5. Facebook, Twitter and Students…

With social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, so pervasive in the lives of people it’s important that we look at what kind of affect it has on students. The Discipleship Training School (DTS), and other second level schools in Youth With A Mission (YWAM) have previously been completely immersive experiences mainly because of the difficulty and cost of communication. Read the full article…

4. Lego, Why do you Spurn Canada?

Caleb spent the better part of two years saving up to buy himself a Lego Cargo Train Set. When he finally went to purchase the set we found that the set was almost $100 more in Canada than to purchase it in the USA.

In the end Caleb purchased the train set in the USA and had a friend pick it up for him. Read the full article…

3. Debt and Missions – A Toxic Mix

This is one topic that I have gotten more passionate about as I have spent time in missions. I have seen people removed from the missions field or prevented from entering the field because of personal debt.

As a missions agency we need to be asking ourselves what are we doing about this? Not only personal debt, but also what are we doing about ministry debt? Read the full article…

Teaching Personal Finance and Financial Stewardship in Missions

Although not in the top five blog posts this article was my follow up article to my debt and missions article.

In the article I explore a few different ways that we can help the staff and students in Youth With A Mission deal with their personal debt. Two options I look at are Dave Ramsey’s Generation Change and Lazarus at the Gate. Read the full article…

2. Using What You Know in Missions

Something that frustrates me is when missionaries abandon the skills and knowledge that they have developed before entering missions. Often these things are God given talents that are intended for use in God’s Kingdom. Often though because they don’t fit into the mould of a “young missionary” the talents are dismissed as being not “spiritual” enough for the missions field. What a travesty. Read the full article…

1. Explaining Idiots to our Kids – The Vancouver Riots

The number one article is the one that surprised me most.

Caleb came home from school talking about the riots that had occurred in Vancouver after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins. He was asking why people would do that and I tried to explain to him why, and also tried to get some advice from others about what causes people to act like that. Read the full article…

My friend commented:

The point of this picture is that we who have two cars, a roof over our heads, free health care, food in the fridge, flat screen tv’s, computers, ipads etc. are a privelaged elite. We are in the top 3% of the world in terms of wealth. I’m not interested in listening to people complain about a mortgage when they’ve never gone hungry a day in their life or never had to choose which child to feed today. The citizens of the US and Canada are not entitled to a stress-free life.

My response to the photo was:

In the horn of Africa they are expecting about 750,000 to have died from the famine there by the end of the year. I seriously feel like slapping those guys down at Occupy Calgary and telling them to wake up!

After a bit more discussion on the topic one of the other commenters decided that I am a “Misinformed Redneck”. While the redneck part is quite possibly correct, I got a little irate at the full implication. Here was my response…

One of the things that the occupy people was proud of what that they don’t have solutions, but they know there is “something wrong”. They include people from the Arian Nations, to the Communists, (source) to everyone in between. I’ve some people say that if you support some of what they stand for, then you should stand with them! That’s rubbish.

I don’t disagree that something is wrong. Corporate influence in the Canadian government is too strong and unfortunately, even though I voted for them and would again, the current government is increasing the amount of influence private corporations have in government with the removal of public financing for parties based on number of votes. I was originally in favour of this move as it decreases government spending, but it allows greater influence of outside donors, and they are never bias, whether it’s the unions or it’s corporations. This was a bad move. (source)

I think that the occupy movement, as it has developed, is going about it the wrong. In the US it’s being co-opted by the democrats and Obama is doing his best to turn them into his foot soldiers. Obama is in bed with the corporations and will say anything he needs to in order to get re-elected, but he won’t change anything. This supposed “jobs bill” is a farce! If read in it’s entirety the majority of it has little to do with jobs for the people and will, as usual, benefit Obama’s major donors (source).

As for solutions for Africa…

How about we change our spending habits? In 2010 Christmas related spending in the US was $584.3 billion (source)! That is more than the GDP of 197 of the worlds countries (source). US AID to the Horn of Africa for 2011 is $650 million (source), or about 0.1% of the Christmas spending, can we see how messed up priorities are there?

In our household we are talking about where we want to donate money to this year for Christmas rather than spending it all on ourselves. Our kids are looking forward to it and our 9-year old son talks about it quite a bit. If people decided to make the choice to put their money where their mouth was it could make a big difference in the world, and to people like those starving in Africa…

There have been many times that I can recall coming down into Caleb’s room a few hours after putting him to bed and his light is still on. Like me he can get completely lost in a book and completely lose track of time (I know it’s especially bad when the sun starts coming up and I’m still reading a book I started when I went to bed…).

An interesting thing has happened lately though. There is a new reading program at school for Caleb. It is set up so that at the end of the year a student gets a prize for completing 20 x 15-minutes reading sessions a month. I think that it is a great way to get students to read who don’t have a passion to read. The program makes it into a competition, with a prize at the end for the students who finish.

The incentivised reading programs has had an interesting affect on Caleb’s reading habits though…

Since the reading program started it actually feels like it is harder to get Caleb reading. I think that it has changed something that is fun, into something that is more of a chore! He seems to have lost some of that “passion”.

Unfortunately I think that this is yet another way that my son is like me, sorry mate…

When a Passion Becomes a Job

Recently I’ve actually started to do some paid freelance writing in the areas of social media, web-site development and marketing. These are areas that I am quite active in with my full-time volunteer role in Youth With A Mission. They are things that I am passionate about because I can see how they can be used to communicate what God is doing in and through the mission, and how people can get involved.

Writing about it though is hard…

Most times when I sit down to write it feels like I have permanent writers block. Articulating things in written form has never been something I’m strong at (just ask any of my high-school English teachers). I remember when I went to do a communication school in YWAM in 1999 one of my students laughed at the thought of me doing “communication” ministry.

Writing for this blog is relatively easy compared to the freelance writing that I do (even though I am approaching the 2-hour mark for this article). A lot of what I write about is similar, but getting the motivation for the freelance writing is much more difficult than for my own sites. I can still get it done, but it certainly takes a lot more effort do it…

Why is it harder?

When I write for this site I try to write from the heart, usually about something that I’ve been thinking about or mulling over for a while. Often it’s something I’m passionate about, like my using what you know in missions series and personal finance in missions, or topics that have come up in my YWAM work, like how to connect with potential missionaries. Sometimes, like this article, it has to do with experiences that are going on in my personal life.

Of course, my struggle to do paid writing could also be a sign of my own lack of maturity! Nah, that can’t be it…

How about you?

Are you motivated by passion or by external rewards?

How do you respond to external motivation?

The fact that no one was prosecuted for the bank failures (in fact most bank CEOs got huge bonuses from the bailout money) and that both political parties are in the pockets of the banks and corporations (Ron Paul being one of the few exceptions) should frustrate Americans. There needs to be changes to the system (bring back Glass-Steagall so that a bank is a bank, not an investment engine?), but very little has changed, which again should frustrate Americans.

Since the protests started though they are looking much more left wing (socialist) in their leaning. They have been co-opted from their original intent and looks like the socialist uprisings we saw in the US in the early and mid 1940s. All we need is to see the unions start to strike and it could dramatically change the direction the government is taking in the US. (listen to this episode of the hardcore history show to hear more about “the Red Scare”).

Occupy Canada

Given that Canada has largely avoided the financial and banking crisis that is hitting the US though I am a bit confused about the Occupy Calgary protests that are happening today. Alberta has an unemployment rate of only 5.4% and plenty of opportunity.

Photo by freestylee

How do you explain to your kid why people act like that?

Proverbs is full of explanations for people acting like fools:

A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control. (Proverbs 29:11)

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult. (Proverbs 12:16)

We also read in James:

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. James 1:19-20

Most of us realise that the loss of the hockey game was just an excuse that the instigators of the riot used to start the riot, but how do you explain to your kid why some people feel the need to act with total disregard for other people and the law?

We read in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:

Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Cor. 15:33)

Unfortunately in a situation like the Vancouver Riots we can see that a few bad apples caused many others to misbehave. This is something that we can highlight to our kids in encouraging them to be wise with who they hang out with, and where they spend their time.

How would you explain to your children why people act like this?

Photo souce: @latoya12

Canada

We have ordered a few things from the Amazon on-line store in Canada* and been impressed with the prices and with the speed of delivery. At the moment they are offering free shipping for orders over $25.00.

My personal favourite for gifts is actually Amazon Canada Gift Cards*. These cards can be delivered via e-mail, so even if it’s December 24th (or even 25th if you get something under the tree, only to realise you never sent anything) you can still get it there in time for Christmas. If you want to include the gift certificate in a Christmas card you can also print the certificate from your local computer.

Amazon Canada* has a wide selection of books, electronics, music and more that people can choose from.

United States (USA)

For gifts to America I again recommend the Amazon.com on-line store*, the American store this time. We have ordered things from here for delivery to friends in the USA before, and the US store is just as quick with very competitive pricing.

We have received a few gifts certificates ourselves for the Amazon Store in the USA and the Amazon Gift Cards* are great to get. Shipping can be a problem to Canada, but for shipping to the USA they are great (we’ve had some stuff delivered to friends in the USA for us in the past). Like from the Canada store you can e-mail or print the gift cards, or you can also have them mailed for you directly from Amazon to your friend, or sent to their Facebook page.

The Amazon.com store* has a huge selection of products that people can purchase, including books, electronics, music gear, music (downloadable and physical), movies, video downloads, toys, tools, food and much more.

Australia

The best place that I have found in Australia for ordering gifts online is wishlist.com.au*. They have a huge selection of products that you can order including books, music, movies, electronics, flowers, food, jewellery, toys, magazine subscription and even experiences like sky diving or cooking classes.

As with both of the Amazon stores you can also purchase gift cards from wishlist.com.au*. The difference though is that the Amazon Canada* and Amazon.com* gift cards are good for the Amazon store. At wishlist.com.au* you can purchase gift cards for individual stores like Myers, JB Hi-Fi, movie theatres, and more, or you can purchase a “Wishlist Voucher” for spending at wishlist.com.au*.

* All of these links are affiliate links, meaning that by purchasing something through that link we will receive a small percentage of the sale price. So this is good way to give great gifts, and help support us in our ministry.

Reading this post by Seth Godin about “Childish vs. Childlike” got me thinking about how we are called to a Childlike Faith in Christ, and what that actually means to us as followers of Jesus…

“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” Mark 10:15

We are not called to a childish faith, but rather to a childlike faith:

• Childlike asks how we can work on God’s behalf
• Childish asks God to work on our behalf
• Childlike fills our prayers with asking what we can do for God
• Childish fills our prayers with telling God what He can do for us
• Childlike leads to service
• Childish leads to selfishness
• Childlike leads to sacrifice
• Childish leads to greed
• Childlike leads to faith and trust in God
• Childish leads to doubt and fear
• Childlike leads to a desire to know God more
• Childish leads to superficial knowledge of God
• Childlike faith leads to complete obedience of God’s will
• Childish faith leads to the Health, Wealth and Prosperity Gospel

I could keep going, but I will leave you with some videos and a few verses. Feel free to add to the comments at the bottom of this post…

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Corinthians 13:11)

“Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Corinthians 14:20).

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Some more links:

• Warranted Faith – Childlike vs. Childish Faith
• Childlike Faith – What does God owe you?

1. Paws and Tails
2. Kids Corner
3. The Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast
4. Karen and Kids
5. Sesame Street Podcast (Video)

Of these five I think that Paws and Tails and Kids Corner are our favourites. They are similar in their premise, but with their own unique characters and situations. Both of those shows have their characters based on young animals, which ads for an interesting twist.

The Kids Corner and Paws and Tails kids audio programs are built around a few main characters attending middle school. They deal with the issues that face children of that age and have lead to some pretty good conversations between me and the kids.

Paws and Tails is especially good at facilitating discussion as in addition to the free audio short story you can also download a free parents study guide for each episode. The study guides include different sections including story comprehension, personal application, spiritual application as well as directors notes. The guide helps us to talk though with the children what the story was about, what it means and how they can apply it to their own lives.

While checking out the site for this article I found that Kids Corner also has free parent discussion guides available for free on their web-site. We haven’t tried them yet, but after a quick review they look pretty good.

Kids Corner and Paws And Tails are both repurposed radio programs so they run between 25 – 27 minutes each episode, which is perfect for our time frame in the car since it lets us listen to it and then talk a bit about it during our drive.

The Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast follows along with the radio program and usually has behind the scenes commentary and feedback about the stories. Every once in a while though they release a free full episode of The Adventures in Odyssey. These are great stories and look at many different biblical stories and relevant topics. So far in the year and half or so that I have been subscribed I have pulled in 18 free full episodes.

Karen and Kids is built around music and story telling. It seems to be geared to a slightly younger age and Jessica loves this one. We probably don’t listen to it enough for her to learn the songs, but I’m sure if she were to listen more she would be bopping along to the songs in no time.

The Sesame Street Podcast is a weekly video podcast. Every video is about 6-minutes long and includes your usual cast of characters from Sesame Street, and occasionally a guest host.

Lately the Sesame Street Podcast has been going through the alphabet during their episodes. Although we can’t watch the videos in the car, these prove to be invaluable on the iPod Touch when we have a long wait at appointments or when shopping.

Do you know of any other free kids short story audio programs that you think should be included? If so, let us know in the comments below …

We are all pretty good at complaining about our politicians or about the results of  elections if our preferred candidate doesn’t get elected. What if we took the time spent complaining to instead do what Paul asks of us in his letter to Timothy?

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

Do you notice how Paul doesn’t say to pray for kings and all those in authority who we agree with or who we elected? He didn’t say that, he said to “pray for kings and ALL those in authority” (emphasis mine).

How Should We Pray For Our Leaders?

So now that we all agree that we should be praying for our leaders, how should we be praying for them? I found a great article that outlines some of the things that we should be praying for when praying for our government leaders:

• Love of the Truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)
• To have Wisdom (Proverbs 4:5-8, Psalm 119:98-100)
• Display Courage and Integrity (Proverbs 10:9, Proverbs 11:3)
• Be Sharp in Insight and Quick in Discernment (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, 1 John 4:1)
• Surround Themselves with Good Staff and Advisors (Psalm 1:1, Proverbs 29:12, Proverbs 24:6)
• For God’s Protection over Themselves and their Families (Psalm 46:1-3)

There you go, next time your having a whinge about your elected politicians remember Paul’s words to us and instead of complaining about them, pray for them.

I know that we are all guilty of it. We get asked a question and we give the “right” or expected answer, rather than the real or honest answer. When our son does it we call it lying, when we as adults do it we call it being polite.

I’m talking about the answer that we give when someone asks you “How are you doing?”. I lie all the time when I get asked that question. The “right” answer is “I’m doing well thanks.”. To be honest, that is my usual response no matter how I’m actually feeling.

Asking the Question

Because “How are you doing?” has become a common greeting I don’t think that many of us would be prepared if someone were to tell us how they are actually doing! I don’t reckon we are deliberately being disingenuous when we ask, it’s just become so second nature to ask it, we just say it without really thinking. Do we really have the time to listen if someone answers us truthfully and says it how it is? Are we actually willing to take the time to listen if someone were to take the time to tell us how things really are?

Our Response

From the other side, are we willing to be vulnerable and honest and tell someone the truth when they asks us how we are doing? It’s humbling to tell someone that we are struggling, and I reckon that a lot of the time I am not humble enough to answer truthfully.

The thoughts that often go through my mind are:

I’m a Christian Missionary trying to walk in God’s will for my life, everything should be great … shouldn’t it?

or

Why would people support me financially in my ministry if they know I’m struggling personally?

Usually it’s easier to say you’re doing fine than to tell people how you are actually doing. If you struggle for long enough, and are open about it during your struggles, then people may eventually get tired of hearing it and cut you off. We’ve had that happen before, and it hurts when it does …