Top 5 Dust Mask Don'ts

Sanding down the wall of the Seattle house today I learned that when wearing a dust mask, one should never...

1. Try to blow the sawdust off the wall
2. Cough
3. Sneeze
4. Try to drink a coke
5. Burp (it lingers there with you)

The DaVinci Code

Yesterday evening I went to see 'The DaVinci Code' - the movie. Somebody's going to win an award for it-dang great movie. During the movie I was torn between enjoying it for what it is and reacting to the intricate web of false history and bad theology that forms the foundation for the plot. Overall though, the story is every bit as good as they say it is (having not read the book yet - the book might be even better).
The thing about the movie that bothered me the most is probably their portrayal of God. In the movie, God is portrayed as an aloof superbeing that either doesn't have any real power or depends on people for one thing or another. In fact- the biggest lie in the whole film is that Jesus came for the betterment of mankind. The idea that God exists primarily to make life on earth better, make people better people and bring order and "peace" to the world leads us to a consumer point of view on God. It both masks the truth of our existence and leads to an unhealthy relationship with God. It puts God as the servant of man.
The truth is of course that we are servants of God and to worship God means to choose his will for us over our own. It is by God's grace and because he is a good God that his will for us includes maturing us into better people, and bringing mercy & justice into the world.

“Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! . . . I want you to know . . . that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:7-8, 11-12 NIV).

Intervarsity has posted a number of good articles about the movie:
-Urbana-DaVinci Code Article
-Campus Impact of The DaVinci Code

I love pho

There's nothing like a good bowl of Pho =). For those who don't know what I'm talking about.. Pho = hot bowl of herby light broth with rice noodles & beef - a vietnamese staple!

Being a pho lover, I couldn't not eat at this hilarious restaurant I saw in Bellview (hint: Pho is pronounced "F-uhh"):



Mom: is this place good? what's their specialties?
Me: i've no idea, i've never been here before.
Mom: did one of your friends tell you about this place?
Me: nope.
Mom: why are we eating here again?
Me: look at the name! how can we not eat here??!? it's flippin' hilarious!

The first talk

About 1.5 weeks ago - I gave my first talk at ACF Mini-Camp on the topic of 'Communal Worship'. I'd given a lot of public talks before but mostly on engineering subjects and never before a 'sermon' sort of lecture. Was I nervous? Of course!
I also think I was the target of many a spiritual attack going into it. My talk was supposed to be given the first evening but the students were running late and didn't all arrive until around 10pm (originally the talk was supposed to start around 8pm). So we ended up pushing the evening program back one day. That night my heat wasn't working in my cabin and my blankets etc... got locked in the large meeting room (so I couldn't get to them). So I ended up grabbing a series of cat naps in the car between 12am and 5:30am - finally deciding that I should just give up on sleeping all together. So of course I started getting a cold at that point due to exhaustion (the prev. day was a long one), temperature changes, and all the whispers of doubt and inadaquacy that were looming in my mind.
Praise God though that the talk seemed to go fairly well, despite my loopy-headed-ness. I'd structured most of the talk around me telling stories to make points and I do love telling stories.
The best part of the talk was probably the baby demonstration (Thanks Justin & Hollie!). I borrowed a little baby doll from my buddies, Justin & Hollie Powell, to use as an illustration of our relationship with God. I had the students instruct me on holding the doll as if I was holding a real baby. As you cradle the head and make sure the baby is looking / thinking / focused on you - so does God cradle our lives and direct our attention towards him and it is in that moment (when our eyes are on him) that we are at peace in our lives, even if our lives are not at that moment peaceful. After done with the illustration I had to put the baby back in the shoebox I had kept it in because well... baby dolls freak me out man. I can't stand the beady little eyes and the life-like-ness of the whole thing *ick.... *shiver.
Anyway - it was a blessing to see the students actually trying to apply much of the practical part of my talk throughout the rest of the retreat & onward into Catalyst (they were back to back ---> exhausting for staff!). Praise God for communicating the message despite my tiredness & fear of baby dolls. =)

How do those old people do it?

So this year I've been working ~4 jobs (Boeing, Journey-College Ministry, IVCF-ACF/SLU, Urbana WT) and haven't had much time to go to the gym. Now that I've dropped 2 of those jobs and am on a short vacation in SEA visiting my mom, I thought I'd take this chance to get back to the gym. Now it may have something to do with me eating camp food like a hungry teen over the past week and a half but my heart was pounding after I'd only done a short warmup! In fact, I had to take a little break there because I was feeling a little dizzy!
Meanwhile, there were these elderly retired folks zipping about the gym doing a little here and there and generally being quite energetic. What the heck? Have I become so lazy that I will soon be passed up by those 50 years my senior? It doesn't help that while I'm home my mom wants to feed me like every day is thanksgiving. To top it off - Tammy Chi (God bless her crazy heart) signed me up for a triathelon in September... or is it August? Whenever it is - it's going to kick my butt.

Catalyst

Last Friday marked the end of a week long leadership retreat for the central region called "Catalyst". The retreat was by invite only for students in Iowa, Missouri and Kansas with leadership positions in their chapters. The idea being, to lead this group through an experiential 5 day course on practical leadership, chapter development, and teamwork. Instead of just one or two staff planning and running an entire retreat, Catalyst was planned and run by the entire central region staff, taking advantage of all the staff's independent giftings.

I, as a newcomer to IVCF Staff, was very impressed with not only the quality of the teaching and programs but the quality of the students that were at the retreat. These were definitely students who shared a passion to serve in God's kingdom and were readily engaging each other in idea-storming and troubleshooting as well as shaping each other into more mature believers. Together they spent the week learning things such as spiritual disciplines, vision development & goal setting, evangelism planning and more; yet they soaked up all that like a sponge and seem eager to get back to their campus to apply it.

In addition to all of that - one of the staff experienced God's healing hand via some prayer late in the week. God healed her of some chronic hearing problems as well as her asthma!

This was the first of hopefully many collaborative retreats run by the central region. I can't wait to see what God will use us for in the future!

Urbana 06 WT Pictures

Here are some pictures of the Urbana Worship Team for you to check out!






(yes, it is really as much fun as it looks like in the pictures!)

-jon

An apple a day

Just a quick link to the most hilarious ads that mac has put out! If you're a mac lover, or if you just like funny commercials, you have to check it out!

apple ad

Praise God a Donor!

Good news people! I just got my 2nd Donor! God has truly been great to me as the first Donor approached me about giving and I didn't even ask them! I did have my first donor meeting tonight though and it went very well - now I have 2 =). It feels good to start on it and make some progress. I am so grateful to both my donors for their trust in me & Intervarsity with their funds. I pray that we will not disappoint their investment but give God a great return on his money!

Secondly, I had dinner with my Dad & the President of International Business @ A. Bush Brewery! Talk about a jam packed evening. The Pres. is a pretty nice guy (as most business execs I've met so far seem to be). I even told him about Intervarsity's Catalyst event going on this summer and he seemed very interested in the work we're doing for the future leaders of tomorrow's corporate world.

For those that haven't heard of it - "Catalyst" is a week long leadership retreat targeting only student leaders in each IV chapter in the Central Region (this year there are 200+ students attending). The retreat will help them to develop skills in terms of teamwork, visioning and goal setting, and practically working towards those goals in partnership with each other. And the funnest part for me is that I get to help Betsy E - Urbana Worship Team Assistant Director, with leading worship =). Fun times people, fun times!

Speaking of Urbana, tomorrow is the start of practice session #4 for us. (I think it's #4 anyway) - keep us in your prayers! Thanks to everyone for your support & prayers!

Battle of the 'Gospel' Bands

The other day I went to play with a couple of friends at one of their cousin's churches. Nobody seems to know what exactly the purpose of the evening is but we're supposed to play 1 or 2 songs. I figured we were opening up an evening service with a short time of worship so I was happy to go along... surprise surprise.

Okay, so it wasn't really "Battle of the Gospel Bands" but it sure felt like it. The entire evening was performance after performance by artists that had introductions like "is reknown around the world..." or "... you may have seen in the recent movie..." or "... is one of the most talented in st louis... " etc... I kept waiting for the man with the sparkly sequence pattern on his suit (yes, you read it right) to say into the mic "let's get ready to rumbleeeeeee....".

Culturally, I already felt a little out of place (which is okay, I'm used to it by now after years of moving around) but spiritually, I was getting all shook up - and not in a good way. I felt like it was an evening where artists should bring their 'A' game and show what they've got. As band after band was introduced and had their say (or song rather), I began to wish I was anywhere but there and when we finally ended up playing - truth be told, I really did not want to play at all.

I am however very grateful for Daryl Black - Urbana Worship Team leader and the leader of our little shindig that day. I was glad that throughout the weirdness of the evening he was able to almost seemlessly transition from what I felt was superficial music to an invitation to let the holy spirit work in your heart. I felt very comforted that dispite all the distractions of the evening he was still able to lead people in worship.

In retrospect, I believe that the event was to show an appreciation for the different artists in the St. Louis community and to try and pull a crowd of people to the church we were at. There were a large number of talented people there - the far majority of which I believe love and serve God to the best of their abilities. It's just interesting though that you can have so many worshipful people there and still miss worship by a long shot.

Transition

My last day at work was last Friday and since then things have been crazily busy with numerous transitional materials. Whoever invented paperwork should be dragged out into the street and... well... let's just say that filling out forms and reading purpose statements is not my favorite pastime. I understand their purpose but I think there is certainly a line somewhere between usefulness and absurdity. I would just like to say, enroll in an insurance plan and not get a 200 page manual explaining everything in mindnumbing detail. Instead maybe they could send a CD database, or better yet, a flipbook =).

Alas there are a lot of firsts this week. I have my first fundraising meeting, prepping my first talk, my first time without a steady income, getting ready to send my first prayer letters etc... Please keep me in your prayers as the next couple weeks will be very busy.