i promise i’m trying not to ease-drop in on anyone’s conversation but the young lady at the table next to me is verbally puking on the young man at her table concerning the science of reflexology. poor guy can’t get a word in edge-wise even if he wanted to. of course, i don’t think he really has a desire to say anything because he presently looks like a ‘deer caught in headlights.” anyhow i was tempted to break in when she announced that her reflexologist had told her that she was probably going to need a heart transplant in the next 10 years. i have decided to place my headphones on so that i am no longer tempted. i’m all for alternative medicine but telling someone to prepare for a heart transplant because of what you sensed while messaging his/her feet? i can’t go there.
online ocr
as a church planter i am always looking for ways to do things without a traditional office. it is all the better when these methods don’t cost a great deal. tapestry is presently working on incorporating and part of the process involves developing a constitution. i9’ve asked several other churches if i could look at their constitution. everyone has been very friendly and helpful. one of the churches sent me their constitution in .jpg format (this is a graphic file). i’m not sure why you would save your constitution as a .jpg but i did now that in order to share this on google docs with the people helping me i was going to have to retype it or use ocr. that’s when i found ocr terminal. online free ocr work. woohoo!
i just thought i would post this for anyone else who might ever need it. it was quick, effective, and best of all free (for 30 pages a day at least – but i will never go over 30 pages in a single day).
random thoughts on a wednesday evening
just a few meaningless thoughts
- “frazier” is one of the greatest shows ever. it’s up there with seinfeld in my book.
- my brief, non-spoiler description of tonight’s “lost” season finale – boring first hour that was made up for in the second hour. makes me excited about the last season next year.
- i’ve swapped to the desktop version of eeebuntu on my asus 901 and i love it. does anyone know of a decent video editor for ubuntu? my goal is to be able to make an edited video with nothing more than my netbook and pocket camera.
- earlier this week i bought bacon cheese (i.e. cheese with bacon in it) and friday i am going to fix myself a grilled bacon and cheese sandwich with it – yes this does mean that i am going to add even more bacon to it. mhmmmm!
- come on celtics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- in a few weeks tapestry is providing lunch for all the teachers at wshington elementary school during their last day of the ’08-’09 school year. we also had a few people to volunteer to help them with their 5k race they did this past weekend. i’m greatly enjoying the connection with the school. today i talked with one of the administrators concerning us helping them read to “at-risk” kids next year before school starts once a week. nothing definite. all that has happened thus far is that the conversation has started. hopefully we will get to do more and more stuff that helps the kids and adults at washington.
student documentary on tapestry
hilary is one of the ladies that leads music at tapestry‘s worship gatherings. she is also a student at uwsp and was taking a mass communication course this past semester. as a part of that course she and a fellow student decided to do their main class project on the development of tapestry. the above video is the result of their work. i think it is pretty cool.
i love the fact that when she asked me what i wanted my title to be i told her “pastor/ultimate fighter” and she put it in there. of course, she also misspelled my name but i’m pretty much used to that. everyone does.
mother's day at tapestry
last night we had an arts & crafts table at tapestry. at least that’s the way a 7 year old girl who was there described it. i was ending our discussion on resurrection and talking about my belief that the resurrection means that what we do now matters for eternity. to use a line from gladiator “what we do in life echoes through eternity.” so i made a comparison with sand art and camp romances – two very temporary things. during the commitment time we had out a table with bottles and coloured sand. i encouraged people to go grab a bottle and make their own sand art as a physical reminder not to let this summer or their young couple years be a waste. i thought that a couple of people might do it at most but it would serve as a reminder for all of us. as usual, i was wrong. we VERY quickly ran out of the 20 bottles i had bought.
SIDE NOTE – for mother’s day gifts i borrowed a great idea from my friends at the ring. instead of wasting money on trinkets or flowers to give to our thread moms i contributed the money we would have spent to world vision to buy mother/baby kits. tapestry then gave the moms a card that said the following:
Happy Mother’s Day 2009
You deserve a special gift for “mothering” (be it by giving birth or protecting and maturing the smallest and weakest). Buying you a cheap bookmark with a cheesy sentiment just doesn’t seem special enough to acknowledge what you have done and will do. Neither does buying you a flower that will wilt or giving you one of the many other small, breakable trinkets that are so often passed out at church on Mother’s Day.So here’s what we at Tapestry decided to do to celebrate you on this day. Instead of wasting money on trinkets we have contributed the money we would have spent on those trinkets to buy “Mother/Baby Kits” through World Vision. Helping other mothers walk in your example is the best way we could figure out how to celebrate how you take care of the smallest and weakest and guide us all to be adults.
on the other side of the card…
What’s a Mother/Baby Kit?
Many mothers in countries like Angola, Romania, and East Timor lack basic supplies and knowledge to properly care for their newborns, many of whom may be underweight or otherwise vulnerable. Your gift will provide essentials such as a bassinet, diapers, a blanket, a container for clean water, a baby bathtub, and soap. Plus, pregnant women attending prenatal sessions will be trained in providing the best possible care for their precious infants.
those guys and girls at the ring have amazing ideas. i’m glad they are my friends. that way i don’t feel as bad about borrowing their brilliant ideas and passing them off as my own. 😉
mother's day
jackie's baptism video
this is the pre-video that we showed at washington elementary (where we normal gather) before moving over to iverson park for the actual baptism. i’ve tacked jackie’s baptism on the the rear of the video.
the week in tweets – 2009-05-09
- Happy Star Wars day #
- Went to Noah’s game to play the role of the supportive dad and was instead was pulled into umping first base. I had to call my own son out. #
- http://twitpic.com/4krvk – Jackie’s baptism last night – an awesome first baptism for Tapestry. #
- @johnthemember – great book. really great book. in reply to johnthemember #
- Celts? Why do you have to get me excited and then leave me disappointed? Still great that you got back into the game. #nbaplayoffs #
- listening to pretty well known (in some circles) youth minister’s “revolution prophecy” and i understand why CHRISTianity gets a bad rap. #
- @snavenel – not part of my tradition either but i’ve met this guy and thought i would listen to it. 45 min rambling, easily misinterpreted in reply to snavenel #
- “Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried.” – G.K. Chesterson #
- @allimill – not meant to be a touche’ – just wanted to make sure you have considered that possibility. life is tough enough without plac … in reply to allimill #
- @hubbacm – if you don’t know who then consider yourself lucky and just keep on moving. in reply to hubbacm #
- @micahadam – yep, i’m not even a huge chesterton fan (too wordy for me) but i do love some things he says. in reply to micahadam #
- @meganckelly: i would try not to think of it but i have friends who would freak out with his talk of weapons. they wouldn’t think spiritual. in reply to meganckelly #
- @alkinnu – cool! i’ve already signed up and would gladly split a room with you and/or a couple of other people if you decide to go. in reply to alkinnu #
- Just picked up coffee grounds from Emy J’s for adding to our compost bin. I thought we were “green” in BR put we’ve become more so in Point. #
- RT: Follow Crossway Books & Bibles @CrosswayBooks. Retweet for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to Crossway.org. http://bit.ly/19nYx1 #
- @meganckelly – nope. you would be just as confused 🙂 in reply to meganckelly #
- Parousia is itself, in fact, one of those terms in which Paul is able to say that JESUS is the reality of which Caesar is the parody: Wright #
- @theboy1der – “Surprised by Hope” – I’ve been reading it “on again/off again” for a couple of months. Good stuff. in reply to theboy1der #
- I’m watching “Momma Mia” with Pam – yes i feel like less of a man. #
- I’m being chased out of my house by a dog with gas – it’s terrible. #
- Manure is the stuff of resurrection – Eugene Peterson, Tell it Slant #
- @edstetzer – you’re a fanboy. in reply to edstetzer #
- @joshuajones – so you won’t be real busy then 😉 #
- @joshuajones – mainly just picking. i’m not a huge MLB fan but i tend to swing towards the cards. in reply to joshuajones #
- Where has all the amazing central Wisconsin weather from last week disappeared to? #
- Given the current culture of the American church I am always a little put off by the term “corporate worship – seems like a Freudian slip #
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training your eyes
today i had a great conversation with a thread concerning seeing GOD do things. this person, who is a great person, has recently expressed how he sometimes has doubts about GOD’s existence and wishes that he could see GOD do things “like everyone else.” well the discussion started off around welcoming him to the club of people with doubts. i have them and i know plenty of other people who do also. doubt doesn’t imply a lack of faith, sometimes it is a part of great faith. i know of people who never claim to have any doubts but i am not one of those people. if it wasn’t for those non-doubters i would probably suggest that doubt is necessary for faith. if there is no possibility of doubt then faith probably isn’t required.
anyhow we eventually got to the point of seeing GOD and i suggested what i usually recommend in such situations … start a daily journal of when you might have seen GOD or when you think you probably should have seen GOD.
“seeing” is something we have to train ourselves to do. it is true in all sorts of “seeing” situations. my sons can watch a skateboarding trick and tell me exactly how many spins the board has done, when all i see is a big blur. andy lickel (a.k.a. the fish whisper) can look at water and see fish all over the place when all i see is a bunch of greenish liquid. jim, my brother-n-law, sees numbers in a way that makes companies want to hire him; if i look at those same numbers i just get sleepy. clint barron can watch a state of the union address and tell me all sorts of political statements that were made and implied when all i am able to see is that the regular scheduled shows were pushed back. why is all this true? it’s because these people have trained themselves to see these things. they have focused their minds to the point that they are able to filter out certain elements and highlight others. due to their diligence and practice they “see” things that the rest of us just gloss over.
if we want to “see” GOD doing things we need to train our eyes to look for HIM. we need to spend some time during each of day considering where HE might have been, what HE might have been peeking behind, and what masks HE might have been wearing during our day. when we do this enough we will slowly train our eyes to “see” and we’ll probably be surprised at all the places we see GOD at work.
tapestry prayer email – may 2009
here’s this month’s prayer email.
if you don’t already receive this and would like to do so please let me know.