one story tbV [the beautiful Val] enjoys telling is how after a month of us dating she had a bedside drawer full of chocolate... why is this significant? well, i spent a lot of time giving tbV chocolate as a way of showing i loved her, but she is not a big fan of chocolate, preferring sour sweets instead and so basically i invested a month or so in making Val's housemate very happy. i [...]
i attended a formula 1 grand prix last year in Austen, Texas, which was basically a dream-i-never-would-have-realistically-had come true as i had been watching the sport since i was in primary school... and in the midst of this international event, sitting flanked by people of all nationalities from all around the world, i had the joy of seeing this South African flag draped casually over someone's chair near me... great reminder of home in the [...]
this is also my 800th blog post altho that is completely irrelevant but a nice round number nonetheless... so if you are reading this, then by now you know that myself and tbV are heading to Oakland, California to work with Common Change, and you also probably have some idea of what our specific roles with CC look like, and so the last thing i want to comment on is the support aspect. Val and [...]
there is a great principle of ministry that you can see glimpses of in the life of Jesus: Teacher does, pupils watch. Teacher does, pupils are involved and do it with Him. Pupils do and teacher watches. Pupils do by themselves and report back to teacher. Then later the pupils find their own pupils and the whole scenario begins again. In this passage in Mark 6.6-13 we see Jesus sending the disciples out to try [...]
so by now, anyone that is interested [and possibly some that aren't] knows that tbV and i will be heading to Oakland, California just across from San Francisco [come visit!] in the short next while to be working with Relational Tithe/Common Change and you also have an idea of what that is all about and how it works... but a lot of people have been asking about the specifics of what each of us will [...]
'For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.' i mean, that's quite an intro already, right? and possibly carries a profoundly deep message in terms of really getting our minds around the fact that David, altho he had messed up horribly, still ends up at the feet of God, rather than simply trying to hide or run the other way... [...]
this was our wedding day and as one does, we had an original authentic replica of the Aragorn sword from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy that our friend who ran our drum circle [as one does] brought with him for the occasion... the question 'do you want me to bring my authentic Aragon sword replica?' has only one correct answer and you figure out the details later... so we took this picture: and [...]
well i thought everyone who was interested had an idea of what we are doing next but having explained our next moves three times to people in the last few days i figured it wouldn't hurt having another explanation up - for those of you who have heard this, you can skip this one... from June 2011 to Dec 2012 the beautiful Val [tbV] and i were working and living with the Simple Way in [...]
this passage is a semi well-known one where Jesus speaks about a prophet in their own town not being welcomed or recognised - i decided to take a look at the aspect of potential which i saw hidden in here... Join me as i look at Mark chapter 6 verse 1 to 5 [to continue to the next passage where Jesus sends the disciples out to try the stuff, click here]
the journey through the book of Mark continues and this next passage is a little longer but contains two powerful stories and i am just going to pull one or two points out of them. they illustrate one of the most powerful lessons tbV and i learnt from our time with the Simple Way - namely that of making space for the interruption. join me as i look at Mark chapter 5 vs 21 to [...]