Tall Skinny Kiwi

WillowFreak

WillowFreak: Thats the name of the yearly leadership meeting for the Jesus Freaks International, a ministry network that was birthed in the German alternative culture. Mirko is one of the founders and leaders. He came over for lunch in Frankfurt when i was there a few days ago, and we chatted about Jesus Freaks and their festival called Freakstock. Nice guy. Nice blog (on which he posted a photo of us). Nice old car with character. Nice lip ring. Nice ToothandNail Jacket. Mirko also works a few nights a week at a bar in his town - he says it keeps him closer to real people.

Freakstock is a MustStopAndPutUpMyTent pilgrimage site for young, postmodern, rockers,goths and punks. I took my family to Freakstock in 2001 and again in 2003. Its a great festival with about 7000 wild looking pierced Jesus followers listening to hard core music and attending seminars. They even have some normal people come along, and they are allowed to be normal without persecution or taunting of any kind. Its very well run, and the kids program is about the best we have come across at any festival.

I am my own Jailer

(I wrote this yesterday on the train between Frankfurt and Dresden)

________________

up
wards
struggling
calling softly
so that no one will hear
my voiceless cry for freedom

i am my own jailer
i have locked myself
in a prison of goals
and have thrown the key
beyond reach
like the expectations
that cuff my wrists

I would eagle glide
if I found the gusts of wind
to lift me tiptoe
to tilt me onto downward slope
with seagull swoop
with fred astair slide
with peter pan joy

4 Square Conference

I am writing on a train between Frankfurt and Dresden. The conference is over, and my job is done. I feel like i did

OK - And i feel greatly encouraged by the 120 people who were there. They have given me a stack of papers with poems, thank-yous, prophetic images and pictures of trees and cactus and ant trails. All very encouraging. I hope to post some photos right here within a few days - come back and see!! In the meantime, read on for more details. Germans who are visiting here for the first time - velcom . . i mean vilkommen . . i mean welcome . . and you can comment on this post if you like.

4 Square Conference

I am writing on a train between Frankfurt and Dresden. The conference is over, and my job is done. I feel like i did
OK - And i feel greatly encouraged by the 120 people who were there. They have given me a stack of papers with poems, thank-yous, prophetic images and pictures of trees and cactus and ant trails. All very encouraging. I hope to post some photos right here within a few days - come back and see!! In the meantime, read on for more details. Germans who are visiting here for the first time - velcom . . i mean vilkommen . . i mean welcome . . and you can comment on this post if you like.

iiimmmm back

Back online after 3 days with no internet. The conference in the snowy woods of Germany went really well - we had a fantastic time - I hope to be spending time with friends in Prague today.  just love this city. love it! I have oodles of thoughts and poems and pictures to upload from my computer from the conference in Germany and from the train ride over here, but will wait until i can find wifi or a hookup. Thanks everyone for your prayers. And thanks to all the wonderful 4 Square people at the conference for giving so much of yourselves and being a part of my life.

Samuel scores an iPod Shuffle

Samuel's birthday on the 28th. He was thrilled to death to be the first member of the Jones family to get an iPod - thanks to the release of iPod Shuffle and its affordable price. Samuel is a way cool son. He is now 14.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

She turns 12 today. And we found a very cool 1999 iMac on ebay for her present. She wants to be a writer, and publish books. We hope having her own computer (the first of our kids to have their own) will help in that.

Happy birthday Liz!!!! Sorry i cant be there today. Enjoy the moment.

Love, Dad.

Airport Crawl in London

I was at Camp Luton a few hours ago - the airport where 5 of us camped out for the night last month - an enjoyable night on the hard floor. Now I am at London's Stanstead airport, about to leave for Frankurt. I Just called Si J. of Protest4.com - he tells me there is a huge amount of interest in this initiative of emerging church in UK to stamp out human trafficing. Well done. But where are the T-shirts?

Hanging with Liam

Liam's house tonight. Its a student dorm room for one - Liam is kindly offering this old man the bed while he rolls out the thermorest on the small piece of floor leftover, a space almost large enough for a person to actually lie down and sleep on. I met Liam in Orkney a few months ago. He started blogging and can be found at ByrnesysBlabberings.  I started him off blogging but he has been helping me out tonight - He showed me how to set up my RSS feeds. Check out the right sidebar under a new section called "Feed Me". I have really wanted a automatic "add me to my Yahoo" button but couldnt work out how to do it. Liam showed me FeedBurner and the rest is history. Now I have more toys and you have an easier link for feeds.

We also figured out how to get a feed like the one below that can be used on anyones blog or attached to email. Yeeeeeahhhhh. Ta Liam!

Keynote 2

Link: MacCentral: First Look: Keynote 2. It still looks canned to me, and i wont be using it. But one feature is pretty sweet:
You can present a website in real time . . .

Staying at George MacDonalds School

Today I take a flight to Aberdeen and will have dinner with a theolgy student named Liam. I will also be staying at the student accomodation of the Uni of Aberdeen, where one of my heros George MacDonald attended school last century. George studied theology here and then moved south to England where he was a Congregational minister in Arundel for a few years and then wrote some superb fantasy and fairy tales, inspired by the German Novalis and other Romantic writers. Lewis Carroll (not his real name) was a contemporary and friend, and gave a copy of Alice in Wonderland to GeorgeMacDonald to see if it was worth publishing.

George MacDonald has been called the father of modern fantasy. His writing marks a turning point from straight up fiction a'la Pilgrims Progress (Bunyan) to a complex world of superimposition, compositon, and narrative layering that is now the basis for many movies, fantasy genres, and computer games. He was a huge influence on Tolkein (you can spot MacDonald themes in LOTR) and on W.H. Auden, Madaleine L'Engle, and of course, CS Lewis, who wrote an autobiography of MacDonald and called him his "Mentor". George MacDonald died, if i remember correctly, in 1905. Perhaps we should do something special this year for the 100th anniversary of his death.

Many of MacDonald's books (52?) are available as free downloads from Johannesen.org - The Johannesen family are actually friends of ours from the Redwoods in California. Best bets for reading George MacDonald? I feel strongly that Lilith is by far his greatest book and it is a crime that no one has made a movie out of it yet. You really have to read it. "Phantastes" is also great, although, like most of his books, far more 'preachy' and less subtle than CS Lewis. As well as his two fantasy books, MacDonald wrote fairy tales -My favourite is "At the Back of the North Wind".The theme is similar to "The Wise Woman" in which he uses superb imagery of the Holy Spirit as a woman - sometimes cranky, sometimes nice, easily greived, full of wisdom. "The Portent" has shades of Harry Potter and is worth reading. Hope you have fun with those downloads - i have bought a few of the MacDonald books from Johannesens - they are printed exactly the same way as the originals - very cool.
Tomorrow i am off to London and then Frankfurt for a conference with the 4-Square Mission. Talk to you later.

Geekness and the Fear of Death

My son is a geek. This is how i know. When I ask him what time it is, he goes looking for a computer, no matter how many clocks are on the wall. Last week I saw him start up a computer and wait for it to boot up, just so he could see what time it is. What a geek!

Emerging Church Events: B there

The Emerging Church Seminar in Basel, Switzerland with Mike Bishoff is coming up, an I have already mentioned our input at the DAWN Convention in Wilderswill, Switzerland.
Cant make it to Switzerland??? What a shame! You are really going to miss out. But don't worry, we are entering the Conference Season and there are plenty of emerging church events over the next few weeks to choose from. Here are my top picks.

IAM5. London, Feb 12th. 24-7Prayer celebrates 5 years of unbroken global prayer. They are expecting 1200 people to come to this event. I will be in London on the 10th and am very tempted to be there, but am not yet planning on it. DAng it. I might have to go . . .. its gonna rock!!!
Who are 24-7? R U kiddin? Where have u been?
See The Skinny of 24-7 Prayer for a recent update on these guys and their Prayer Rooms and Millenium3 Monasteries called Boiler Rooms. Did I tell you that there were more 24-7 Prayer Rooms in Africa last summer than any other country? Well . . I just told ya.

Emergent Convention, San Diego, Feb 2-5. Their Planning Blog is very cool. Well done, Marko. -hey - that little guy with the stupi . . i mean stupendous moustache . . . even looks like Marko. Nicely done! Can you find a tall skinny Lego man with a grey hat??? Bob at The Corner is pulling the bloggers together for a GeekLunch of sorts. See his 10 Reasons why you should attend the EC. Here is my reason - EC is one of the best attempts by the emerging church in USA to show themselves to the mainstream church. There will probably be over 1000 people at this event. I shy away from the big events, usually, but if i had more time and lived closer, I would be at this one.

Parachute Festival, New Zealand. Jan 28-31. Wish i could be there. Mike from Rivertribe will be performing. This is a huge festival - with close to 30,000 attenders, this is possibly the biggest festival in New Zealand of any kind. WOW!. One of the originators of this festival was Mark Pierson, who taught at our Epicentrum event in Prague. He has put out a recent multimedia CD called Fractals. Sadly, I have never been to Parachute, but plan to go one year (2006?)

Soularize in LA. Sponsored by The Ooze. I was there at all the original Soularizes, but recently its been too far to travel. Its possible that i will be doing something by remote - (a Suddenly Seminary session?) If you were going to this event, then you will also want to attend the Damah Film Festival, which I blogged about recently.

Frisbee. No, not the plastic saucer, i mean Lonnie Frisbee, the guy that was THE major figure (albeit the wild and prophetic figure) of the Jesus Revolution. The premier of Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher will be in Orange County, California, Feb 10. I wish i could be at that one. The film is made by friend David Di Sabatino - who published one of my worship articles at Worship Leader, and who is an expert on the Jesus movement.
Yo David - can we do this in Europe???

Pizza Party for Elizabeth

Last night was a sleepover/PizzaParty/movie night for Elizabeth as a part of her 12th birthday party. 5 friends came over and made pizzas with us. But they also made extra pizzas to raise money for Tsunami victims at a boot sale organized by our friend Eileen. Well done, girls!
They watched a Spy Kids marathon- including 3D glasses for the 3rd movie. What i like about those movies is that the bad guys always get won over and end up on the good side. Good story of redemption and reconciliation.

HTmini Web Site

Brand new fan site for Mac Mini: HTmini.

Yahweh Karaoke for Germany

I got up at 3am this morning to put a song together and it is pretty much done. Here's what I did.
I mixed U2's "Yahweh" (Track 11, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb) with a video loop which i found on Jonny Baker's worship trick 100. The 26MB video is parked here, but the server was down today. Luckily, I have a copy of this excellent piece of German video that runs as a continuous loop for over 4 minutes.

My Mac Mini

Its true. I bought a Mac Mini. Very rarely do i part with money for Big New Technology, or in this case, Tiny Technology, but i went ahead and ordered it on the second day of its release.
We were given some money for a new computer a few months ago, when my iBook died - and after 3 failed attempts to buy used powerbooks and a new iBook, we decided to wait for MacWorld and see what came out. The Mac Mini is great - small and powerful. No, its not a portable. But it will do the job.It will replace the mighty iMac G3 400 MHZ that has been the hub of our digital life since March 2000. That classic iMac, which we still love, was a gift from the BGCT and it totally changed our lives.

Busy, Busy, Buried

I am working hard on my teaching materials - nose to screen, very busy, too unsociable to blog or read the blogs of others.
Stuff i would like to mention, when i get the chance, is:

my 200 pound volvo
my Mac Mini - yes, we moving out of G3 into G4 (about time)
my new appreciation for cooking sausages slowly
my attempt to get my administrative life together
my badminton club
my thoughts on righteousness
my plans for this year
monastery plans, and the youth hostel that has become available.

Tsunami Blogger

100 blog posts in 24 hours. THESE next 24 hours. See Darren blog until it hurts at breakingnewsblog. Proceeds for Tsunami victims.

Damah: Everyone Needs a Yoda

“Always two there are, a master and an apprentice.” Yoda, The Phantom Menace.
Everyone needs a Yoda, says my friend Patrick from Damah Film Festival. Theres some good advice for mentoring there . . Go and read the newsletter.
DATES for 4th Annual Damah Film Festival: March 11-12 in Hollywood. I might be there.
Did you know . . . that I was present at the 1st Damah? It was held in Seattle.
Did you know . . . that Damah's Patrick McGuire was at our worship experience "Epicenter" in Austin?
Did you know . . . that our friend Tom Hohstadt of FutureChurch.net introduced us all to the Hebrew word 'Damah meaning 'prophetic metaphor'? (I have video of him sharing that info - i may post it here one day)

SKINNY TIP: If you were thinking of attending Damah, then go early for The Ooze's Soularize (March 9-11) and enjoy both.

Another 100,000 hits

OOOPS. This blog clocked another 100.000 hits - and i missed it. I was planning to have another party and give another prize away to the one who hit the big one, but didnt realize it was coming up so soon. My apologies. I will watch more closely next time.

But hey - thanks everyone for coming here to read my drizzle. As Micheal Jackson used to say, "I love you" (said with a blown kiss)

EmergAnt on Tour

EmergAnt is the topic of my new speaking series. I will be teaching on emergence and growth in new church movements. Here is my speaking schedule and which cities i will be in, for those of you asking to connect for a coffee. Send me an email to arrange something.

DAWN European Network Conference, Switzerland. will be held in this cool building that will be covered in snow. The conference invitation only, but talk to me if you REALLY/BADLY want to attend.

Schedule:
Jan 27-29 Frankfurt, Germany (4-Square Missions Conference)
Jan 30-31, Lausanne, Switzerland (Fuse Factory)
FEb 1 - Prague, CZ
Feb 3-5, Basel, Switzerland - Emerging Church Seminar with Mike Bishoff. At the Institute Fur Germeindebau und Weltmission. Details and PDF are here. This should be a great one to attend. I believe Mark Reichmann (Kubrik Entertainment/ Jesus Freaks) is doing some alt. worship here also.
Feb 5-9, Wilderswill, Switzerland, 12th DAWN European Network Conference
Feb 10, London (an afternoon coffee at Scooterworks?)
In March I will be in USA for a few meetings - tell you later.

Checking in

End of the week and its been really hectic here. Highlights:
- Hannah's birthday party on Friday night. She turned 7 and celebrated with a sleepover for her friends.
- I bought a 200 pound Volvo. Yes, another 200 pound volvo.
- Weather is good but the blizzard is still coming.
- Miriam is here with us, having a Sunday meal.
- 2 more birthday parites coming up (Sam and Elizabeth)
- I leave on the 24th for a 2 week trip to Germany and Switzerland.
- I ordered a Mac Mini.It will be the first G4 in our household.
- Everyone is well. Blessings to you and yours.
Signing off for the week . . . .

BitTorrent + RSS = Videora

Link: Wired reports:"a new application combining BitTorrent and RSS could make it easy for video fans to automatically locate files and download them to their computers." Its called Videora.

Stromness Storm Video

Here is a little sound and video sample of what it feels like to be in the wind...

Storm In Orkney

Thanks BB for the previous post - internet is working for 30 second windows.
WWooooo. The storm came last night to Orkney and all over Scotland and Northern Ireland. 125 MPH winds on the Western Isles. We dont know exactly how fast they were here because, apparently, THE WIND STATION WAS BLOWN AWAY (either here or in Shetlands - no one knows yet)

- Check out this shed that got blown across the road. Sam and I went out to take pictures and video. Not enough access to internet to post my video though.
- Its the worst storm in 10 years, some people are saying. One elderly gentleman (David Ferguson) says its the worst he remembers - but then the island is used to strong winds and the houses are built for it.
- 4 houses were flooded today and are being pumped out because of the extremely high tide.
- The dykes near the golf course were washed away and that area is now flooded. (top photo)
- We are fine - and we have power, electricity, heating and phone. The kids are all home from school. Our double glazed windows were bowing in and out last night.
- A blizzard may be coming in with snow. We will keep you updated, if we are able. Any more photos will be posted here on Flickr.

Jones Family all well and safe

This is not tallskinnykiwi. You can call me 'burgandy beret' - that's my hacker alias for today. I figure if I'm asked to blog on his behalf, by jingo I'm gonna wear some kind of headgear. It's only fitting!

The Jones Family are fine. They are doing well despite the scary news reports. They still have power, the kids are home, they have a sunken drive so their van is also happily upright! The weather station ironically, is out of action so they are unsure of wind speeds - perhaps that's a good thing. Of course prayers are appreciated.

That's the skinny on the Jones, I'll don my beret again if I receive more news from the Tall One.
bb

iPod shuffle

ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
iPod shuffle just released 5 minutes ago. oooooooohhhhhhhhhhh
The site says "Random is the New Order" - I like that
"The unpredictable new member of the iPod family"
Very cool. But where oh wheeeeeeeere is the G5 PowerBook?

MacWorld: DroolFest

UPDATE: MacMini - introduced a few minutes ago to the world. Image from this site.
MacWorld San Francisco. Pilgrimage site of Mac Geeks everywhere. I was there in 1999.
ORIGINAL POST: And the first droolworthy product is . . .
G-PLAY - why just store your multimedia files when you can play them or display them (conference speakers and VJ's listen up) directly from the external storage disk. Plays MPEG 1 and 2. $250. OOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Live updates from the good people being sued by Apple for leaking information - Think Secret's MacRumors.com

100+ MPH winds

They are coming in tonight. 100+ mph winds from Iceland. Arctic storm . . yeahhh baby . . bring it on!!!!!!
We expect to lose power and our telephone line tomorrow. Consider me out of touch for 2 days. Forget about coming here tomorrow.

The crazy winds and weather here in Orkney were part of the attraction for the Celtic monks who lived here through the centuries. Their spirituality demanded extremity of weather in order to prove the power of God. They would stand in the cold water, dance around in the storms and pray into the wind. Maybe i will do that tonight. Not naked, though. And not wearing horsehair.
Many of the Celtic prayers were prayersof protection, or "breastplates" against drowning or shelter from the storm. The Celts worshipped God outdoors in the elements, not indoors in a church building. The small monastic chapels that are still here were created to house the elements of communion, but the worship happened outdoors. In the rain. In the wild, wooly wind!!!!!
Last year a wind picked up our friend Fiona Cowan and blew her into the neighbors yard. Thats strong! So be thinking of us tonight.

The worst thing about losing the phone line and internet?
Not being able to track MacWorld conference in SanFrancisco.

Web Upgrades for 24-7 and CE

2 more upgraded websites to look at. (Thanks Marc for the tip)

1. 24-7 Prayer. They showed me a preview of this one when i was with them in Spain a few months ago. Looks good, ay?

2. Connect Europe. A much better looking site for this great network, which is very similar to 24-7 Prayer, since the leaders of both groups know each other well, and both movements got their start with a powerful pilgrimage to Herrnhut a German town where a 100 year prayer meeting took place. Moravians (Czechs who moved there to escape persecution) from Herrnhut were sent out as missionaries all over the world and had great success - they even helped to design khaki in India and helped develop the cocoa bean industry to Ivory Coast - but thats another blog post . . .
I visited Herrnhut (it means Lord's House) a few years ago - very cool to see the community which is still functioning - but nothing miraculous happened to me. Maybe I should have prayed harder?

Blogathon on 20th Jan

Aussie blogger Darren Rowse will be blogging every 15 minutes for 24 hours straight. And the donations will all go to help Tsunami victims. He hopes to break last years record of US $540. Details here.

Emergent Gets Emergent

Good news. Re: yesterday's post, I was not excommunicated from Emergent. However, I have been downgraded again, from the lofty, privileged position of "Senior Fellow" to a lower "Coordinator" and now finally, scraping the bottom of the barrel, a lowly and humble "Contributor". I guess theres no gold watch for me???!!!!
It looks like Emergent is getting emergent. . .

My Blog is Still Dumb

7 years of blogging and my blog is still dumb. Yes, it has advanced beyond the horse and carriage days of 1998, when i had to manually enter the date onto each posting. And beyond 2002 when i had to manually enter the comments collected from emails. And yes, RSS feeds (2003) have helped others read my blog in a smarter way. But it is still dumb.
I guess we have evolved from the carriage to the automobile, but alas, it is a Model A Ford and not yet a smart BMW that tunes itself and tells the mechanic what is not functioning.

Emergent Village New Site

Nice looking site for emergentvillage.com, which reminds me a little of Willzhead blog. But unfortunately i have been EXCOMMUNICATED from the listing of Emergent leaders.

I am a Creative Commonist

I guess you could say that I am a card carrying Creative Commonist. I just ordered the T-Shirt, so that makes it official. I also downloaded the CopyLeft Desktop - ahhhh shucks - i feel like such a GROUPIE! The name Creative Commonist popped up last week in response to Bill Gate's suggestion that those who seek to enhance traditional copyright laws are "communists". Bloggers were quick to respond that they were actually "Creative Commonists", a reference to the Creative Commons license that many of us have been using to allow the re-usage of our material within reasonable guidelines. T-shirts with a Copyleft symbol and a Russian theme were created by BoingBoing's Xeni to give us all another piece of blogging cultural capital.

Why did i buy the T-shirt? ( I am not suggesting you buy one.) Because in my heart of hearts i am totally committed to the sharing of valuable resources in an open source way. The Bible much has much to say on generosity and Jesus told us to freely give because we have freely received.

I made up my own little image here - based on what Jesus said. I am not saying that Jesus was into copyleft philosophy or would be a promoter of Creative Commons. Or even blogs. Nor am i slamming the traditional copyright system or the market economy.
What I am saying, rather, that I view Jesus's words about sharing what does not belong to us (none of us owns the gospel) as highly appropriate to the current situation. Spiritual truth is given to us and it must be shared with others who need it. We dare not get rich off it. We are entrusted with the gospel, it is not our property. It belongs to everyone. I have more thoughts on the gift economy here.
Our spiritual walk should radically change the way we view money, and it should be no surprise if we seek to bring about justice and fairness and generosity in the economic systems of our world. Gift giving should characterize the emerging church. Amen?
Thats why this blog is free.
Thats why my articles are all free.
Thats why I have never "charged" a speaking fee in 20 years of conferences.
Thats why I bought the T-shirt . .
. . . . and also because it looks cool and may one day be an historical place marker for open source publishing.

Boy found

UPDATE: Parents found. Thanks Simon the info. Other kids are here. And thanks Sasa, who points out the story of how the parents were found one hour after posting online.

Boy in Khoa Lak, Thailand

Community Message: A 2 year old boy Khoa Lak sits in a hospital in Thailand. No one knows who he belongs to. He may be Scandanavian or British but nobody knows what country he comes from. If you know, phone 076-249400-4 ext. 1336, 1339

Unpredictability

This is a smaller image of something i am working on for a series of conferences i will be teaching at in Germany and Switzerland. I posted some earlier thoughts here on the subject of unpredictablity in a chaotic system, and an appropriate response.
Snippet: A network with many weak links is stronger than a network with a few strong links. Multiple nodes enable greater communication which enables faster emergence. Predicting which will new projects will survive or succeed is almost impossible in our present chaotic world, but planting many seeds and allowing multiple projects is a good place to start.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is a great album. It was a Christmas present from my son Samuel. Not as musically spectacular or unique as "All That You Cant Leave Behind", but as a coherent collection of songs, it offers good insight on how to change the world for the better. It begins, at least in my interpretation, with the state of the world (Vertigo) and progresses through possible cures (Miracle Drug) and issues before climaxing with the song "Yawheh"

Read the Bible in 2005

UPDATE: Emerging Church bloggers Willzhead and Cleave are hosting their own "Read the bible in 2005" parties.

ORIGINAL POST: Once i read the Bible every day for 6 years, normally 4 chapters a day so i could get through the Bible each year. I have not been as regular, these past few years, but was hoping 2005 would change all that. But how to read it through without a group to cheer you on and kick your butt????? Well, heres a group -and they are friends of mine. And its not too late to join up. PathwaysChurch.org is heading up a read through the bible in 2005 journey - already over 700 have joined. You can sign up at the One Year Bible Blog

Ron Johnson, who heads up Pathways Church, was one of the original Young Leaders (pre Emergent) and his church has always attracted a talented and artistic crowd - including Mark Miller and Sally Morganthaller of Sacramentis. I have visited Pathways in Denver a few times and have been in countless conferences with Ron. Thanks Ron - and nice haircut!

Crumbs From Your Table

Compassion. God is asking for it from the church. The Tsunami disaster has given new meaning to Bono's words from his latest album.

"You speak of signs and wonders
But I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But I'm waiting for the crumbs from your table."

Bono | U2 | Crumbs From Your Table | How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb | 2004

Winter Miserable

i think the winter has me in its grips. I have a chest cold, i feel gloomy, and there is only 4 hours of daylight up here. And my friends have all left a few days ago - yes - we had a lot of people over New Years, but they have all returned home.
Derek and Amy Chapman were due to arrive tonight but are postponing until next week. I fell OUT OF SEASON. Every been there? Of course its possible that i am grieving sympathetically for tens of thousands of families in SE Asia who have lost parents or children or brothers and sisters.
Needless to say, I don't feel like blogging today.

What is Emergent?

Today is the deadline for me to answer 3 questions asked by a popular magazine in USA. OK, I lied. Yesterday was the deadline and i wanted to sleep on my answers. Today I decided to forget what I had written and just answer the questions in a straightforward and honest manner.
1. What is emergent?
2. Why are you involved in this?
3. Seeing as one of the emergent values is missional, who is your mission?

Not Enough Aid?

Good to see UK kicking in a lot of money for Tsunami aid, a good attempt to match the public's generosity. In USA, the amount promised is relatively smaller, and Charles E. Carlson believes the USA is only contribiting $350 million because of a wrangle with the United Nations.
[update: Charles E. Carlson is NOT Charles Colson- thanks Graham !!!!]

Reports from the Flooded Areas

Indonesia: The Abbalove network has sent out people into the devastated area - one that has traditionally been controlled by extremists and not open to Christian workers. My friend Hengky (representing the Indonesian emerging church at our Epicenter Roundtable in Texas, 2001) escaped the flood miraculously when he and his wife left the area the day before. They are now part of the rescue and aid effort in his country.

Sri Lanka: Youth For Christ is working alongside other teams. Brian O'Connell sent a report from Ajith Fernando which i have pasted on the next page. I have also uploaded his "Disciplines for Emergency Workers" doc for those of you serving where the action is right now.

Disciplines for Emergency Workers

Those of you serving in the relief effort or preparing to go may want to read this document -

DisciplinesforE…encyWorkers.doc by Ajith Fernando of Youth For Christ, Sri Lanka

My Animated GIF

Jonny Baker was asking me how i created the moving image on the top right. Funny, the animated GIF i saw on his blog 6 months ago inspired me to create one. Here is how i made mine, in case you were wondering.

Its a bit complicated, because i used a move rather than a few images. But here is the process:
- iMovie -I Imported a short movie, taken by my son, of me turning my head against a white wall. Movie edited and exported with no compression as a QuickTime Movie.
- Arkaos VJ 3.0.2 The ASCII effect added to the QuickTIme loop and recorded using the event recorder.
- Photoshop - Individual images brought into Photoshop and layered.
- ImageReady - Imported photoshop PSD image and created an animation of about 120 frames. Compressed and saved as an animated GIF of 45k (the large one here) and a smaller 100x100 (top right) weighing in at only 24k.

The Skinny on the Ba'

The 2005 New Years Ba', Kirwall, Orkney Islands. An innumerable mass of sweaty men throwing fists and covering their privates as they slowly push the ball (the ba') towards their goal. Its a brutal, vicious game with no rules and a long tradition. Having no idea what the game was about, I decided the best way to learn was to put on my rugby jersey and throw my lot in with the men. I am still not sure why I jumped in, and it may not been the smartest thing to do, but i am glad I did. Our team, the Doonies (those south of kirkwall) lost again against the nasty, pagan Uppies, for the 14th year. Next year, I should invite the New Zealand rugby team to help us out.

The best photos are at bagame.com. In this photo, taken nearly 2 hours into the game, I am bottom left, wearing a bumble-bee rugby jersy, sandwiched between a concrete wall and a hundred bodies. We were pinned in this position for about 25 minutes without moving an inch. The ball was just a few feet from me, but was well hidden underneath the swarm.
I played for a few hours before sustaining a minor injury to my right arm - a sprain that knocked me out of the game which went on for a few more hours, in freezing rain and a wicked cold gale.
The skinny on the Ba? Its great. A good and healthy release of energy and rage and a tradition worth keeping.