new project

There are countless voluntary organizations in Edinburgh, some more effective than others in obtaining their objectives.

One of the challenges church-plants face is the continual pressure to add new programs and opportunities for the body. It's easy to stretch yourself too thin too quickly. One of the areas for us would be community action. Why reinvent the wheel and make an Eikon community service initiative when we could easily join with other effective organizations. Doing it ourselves wouldn't be efficient, probably wouldn't be very effective, and moreover, just wouldn't be very smart.

In the coming weeks, we'll try to meet with a number of groups, ranging from soup kitchens to community regeneration non-profit orgs to social service agencies. We hope to initially get 3 or 4 groups to partner with, hopefully expanding as our body continues to grow.

Amy, who came over with Brian this past summer did a lot of research on this, so she has provided a much-needed base of contacts for us.

I think it'd be amazing to have a liason from each group to come in some sunday to allow them to meet and share with Eikon and present the body with various ways of getting actively involved in the community.

I went to a soup kitchen today with a guy from Eikon who has been volunteering there for some time. Really enjoyed my time.

A lot to be done, but this is important. Excited to get this going.

quick video update

jean chair in church

You usually don't see a "jean chair" in church. We have one.

Shared this morning out of The Great Banquet parable Christ taught about in Luke 14.

I've had a heavy heart lately on being able to celebrate more in Church. Each church deals with it's own set of challenges, but one of the things I think we face at Eikon is being too comfortable. In a highly relational environment, it's such an easy trap to forget that Church should look like a party: celebrative and rejoicing in the goodness of Christ.

There is a chair in our church that has a jean fabric. I tied the chair into sharing my heart about how this "marketplace" space facilitates not only our "no perfect people allowed" philosophy, but makes it more accessible for people to invite people to the party. It's not the most attractive place in the world. But there is something poetic about turning something so hodge podge and ugly into something beautiful through our use of the space. I want church to feel like it's a party: festive, participatory, everyone welcome and focused on celebrating how great and how good God is.

God has been good to us, providing a cheap space that has been a catalyst for growth.

our turkey (macaroni) dinner

Happy Thanksgiving UK style.

Just another ordinary day here in Edinburgh. I had to be reminded by a call from my parents half-way through the day.

We went to an opera tonight for dummies (it's only an hour instead of 3 hours), then went into St. Giles Cathedral and heard the Norwegian Choir sing Carols.

Got home at 9 tonight, made some mac 'n cheese and we're off to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Night at the Club

Had the opportunity to be a part of a discussion on the Israeli/Palestinian situation this evening. Had a $50 dinner in a room that had the castle as it's backdrop. 36 guests, ranging from a Scottish Member of Parliament, to Palestinian professors, to business elites, to authors and filmakers and pastors showed up to see what the night was about.

There was an aire of absurdity to the evening. It's a daunting topic for any discussion group. I did a slideshow of some pictures from the trip that was originally intended to be a supplement to the evening. The evening went long and I felt bad for Maxwell, who facilitated the event.

Tony and Kate were able to attend, and though the evening didn't pan out so successfully, it was a great opporutnity to meet the "upper" society in Scotland.

I spent most of the dinner talking with Zack Sabella, Dr. Sabella's (member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and our contact in Israel) son who is studying in the Glasgow. He's bright, passionate and will be a mover and shaker in the future. We had a long discussion on Eikon (he's a frustrated Christian) and he seemed to connect to our passion. We hit it off and know that it's a relationship that will bear fruit well into the future.

noise and a drink of irony

Stopping is difficult.

Mike shared on an important topic today at Eikon: noise. Do you ever feel naked if you leave your house without your mobile? I do. In the 24-hour news cycle, and the whole host of new technologies at our fingertips, all of which are designed to allow us to do more things at one time. But does that really make us more productive as individuals?

I remember Andy Stanley sharing that complexity is easy. Busyness is easy. That just happens. The skill is simplifying life. We've been working hard at improving this in our lives.

Kate and I rarely stop. We may not always be "working", but the line between work and play is blurry in ministry because it's not a job, it's a calling. It's not 9-5, it's all the time, especially a church-plant. It's not a complaint, it just requires a degree of discipline and maintaining a few things in life that are constant.

Today Kate's mobile and my ipod were stolen. I had to laugh at the irony.

Open Mic

Had a killer crowd tonight at our second open mic night! What a night. The room was packed for a while there, probably twice as large as last month, which was a great start in the first place.

One guy put out a "cannabis society" flyer. We didn't sell or provide alcohol, but people were free to bring their own and if they wanted to flyer, why not? Some may respond with strong disagreement or anger to the notion that we would support these things. We don't.

I suppose I would point to the 10 people I met tonight for the first time and had meaningful conversations. Many asked what Eikon was all about, but mostly, we got to meet them where they were.

At one point, a girl said to me, "what kind of church does this?" It was a great segway into conversation about what church means to us and why we do the open-mic.

Creating safe places and meeting people where they are is a huge part of our philosophy of ministry. The Jewish Rabbi from the first century did it all the time, didn't he?

I've got 10 names written down that I now get to pray for before I hit the hay. What a great night.

Osama

I want to start doing some profiles on people at Eikon. There are so many happenin' eikoners that I thought I'd get it started with my man Osama.

Osama was in Masters Commission this past year with Edinburgh Masters. He has been around since Eikon launched this past February. Master's is in a rebuilding year, so Osama came back from Belgium to work full-time and get more involved at Eikon.

He is a rare guy. Never have I seen someone be able to connect with so many people from so many different backgrounds. He lives in a hostel, so he's constantly meeting new people and bringing them to Eikon.

He's now doing the podcasting and filming for Eikon, often times coming over and putting in several hours on the computer.

I was having a frustrating day today, until osama showed up for dinner with flowers he had got for Kate and I. He's a thoughtful guy who loves the Lord.

Cool cat, that Osama.

settlers

rules! It's been a while since we sat with people, playing games at our dinner table with our great view of the Mile.

From this past May until August, we were going non-stop with people coming and going. It sort of wore us out to be honest, so from September until now, we've kind of stepped back a bit to spend more time with one another and allow for a little more privacy.

Well, we're definitely back to the schmidgall hostel. It's fun, I've missed letting our flat be a revolving door. This time we may have a hall monitor though:)

Had Joe, Dave and Ross over this afternoon for some Settlers. They are student leaders up in Aberdeen. Love these guys.This is a cult classic, by far our favorite board game.

Coincidently, Dave is from outside Glasgow and met Erin when Calvary Naperville team was over in Aberdeen last year. They're now engaged and he'll be getting married in Naperville in July. Small world.

As usual, I won.

retreat crew

We've gotten to know some of the students and leaders up in Aberdeen.

Joe did a good job under the weather and without some speakers due to a family emergency. The retreat was at a really nice hostel in Aviemore, a sort of "ski town", with beautiful mountains surrounding this picturesque one-street town overlooking one of its several lochs.

It was such a joy to be around students that really care for one another. I remember sitting, minding my own business and finding myself eavesdropping on some students directly behind me. They were so encouraging to one another, it was refreshing to see.

It speaks to the product of leadership they're under with Joe and Sarah.

We really enjoyed spending some time with them.

radiate retreat

Off to Aviemore for a Radiate Student Ministries Retreat. It's a 3-hour train through the highlands, so looking forward to doing some work while on the train.

Longer-distance train rides across Europe are some of the best travel experiences I've had. Besides the scenery outside your window, they're quiet, comfortable, and fast.

We're leading the small-group times throughout the weekend. We always look forward to seeing Joe Zickafoos (missionary in Aberdeen) and his group of crazy college students.

reminders are good

We were reminded why we do what we do last night.



We've had bad days, even bad weeks where we really wonder what's going on over here. Is this really doing anything? Why can't we all get along. Then, just like that, the Lord offered us a simple reminder tonight in our network group.

There was such an energy in the group tonight. A sense that people really wanted to be there (you know the small groups that barely have a heartbeat). This group is lively, energetic, comical, curious and motivated. We have sooo much fun when we get together.

Tonight was our network group and 16 people showed up! It was such a great night. There were students and 9-5ers with Polish, Scottish, American, Canadian, English, Northern Irish, and German backgrounds.

Dave, a graduate student from Northern Ireland showed up at Eikon yesterday having heard of "Eikon" a few years back. When he saw our flyer, he thought it must be the one and brought his flat-mate. Our Eikon ended up being the wrong Eikon, but they liked it so much, they came along to our network group tonight. Such a cool guy.

I just get this sense that people at Eikon really are looking for movement in their faith. I see people genuinely getting involved, and asking questions and arguing and debating faith and the teachings of Christ.

This is why we're here.

Reminders are good.

best place to live

Edinburgh was voted the top place to live in the entire UK earlier in the week. Location Location Location, a highly popular travel show based its findings on six key areas, anywhere from natural beauty, to housing costs, to job opportunities.

Pretty amazing to read that as we look out our window on the one of the finest streets in the UK.

It's good to call Edinburgh our home.

The Wall

Described as a security fence whose insinuated function was to deter Palestinian attacks against Israelis. As I approached it in various locations: Bethlehem, Bethel, Jerusalem, it's other purpose became more clear as I observed its construction and examined maps of the barrier's ultimate path through Palestine. It seems to be more of an "imprisonment wall" than anything else.

The original idea of the wall was promoted by Israeli moderates as a way of preventing inevitable attacks after the withdrawal of Israel's military forces. The first barrier, which surrounded Gaza, proved that it was a deterrent, in that there was a substantial decline in raids. The plan was to continue construction of the barricade along the border between Israel and the West Bank.

Instead though, the governments of Sharon and Olmert built the wall mainly within Plestinian territory, intruding deeply into the West Bank to encircle Israeli settlement zones and large areas of other Palestinian land.

This is the kicker: It is projected to be at least three and a half times as long as Israel's internationally recognized border and already cuts through Palestinian villages, and divides families fromt their gardens.
We were taken to a part of the wall in Bethany (where Lazerus arose from the grave), and saw that a wall had been built through a families home, so that the mom had to commute several hours to get to her daughters house, which was 50 feet away!

In addition to the concrete electrified fencing materials used in the construction, the barrier includes two-meter-deep trenches, roads for patrol vehicles, electronic ground fence sensors, thermal imaging and video cameras, sniper towers, and razor wire-almost entirely in Palestinian land!
I was trying to get shots of the wall, and got a little too close because I looked up at the sniper tower and the window slowly opened. The adrenaline was definetely flowing. I scurried away.
Now, if you don't believe what I saw, the International Court of Justice (the UN Justice arm) conducted a review of the wall and in 2004 concluded that the built wall was illegal. The court called on Israel to cease construction of the wall, to dismantle what has already been built in areas within the occupied Palestinian territory, and to compensate Palestinians that have suffered losses.
Israeli Supreme Court has chosen not to accept the IC decision, but acknowledged that Israel holds the West Bank "in belligerent occupation" and that "the law of belligernt occupation imposes these conditions.

With control of East Jerusalem, with relative security from the wall surrounding what is left of the West Bank, with thousands of remaining settlers east of the wall protected by strong occupying forces, there is a temptation for some Israelis to simply avoid any further efforts to seek a peace agreement.

Again, it's a dangerous thing to back someone with your fist into a corner when the person has a shotgun. With ensuing attacks on its civilians and and its very identity as a nation, it's no blaim that they would argue doing anything to protect themselves. However, this wall is a huge detriment towards the path to peace. Most heads of state and legitimate NGOs have vehemently opposed this wall, so its not my words but the rationality of analysts and diplomats further informed than I that have made the case.

I read a lot about it, but actually seeing this massive wall really frightened me. Israel has every right to protect itself, but its absurd policies on this wall only add to the onslaught of counterproductivity on both sides.

8 flights, 35 hours later

Don't you love getting stamps in your passport? I love it. I go through my passport all the time. It's a memory book for me. I can go through each of my stamps and reflect on each journey.

34 hours in the air with a total of 8 flights later, it felt good to touch ground in Scotland. That's 8 times taking off my belt and shoes and getting patted down by some sweaty overweight security guard.

The last few hours didn't work out quite as well. I flew into London and was late for a flight, so had to stay overnight in Heathrow. There is nowhere, I'm telling you nowhere in that airport that is comfortable for sleep. Meanwhile, my luggage didn't show up, and I was wearing clothes for 82 degrees and clear skies, not 40s and rainy.

I can't remember the last time I've been able to do this, but I sat in the airport at 3:30 in the morning recalling everyday in great detail over the last 2 weeks. I usually can't remember what I did the day before.

It's been an incredible adventure and when my luggage finally arrives with my computer, I'll put together a few more posts on the experience. There is still so much to say.

Tel Aviv

On final day, I knew I had to get to the Mediterranean Sea, so I separated from Maxwell and made my way to Tel Aviv.

The beach was gorgeous. I found myself overlooking the Sea at sunset, 80 degrees and clear skies as I walked the white sandy beach. It was a great close to what's been one of the more meaningful set of experiences I've ever had.

I more than plan on coming back to Jerusalem. I'm dreaming up a missions trip to help the Palestinians in some refugee camps.

We have applied for a Visa to get into Gaza, and if we get in, we'll have 3 months to get back. If we get a rarely given Visa, we are definitely going back. I want to bring Kate next time though, wasn't the same without my wife by my side. Gaza is one of the most dangerous regions in the world right now, and their are Christians risking their lives to help out the more than 70% of Gaza's 1.4 million population that is well below the poverty line. It'd be amazing to get in participate and support this essential Christian international organization.

24 hours of traveling to look forward to, and nothing less than a thorough cavity search at Ben Gurion Airport. That is one of the highly secured airport in the world.