1 million Iraqi refugees in Jordan. good to see the church in the Middle East being a loving witness amidst the hate fostered by many Muslims and some Western armies to boot.

and i've joined facebook. blame my sister. no, the other one. just look for jason mandryk...

friday

2007-07-13T16:42:00.000+01:00

well the drum affair ended with minimal fuss and it seemed to go well. i've never played WITH others so it was great. simple stuff, but very enjoyable. i hope i can take to the next level. i'm sure i'm at least as good as that White Stripes chick, but not exactly Mike Portnoy just yet!

looking forward to giving my place a good spring cleaning 3 months late.

on a work/spiritual note, we are still waiting for team members to arrive..it's difficult being in this in between phase and watching the weeks fly by with minimal progress. pray, if you would, for everyone who's meant to be here to be here as soon as is possible. there are lots of big events in 2009 which we would LOVE to be able to release the book for, but at this rate, i'm a bit skeptical.

jason

back in the rhythm

2007-07-10T16:45:00.000+01:00

well, i've just got back all the pieces of the drum kit i've been borrowing and it is GREAT to have it set up and working again after about 8 months. we'll see how things go as far as practice time and the opportunity to actually play. i actually have my first public playing event (nothing big, just 30 minutes of worship songs). looking forward to it - and of course a little bit nervous, especially as a 100% self-taught drummer. so i've probably taught myself some really bad habits. fortunately, worship songs are probably the easiest stuff to play.

i remember hearing a top management consultant saying that in order to encourage laterial thinking and cultivate a lifestyle of learning, he committed to gaining one new proficiency a year. maybe this year is my drum year :D

changes in the (desert) wind...

2007-07-06T16:41:00.000+01:00

It has been very interesting to focus on three consecutive arab countries from different situations. Mauritania, Syria, and then Egypt. All of them have some very different issues facing them, but all of them also have very similar issues:

1. The issue of government. Long standing "Presidents" a.k.a. dictators (in M's case being overthrown by a military coup and then replaced by an election of another who is connected to the previous one). The fact that the government is corrupt and ruthless and oppressive, but probably better than the alternative (as one might observe in neighbouring Iraq).

2. Relationship to Israel. Politically a tough one, that was a surprisingly big issue in M, is of course a HUGE issue in Syria, and very significant in Egypt as well. Relationship to America comes hand in hand, of course. Syria and Egypt fall into opposite camps on this one.

3. The gradual shift from moderate Sunni Islam to a much more strident and fundamentalist expression. The Brotherhood (in E) is hugely influential throughout the world in this capacity. At least, on an intellectual/academic level.

4. S and E, but not M have large and ancient Christian minorities that are slowly decreasing from emigration. It appears that centuries of being second-class citizens and never being certain of one's future has driven millions to the West. Which is a shame as both the nation and Christianity as a faith lose a jewel in their heritage.

5. The slow but accelerating growth of Jesus-followers who are sometimes plugged into a body of believers, sometimes not. They come from all kinds of backgrounds, from the top to the bottom of society and from liberals to fundamentalists. Dreams, visions and comparing the messages of the Holy Books are all instrumental in this process. They are increasing in number and who knows? Maybe one day they they will reach a critical mass large enough to come out and be counted. In the meantime, they are inexorably growing below the surface and below the radar of the Western news agencies that only report unrest and strife.

new beginnings

2007-07-05T17:18:00.001+01:00

today marks the day in history for many new things... just to name a few...

1811 - Venezuela is the first South American nation to declare independence from Spain

1865 - the Salvation Army is formed by William Booth

1946 - the bikini makes its premier in Paris

1975 - Cabo Verde becomes independent from Portugal and Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win Wimbledon (have there been any others?)

1996 - Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep (and animal of any kind?) was born

2007 - Jason and hopefully many others out there begin some things in their lives anew...