A heart+creativity+good design=

Powerful imagery that moves people to action.

Here's my favorite from a cool page that shows 22 other examples of good design for good causes, check it out here.

Monday Miscellaneous

Welcome to Monday Miscellaneous! Aka, (all together now) "My only post of the week!"

Middle school fall retreat this weekend-good times had by all. The theme was snapshots and even had one of those photo booths that would give a string of four pictures! We took about 1/4 of our group, a little small unfortunately, maybe because of price. We had a powerful time as a group on Sat night as students opened up and shared some heavy stuff, it was so encouraging to see our groups grow further and together at the same time.

Got sick near the end of last week. Being sick is my least favorite thing in the world. My method of coping? Quarantine myself, drink gobs of water, stay away from sugar, down vitamin C, get a ridiculous amount of sleep and do nothing in hopes of wiping it out in a day rather than it lingering for a week. Here's to waking up healthy manana!

Decided to get my iphone unlocked/upgraded to 2.0, that way it can do all those fun things you see in the commercials. Another $35 though, hence why I had been putting it off. But I got some unexpected $$ love and decided to splurge!

Speaking five times at a spiritual emphasis week this coming monday at Western Mennonite school, I'm getting very excited. Theme verse- 21 Cor 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Overslept an early appt with my senior pastor this past week, of all my brilliant moments that is now near the top.

My wife's a stud and is a phenomenal blogger and is quite nice to me in said blog posts, i'm not as cool as she paints me out to be, check her out here! Not like that...

Monday Miscellaneous

This monday has twenty minutes left, I better hurry!

Finished the class I was co-teaching/TA-ing with my dad, leadership and culture. It really was a lot of fun, more work than I expected, but good to be done.

Only problem is I don't do well with 'less.' Just ask my wife. There's probably some deep-seated reason for that I'll have to pay some counselor to tell me what and why. I'm not sure what the time will get filled with!

My attempts at eating 3 meals a day are going great! Random, but, trying to stay healthy and so far I'm achieving that about 75% of the time.

My attempts at exercising 3 times a week...yeah, not so much. I used to play soccer once a week, no more. I used to play tennis once a week, no more. I used to do this thing called running, no more. I'm frustrated and feeling the effects of it. What to do.

Had an amazingly awesome wonderful start to our midweek last week. A solid, huge-energy night that had WAAY more students than we expected. Let's say we were 30% bigger than when we ended last year? What happened?!? Maybe our church is finally growing again...maybe starting in october instead of september allowed interest to grow, maybe...kids actually like it?

Watched Body of Lies over the weekend, wow, we completely loved it.

Spoke this weekend to middle school and high school (most were on their fall retreat) on nonviolence and the New Testament. Not a true sermon, mostly the things I've been wrestling with regarding Jesus' words on love, enemies, nonviolence, and the times in which we live.

Difficult Languages

As my wife and I explore learning a new language, which we've always been fascinated by, I'm reminded of the difficulty of our mother tongue, English. Here is something I came across that exemplified some of the odd aspects of the English language.

Let's face it English is a stupid language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth
If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught.

If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways Drive on parkways

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all)

That is why
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts
But when I wind up this observation,
It ends.

Now that's funny~

I think I would wear this.