new site

Pretty excited, I've been putting in a lot of hours for my new photography website.

Almost done.

I think it's going to be pretty sweet. I'm hoping to really grow my business in the next year with a number of cool possibilities on the horizon already. I love the creative side of it, but it's also my way of building greater capacity for travel and wild adventures for years to come.

Heading up to the Highlands tomorrow for 3 days. Mixing a little business with pleasure. We've got a few meetings up north on an island called Skye. Should be amazing.

anywhere, anytime

Went out last night to celebrate our great friend Darren perform his final concert before heading off to the States to raise more support. He and his wife have a very creative approach to ministry, focusing on reaching the arts community in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is a hot-bed for the arts. It is not suitable for short-term missions; it's a grueling task and am so inspired by their calling to serve here for the long-term.

After the concert, went out to a bar with he and some other people I'd never met and got to talking with this one chap in whom I discovered a lot of commonalities. Not sure how it came up, but he's a drummer at a church that meets in a theater here in Edinburgh and has a similar passion to reach the unchurched twenty-something.

I'm going to check them out next week and hoping there could be a partnership with this local church. It's so important to link arms with other bodies of believers in the area.

Even at 2:45 am in a bar God enables seeds for collaboration. Love it.

serve the servers

My Dad taught me by example at an early age that some of the best people to take notice of are people in the service industry: your janitors, cashiers, waiters, etc.

I can remember walking through the halls of the high school my dad taught at and every janitor coming up to my dad and saying hello with delight. Sure enough, there would be times when he would need to get into the locked building in the evening and somebody would go out of there way to let him in.

Well, earlier tonight I went to my favorite gourmet restaurant, Burger King, and walked to the register to give an order. I have made it a habit to stop the cashiers from the routine and say hello and see how they are doing that day.

This particular women was quite taken back by the simple gesture and told me she was having a terrible day. I threw out some words of encouragement and a few minutes later she came back with my order and included was an extra order of french fries. "Here's a little extra, I'm feeling better already."

There is a janitor at the health club I workout at and I love walking up to him and asking how he's doing. He breaks a smile everytime.

There is a muslim man that works the register at the corner shop near our flat. I've said hello to him everytime and it took almost 6 months for him to finally warm to me and now smiles and asks how I'm doing everytime. It's fantastic.

It's easy for us to forget the practical ways to serve others, but likened to ministry, people in the service industry are used to giving but receiving very little other than a small paycheck.

A simple hello and asking how they're doing goes a long way.

view from the sky

You've got to check out Thomas Friedman's talk at MIT. It's a 30,000 ft. view of globalization. To me, it's a must-see for grasping the meta-narrative of the current world order. If we can put an adequate framework to what's taking place, we're all going to be better off.

It's on itunes U, which is pretty sweet itself. I've been watching lectures from Stanford the past few days.

Great quote from it: "the biggest competition that is taking place in globalization 3.0 is between you and your imagination."

Download and watch on itunes HERE

Picture of the week

Had a great

night out with Maxwell and the other owner of our flat, Harry Wallace. Harry and his wife were over from Australia, so we spent the evening dining at the New Club.

Always love the chance to get all fancied up for the evening with my bride.

Not really supposed to have a camera in there, but I got some footage of the evening.

Simple

By our own design, Kate and I live a seemingly chaotic lifestyle. 9 to 5 is a foreign concept to us. Between the two of us we're serving in various aspects of ministry, writing a dissertation, doing photo shoots, filming and editing, researching for a policy consultancy, web design and development, mentoring and having a social life. Life is complex.

I think everyone can confess to life getting a bit more hectic these days. Each of you has your own story to tell to be sure.

Needless to say, I just finished reading two books, "Simple Church", and "Simply Christian". This year has been an exercise in maintaining a level of simplicity in all the madness.

Simple is in. Simple works. People respond to simple. From marketing to new business models, to church development, creating simple and accessible is so important.

In the past few years of starting Eikon, we've had to constantly guard ourselves from doing too much too soon. The old adage "less is more" could go on Eikon's wall because the philosophy has been to do what only we can do well. We've tried simple advertising and a simple, single idea in sunday gatherings. Like the Walmart world we live, there is pressure to be a one-stop-shop, to consolidate, to provide it all.

I think pursuing that can take away your unique dna. Pretty soon, you've launched projects that no longer fit with your vision nor your passion and in turn negates your authenticity.

From the vision statement on down to the access points you create, we're learning that simple is better.

I gotta get a phone

I tried the no phone thing. This ain't working.

Someone has been trying to get to me by phone to photograph some members of the Scottish Parliament tomorrow but I don't know her number to call back.

I had to email Kate from the library to text a friend who has this persons number to have this person call Kate. There are no payphones anywhere!

Hilarious. Forget this.

no more crackberry

Got out of the taxi yesterday and accidentally left my blackberry on the seat. I think what disturbed me most was how disturbed I was to lose it. It's like a part of me is missing.

Some interesting Pavlovian responses in the last 24 hours:

-Everytime I hear a vibrate, I reach around for my blackberry.
-I reach in my pocket every so often to send a text message to find nothing there.
-It was my alarm, so rolled over this morning to turn it off because I thought I heard it. Whoa, that's scary.

There was a funny article in Forbes that someone sent me called the "crackberry", which rather scientifically suggests that the blackberry has similar addictive qualities to that of alcoholism.

Sadly, I'm in massive withdrawal and if it is indeed an addiction which it appears it is, I'm not going to get another phone for a while.

I think I need a break.

an afternoon in Edinburgh

Got some great shots of Kim and Chad, some of our close friends, this afternoon.

Such a blast.

Peace Out

Exciting and hilarious news have hit the BBC and newspapers throughout the UK. Bagpipers have officially been asked to no longer perform on the Royal Mile and upon doing so will be jailed! Apparently the police get up to 100 complaints/day by residents.

Living on the Mile is both a blessing and a curse.

Why a curse? Bagpipers. Though the instrument itself can sound beautiful, their sometimes non-stop out of tune performance for the past year of our lives has left a permanent hum in my brain. There is no better alarm clock than "I shot the sheriff" piper style. I watched "No Country for Old Men" the other day with a bagpipe soundtrack, really changed the mood of the movie:)

Everyone comments when they arrive how nice it is to really get the full flavour of Scotland with them outside our window.

In the nicest way possible, peace out.

Read the funny article on BBC

Moving Forward

When we embarked on this voyage to assist in establishing a church in the city of Edinburgh, we were asked to give 2 years of our lives. If you've followed along you know what an exciting/eventful/blessed/frustrating/life-changing experience this has been for Kate and I.

We've been faced with the proposition of extending our stay since the beginning of January.

We're both sad but equally if not more excited to say we will be moving to Washington DC in September to embark on the next stage in our ministry. Many of you whom we have spoken with already know this, but thought I'd make it official.

The decision was difficult given some tremendous opportunities to work and serve here, but upon spending some time in Washington recently (where I previously lived for a short period), we've decided to move forward on this fantastic journey.

Of course we're still here another 3 months. Kate will continue to work with the Radiate team as they prepare to launch the student ministry in September, and I'll help in the transitioning out process we've already begun at Eikon as well as finish my Master's degree here at Edinburgh University.

Keep showing up, the 5 people that read this:) because there is so much to reflect on and things to talk about for the future.

passion and destiny

Great read called "David - A man of Passion and Destiny" (Swindoll)

My man King David tried to live life with "nothing to prove and nothing to lose."

Man, how do you do that in this day and age? I think that resonates with anyone who reads that, but when you're doing missions or in ministry, you're constantly trying to prove yourself to others. In this case, you want to prove yourself to supporters.

People want to see winners. They want to see a ministry succeed, to hear the incredible stories and the visible change that has taken place. They want their support to be meaningful. I don't blame anyone for any of those because I feel the same way.

That's reality.

I think it's a death trap, trying to prove yourself because if that desire consumes us we will never be able to focus on doing the things we were meant to do.

That's one of my goals and passions, to live life with nothing to prove and nothing to lose.

Zambia Recap

As with any life-changing experience, it's difficult to articulate the impact, emotion, insight, and amazement you feel immediately after...nonetheless, I'd like to attempt to share a bit about our team's recent trip to Monze, Zambia where, with the help and coordination of SWB (Soccer Without Borders), we were able to work with BSI (Director, Francis Malundu Nakonje) and about a thousand Zambian youth.

The short story goes like this:
As coach of the University of Edinburgh Women's Football Club, I have been looking for opportunities to challenge and encourage my players to use their natural gifts/talents for the benefit of others. Through a rather random connection, I began dialoguing with the director of SWB (Ben Gucciardi) about potential opportunities for us to support the girls program in Monze.

After a few months of planning and loads of fundraising, seven of us left for Zambia on May 16th. From touch down to take off, our two weeks in Monze were incredible.

Our first night, Francis took us to the Water Affairs project site where over 300 'kids' (ages 3-23) gathered for what turned out to be a very impromptu three-hour training session...we'll call that 'initiation'... :)



The next morning we traveled to Mamba to spend a few days with Christine (Girls Sports Coordinator for BSI). Over the course of three days, we ran training sessions at four different sites and worked with a few hundred youth (below: youth at just one project site).



We were challenged and surprised by the minimal equipment and long treks to the pitches...thankfully Christine had arranged bicycles for us, though we were humbled by the reality that the 5km journey is one Christine does regularly on foot.



On the whole, there's no question that there's huge potential for a very strong program in Mamba, though it does also seem as though a bicycle and a bag of balls would go a long way... :)



Our last afternoon in Mamba, Christine arranged a big tournament...maybe eight to ten teams showed up?? It was super encouraging to see four full girls teams participate!



After the tournament we traveled back to Monze. Friday morning was a three and a half hour meeting with Francis and all BSI's volunteer coaches...there was loads to plan with training sessions that night and a first-ever tournament involving all the Monze project sites the next day.

Each of us from U of E was assigned to a BSI coach and traveled to and led their team's training session that night. This was such a defining moment of the trip for me: seeing the synergy between my players and the BSI coaches...to quite literally see what can be achieved through teamwork and collaboration, despite cultural and communication challenges. We all arrived back at the guesthouse after training on high's...so amazing to be able to partner with the coaches and spend a bit of time with their teams, sharing what we could in the way of drills, ideas, etc. (Below: training session at Lukamantano project site).





Saturday was the tournament. 8am to 6pm. 10 boys football teams, 4 girls football teams, 7 netball teams. 3 pitches, 1 netball court. The seven of us were refs. The day was amazing. Absolutely awesome to spend so much time with the youth, the coaches...such a perfect capstone to our time in Monze. And Francis was thrilled to be able to put on such a large event; it seems to have been a real achievement for BSI, so we were really grateful for the opportunity to contribute and support him and the program.





Sunday afternoon was our last training session, for which we traveled to Lukamantano to work with Lucky and his group of about 60 youth.

What can I say other than working with the BSI coaches and kids was such a privilege...we left completely and utterly inspired...a truly life-changing experience for us all. I truly hope we were able to help BSI in some small way, though surely not to the same degree that it impacted us--broadened our perspectives and deepened our understanding of sport as a vehicle for social development.



I know my girls were all impacted in personal and meaningful ways; it's my hope that as they consider their future, they'll always keep in mind the various ways they can use their gifts/talents/skills for the benefit of others.

More pics to come.

slow down

The story of the burning bush in Exodus is customarily offered as a 'miracle' that God performed to get Moses' attention. This seemed odd to me, given the God who split the sea and made the sun stand still would resort to something so trivial and undramatic as to make a bush burn without being consumed to attract Moses' attention.

It's a cheap trick isn't it?

Look at the process of combustion. Think of how long it would take to watch a burning bush before you realized it wasn't being consumed? Even dry wood could take up to several minutes. Moses would have had to stare at the burning bush for several minutes before even realizing it was a miracle.

Jewish scholars go crazy over this passage in certain commentaries. The burning bush was not a miracle. It was a test. God wanted to find out whether or not Moses could pay attention to something for more than a few minutes. When Moses did, God spoke.

The trick is to pay attention to what is going on around you long enough to behold the miracle without falling asleep. There is truly another world, right here within this one.

It is taking me daily discipline to slow down and pay attention long enough to see what the Lord is doing right before my eyes. I have been on the run for the past year, so this season of slowing down is a gift.

Think about it.

my lady is back

Everything is right with the world again, Kate is back in town. She was in Zambia for the past 2 weeks. Add my 2 weeks in the states and we basically didn't see one another in May. Missed her like mad.

Spent the afternoon yesterday at the "Taste of Edinburgh", a nice replacement for our beloved Taste of Chi-town.

Loved every minute of being with my wife, soaking up the clear skies, and a few hours of frisbee tossing.

worth listening to

Completely worth listening to this talk by Rob Bell on the Day of Atonement in the Jewish Festival calendar. Gave me fresh insight on what the actual concept of "atonement", a loaded word thrown around in Christianity, actually means and how it's applied.

It's in 2 parts: Click Here

What I'm Reading

Some books I'm on in my spare time:

Jesus the Jewish Theologian (Brad Young) - Jesus the Jewish Theologian establishes Jesus firmly within the context of first-century Judaism and shows how understanding Jesus' Jewishness is crucial for interpreting the New Testament and for understanding the nature of Christian faith. Insights from Jewish literature, archeology, and tradition help modern readers place Jesus within his original context. Particular attention is given to the Jewish roots of Jesus' teaching concerning the kingdom of God.

Eyes Remade for Wonder (Lawrence Kushner) - This book begins with a selection of writings on cultivating awareness of God, the self, and the world. It moves on to explore the bedrock of Jewish religion, sacred text. Later chapters describe mystical, ethical, and political aspects of Jewish spiritual life, concluding with an excellent selection of meditations on the revelatory power of daily life. Kushner sees divine light glinting off his eyeglasses, shining through telescopes, and beaming out from lighthouses.

Brain Rules (John Medina) - How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget--and so important to repeat new information? Is it true that men and women have different brains?

The Bottom Billion (Paul Collier) - Collier contends that these fifty failed states (the bottom billion) pose the central challenge of the developing world in the twenty-first century. The book shines a much needed light on this group of small nations, largely unnoticed by the industrialized West, that are dropping further and
further behind the majority of the world's people, often falling into an absolute decline in living standards.