fromthefieryfurnace

from the garden to the table : : winter pesto

2010-10-31T18:01:00.007-04:00

Sadly, the garden is coming to an end for this season. We’ve gotten to eat many great meals this summer from ingredients we’ve grown, which has been satisfying both because we grew them and because produce is far better when freshly picked at optimum ripeness. But, with winter approaching, it is time to start preparing the garden for winter, which includes about 3-4 feet of snow (a bit more than a meter) and temperatures that generally range from 5 to 25 degrees (-15 to -4). Basil, however, begins to die with temperatures far warmer than that. Anything below 50 (10) will begin to leave black spots on the leaves that look like frost damage. So, with nights now well below 50, the basil had to go.

Pesto is the answer to the very lovely and large basil plant in the backyard. While there are many recipes, Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone had a fabulous recipe that I follow. It is a classic with basil, parmesan, pecorino romano, pine-nuts, olive oil, salt and butter.

To save it for the winter, put it into an ice cube tray and freeze it. When you want to remember the tastes of summer, all you need to do is toss a pesto cube with some pasta or gnocchi and you’re set for a simple dinner.

from the garden to the table : : stuffed banana peppers

2010-10-27T17:36:00.002-04:00

Our Banana Pepper plant was the one pepper plant that did really well this summer―we had about 16 peppers on it by the beginning of October! So, I decided to make some stuffed peppers.

First, make some Mexican style rice: rice cooked pilaf-style with bouillon, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and chili powder. Then, mix the rice with cilantro (coriander), finely chopped onions, a bit of ricotta cheese and queso fresco (although mozzarella, colby-jack or even a mild tasty cheese for those in Australia would work).

After cutting the peppers and seeding them, simply stuff the rice filling in and bake at 350 (180) for about 20 minutes. They are great served on a bed of refried beans―homemade are best but a tin will work, just add some milk, butter, chopped onion and a dash of garlic and let the beans cook on the stove for 30 minutes to help improve the flavor!

for the workers at the start of another working week...

2010-10-24T16:30:00.001-04:00

New post at WonderingFair.com on how we raise girls to become women

2010-10-22T10:14:00.000-04:00

Jess' latest piece for Wondering Fair, Girls and Women, is now available.

Paris Pic care of WonderingFair.com

See all of Jess' Wondering Fair posts at:

http://wonderingfair.com/author/jhughes6/

Spelling 101 - how confident would you be about South Bend's school system?

2010-09-22T11:43:00.000-04:00

Photo by Lee MacMillan, care of MSNBC

a burst water main has flooded our back yard

2010-09-21T11:21:00.001-04:00

View 20 photos in a slideshow at flickr.com/shootingforyou

our home is a zoo... please adopt an abandoned kitten!

2010-09-07T18:41:00.002-04:00

This morning, I took our 7 month old Great Dane, Ziva, and little Abi on a walk... I have several set walks that I usually go on, but today I thought I would try a new route...

We were walking through the woods north of our house towards a road, I had stopped to call Ziva and get her back on her leash, when 3 kittens ran from the woods to greet us. The little kittens had been abandoned...

So with a Great Dane leading the way, a new born strapped to my chest, 2 kittens in one hand and 1 kitten in the other we walked home... after something to drink, a quick trip to the pet store for some kitten food, a bath, and a sleep... the 3 kittens are doing well...

But we cannot keep them... (the mother-n-law wouldn't be happy!)
so South Benders, we need some people to adopt a kitten into a good home...
AND please spread the word...

View kitten portraits & more details:

3kittens.shootingforyou.com

from the garden to the table : : fried green tomatoes

2010-09-02T16:15:00.002-04:00

My grandfather was born in 1929 and raised in Kentucky. He often speaks about eating fried green tomatoes, reminiscing about just how tasty they were. The history of the dish is most likely lost amid the pots and pans of many a small farm kitchen but, according to food historian Robert F. Moss, the dish is not exclusively southern (as most people believe) and recipes for making the tomatoes can be found in old newspapers from the midwestern and northern parts of America between 1900 and 1920, as well as in some Jewish cookbooks from the early part of the 20^th century. My own instinct is that the dishes origins come from the backyard garden―early in the season, we had a green tomato pull of the vine when tying one of the plants to the fence. Not wanting to waste it, I sliced and fried it. My guess is, people with gardens have always had the odd green tomato come off the vine, or needed an early summer meal before the tomatoes were ripe, or had tomatoes left as the midwestern winter arrived early and, not wanting to waste the fruit, found ways of cooking the hard, green tomatoes.

The traditional recipe is to slice the tomatoes ¼ an inch thick, salt and pepper the slices, dust them in cornmeal and then fry them in hot bacon fat. I basically follow this recipe but use butter rather than bacon fat and add a bit of flour, garlic powder and onion powder to the cornmeal for the breading. After heating up the cast-iron skillet and browning the butter, the slices go in, frying on each side until golden brown. Because I love sauces, I mix up a light sauce of sour cream, paprika, lemon juice, a few drops of Tabasco, and finely grated cheddar cheese to spoon over the tops of the tomatoes. Served with potato salad and watermelon, you have a light and tasty Midwestern meal.

Jess is blogging at WonderingFair.com

2010-08-20T08:33:00.005-04:00

Jessica's second blog post for Wondering Fair, Green Grass Fun, is online now

If you have a question or a comment, please post it on the WF site, rather than on our blog or on Facebook.

Enjoy... that is the whole idea about this post!

You can find all of Jess' posts at:
http://wonderingfair.com/author/jhughes6/

from the garden to the table : : roasted veggie pasta

2010-08-15T17:25:00.000-04:00

I learned to roast veggies in Australia. For some reason, I’d never really noticed it as a way of preparing vegetables while living in America. This pasta is great because you can make it for any season with any vegetables. In this case, it was all about using the vegetables in our garden that were ripe for use.

Start by chopping up some vegetables. In this case, we’ve used summer squash, banana peppers, and orange tomato, some cherry tomatoes and some garlic (the only thing we didn’t grow)

Marinade the vegetables―I used truffle oil, olive oil, white wine, salt and freshly cracked pepper

Since it has been stinking hot here in South Bend, I put my cast iron skillet on the BBQ outside and heated it. Once it was good and hot, I put the vegetables on it and cooked them till they were nicely browned in some places (normally I cook them in the oven though).

While the veggies cook, chop up some fresh herbs: we used basil, oregano, and thyme, again all from the garden

Don’t forget to prepare the pasta. Whole wheat rotini or penne are best for this dish.

Once the pasta is cooked, toss it with more olive oil, truffle oil, wine, salt and pepper. Mix in cooked veggies and fresh herbs.

For a nice dinner on the back deck, serve with parmesan cheese, freshly baked bread (with balsamic and oil for dipping) and a crisp white wine.

from the garden to the table : : stuffed tomatoes and lemon-dill rice

2010-08-10T16:01:00.011-04:00

[Jess returns to this blogosphere...]

Our big tomatoes (Better-Boys) have looked promising all summer, growing big and green, slowly ripening through orange to red. Sadly, though, a raccoon or something like that has been getting into them at night, eating big holes in the soft, red flesh the day before they should be picked. We have managed to get to a few before the wildlife…

Stuffed tomatoes are an easy, casual meal that you can make to suit just about any cuisine. Start by halving and hollowing out a couple of large tomatoes (use the innards to make Cherry Tomato pasta). Then, in a separate bowl mix:

Bread crumbs
Fresh herbs (we used oregano, thyme, and chives from our garden)
Fresh garlic either crushed or chopped
Cheese (in this case, I used cheddar but you can use whatever you have on hand)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Put the bread crumb mixture into the tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil. Cook uncovered in the oven or on a BBQ until the tomatoes are a bit wrinkly and the tops are golden.

While waiting for the tomatoes to cook….

I made rice to serve the tomatoes on. For this pilaf style rice, sauté the tomato innards, a banana pepper from the garden, and an onion in generous amount of butter. Add the rice and a bunch of dill, stir it around for a few minutes, and then add the normal amount of liquid for the amount of rice (I used an Amish chicken-broth). Once the rice is cooked, add some sour cream and lemon juice.

A fresh salad and some rock melon make the meal complete (as does a cold beer…).

online shoppers >> $5 for you + ongoing rebates for your purchases + an iPad for me??

2010-08-04T16:38:00.009-04:00

There seems to be lots of things on the internet that look to good to be true, and are...

Ebates is not too good to be true...
it works and I have received US$123.72 into my PayPal account to prove it!

[please keep reading to earn $5 + ongoing rebates for the stuff you already buy online + help me win an iPad for my business]

Ebates is a website that allows you to earn a rebate for buying things online - things you would be buying anyway. I have earned rebates from 1% to 16% on purchases. What Ebates do, is take the referral commissions that e-tailers offer to content publishers and give you half of the commission.

There are over 1200 e-tailors who pay referral commissions...
I have earned rebates back on purchases from:

ebay 1-3%
REI & REI Outlet 3%
Apple Store 1% (sometimes 2%)
MacMall 2.5% (sometimes 5%)
Adobe 6%
KitchenAid 16%
Moosejaw 5%
J&R Camera & Electronics 3%
Newegg electronics 1.5%
Endless Shoes 6%
Hollabird sports 4%

Sadly, Amazon does not participate...

Here's how Ebates works:

I find what I want to buy online.
Close the browser.
Go to ebates & log-in (usually you are alreday logged-in)
Select the store on Ebates and be redirected to the e-tailor's website
Purchase as normal from the etailor
Usually within 48hrs of the purchase being shipped, I get an email from Ebates saying the $ has been added to my Ebates account
Then every 3 months, Ebates puts $ into my PayPal account.

Help me help you, and I will be helped too...
If you sign-up to Ebates (for FREE) and make a purchase through Ebates of > $20 before 30 September, you will earn a $5 bonus (and so will I) + you will have learned how to keep getting rebates on your online purchases.
If I can get 50 people to sign-up and make a purchase, Ebates will give me an iPad, which would be cool to own, but especially great to have for my new photography business, SouthBendRealtyPhoto.com

Please sign-up to Ebates through this link:

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=tn%2Balp3Bh9rodeOHCepgZg%3D%3D

from the garden to the table : : cherry tomato pasta

2010-08-02T14:00:00.013-04:00

Cherry tomatos are a winner in the backyard veggie garden! Easy to grow (all of our seedlings have produced), the tomatoes are small and so grow to size and ripen quickly and they are super-tasty!

Cherry Tomato Pasta, one of Jess' made-up recipes, has been one of our favorite meals for a while now... so it is great to get the key ingredient from our garden + a range of herbs to vary the dish...

yum!

Here's how you make it...

lots of garlic and olive oil in a big saucepan
cut & cook-down a bunch of cherry tomatoes + take the innards from a few big tomatoes and add them to the mix (keep the tomato shells for our next recipe)
season with salt & pepper to taste
add some half-cut cherry tomatoes for a few minutes at the end
add chopped parsley
a splash of white wine (in the pasta people!)
pine nuts are a great addition!
serve over angel hair spaghetti with parmesan cheese + ground pepper
garlic bread and salad make the meal (as well as a refreshing glass of white wine)

from the garden to the table : : margarita pizza

2010-07-30T14:40:00.001-04:00

South Bend seems like a great place to plant a backyard veggie garden (to us first-timers at least...). The soil is rich black in color and fertile (certainly the weeds grow fast), the earth worms are huge, it is hot and humid and we get plenty of rain - all good for growing some of our own food.

Home-made pizzas are great for a night-in with a cold beer to drink and a DVD to watch. The classic margarita pizza is so easy to make when the two key ingredients come from the backyard - tomatoes & basil.

If you want to get into the home made pizza routine, I would suggest two key investments:

a pizza stone & rack (between $10-$20)
a good mixer (not so cheap, but a lifetime investment if you get a good one) - the best being the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series

The results are good (this is Andrew's handiwork...)!

Here's how to make it...

we use Deborah Madison's pizza dough recipe in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (the only addition is to add ground pepper, chili flakes, dried basil & oregano to the dough)
per-heat the oven 30 mins prior to 500 F with the pizza stone in the oven on the rack
roll-out the dough to about 75% size of the pizza stone
take the VERY HOT pizza stone from the oven and place the dough on the stone, pushing the dough to the edges (this bit needs to happen quickly, so the dough hits the hot stone and seals the crust)
then take your time making the pizza... start with pizza sauce
we blend mozzarella with some parmesan and a little cheddar, and mix it through with ground black pepper and olive oil
add your tomato slices - cherry tomatoes sliced in thirds work great - add plenty!
put the pizza in the oven until the crust starts to brown
take the pizza out and add your ripped-up basil leaves + a sprinkling more of the cheese
then back into the oven for another 3 minutes or so...

Jessica is now blogging at...

2010-07-23T10:08:00.003-04:00

WonderingFair.com

Wondering Fair seeks to… gather a worldwide community of people discussing matters of life and faith under an informal, relational atmosphere.... We bring a Christian perspective on things to the table, with the aim to also hear others and talk about the things that matter most. Wondering Fair is your online corner to take a break and think about life.

The blog was launched a month ago by a friend from Regent College, with a bunch of other friends/Regent alums as writers.

Jess will post monthly - all of her posts can be found at:

http://wonderingfair.com/author/jhughes6/

Check-out Jess’ first post on Giving and Hospitality…

Make a comment or ask a question via the WF comments.

Basement Renovated! Finished pics...

2010-07-19T13:30:00.002-04:00

Our basement has been "finished"... (well, almost - I still need to install the door). Just-in-time too for our first guests to arrive and stay - it is great that the room has been used for one of its intended purposes so quickly after we finished the DIY renovation...

A BIG THANK YOU has to go to Matt (Jess' brother) for his hard 18 days of work - without Matt this project would not have been finished! Thank you also to Steve & Linda (Jess' parents), while not present to help - they were super supportive from afar - offering advice & ideas, having the foresight and generosity to fly Matt out to help us, and making sure we were able to eat a true tradie diet whilst working the hard and long days. Thanks also to Amanda and H. Ross for chipping-in at the end to get this project home. And to Jessica, who helped me prior to Matt's arrival with the windows, and with everything after we got the drywall in place - a great effort for a first time pregnant lady with only 6 weeks to go...

Now that we really do have space for guests, please come and stay...

From start-to-finish,
view the transformation...

[View in full-screen slideshow]

Matt & Maria's wedding

2010-07-19T13:10:00.004-04:00

After finishing the basement on Thursday evening, on Friday we moved in our guest beds just in time for two more Regent friends, Sarah & Kristin, to arrive on Friday afternoon to join H. Ross and us. It is great to have finished the basement and immediately have it used for one of its intended purposes, a guest room.

Then on Saturday morning, the 5 of us drove to Grand Rapids Michigan to witness the coming together of tow Regent friends in marriage. Then it was onto a spectacular venue for the reception - a cottage on Lake Michigan. The weather was perfect, the beers were exotic and plentiful, the company of Regent friends delightful and the celebrations for Matt & Maria joyous.

Check-out the wedding pics at:

flickr.com/photos/shadrachs

Basement Reno - in goes the flooring...

2010-07-14T16:44:00.000-04:00

The flooring is in! We have put a similar floor in before (a click-in laminate), but in a much smaller room (our kitchen)... our basement is a big room, and this job took forever! Jess was such a trooper, 7.5 months pregnant, getting up and down so many times... we were both really glad to be done with it!

We couldn't have done it with out some help from Amanda laying several rows with us, and H. Ross who helped with some of the final cuts - thank you!!

Baseboards and quarter-round this afternoon...

Basement Reno - (a bump) in the flooring...

2010-07-13T13:16:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we began the flooring... We started with the existing concrete floor - it is in good condition, but could certainly use some paint.

Like the precautions we took with the walls, we also need a temperature & moisture control barrier for the floor. We used a layer that promises to be The Warm & Dry Floor System.

We started to lay the laminate flooring, but when we read the instructions, we realized that the flooring needs to be stored in the same place as it will be laid for 24 hours or so to acclimatize to the conditions, so it won't expand or contract. A bump in our plans... we had to put the flooring on ice until today.

This is the look we are going for...

It's not all hard work... there's time for some puppy play along the way...

Basement Reno - window transformation

2010-07-12T10:03:00.001-04:00

This whole basement renovation project is about transformation... which is what made us so interested in doing all the DIY work. We get to take a cold, dark, dirty and unusable space, and transform it into a bright, clean, inviting space - that is cool in the summer and hopefully warm in the winter - a space that can be used by us, by our child on the way, and as a hospitable space for guests.

Hopefully the transformative nature of the project is evident in all the photos, but I think it is particularly evident in the windows... see the transformation from start to finish...

1. remove the old windows

2. mortar in glass block windows

3. frame around the windows to create a window box support

4. cut wallboard out to reveal the window

5. add wood panels to create a window box

6. add trim to the wall

7. putty and paint the trim and window box, cork next to window - DONE!

We finished the window boxes and the trim on the 3 windows last night. Now we move-on to flooring...

Color note: we have not painted the top-half of the walls lime green... that lime green color is a color cast from an incorrect white balance. Picture #7 above shows the truer green, the same color we used in our kitchen.

Basement Reno - in-built shelves & utility closet

2010-07-10T23:57:00.001-04:00

As it turned-out, my tradie partner's flight was cancelled... so Matt returned to the basement to find it exactly as he left it (rather than returning to see it all of his great work finished)! Matt's return was a good thing, as it allowed us to add the closet doors to our big piece of in-built furniture. This was Matt's and my first attempt at hanging cabinet doors... its a tough job.... but with some patience, a few adjustments and the chalk line & line level that Clyde gave me for Christmas, we got the job done pretty well.

We decided to add this in-built piece of furniture to conceal the house's water shut-off valve and meter that lurks behind the utility cabinet (Matt felt that this great piece of craftsmanship was wasted on a ulitity cabinet...). The bookshelves hide the water pipe that was lower than the ceiling we put in.

This is a solid piece of furniture! 5 feet long bookshelves and a 3 foot cabinet from floor to ceiling (about 6.4 feet high). The bookshelves should come in very handy for the kiddos' play things...

Basement Reno - my tradie partner has gone...

2010-07-09T16:13:00.000-04:00

Matt arrived in South Bend on 22 June. The next morning we started work on the basement project and we kept working for the next 17 days. Matt was excellent to work with and he did some great work... It is a a rare and wonderful thing for someone to be willing and able to take-off on a 3 week trip and dedicate themselves to helping others out like this... thank you Matt!

after 3 weeks, tradie cracks have emerged... time to get some Man-Show Crack Spackle...

working hard, straight out of bed... no time to do our hair...

Basement Reno - painting & cabinetry

2010-07-08T01:41:00.001-04:00

We are well into the finishing stage... and Matt only has 1 more work day with us - our aim for tomorrow is to get everything done except the flooring.

Today the paint went on - a two-tone effect... but you'll need to see the final result to fully appreciate it.

We are also working on our in-built shelves and utility cabinet...

Big day tomorrow...

Basement Reno - drywall sanding, clean-up & primer

2010-07-06T10:57:00.001-04:00

What is my least favorite task in this DIY project?
Without-a-doubt the drywall sanding!

After the joint compound is applied with tape to the seams in-between the wall and ceiling boards + on the screws, the excess compound must be sanded smooth to the wall. The dust is super-fine and it gets everywhere (I thought about getting a picture for you, but I didn't want the dust all-over my camera)... it is s miserable task - and it is now over with! The clean-up after the sanding is a task in itself...

Next step was to paint the thirsty (dry)wall and ceiling boards with primer (for the Aussies "the undercoat"). Because the boards have never been painted before, this takes a while and we will need two coats.

The finishing stretch has begun...

Basement Reno - recap & drywall finishing

2010-07-03T10:52:00.000-04:00

RECAP: we are in the middle of a major DIY project.... finishing our basement. Jess and I did the prep work, and then for the last 10 days Jess' brother, Matt, has been helping me... often working long days, sometimes into the early hours... (Matt has been a HUGE help and has been amazing to work with - thank you Matt!!).

You can see the transformation take shape through some photos at each stage on our Picasa photo album. All the blog updates can be found under our "DIY" category.

The drywall finishing has begun... using joint compound to hide any gaps between the wall & ceiling boards and cover the many screw holes. Jess is great at finishing tasks (i prefer the building stage), so she has stepped-up with a baby due in 2 months to help out...

Until today, we had kept Ziva out of the basement (she had never gone down the stairs). Now she seems right at home in the basement, keeping a keen eye on her people as they work, from her bed.

Now we wait for the seams to dry and then we have a dusty and uncomfortable task ahead - sanding the excess compound away...

Basement Reno - the wallboards are up!

2010-07-02T13:12:00.001-04:00

This stage was much easier than getting the ceiling boards up...

The existing concrete shell is taking shape to become a finished room.

Next step, drywall finishing... then we paint!

Basement Reno - framed!

2010-06-30T12:01:00.000-04:00

We have the basement framed...

a "built-in" bookshelf and utility closet to get around the extruding water pipes and shut-off

an old and ineffective heating vent, now framed and sealed for action

Matt spent a long time getting the light switches to be wired and to perform to perfection (we think...???)

Now we go back to drywall...

Basement Reno - Video of Matt...

2010-06-29T00:35:00.004-04:00

Check-out how we connected the frame of our basement reno to to the concrete floor - this method is quick and fun... similar to firing a gun....

The final result... a 3 inch nail driven into a 2x2 and the concrete floor...

Basement reno - moisture control...

2010-06-27T23:33:00.000-04:00

Many basements seem to be cursed with constant water issues. Our basement is pretty good - the biggest issue we have is condensation, when the warm humid air from outside collides with the cool below-ground air from the basement. Fortunately, that problem exists on the other side of the basement to what we are "finishing."

As a precautionary step however, we are using some pink foam boards that are glued to the masonry walls of the basement. these boards do 3 things:

they act as a barrier that stops the transfer of air of different temperatures that exist inside the basement and outside the basement walls, without this temperature control condensation would form
the boards are lined with a cling-wrap type plastic on both sides, so if moisture was to seep through the concrete walls, in theory the water wouldn't penetrate through to the framing and wallboard - i.e., prevent water damage from seepage
the boards also are an insulating barrier for temperature control and energy efficiency

Next step, framing the walls...

Basement Reno - We have a ceiling...

2010-06-27T09:52:00.000-04:00

... and in theory, the most laborious part of the project is done!

Basement Reno - lights, insulation, ceiling...

2010-06-26T00:57:00.000-04:00

Matt has been incredible to work with (great ideas, practical know-how, enthusiastic, and concerned to get the job done right - thank you Matt!) and we are making progress on the DIY basement renovation.

The 12 recessed lights are in (and no one got electrocuted).
The huge material shop is done... we got 50x 7ft 2x4's + 20 8ft 2x2's into our little Pontiac Vibe!
The ceiling insulation is in...
and about 40% of the ceiling boards are in too... this is super hard work, as you have your hands above your head, looking up as you hold the weight and drill in lots of screws!

lighting

ceiling is coming along...

storm damage from "straight line winds"

2010-06-18T22:42:00.004-04:00

"straight line winds" just blew through South Bend & the mid-west... and looks like they are going to blow through again tonight...

Our neighbor (who has been away since November, we saw he for the first time since then just today - welcome home!) had a huge tree come down in her backyard (and ours)... some impressive damage can also be seen around our neighborhood.

[View in full-screen slideshow]

It is a good thing Matt is flying out to Indiana on Monday to help with the clean-up ;-)

Basement Reno - new windows!

2010-06-15T11:59:00.002-04:00

Before:

After:
DIY REDI2SET glass-block windows - mortared into place.

More light compared to the old window #3 on the left!

DIY Basement Renovation

2010-06-09T11:36:00.010-04:00

We are about to embark on a major DIY project... what is commonly referred to in America as "finishing the basement" - or finishing half of it (the other half is the "engine-room" of the house (furnace, electric panel, sump pump), its where we wash and dry clothes, store food and supplies. We are transforming the other half (which is half the size of the layout of our house) - what was a cold, dark and dirty place into a guest room and play room.

This BIG DIY job involves replacing 3 windows, insulating and moisture sealing walls/floor/ceiling, changing electrics, installing down lights, making heating ducts more efficient upstairs, providing heat in the basement, framing the walls, wall-boarding the walls and ceiling, paint, new floor and finishings...

I'll posts some pictures as we progress... make sure you check the captions to get the context. What the pictures don't show is the tare-down stage... after the roof panels and wall sidings (pics 1-3) were removed, years of cob webs, 15 dead mice (and their poop) and hundreds and hundreds of screws and nails were in the rafters - all of which had to be removed, swept and vacuumed before the transformation could begin.

Deadline for the transformation... mid July, when we expect to host some Regent friends who will be visiting us before and after we attend a wedding celebration in near-by Michigan.

You can check out the latest pics on our Picasa Album or through the RSS Feed.

A reflection on the great American Basement...

"Every American basement is the same, They all have a clothesline that is rarely used, a trickle of water from an indeterminable source... and a funny smell...

Basements are so monumentally useless, in fact, that you seldom go down there, so it always comes as a surprise to remember that you have one. Every dad who ever goes down in the basement pauses at some point and thinks 'Gee, we really ought to do something with all this space. We could have a cocktail cabinet and a pool table and maybe a jukebox and a jacuzzi and a couple of pinball machines...' But of course it's just one of those things that you intend to do one day, like learn Spanish or take home barbering, and never do.

Oh, occasionally, especially in starter homes, you will find that some young gung-ho dad has converted the basement into a playroom for the children, but this is alway a mistake as no child will ever play in a basement. This is because no matter how loving your parents, no matter how much you like to trsut them, there is always the thought that they will quietly lock the door at the top of the stairs and move to Florida. No, basements are deeply and inescapably scary - that's why they always feature in spooky movies, usually with a shadow of Joan Crawford carrying an axe thrown on the far wall. That may be why even dads don't go down there very often."

Notes from a Big Country, Bill Bryson

how to stay-in-touch with infrequent bloggers...

2010-06-01T11:46:00.000-04:00

We have become infrequent bloggers (but a new series of snapshot posts on our "around the bend" life in South Bend Indiana is coming soon...), so instead of navigating to shadrachs.blogspot.com every week-or-so to see if there is an update to our blog, add our address to an RSS feeder. If you add all the blogs you read to an RSS feeder, then you only have to check one place for all the updates.

For Google account users, I recommend Google Reader as an RSS feeder, its easy and just a click away from your Gmail account.

For more info on RSS, go to whatisrss.com

new additions...

2010-05-07T09:27:00.005-04:00

Meet Ziva...
Ziva is our SuperBowl puppy - born on SuperBowl Sunday (7 February) - a female Great Dane who is already preparing us for another arrival in September... We named Ziva after a character in one of our favourite TV shows, NCIS.

[View in full-screen slideshow]

Meet "?" - due in early September...

California Trip

2010-03-25T13:18:00.005-04:00

To celebrate Jess' grandparents 55th wedding anniversary with the wider family and enjoy some spring goodness in CA...

[View in full-screen slideshow]

unexpected guest...(Hughes family: remind you of anyone?)

2009-12-15T01:02:00.001-05:00

In the apartment complex we lived in before we moved into our new house, we had a regular and welcome visitor whom we called "Cica" (which means "Cat" in Hungarian). Cica would drop by to hang-out, seek lots of attention and be well fed. Cica felt very comfortable in our apartment, as if she may have spent time there before. We think Cica may be a promiscuous kitty who makes regular visits to many apartments in the complex as she looks pretty well fed and cared for.

It was wonderful to have such an affectionate creature come and visit, yet not have ultimate responsibility for her welfare. We did think of adopting Cica to our new home as we enjoyed her company so much, but didn't want to deprive her actual owners of her company.

Cica reminded me very much of Mandy, the family cat we had for about 20 years.

around the bend: Sunday prohibition

2009-12-14T01:01:00.000-05:00

Flashback to August... after an exhausting few days of unpacking a U-Haul truck and driving all around southern Michigan looking for a car to buy, Jessica, Matthew (Jess' bro) and I wanted to relax on the Lord's day. So into the local Supermarket we went, to pick up some cheese and bikkies and something to wash-it-down with. The Martin's supermarket has an impressive array of beer and wine and when its on sale, the prices are great. We had chosen one of the local ales to sample when we were confronted with the following sign:

What? A moment of culture-shock set-in to my Australian sense of what is good and right in the world...

Indiana is one of 15 American states which is still suffering from a legislative-hangover from the temperance movement of 1919-1933, which saw the prohibition of the production, transportation and sale of alcohol. Specific historical reasons why Sunday prohibition remains in Indiana are hard to pinpoint, but the general vibe I get is that "alcohol is generally bad" & "Sunday are reserved for the worship of the Lord," therefore the two should not be mixed.

If Indiana wants to take temperance on the Lord's day seriously, I could easily argue for and support a complete ban on Sunday trading, legislating a moderation on consumerism and 24/7 consumer convenience. But, from a Christian perspective it makes no sense whatsoever to have a HUGE supermarket open from 6am to Midnight selling everything, except beer and wine, since the first sign that the Kingdom of God had arrived was an abundant supply of choice wine (John 2).

We were comforted by the under-age check-out girl who assured us that we could simply drive 5 miles north to the Michigan border where a bunch of stores cater to the needs of deprived Indiana residents, on the Lord's day...

By the way, if you are looking for Beer at our local Martins from Monday to Saturday, you will fittingly find it in aisle 10, alongside the school supplies.

our (mostly) D.I.Y. re-modelled house

2009-12-12T13:30:00.002-05:00

In case you haven't heard, we are visiting Sydney over Christmas/New Year... so in preparation for the visit, we thought we'd show you some of the D.I.Y. work we have done in the last two months on the house we bought in South Bend, which is now our home. Our D.I.Y. philosophy is that you need to know your limits, and thats when you call in the experts...

Bathroom before

Bathroom after...

We painted and installed a new vanity, mirror, light, shower curtain rod and towel hardware.

Rick installed new taps and spouts in the shower.

Kitchen before

Kitchen after...

A completely new kitchen was on the cards if we bought this house. We helped design a new kitchen. We removed the old cabinets and sold them. Broke tile of the right-hand wall and smoothed the wall out. We did LOTS of drywall repair! We ripped-out old laminate flooring, installed a floating Pergo floor. We painted.

Julie designed the kitchen, Craig & Greg installed it, Willie & team built and installed the solid-surface counter-top.

Master Bedroom before

Master Bedroom after...

We had to paint, which opened up the whole room... Linda's great work!

We ripped-up the carpeting.

Willie & Parker refinished the hardwood floors.

Stairs before

Stairs after...

We ripped-up carpeting. We sanded and painted white. We installed the stair runner.

Basement/Laundry before

Basement/Laundry after...

We did LOTS of cleaning - the basement was disgusting!

We removed the yellow plastic siding, concrete patched and painted the walls and have begun to paint the floor.

We re-finished the bathroom cabinet and hung-it. We installed a laundry sink and built a foundation for it. We salvaged a decaying shelf, cut-out the damp and hung-it. We hung a retractable clothes line and clothes hanger bar to dry clothes.

Desk before

Desk after...

This desk came with the house - it is a solid piece of furniture and fits perfectly in the study/library, but it was beat-up!

We sanded the desk down, stained and sealed and returned it to its former glory.

More after shots...
We installed a new dining room chandelier

We cleaned & organised the garage installing bike racks and tool hangers...

We made a functional storage room in the basement...

We edged and mowed the lawns (and now they are covered in snow)...

A BIG THANK YOU to Jess' Mom, Linda, who flew out from California to help us paint and re-model for two weeks in October. I don't think we would have been ready to move-in on time without all of Linda's excellent work.

Thanks also to the skilled tradesmen who helped us, and Julie from American Kitchen & Bath for her fabulous kitchen design. Thanks to Brandon at Sears who sold me many Craftsman tools and who gave me a brand new drill after I destroyed my first one. Thanks to Clyde for the electric advise over the telephone.

Thank you Sharon at Re/Max 100 for helping us buy our first house.

A few more after shots...

An Aussie's perspective on American College Football

2009-12-11T13:03:00.008-05:00

Jess and I were 2009 season-ticket-holding-fans of Notre Dame's "Fighting Irish" college football team. In a previous post I described how South Bend comes alive for seven Saturdays in the fall as it hosts visiting college football teams at home. As it turned out, our season tickets weren't with the other graduate students, but with the "Freshmen" - the first-year college students - so we were thrown into fighting-irish-fandom with plenty of other newbies. But, the Freshmen had a huge advantage over us... they all live in the campus dorms and they had all been coached on the 20-plus cheers, songs, dances & traditions that students go through each game to cheer the Fighting Irish on to victory. Plus, we didn't look the part either... the freshmen all wore the matching "rise and strike" season t-shirts, while Jess' parents spotted us from the other side of the stadium because of the shirt and wide-brimmed Driza-Bone hat I had on. One surprise: the seats (really narrow benches called "bleachers") aren't used for their intended purpose - the ND students stand on the bleachers for the entire game, usually 3-4 hours, only taking a break at half-time.

A football ticket doesn't just buy you a football game at Notre Dame - also included are military fly-overs, marching bands, the Leprechaun mascot and yes, the cheerleaders! Throw in the football game and it really is a great experience!

The Irish started the season strongly with a string of wins and close games, two of which went into nail-biting over-time periods. But, the Irish couldn't maintain the momentum for all four quarters and often found themselves too far behind for a final quarter catch-up. While the games were close, the Irish lost the last four to end up with a 6-6 record for the season, which got the head coach fired... In the years to come, watch out for Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate in the NFL - these guys can play!

As an Aussie who grew up amongst four football codes I have mixed feelings about American football. On the whole there are lots of things I like about the game: there are a large variety of great tactical plays which keep defensive-sides and the fans guessing, some incredible throws and receptions, big hits and it takes a big team effort to win a game - all good!

I however do not like the "media time outs" which leave the players standing aimlessly on the field waiting for commercials to run on viewers TV's -- it kills the momentum and is a downer for the fans at the game. In contrast, in Soccer, Rugby and AFL the game dictates the broadcast.

There is a scenario that kills the end of a close game and I really despise it. If the team leading the score board have possession of the football in the closing minutes, they can literally waste the final two minutes by running down the play-clock, removing any opportunity for the defensive team to turn-over the football and score to win or tie-up the game.

While American football is a big team effort, which I like, I find it odd that many of the players would never touch the ball during the game; I bet many wouldn't touch the ball all season. The other football codes are ball-centric where everyone gets their hands and feet on the ball (the possible exception may be Rugby Union forwards). An effect of this is the stars of American games are always the players that touch the ball - the quarterback, receivers and running backs.

Only in American sports would you come up with a game that would involve flying or busing a squad of 60 players, 10 coaches, support staff, cheerleaders, a marching band and a Leprechaun across the country to play - the travel costs must be enormous! Which brings up the critique of why you need so many players to play this game? The positions seem so specialised, where you need 3rd string back-up players who may never get to run onto the field all season. The other football codes seem to produce much more versatile players. Which is why Aussie Darren Bennett, an AFL turned NFL punter, is considered to be arguably one of the NFL's greatest punters, partly due to his versatility. I like the stories of the small-town high school football teams who only have enough players to have a few reserves, so that most players are on the field for offense, defense, field-goal attempts and kick-off receptions - these guys really get to play the game!

I don't want to fall into Deborah Hutton's trap this week of "biting the hand that feeds me" - ND football brings in the $'s which allows the University to give Jess a free financial ride during her Ph.D and even pay her to study at ND. So I am committed to learn more about American football and be a fan of Notre Dame while we live in South Bend.
Go Irish!

what is she doing? she is going to be in school forever...

2009-12-09T17:19:00.001-05:00

As Andrew explained in his post, we are here in South Bend so that I can study at Notre Dame (for more on ND, see the film Rudy). Besides being home to one of the world’s most famous college football teams (since only America really competes in this category, it is an easy claim for South Bend to a world title), Notre Dame is famous for being the alma mater of President Bartlett on The West Wing. But those two descriptors still don’t really communicate what the university is in the minds of Americans.

First, let’s start with pronunciation. Even though many students here speak French, the school name is pronounced No-ter (or Notra by the slightly more sophisticated) Dame (as in, “Gee that dame sure has swell legs). When pronounced with a French accent, Notre Dame signifies the cathedral in Paris.

For Americans, Notre Dame is a top university: not quite Ivy League but considered to be one of the country’s most prestigious schools (remember, Americans use “school for everything from pre-school to grad-school). This perception is partly due to the stunning campus with expansive quads, tree-lined walks, stately brown-brick buildings, the basilica and the golden-domed “main building.” Part of this perception is also due to the famous (although not always high-performing) sports teams. Part of this perception ― and the bit that is most relevant to my study ― comes from the fact ND has really strong academic programs and a really good rate of placing its Ph.D’s in tenure-track positions at other universities.

Now, I guess I need to explain exactly what it is that I’m doing here…

American English Ph.D’s are a bit different from Australian and British Ph.D’s. Most of the students beginning the program already have a masters degree in English or a related field. But, an additional 2-3 years of coursework is still required before students can take their “qualifying exams.” Once a student successfully completes the exams, they can propose a dissertation topic and (with approval) begin writing their dissertation. Most English dissertations are running about 400-500 pages on average and take anywhere from 2-5, or 6, or 7 or 8 years to finish. Some schools (like the University of Chicago and Harvard) are infamous for taking a really long time, with average program running 8 years from start to finish. Notre Dame takes away funding after 5 years, which helps people finish more quickly! (Funding involves a full scholarship for tuition, health coverage, and a salary that is sufficient for 2 people to live on, so it is good to finish before one’s funding runs out.)

Right now, I’m in the “coursework” section of the degree, which means I’m taking classes just like we were at Regent. The difference is, rather than taking one “seminar” and a couple of other less-demanding courses, I take 4 seminar courses and, since everyone is already way too educated, the level of knowledge and thought isn’t like a master’s degree where everyone is just starting out. At the beginning of the term, I was reading about 800 pages a week on average and I’ve written just over 140 pages this semester. Most people (myself included) study for about 60 hours a week (of actual study time, not including meal breaks, chats with other students, etc) but we study more during November and April, since this is when papers are written! What does this mean for day-to-day life? Well, it means I’m really tired most of the time and have little mental energy left for other things (emails, phone calls, taking baths, cooking). It feels like some sort of academic boot-camp where we are being broken down and taught to scramble and just produce more and more writing and read more and more texts until our capacity for such things is expanded beyond any normal human capacity, which seems to be working.

So, am I enjoying all this work?

Yes ― at least most of the time! It is amazing to get to talk about poetry with really brilliant people for hours at a time, especially poets like John Donne or George Herbert or John Keats. I also really enjoy the research involved in writing papers ― sometimes it is really fun just to read what other people think about something and then come up with my own ideas. Other times, I get to try and figure out a historical mystery around a work or writer and that can be really intriguing, as I get to try and place together who knew whom, who read what, and use that to understand the literature better. Sometimes, it is not so fun … especially when taking classes that aren’t in my “field” (which is Victorian and early 20th century novels … but early modern religious poetry is very seductive and could win me over!) but next term I’ll be finished with some of the requirements that are less interesting, so hopefully the study will be more and more enjoyable. Sometimes, it is downright hard ― especially when I have yet another paper to write and I have absolutely nothing to say …

My time at Regent was immensely helpful in preparing me for study here. The work I did on American writer Wendell Berry (his thinking about the concept of “place” and the intersections of his thinking with biblical theologies of creation and land use) not only taught me to manage a large writing project (150 pages) but also gives me a solid background in American agrarian literature (which should be really helpful for one of my courses next term). But, I love stories and especially the ethical implications of narrative and so here I’m planning to work on 19th century novels and perhaps 20th century Catholic revival novels. I won’t go into the details but I’d love to share with you some of my work (if you are interested), so just ask me about it!

Why am I doing this?

Well, that is a good question. The easy answer is that I really love books, love teaching and love research and so I hope to be a college professor or uni lecturer. But the real answer has much more to do with vocation and trying to follow the path that God has opened up … that isn’t to say that God wants me to be a college professor ― or even that he wants me to get a Ph.D, but this is the second time that he’s opened up the opportunity so, it seems like something that I need to do even if the ends are beyond the ends I figure and are altered in the fulfillment…

Thursday's forecast is looking ridiculous...

2009-12-08T18:24:00.003-05:00

Time for a sun-break in Sydney...

Where in the world are we? Why are we here? What have we been doing? When are we coming "home"?

2009-12-07T17:45:00.010-05:00

In 6 days time, we will catch a taxi, an interstate train, the "L" train, a domestic flight, connect to an international flight and arrive in Sydney for the first time in 18 months. Some our our friends still think we live in Canada, so its time to offer you the basics to put you on a similar page to us (or at least orientate you to the right country) before we arrive down-under.

After graduating from Regent College in April, we SOLD our apartment in Vancouver and in August drove a U-Haul truck 3881 km across the North America and ended up in South Bend Indiana. Why? Because Jessica was brilliant (and lucky) enough to be awarded a 5 year fully-funded PhD scholarship at the prestigious University of Notre Dame. For the next 5-6 years we plan to be in South Bend as Jess completes her Ph.D in English Literature (more details to come from her in a follow-up post (post #2)).

We followed the Lewis & Clark Expedition trail in reverse across the country.

A chain-establishment we passed in Iowa with a rather misleading name...

Where in the world is South Bend Indiana? Good question... Lets start with the Indiana part. I was surprised that most Americans I quizzed prior to coming here knew very little about the state of Indiana, about as much as a sports-loving Aussie did actually: Indiana is the home of the Indianapolis 500 Indy Car race and a place where basketball is popular. That's it? No, Indianian's also have a well-known nickname "Hoosiers". That's it.

I made a critical mistake early-on with my family by primarily associating South Bend with being 90 minutes drive east of Chicago. This error has led to: my parents thinking that we were on central time, nope we are on east-coast time; my two Grandmas thinking that we live in Chicago, nope we don't even live in the state of Illinois; and my Dad assuming that we would return the U-Haul truck back to a Chicago depot since South Bend was so small, nope South Bend has four U-Haul depots of its own.

To avoid any such confusion, I will describe South Bend on its own terms. South Bend is in Northern Indiana, only a few miles from the Michigan state border, and a half-hour drive to the Indiana shores of Lake Michigan. You could accurately describe South Bend as a "college town" as it is the home to Notre Dame, an Indiana University campus, a Purdue University campus and Bethel College. South Bend qualifies as a university town, because it has many students in relation to the size of the total population. But, South Bend isn't just a university town - the St. Joseph River proved to be a spring of economic activity in the city's glory years when the Studebaker family built cars here. But, since Studebaker's demise in 1963, the era following brought the nickname the "rust-belt" and unfortunate economic decline to this area of the country. South Bend experiences 4 genuine seasons - a humid Summer, a spectacular Fall, "lake-effect" snow and ice-storms in the Winter, and a brief Spring.

There is no doubt what the biggest event(s) of the year is in South Bend... Notre Dame College Football home games. For seven Saturdays in the Fall, South Bend is pumping! Beginning Thursday of game-weekend you will see people sitting by the roadside in lawn chairs buying and selling game tickets, parking passes, parking stalls in their yards and beds in their houses. On Saturday morning, five hours before kick-off, traffic starts to swell to the point where many locals simply don't drive their cars on game-day. Before the game, police change the street traffic patterns so all roads leading to the university are converted to one-way channels to get fans to the game. Game-day is so predominate here, that year round traffic signs point to parking lots that only get filled seven days a year. To put game-day in perspective, the population of South Bend and its sister city Mishawaka is a combined 150,000 people, while Notre Dame's stadium seats 80,795 fans and has been sold out for every game (except one) since 1966. It is also estimated that an extra 20,000 fans who don't have tickets show-up to campus to take in the elaborate festivities that the University puts on and to soak in the atmosphere as they "tailgate "party all day and night long and watch the game on portable TV's from the car park. I'll follow-up with another post (post #3) from our experience as season ticket holders this year.

I kid you not, football fans buy these tailgate "accessories"

So as Jess has been studying hard getting settled into her Ph.D program, I have been... in limbo: waiting for my working permit and permanent residency to be approved by the US government... house-husband: trying to take-on more of the domestic duties to free Jess up to read and write... organiser: buying a house... DIY tradie guy: getting the house ready to move-into, which finally came to fruition in the last week of November. Another post (post #4) will follow with some pics and details about our DIY efforts in our new home.

Our place: a 1946, 3 bedroom, 2 story plus a basement, Cape-Cod style house

As a side-note for the Sydney-siders, you don't want to know how cheap you can buy a nice house for in the rust-belt... to give you an idea, a not-so-nice house could be paid for by many people's credit card spending limit.

thanks+giving

2009-11-30T19:44:00.003-05:00

We prepared and celebrated our first thanksgiving meal in our own place this year, and were blessed to be joined by a good friend, Helen, from Vancouver. As it turned out, the thanksgiving meal was the first meal cooked in our new kitchen, we moved into our new house a few days earlier.

As this was our first holiday meal in our home, we began two traditions that our family will carry forward. The first, holiday meals as a multi-course dinner that is enjoyed and savored slowly, allowing much opportunity for table-talk as family and friends gather, and pairing each course with an appropriate bottle of wine. This tradition started at Christmas 2008, where Jess cooked her first Christmas dinner at her folks place, a six course meal that was deemed the best Christmas meal ever by her younger brother.

The thanksgiving five course meal started with an appertizer of pesto and cranberry crostini, followed by a pumpkin soup with blue-cheese croûtons. The main course was anything but traditional, a venison meatloaf served on a bed of sweet potato mash - the deer was shot locally by Craig who finished putting in our kitchen cabinets the day before. A cheese platter followed, which included a traditional touch of cranberry sauce served on a cracker with blue cheese. By the end of the fourth course, we were quite full, so the fifth and final dessert course, a chocolate ice cream covered with a dark-chocolate cranberry sauce and served with a tawny port, was enjoyed later on the couch while watching NCIS...

The second tradition that we began, was to take the time to express our thankfulness - to each other and also to our good and giving Lord. So, for each course that was served, everyone at the table shared something they were thankful for. This year we had much to be thankful for - a wonderful new home to live in, as we also celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on thanksgiving weekend we were thankful for eachother, plus the many opportunities that we are privileged to have - to be able to study at places like Regent College and Notre Dame, and to be able to travel back to Sydney for Christmas and a wedding this year (see you all soon!).

The +giving side we will have to work on for next year... we have been a little self-consumed of late by our own need to settle into this new town and house. In being thankful for our new house, we were also prayerful that our house would be a place that gave warm hospitality. With Helen as our first house guest, we are off to a good start...

photo shoot - Tenth Church @ Kits

2009-09-17T11:10:00.001-04:00

Some of my photos from the shoot that I mentioned in my previous post are being used at tenth.ca - cool!

insight into Vancouver mindset

2009-08-03T18:47:00.004-04:00

Last week, I was asked to do a photo shoot with my friend KC Flynn for Tenth Alliance Church as they are about to launch a satellite service in Kitslano. We got some pictures of Kitslano Secondary School where the church will be meeting, and KC came across this poster in one of the hallways...

photo by KC Flynn

I think this is a fascinating insight into the mindset of Vancouverites. It is one thing for people to have this opinion, it is another to put it on a poster in the hallway of a public school and not have it torn down or a protest erupt.

goodbye Whistler?

2009-07-30T23:16:00.000-04:00

I first came to Whistler in January 2002. Four months later, I had skied 67 days, spent many late and enjoyable nights working at Whistler Village Sports, discovered an amazing burger place (Splitz grill) and had had a much-needed break. I got to enjoy these spectacular mountains, which rise whopping 5000 feet above the valley floor, with friends old (TK, Adam, Scott, Pete LaF, Jake, Mum & Dad) and new (Chris, Shara & Jen). After 67 days, there was still a lot of skiing on these hills to be done…

So I confess… coming to study in Vancouver always had an ulterior motive. Jess and I have been blessed to be able to enjoy three more ski seasons and two summer visits. Each season we booked a 3-day trip (twice on bargain time-share trial deals!) and also did a bunch of day-trips with the crew from Regent, the Neridas, Ken & Julie, Matt & Chris and AY.

[Whistler 2002-2009 - View in full-screen]

While Whistler is known for its winter activities, the two summer visits that Jess and I enjoyed hiking and biking were incredible too. We just got back from a farewell stay, where we hiked the recently built alpine trails along Blackcomb mountain. The weather was warm, the wildflowers blooming and the creeks running wild.

We experienced the Peak-2-Peak Gondola for the first time, which transports skiers from the peaks of Whistler to Blackcomb mountain in 11 minutes. While I don’t think its necessary to ski both of these huge mountains on a single day, this gondola is a truly amazing engineering feat. At its tallest point, you are 436 meters high and the unsuspended cable length is 3km (1.88 miles) long. If the gondola breaks down, I have no idea how they would be able to rescue people from such heights!

Whistler is gearing up to host some of the events for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, so we checked out the impressive new sliding centre (perhaps Whistlers white elephant after the games?), which will host the bobsled and luge events.

So for now, goodbye to wonderful Whistler… and hello again when we will tune in come February 12!

SOLD!

2009-07-27T19:14:00.011-04:00

After what has been a rough road for us, our Vancouver apartment is now SOLD! Thank you to all who have advised us through the process, both when we tried (and came very close) to sell the apartment ourselves (3591oakSt.com), and through the official listing period. A BIG thank you to those who have been praying for the sale, and perhaps more importantly, praying for us through this journey... Although we did doubt what the Lord was doing after so many inspections and no offers, the Lord has once again proved that "he is an on-time God, yes he is!" (to quote Regent's fabulous gospel choir), the day after we arrive in South Bend, the property changes hands. We walk away from this experience, seeing again that steps of faith are not made alone, for the God who calls us, walks with us...

Another BIG thank you, to our friend and Realtor, Elmar Klukas, for the many showings, his counsel and patience (with us) and his professional manner in pushing a complex sale through...

The next step, Indiana via U-Haul, we don't walk alone...

We celebrated the sale in style, Jess cooked a 5 course dinner (including some local lamb - yes Mum I am getting some meat!)) and we cracked a magnificent 2002 St. Hugo Cab Sav (bottle #77907 to be precise)...

#2/2 – Jesus saves; the church?

2009-07-19T23:33:00.002-04:00

The Sydney Anglican Diocese lost $100,000,000.00 in the stock-market slump brought on by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), [read some news and opinions about it in my #1/2 post.] The $100 million loss was partly caused by an investing strategy known as “gearing,” where the investor borrows money to then invest. If the market goes up, gearing accelerates the gains, but if the market goes down – as it did in the GFC – then the losses are magnified. Here are three of my reflections on the Sydney Anglican Dioceses investment woes…

First, a fairly rudimentary understanding of the biblical text should result in the reader feeling uneasy with a ready embrace of debt, which we see in Western economies today – from households to firms, governments and perhaps even churches. While I won’t argue for a water-tight hermeneutical understanding linking biblical texts about debt to modern investment practises, it is worth hearing the biblical text’s aversion towards debt. In Lev.25, the Year of Jubilee is prescribed to ensure indebted families would be able to have their debts forgiven and retain ownership of their land, resulting in their ongoing economic and social inclusion. Deut. 15 speaks of removing debt from the life of Israel and foresees a situation where Israel borrows money from no nation. Prov. 22:26-27 warns about entering into debt when the cost of such debt may be losing life’s essentials (in this case, a bed to sleep in). Jesus uses canceled financial debts as examples of the Kingdom of God in his parables (Lk.7 & Mt.18). The aversion to debt expressed in the Bible is also expressed in the lives of saints throughout the majority of Christian tradition. It was only in 1822 that the Catholic Church relaxed its condemnation on charging interest on a loan. Considering the aversion the Bible has towards debt, doesn’t the question have to be asked why a church denomination would willfully go into debt without any necessity to do so?

Second, the majority of written material I read from the hands of members and leaders of the Sydney Anglican church had no biblical or theological reflection on the gearing strategy (using debt to accelerate gain). Instead, the articles were responding to media criticism, informing parish members about the consequences of the $100 million loss, explaining away the loss as the fall-out of contemporary investment strategies, and some were looking for heads to roll. The lack of biblical and theological critique on the $100 million exposes a way of thinking that separates issues of the church from issues of the marketplace; traditionally this has been termed the “sacred” and the “secular” divide. This form of dualism manifests itself in much Sunday teaching and preaching, where the nitty-gritty practicalities of the biblical text are spiritualised away, beyond any connection to everyday actions and decisions that parishioners face on Monday morning. If the scholarly leaders of the denomination don’t set an example of how to integrate biblical and theological understandings with everyday practicalities like investments, then the pew sitters will be left stumbling in the dark as they try to live holistic Christian lives. Or worse, they will be sadly ignorant that the good news of the redeeming gospel may, in-fact, have implications for all areas of life.

Third, how can a church be salt and light to a city if it acts in exactly the same way as the city? The reactions of journalists and letter writers, as they express opinions on the 100-million-dollar loss, is that the Anglican church has no credibility: the church has acted hypocritically and the church even ignored its own good book. The Sydney Anglican diocese has demonstrated that it has a disconnect between the means (debt-dependent gearing) it chooses to employ and its ends (the preaching of the Gospel and bringing people to faith in the God of the Bible). They have seemingly adopted the attitude that as long as the market keeps going up, the means justify the ends. But do the ends justify the means?
In Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, Hauerwas and Willimon argue that for missional activity by the church to be effective, the church must not accommodate itself to the ways of the world, but instead the church must behave like the church. Perhaps, Sydney Anglicans need to ask themselves Hauerwas and Willimon’s question:
“At every turn the church must ask itself: Does it really make any difference, in our life together, in what we do (in this case, in how we invest), that in Jesus Christ God is reconciling the world to himself?”

South from Alaska

2009-06-23T15:49:00.003-04:00

After our time in California in May, we decided to take the scenic route home and in so doing celebrate our graduation from Regent College and start to bring a close to our time in Vancouver.

[View the full-screen slideshow]

A special thank you to Steve & Linda, Clyde & Sue, Grandma, and Steve & Annemaree for your unexpected and generous graduation gifts which helped make the scenic-route home possible...

#1/2 - Jesus saves; the church?

2009-06-13T15:51:00.019-04:00

It’s been quite a week in the newspapers and the blogosphere for “the world's richest and largest Anglican diocese.” The Sydney Diocese lost $100,000,000.00 due to the downfall of its geared investment strategy, which has suffered at the hands of the global financial crisis.

Post #1/2 – I will present a sampling of what I found online (note, my sampling and mild-reflections are not intended to be neutral)
Post #2/2 – I will present some of my reflections regarding what Jesus was on about and what the church is doing in response

The online sampling:

In a classic SMH headline “Millions wiped out by church gambles,” SMH reporter Damien Murphy tries to sketch out some details of the Sydney Anglican dioceses losses. Murphy cites comments (aimed at the dioceses leadership): "Nobody's taking responsibility for this. In other organizations heads would roll"

A 2UE radio interview (embedded in the SMH article) of SMH business columnist Ian Verrender has the following reflections on the church's position: “Jesus saves, the church invests;” the church has committed “the cardinal sin of investing;” the church's “boom strategy” is likened to “investment becomes gambling;” the church's investment strategy is lumped-in with the likes of the high-profile failure of the Storm Financial group; and Sydney Anglicans are accused of “not taking notice of the bible despite their bible-bashing beliefs.”

In a letter to members of the Sydney Anglican church, Archbishop Jensen admits that “as the whole market fell, this (gearing) strategy also accentuated our losses” resulting in a 50% loss of capital and distribution income.

In a blog post “SMH at it again,” Rev. Andrew Katay steers the issue of investment strategies towards (what seems to be a common response by Sydney Anglicans) attacking what the SMH writes rather than addressing the real issues behind the particular article. Don’t get me wrong, journalistic bias is an important issue and should be discussed, but not at the cost of ignoring the real issues. John Sandeman comments, with helpful insight, on the media’s processes and fact checking capabilities.
Richard Cho (a former Financial planner, now OMF missionary to Thailand) redeems the post (via the comments) by addressing the real issue at hand. Cho asks a really important question (that no one else seems to be asking): “I don’t think it is a question of the strategy working for a while and then not working or of hindsight. The question is, what kind of investor is the diocese?”

Bishop Forsyth’s personal reflection "Eye of media storm" deals with the investment (and related media) issue this week: “I see no problem with putting the money God has given us wisely into investments to increase its value. And even adding to that sum through prudent borrowing and reinvestment. At least not in a moral or theological sense.” Forsyth’s views are consistent with the investment approach employed by the SDS board he sits on.

While looking at the homepage of sydneyanglicans.net, I found a reflection by the Archbishop’s brother addressing the question, are “Christians at risk of affluenza?” My citing of this reflection is out of context to be sure, but it is worth considering Jensen's thoughts in the context of an investment strategy that took on immense risk in borrowing to gain. Jensen says “For the Christian, affluence is the danger of being “choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life” (Luke 8:14). Little by little, the seed of eternal life, the word of God, is choked out of our lives. The sacrifice that our Saviour made for us, no longer controls our spending patterns or our hearts’ desires.” Does "the sacrifice that our Saviour made for us, no longer control" our investment patterns?

Finally, the good ol’ SMH letters from the day after the SMH article was printed… These bring together an interesting conglomerate of opinions on the issue... “why are such profitable institutions tax-free?” “Can we assume that Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen will now take a 50 per cent salary cut in order to help those less fortunate?” “Ah, the House of Jensen crippled by a bad gambling habit. God works in mysterious ways, doesn't she?” Plus, Rev. Nigel Fortescue’s expressed the desire that “Working together to serve Jesus might be better than embedding division.” Fortescue also names and shames a dissenting voice (who is quoted in the SMH article) as looking for scapegoats. Perhaps this dissenter is seeking accountability from the diocese in a disastrous financial situation?

read post #2/2

MIA#5 - Backpacking Trip

2009-05-31T15:31:00.002-04:00

The final Monday in May is Memorial Day, a public holiday in the USA. Wanting to take full advantage of our time in CA and the day off, we went on a hiking trip with Dad and Matt in the Sierra Nevada Mountains – in Kings Canyon National Park.

After hiking in about 4½ miles (2 of which were up a set of switchbacks), we were looking forward to a bit of Canadian Club in a plastic bottle we’d picked up on the way up to the mountains. Andrew watched as Matt secured the bottle with 3 Boy Scout knots and then floated it in the rapid Bubb’s Creek (which looked far more like a river than a creek due to the snow melt). Sadly, the nylon rope loosened in the water and the current pulled all 3 knots free. When Matt returned to the river to collect the bottle, all he found was the untied rope floating on the surface of water. We quickly began searching the river just down stream of our campsite, working our way back toward the site, hoping the bottle had become caught in an eddy or fallen tree. As Matt carefully searched the shoreline of our actual campsite, he nearly stepped on one of the site's residents: a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake!

Dad, and Matt quickly jumped into action, grabbing sticks to pin the 2ft snake down. As Matt went for his hatchet, Dad's stick broke and the snake got free. Andrew was quick to jump in with two more sticks. He and dad held down snake as it writhed and bit at the branches holding it in place. Matt hacked off most of the head with his hatchet, finishing the last bit of the skin with his pocket knife and throwing the head in the river. Matt taught Andrew to skin and clean the snake and then we barbecued it, saving the rattle as a memento.

The next two days were less dramatic but great fun, as we hiked about 6 miles round trip with 2500 elevation gain up to a spectacular set of waterfalls. On the way out, we took a 4-mile detour to Mist Falls for a final lunch in the Sierras. The weather was perfect, the stars were abundant, and the food was great (including the snake)!

[View the full-screen slideshow]
all-photos taken by Matt's cell phone

MIA#4 - this desert life

2009-05-29T14:21:00.006-04:00

Jessica's Mom's family took advantage of a homestead land grant the government was offering during the 1950's and got the ownership rights to a 5 acre property in Yucca Valley California (see map). A 600 sq ft cabin was built and has evolved over the years, being the outlet of many D.I.Y. dreams and experiments. Jessica's grandparents (Clyde & Sue), parents (Steve & Linda), brother Matt, uncle Dean, cousin Christina and us too, spent 5 days enjoying the desert life together at the "cabin."

red-neck? white-trash? or luxury in the desert?
(photo by Dean)

The desert is hot during the middle of the day, so some of us were up early to photograph the spectacular sunrise and head-out into the hills by 4WD on snake-hunts. The middle of the day was spent eating, snoozing and lounging in the cabin's latest amenity, a blow-up pool (Matt's initiative), which turned out to be luxurious in the dry dessert heat). The cooler late afternoons and evenings were spent exploring the near by Joshua Tree National Park and BBQ'ing as the sun set, eventually revealing a multitude of stars that are perfect to see from the clear skies of the dessert. With 7 of us sleeping in the cabin, 5 on the living room floor, the cabin was packed, but that didn't hinder all of us sharing in a really enjoyable week of desert life together.

[View the full-screen slideshow]

MIA#3 - 24

2009-05-28T16:52:00.001-04:00

72 hours to watch 1080 minutes of Season 7 of 24

MIA indeed...

MIA#2 - Ekklesia road-trip to California

2009-05-27T11:37:00.006-04:00

As an end-of-academic-year celebration and escape, the Ekklesia group we work with embarked on a 1600km road-trip to camp at Pismo Beach on the central coast of California (between LA & San Francisco). Eighteen of us spent two days driving to Pismo, where we enjoyed a relaxed 4 days of camping together. With 8 Aussies in the group, plenty of beach cricket and slips catching dominated much of our recreational time. Ken spoke on Ecclesiastes and encouraged the college & career aged group to ponder what is fleeting and also meaningful in life. Jessica and I took the lead with the cooking, and turned-out some masterful open-flame/coal BBQ cooking, the highlight being a Mexican feast of carne-asada, tortilla's and all the trappings, including coal-cooked onions topped off with lime and Tapatio hot-sauce - everyone was well-fed! Our last night at Pismo was on fire, literally... see the pics below and check-out the 'fire-games' video on YouTube...

[View the full-screen slideshow]

Pismo Beach is a convenient 3 hour drive from where Jess' family live. As the convoy headed north to Vancouver, we were dropped-off and picked-up by Jess' Mom and brother to head to Bakersfield...

MIA#1 - Regent College Convocation XXXIX

2009-05-26T14:30:00.005-04:00

After being reported as "missing in action" by a good friend, we thought it was time to share a little of the last month... check the blog each day this week for a brief 'snap-shot' of what we have been doing...

#1 - After finishing the Winter semester and our Masters degrees at Regent College, we celebrated with the Convocation ceremony on April 27. I (Andrew) was awarded my "MCS" or Master of Christian Studies (Marketplace Theology). Jessica finished her thesis by semesters end, but due to the lengthy marking period, she will graduate with her MCS next April.

[View the full-screen slideshow]

COMPS6: all of God's people involved in all of God's mission

2009-03-31T00:09:00.005-04:00

R. Paul Stevens begins The Other Six Days by asserting the need for all of God’s people to be engaged with theology, rather than theology trickling down from the academic ivory towers and the elevated pulpits to the pews – for Stevens this is “predigested truth without the privilege of dialogue and participational learning”(19). Theology is not only for people when they are gathered in the church on one day, but for when Christians are scattered away from the church on the other six days. Connected to the divide between the theologians and the pew sitters, Stevens dislikes the separate category of “practical theology” because it applies all theology isn’t practical. Stevens central concern is that the laity take back their participation in thinking and living theologically in all facets of their lives.

Stevens is not alone in his desire for the people of God to recapture a biblical view of the People of God, which stands in sharp contrast to the predominate contemporary situation which sees the clergy separated out from the laity, rather than the biblical view of church leadership being among the people of God. A situation that has contributed to many pew sitters having to negotiate the other 6 days of their week with inadequate theology as the pre-packaged, nut-shelled, trickle-down theology most people get doesn’t cut-it in the real world.

A key chapter in Steven’s book is “Calling in a Post-vocational age”. Stevens distinguishes between three different, but overlapping levels of vocational calling: personal; Christian and human. Helpfully, Steven’s contextualises the reformers reaction against medieval monastic personal calls which effectually created two tiers of Christians, the contemplative and the active. Quoting Luther, Steven’s highlights the danger of the two-tier monastic view:

“The idea that the service to God should have only to do with a church altar, singing, reading, sacrifice, and the like is without doubt the worst trick of the devil. How could the devil have led us more effectively astray than by the narrow conception that service to God takes place only in the church and by works therein… The whole world could abound with services to the Lord… not only in churches but also in the home, kitchen, workshop, field.” (77)

Yet, Luther’s view and his well-known exegetical mistake of interpreting 1 Cor 7:17 as a directive to stay in one’s “station in life” can begin “the slippery slide towards the secularization of callings” (77). Stevens notes that Calvin, in contrast to Luther, viewed “‘calling’ mainly to describe the call to salvation or the call into ministry” (79). Stevens view is that the NT isn’t entirely clear on the nature of personal calling, but rather offers four theological perspectives: there is an effective call of Christ to become a disciple; there is a providential call, ie, God uses our family background, education, personality to shape our particular calling; a charismatic call where people are equipped with certain spiritual gifts; and fourth a heart call, perhaps best summarized by the famous Buechner quote “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (82).

The call to Christian vocation is not in dispute. Stevens summarises that OT call language “is used primarily for the people of God who are summoned to participate in God’s grand purpose in the world” (84). Stevens sees Jesus’ call as an “invitation to repent, turn to him, and live for the Kingdom of God” (85).

In discussing the human vocational call, Stevens highlights the tension between those who focus on the creational mandate (Gen. 1:27-30) and those who prefer the Great Commisional mandate (Mt. 28:19-20). Stevens sees this separation as tragic, as it prioritizes God’s mission in the world as separate to evangelism (or at least that is how those who favor the creational mandate see it, in contrast to those who focus on the great commission and only see God’s mission in the world related to evangelism and sanctification). Helpfully, Stevens brings these two mandates back together:
“Salvation is both a rescue operation (recovering our lost vocation in Eden) and a completion project (preparing for the final renewal of creation at the second coming of Jesus). Eschatology is critical to understanding our vocation as Christians in the world.” (90).
Ones work is a key outworking of ones vocational situation. Defining work as “purposeful activity involving mental, emotional or physical energy, or all three, whether remunerated or not” (107), Stevens examines work throughout the scriptures by surveying: the work that God does; work as both blessing and curse; work that God blesses and work he does not; and Jesus as a mason. Stevens concludes “work is much more than a necessity for survival or a means of self-fulfillment; it accomplishes a spiritual good, serving kingdom purposes and drawing us to God” (117).

Stevens frames work in a Trinitarian shape by examining: the Fatherly dimension of work in terms of stewardship and making the creation flourish; the Sons work as Kingdom ministry – both the furtherance of the gospel and the reign of Jesus as Lord of all; the work of the Spirit as empowering and gifting the people of God “to live (and work) by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). Stevens also discusses the goodness of work – for the world, our neighbors and ourselves and in so doing stresses both the extrinsic and intrinsic value of work.

The Other Six Days began by stressing the importance of reclaiming theology for the whole people of God. Stevens fleshes out the implications by speculating about what would happen “if we reinstated the ministry of the whole people of God… it would be like discovering a lost continent… think of a church of two hundred members ministering seven days a week in all the contexts which our sovereign God has placed those members. They do not have to be persuaded or inveigled into going into the world; they are already there” (158). But, what are they there to do? Stevens straps on the wide angle lens to see the churches mission to simply be part of God’s mission in the world, where God is calling people to himself, where God is seeking to redeem structures and bring righteousness, justice and liberation; where God is seeking to change how people think and therefore act; where God is concerned for the whole of his creation (not just the work of the 6th day); where God is seeking to defeat the powers who obstruct the coming of his Kingdom – all with the ultimate goal of God’s intended shalom rest. “The goal is the whole people of God engaging in the whole mission of God in the whole world” (213).

>>>>>

This book dabbles in many of the areas that my Comps research is exploring, ie: what is God doing in the world? How are we as the church gathered and individuals scattered to be part of it? How does our work fit into God’s mission, both in this world and in the new creation to come? Stevens is great, because he brings this conversation into the pews and out into the world where it needs to be. Stevens also brings critiques of others work (eg: Volf), which aids my critique of them and introduces me to new thinkers in various readers.

frosted leaves on winter morn

2009-02-24T21:42:00.010-05:00

Published on the front cover of Portico 2009 - the Regent College Student Association's annual Offering of the Arts publication.

COMPS5: slow down and listen

2009-02-20T11:00:00.011-05:00

[Read the intro to my "COMPS" project+give me your thoughts and questions...]

I have been told, that Regent College’s late Prof. Klaus Bockmuehl, was a very systematic and reserved Lutheran and ethicist, who in Listening to the God who Speaks makes a somewhat charismatic argument for walking in-step with the Spirit by listening for the God who speaks today - Klaus was trying to argue against an over-rationalised faith.

Bockmuehl traces how God speaks and how people listen through the Law and the Prophets, the Psalms, John’s Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, the apostolic letters as well as luminaries in church history. It is clear that God spoke and people listened throughout the bible, but does God speak to us today? Or is the closed biblical canon and the audible voice of God incarnate the final word?

Central to the book’s objectives, Bockmuehl addresses the Protestant reformers influence in these questions that have shaped much of the Protestant church today. Bockmuehl situates part of Luther’s reformation angst at several groups of Anabaptists who claimed to hear the voice of God. Thomas Müntzer, a so-called “heavenly prophet”, claimed to hear directly from God daily. Luther objected to Müntzer’s refusal to decipher these words from God in fellowship and to Müntzer’s preference for his prophetic ear over the scriptures, as Müntzer attitude was, “What Bible? One must withdraw into a corner and speak with God” (125). In reclaiming the Holy Scriptures for the people, Bockmuehl sees Luther’s conclusion as God speaking to his people today externally through the scriptures and internally through the Holy Spirit. However, Luther’s position also stated that “the external means precede the internal, so no one receives faith or the Spirit without - only through – the Word written and proclaimed” (126). Thus the protestant churches emphasis on the preaching of the word has obscured the possibility of God speaking to his people by his Spirit first.

Facing similar battles with the “spiritualist Anabaptists,” Bockmuehl accounts for John Calvin’s similar position on the way God reveals himself to his people as Luther. Calvin rightly sees the problematic nature of people receiving individual words from God that result in church fracturing and even anarchy. Calvin even sees a danger in personal bible study for the conclusions that may be reached. Thus, Bockmuehl summarizes Calvin’s position and influence as:

“Scripture and its official exposition are the sole instruments of the Holy Spirit, and God does not speak immediately to the individual. Judgments of this kind influence the attitude and theology of Protestant churches to the present day, long after original situations and reasons for Calvin’s concerns have been forgotten." (130)

Bockmuehl provides a way forward from the reformers over-reaction against their contemporaries:

"individual insight must always be concordant with Scripture... The Spirit always points back to Scripture. Indeed, true prophecy is the personal application of the biblical word in a new situation. Otherwise, all 'guidance,' 'prophecy,' or 'vocation' can be criticized as an illusion. When we test our insights against Scripture, however, we can live with confidence, experiencing God and his blessings." (150)

Bockmuehl’s concern is that we make ourselves available to hear God’s voice in order to build God’s Kingdom as God would have us build it:

“To act out of receiving, to be a people of prayer - that, and not intellectual brilliance - will build God's Kingdom. We can nevertheless all have our own part in this work of building God's Kingdom, because, in listening, we receive God's creativity, which knows no limits of natural talent. Such creativity is attained through human availability to God, which is the true meaning of sanctification." (152)

Out of this concern Bockmuehl warns against two typical Christian tendencies: that of activism – us doing God’s work without consulting God about the work he would have us do; and passivism, not hearing God’s call and retreating from doing anything in this world.

>>>>>>>>>>

I asked myself several times, why am I reading Listening to the God who Speaks for my comprehensive exams? The answer kept becoming apparent… as I grapple with what the mission of God is in this world, and how the church and work, as well as all human spheres of activity contribute to that, much humility and patience is needed to first seek to understand what God is doing in the world - we must silence ourselves in prayer, listen and read the scriptures, and then when we hear and when we see what God is doing, we need to go and be part of it.

COMPS4: what does God call us to do?

2009-02-18T15:19:00.004-05:00

In his study of “vocation” or “calling,” Douglas J. Schuurman concludes, “all of life’s relational spheres – paid work included – are religiously meaningful as places for service to God and neighbour” (47). Schuurman reaches this conclusion by analysing the two types of call presented in the scriptures, a call to: (1) become a member of the people of God, the “general” or “spiritual” calling, which is more prevalent that; (2) particular callings within church and society, the “external” or “particular” calling.

The call to become a member of the people of God is not in dispute (Eph. 1:4-5; 1 Cor 1:26-29). But, it is important for Christians to understand – we are primarily called to be God’s people and live out our lives, in all spheres, as God’s people would, essentially, but not simply by obeying the two great commandments. The calling to a particular role within a church isn’t in dispute either (Eph. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:14-20).

The existence of a particular in society call however comes under fire from respected writers like Jacques Ellul and Stanley Hauerwas who “argue that protestant vocation is unbiblical and that it wrongly confers religious meaning upon secular life. They say that the biblical idea of calling confers religious meaning on church-related roles and activities alone” (xii). Schuurman argues that secular callings do have religious significance, by arguing for, firstly, the extrapolation of the callings that Paul urges the Corinthians to stay in after they became Christians beyond uncircumcised or slave (1 Cor 7:17-24). Secondly, the nature of the Paul’s household codes meant faith affected one’s relationships outside of the church with spouses, children and slaves (Eph. 5:22-6:9; Col 3:18-25). An additional thought to Schuurman here, is that in the NT world, the “household” for many people was the dominant place of social and economic life, unlike today where the household can sometimes become secondary to the workplace etc. Thirdly, a theological understanding “in which God’s purpose includes the redemption of human life in its entirety, including institutions, and even the cosmos, encourages Christians to sense God’s purpose and call in all of life” (36).

Schuurman offers a helpful corrective to an idea that I commonly come across, that being that God has a rigid plan for your life in regard to spouse, career, and in North America, locale. Rather, there is a freedom living as a called child of God, we are free to make choices for ourselves that fall inline with our citizenship in God’s Kingdom.

Throughout the book, Schuurman identifies the modern challenges to vocation: exclusion of Christian values from society, alienation of work, technology replacing craftsmanship, profit over relationships, fragmentation of life, the opportunities of choice, and the desire for independence. The abuses of vocation are also discussed: inequality, power struggles, justifying idolatry of work, providing a cover for injustice, and limiting the scope of responsibility of neighbourly love. Helpfully, Schuurman discusses how a correct understanding of:

"Vocation ought to transform asymmetric relations in at least four ways: (a) it should ground the authority of the more powerful party upon God's calling and gifts, not upon race, class, or gender; (b) it should require that the goal of authority be service to others, not being served; (c) it should demand that authorities respect the status of the one served as created and potentially redeemed by God; and (d) it should view the imbalance of power as temporary and dynamic, moving toward symmetry and mutuality" (114).

For most people, the area of vocation that raises the most questions is that of ones “particular” calling to work. Many a Christian has left their secular work due to a lack of a sense of vocation, for work in the church. Schuurman indirectly offers a corrective to this low view of work in the world:

“If Christians are to become faithful participants in the purposes and processes of creation and redemption, it is essential that they hold together the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular,’ the ‘religious’ and ‘non-religious’ aspects of experience, and that they do so in a way that affirms the importance and integrity of each” (52).

Turning the modern choice of: “living to work” or “working to live” on its head, Schurrman looks to Dorothy Sayers who argues “we do not work to live, but live to work". Schuurman says “work for Sayers is the medium by which people offer themselves to God” (134).

If work does have religious value as a calling and work does play a role in brining about God’s redemptive purposes, Christians need to think hard about the businesses they own and run and the people they manage as well as the influence they have over their sphere of influence in their role at work:

"For work to be a vocation, it must not be alienating, dehumanising work. Every job has its tedious, unpleasant, distasteful parts. Vocation invites us to do even these "for the Lord," and see them as holy. But it also challenges us to think creatively about job design and employee participation so that gifts are used as effectively as possible for the common good" (165).

Ultimately Schuurman thinks we need to see all of our callings, as children, parents, friends, neighbours, leaders, workers, bosses, pew sitters and clergy as being able to contribute towards the shalom that God intended creation to share in and will ultimately bring about in the new heavens and new earth (79-81). But this notion raises more issues for debate, including the question of our roles in helping usher in the kingdom of God both now and the lasting effects this may or may not have in the age to come.

>>>>>>>>>>

This book provides another building block into my assignments argument on the importance of seeing God’s calling in all spheres of our lives, not just in churchy or evangelism related activities. The book also adds some helpful guiding points to the implications, for example: do we need to rethink the aim of pastoral ministry? Pastoral ministry perhaps should have a much larger role in helping people see how they can be effective agents of God’s kingdom work in all the spheres they are currently in, rather than adopting a church-centric outlook. The implications for transforming workplaces and the type of influence Christians can have in policy decisions are also evident, yet also highly debatable, as Christians have done some dreadful things under this charge in the history of the church.

globalisation gone crazy?

2009-02-07T18:16:00.005-05:00

I just made an online purchase with:

a United States eBay account
paid for with an Australian MasterCard
charged in Euros
the item is made in Japan
shipped from Hong Kong
shipped to Canada

6 countries, 1 purchase

Is this global access and convenience good?
Or is this why we need to get back to relational trade?

COMPS3: work in the Spirit (and for the new creation)

2009-02-06T15:05:00.003-05:00

Developing a theology of work in the Protestant tradition is an ambitious goal. In Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work, Miroslav Volf necessarily has to critique inadequate traditional approaches of understanding work, including simply examining New Testament references. These traditional approaches establish an ethic of work that is grounded in the doctrine of sanctification. That is, as a Christian matures, so will their work in relation to ethical temptations and quandaries that arise in the workplace, for example: being honest; not stealing; or working diligently when your ‘master’ is not watching. Volf’s aim is rather to develop a more systematic approach to understanding work, which is grounded in a broader biblical perspective of what God is doing in the world.

In a second critique, Volf examines Luther’s understanding of work that has been a foundation for Protestants’ understanding of work and finds it lacking on many fronts. Volf acknowledges that Luther made a valuable contribution by desacrilising the vita contemplativa and by bestowing equal value to the vita activa. However, Volf sees Luther failing contemporary workers by: not addressing the alienation of work, which can be used to establish an ideological justification for alienating work; viewing the static vocational station that one is born into as set, which is inappropriate for modern economies that see people work in a variety of roles in a range of industries throughout their working lives; and failing to guard against work transitioning from vocation into mere gainful employment.

For the majority of Volf’s intended educated Protestant audience (in particular he mentions economists), the need for a systematic approach will be understood. However, for some readers, Volf will be unconvincing due to the lack of “explicit exegetical support” (as Volf acknowledges, 93) that give weight to his arguments, and the vagaries that are (necessarily) involved in conceptualizing the new creation. Conversely, sticklers for direct biblical grounded-ness will appreciate Volf pointing out Luther’s well known exegetical mistake in 1 Cor. 7:20, which for Luther was the false foundation of one’s static station in life (109), and thus may concede to Volf’s adamant preference of a more systematic approach to developing a theology of work.

Into this necessary systematic framework, Volf first bases his theology of work in eschatology. Outlining two competing eschatological views - annihilatio mundi that devalues human work, with the exception of work that directly or indirectly contributes to the sanctification of people’s souls and transformatio mundi, that sees a continuity between the present earth, and the “new heavens and new earth” to come that the bible speaks of - Volf applies his theological frame to so that “the expectation of the eschatalogical transformation invests human work with ultimate significance. Through it human beings contribute in their modest and broken way to God's new creation" (92). Volf attempts to articulate human beings’ contribution to the new heavens and new earth through the work they do, by describing human work as the “‘building materials’ from which… ‘the glorified world’ will be made” (91). This description is not Volf’s own as he cites Berkof’s work Christ; the two are in good company with N.T. Wright who uses the same analogy.

Volf does a convincing job in arguing for transformation mundi by: discussing the nature of God’s Kingdom in Matthew as both “now and not yet”; the future earthly hopes in Isaiah 11:6-10, 65:17-25; Paul’s emphasis on the liberation of creation in Romans 8; the lack of theological consistency in God affirming the goodness of creation in Genesis 1 and then annihilating it; and our role in cooperating with the Creator through work, which Luther too identified. Volf confronts the key annihilist passage in 2 Peter 3:10ff, but does so not by offering an explanation of what Peter meant, but rather by contrasting Peter with Paul’s words in Romans 8:21.

Volf builds on his eschatological framework by linking it to pneumatology: “One cannot talk about the new creation without referring to the Spirit of God. For the Spirit, as Paul says, is the 'first-fruits' or the 'down payment' of the future salvation (see Rom 8:23, 2 Cor 1:22) and the present power of eschatological transformation in them” (102). Volf disagrees with a traditional view of the Spirit’s role as being restricted to the “spiritual, psychological, moral or religious life of the individual” (102). Instead Volf asserts that if a Christian is filled with the Spirit, we must have a charismatic understanding “of every specific function and task of a Christian in the church and in the world” (113), which cannot exclude human work. Volf gives Old Testament examples (Ex. 35:2-3; 1 Chron. 28:11-12; Jud. 3:10; 1 Sam. 16:13, 23:2; Prov. 16:10) of how “the Spirit of God calls, endows, and empowers Christians to work in their various vocations” (113-4), and explains that these passages, if read in the light of the new covenant, can help in establishing a pneumatological understanding that “all God’s people are gifted and called to various tasks by the Spirit” (114), thus broadening the scope of the Spirit’s gifts to equip God’s people for all work within the world: “the point is not simply to interpret work religiously as cooperation with God and thereby glorify it ideologically, but to transform work into a charismatic cooperation with God on the 'project' of the new creation” (116).

As the first comprehensive attempt to develop a theology of work in the protestant tradition, Volf’s Work in the Spirit, can be held in high regard as a substantial contribution toward a comprehensive theology of work. Much discussion amongst Christian people in the marketplace should result affecting business values and practices as well as policy decisions. Churches too, should be encouraged to appreciate anew the “mundane work in the Spirit” that their members do during the other six days.

>>>>>>>>>>

Volf’s theology of work makes sense of the Christian’s every-day work in the world. Our work (to some extent) has eschatological significance and our work is empowered by the Spirit and directed towards God’s means and ends in the world. So then, how shall we work? What work shall we do? Shall we work by capitalism’s rules or God’s Kingdom rule here on earth? What values will we instil in our children and our youth group kids as they grow up discerning and preparing for their future careers?

COMPS2: An important book

2009-02-04T14:28:00.007-05:00

In Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church N.T. Wright seeks to realign what he sees has become the dominant Christian view of today, that you will be saved and go to Heaven when you die, to the authentic Christian hope that is portrayed in the scriptures and embraced by the early church. Wright’s view is that you will go to “Heaven” or “Paradise” when you die, but that is not what Christian’s should place their hope in. Rather, the Christian hope is to be found in “life after life after death” (168) that is made possible by ‘the resurrection of the Son of God’ (to quote the title of Wright’s previous ‘big book’).

Wright examines the early Christian hope within its historical setting of Greco-Roman culture. Wright claims "the word 'resurrection' in its Greek, Latin, or other equivalents was never used to mean life after death. 'Resurrection' was used to denote new bodily life after whatever sort of life after death there might be (36). Wright cites Martha’s reaction to Jesus, in John 11:24, when he promises that Lazarus would rise, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (41) to show her expectation in the bodily resurrection of the dead, little did Martha know, her brother would rise twice.

The significance of the Christian hope being correctly placed in “the resurrection at the last day” is key in Wright’s mind, and in the minds of great philosophers past, as what “you think about death, and life beyond it, is the key to thinking seriously about everything else” (6). Wright claims "English evangelicals gave up believing in the urgent imperative to improve society (such as we find with Wilbeforce in late 18th/19th centuries) about the same time that they gave up believing robustly in resurrection and settled for a disembodied heaven instead" (27). Wright sees the miscontrual of Christian resurrection developing out of: "the influence of Greek philosophy… resulting in a future expectation that bears far more resemblance to Plato’s vision of souls entering into disembodies bliss than to the biblical picture of new heavens and new earth” (80); and the modern emphasis on the individual, that has shifted Western Christians focus away from the redemption of all the creation, to the salvation of the individual.

It is not Wrights purpose in writing to simply correct our doctrinal understanding of resurrection. Wright sees a biblical understanding of God’s redeemed people, resurrected into the new heavens and new earth (on earth), as our Christian hope, that can act as the driving force of the gathered churches mission in the world, and the scattered individual Christians work in the world. In other writings and lectures, Wright is consistent with an emphasis on breaking-down the false dichotomy between “soul-saving evangelism gospel” and the “social gospel”, as he is in Surprised by Hope:

"It's no good falling back into the tired old split-level world where some people believe in evangelism in terms of saving souls for a timeless eternity and other people believe in mission in terms of working for justice, peace, and hope in the present world. That great divide has nothing to do with Jesus and the New Testament and everything to do with the silent enslavement of many Christians (both conservative and radical) to the Platonic ideology of the Enlightenment. Once we get the resurrection straight, we can and must get mission straight." (193)
Tied-into a biblical understanding of resurrection is understanding what Christ accomplished when he rose from the dead. Through resurrection, Christ is exalted to reign over the earth. Christ’s kingdom reign has begun, and while it is not fully apparent in the “now but not yet”, Christ is reigning now, which has huge implication: "People who believe that Jesus is already Lord and that he will appear again as judge of the world are called and equipped to think and act quite differently in the world from those who don't." (144)

A some-what controversial element of Wright’s book is his position taking a continuity position (rather than discontinuity), between earth now and the new heavens and new earth that will come. An annihilist reading of 2 Peter 3:10-13 has had a powerful impact on Christian eschatology encouraging a ‘discontinuity’ position. Wright addresses this more directly elsewhere, and instead chooses to focus on other scriptures in Rom. 8 & Rev. 21-22 that give credence to a ‘continuity’ position. Wright’s sense (which in his admission can only be vaguely understood by us now) is that our good work in the world will be evident in some form in the new creation, which has the important implication that our work really matters.

Wright’s book is about being surprised by the wonderful hope that Christians really do have (rather than a half-baked soul-saving version of the truth). Understanding the resurrection hope that Wright is trying to open the eyes of Christians to transforms the “gospel” motivation from: being a Christian so that you can go to heaven when you die; to a genuine good news message: "Salvation, then, is not "going to heaven" but "being raised to life in God's new heaven and new earth" (198) – this is a hope and a gospel which is far bigger than what many Christians know.

>>>>>>>>>>

Surprised by Hope and other works that affirm the bodily resurrection of the saints into the new heavens and new earth will become a foundation for my assignment. This hope holds that all of the creation is worth redeeming and that Christians have to live, work, create, dream, act, cook, build, buy, rest, relate, engage and hope in the world in light of God’s kingdom rule and the ongoing and coming redemption of all of creation - worth thinking through, eh?

COMPS1: blogging my Comprehensive Assignment

2009-01-28T14:15:00.014-05:00

If all goes to "plan" (thanks for the reality-check Nt&Ct!), Jessica and I will be finishing up our Master of Christian Studies (MCS) degrees in April. For me, that involves completing a comprehensive assignment (“Comps” as it is known under Regent’s green roof), within my program concentration of Marketplace Theology. With my supervising professor, Paul Williams, we have worked out a reading list of 3341 pages (or 14 books). My task is to read it all, which is a challenge as I am not the highest capacity reader, and then bring the material into a synthesis in the form of a 10,000 word paper.

Several people advised that after reading each book, that I put together a 1-2 page summary of what the book is about, so that when I get to the writing stage of this task I don’t have to re-read everything – good advice! But, instead, I thought I would blog these summaries and give some short thoughts on how all this reading is fitting together and the significance it has.

My aims in making this public are several:

It allows me to get my thoughts on what each book is about clear enough to post now & articulate to people outside of Regent’s academic environment on an ongoing basis
I think this assignment is significant for how God’s people live, so my readers may learn something or do something
This may inspire you to read a book or think through something that you otherwise would not
It allows my readers to throw their 2 cents into my thoughts on each book and the direction this assignment is leading, especially some of the take-aways – so please post some comments!

I wont elaborate too much on where I think this assignment is going now, rather simply list the books I will be engaging with under 3 reading areas that Paul & I have clumped the books into (although there will of course be over-laps):

Living in light of God's Kingdom Rule & the coming Kingdom:

Surprised by Hope : Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (N.T. Wright)
Work in the Spirit : Toward a Theology of Work (Miroslav Volf
Vocation : Discerning Our Callings in Life (Douglas Schuurman)
The Other Six Days : Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective (R. Paul Stevens)
Listening to the God Who Speaks : Reflections on God's Guidance from Scripture and the Lives of God's People (Klaus Bockmüehl)

Reading the bible well in regards to God's mission & how the Marketplace fits in:

The Mission of God : Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative (Christopher Wright)
Hermeneutics for Economists : The Relevance of the Bible to Economics (Paul Williams)
Economics Today : A Christian Critique (Donald Hay)

Living in Babylon, the complexities of being a Christian in a broken world:

A Failure of Nerve : Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (Edwin Friedman)
The Way of the (Modern) World, or, Why It's Tempting to Live as If God Doesn't Exist (Craig Gay)
Resident Aliens : Life in the Christian Colony (Stanley Hauerwas & William Willimon)
Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World (John G. Stackhouse Jr.)
Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World : Lessons for the Church from Macintyre's after Virtue (Jonathan Wilson)

It is going to be a full-on twelve weeks... please pray me for me...

Six-Course Christmas Dinner

2009-01-01T16:08:00.013-05:00

Jessica's birthday wish was to bless her family with a six course vegetarian Christmas dinner accompanied by a bottle of wine paired to each dish.

#1 - three canapés with pesto, white bean & sage, olive tapenade.
Sauvignon blanc, CA.
#2 - maple parsnip soup with yogurt and pine nuts (recipe from Regent College).
Semi-dry Riesling, CA.
#3 - butternut pumpkin flan with red wine shallot sauce and greens.
Pinot Noir, CA.
#4 - watercress & rocket salad with lemon vinaigrette.
Merlot, CA.
#5 - pumpkin roulade (30th birthday cake).
Muscat, VIC.
#6 - cream mints, ethical bean de-caf coffee.
Ice Wine, BC.
Enjoyed by everyone and considered by some the best Boyle Christmas dinner yet...
thank you and Happy Birthday Jessica! Happy Christmas to all...

incarnational bedlessness

2008-12-19T13:27:00.005-05:00

Last year en-route to my bothers wedding and an Aussie Christmas, we had a planned night in Honolulu airport during our 43.5 hour trip down under. This week on our way to Bakersfield for Christmas with Jessica's family, we had the quickest itinerary ever, with one 50 minute lay-over in LAX. However, arriving at Vancouver airport to find several inches of snow on the ground, I thought we might be in trouble to make our connecting flight...

No, United Airlines aren't getting a new color scheme, rather our plane needed to be de-iced before take-off, adding to our delays...

The city of Richmond (just south of Vancouver) beautifully blanketed in the white fluffy stuff when we finally got off the ground...

As we taxied into LAX, we saw our prop plane taxing out to take-off for Bakersfield... bummer! It was 4pm, we had missed our connecting flight by about 5 minutes. The next flight was at 10:40pm (painful!), but the flight was full. United offered us bus tickets to make the 2.5 hour journey over the mountains to Bakersfield, but the I5 over the mountains was closed because of the snow, so we were wait-listed for the flight 7 hours later. Making the most of dud situations is a way to redeem unplanned circumstances, so we called our semi-famous actor friends in Hollywood, Josh & Rachael and enjoyed some In-N-Out Burger (animal style!) and a coffee with friends who we rarely get to see.

Back to the airport, we didn't get on the 10:40pm flight... but got confirmed on a 6am flight to San Francisco and then an 8:37am flight to Bakersfield... you guessed it, another night in an airport awaited! We pulled two airport lounges together to make a bed as we attempted to fall asleep to the Christmas carols and TSA announcements that blared over the loud speakers all night. I think I got about 2 hours...

Jess thought our bed-less nights in the Christmas season were most appropriate... Joseph and Mary's travel plans didn't work out as they expected either, the Inn was full, their child was born in a barn. It is good to occasionally challenge the notion that we are entitled to a proper bed each night...

It was nice to finally arrive into Bakersfield 24 hours after leaving Vancouver (it would have been quicker to travel to Sydney, and I think we would have arrived in better shape too), the sun was shining and the surrounding mountains were blanketed with snow...

May you have a blessed Christmas, as you celebrate the bed-less birth of our Saviour and Lord...

relational trade [part 4]: visiting Level Ground Trading

2008-11-07T14:57:00.010-05:00

…continued from [part 3]

Sitting around a large custom-made table in the boardroom, Mark asked “How is Level Ground structured?” Hugo’s face lit-up as he told Mark he was sitting around the structure. Hugo had insisted that Level Ground have a round conference table (made environmentally friendly of course), since rectangle tables place someone at the head and give that voice more importance, yet all voices at Level Ground are valued. There is of course a hierarchy at Level Ground, but it doesn't seem to dominate the culture. Hugo admitted that certain hierarchical questions, like “How do you decide how much different people in different roles gets paid?” was really tough to answer. Level Ground have several bonuses available: a “quality bonus,” based on team performance, rather than on the individual; and a “fair share” bonus based on the business' growth paid monthly, which can add up to about a full months pay over the year.

The relational principle is extended to how Level Ground pays and intensifies their sales staff. When a new sales person starts at Level Ground, they get to choose what kind of remuneration structure would suit who they are: a low base salary and a high commission rate is good for some people, but others want the peace of mind of knowing a steady salary will come in, with the opportunity to make a small bonus based on their performance, the third option being a mid level base salary and a mid-level bonus. From my own experience, working from a low base salary is very difficult; it doesn’t work for me. At Level Ground the emphasis on knowing people makes possible a remuneration structure that will work for the employee and the business – win, win!

Walking around Level Ground, there are pictures and branding material on the walls. Hugo is an avid photographer (a Nikon D300 shooter) and takes all the snaps of the producers, their farms, and their communities himself. As we walked around the building, Hugo paused to tell us the names of each person in the photographs and part of their story. Most businesses will get their marketing agencies to choose “stock” photographs from libraries for their promotional material and pay a royalty fee for the use of the photo. Level Ground however only use their own photographs, taken from when Hugo and other Level Ground employees make their annual or bi-annual trips to see the producers and their farms. Hugo also insists on paying the producers a royalty fee for being in the photographs that Level Grounds uses on its packaging, website and promotional materials. I didn’t notice it, but Hugo pointed out in one picture that a girl’s (I can’t remember her name, but Hugo knows her) teeth were a bit dirty and she was missing one earring because her ear was infected. Level Ground had made the decision not to “air-brush” any photos, but rather present the coffee producers as they are.

Hugo and his partners have lived-out their Christian faith in the way they do business, taking the Fair Trade concept to every part of Level Ground by having "righteous relationships" as a central frame for each business relationship. For me, Level Ground is a great example of how Christian people should conduct business. Hugo has a dream, in fact a “life goal”, to be an example of how fair trade and righteous relationships can be practised across different industries and business models (the recumbent bike market may be next…).

What if Christians could change their attitudes towards business, and what if Christians could begin to change the attitude of the world toward business?
Wayne Grudem, How Business in Itself Can Glorify God

It was never my intention to write about Level Ground from a consumer point of view. However, I know my focus on Level Ground as a business centered upon righteous relationships has resulted in a few purchases of Level Ground’s products. If you would like to buy Fair Trade coffee and support a company like Level Ground, then please make the switch, here is where you can buy Level Ground products:

North Americans:

Order Online - FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25 to the USA & Canada
through 160 Ten Thousand Villages stores
+ see the Level Ground Store Locator

Vancouverites:

can get 2lb bags of beans from local Costco’s
through local Ten Thousand Villages stores @ 2909 West Broadway, 1204 Commercial Drive, 929 Denman Street
at The Well @ Regent College & Dunbar

South Africans:

Through a relationship with Level Ground, the Bean There Coffee Company in Jo’Berg started a Fair Trade business.

[part 1] / [part 2] / [part 3] / [part 4]

some sober words for the church on a big day for the USA (and the World)

2008-11-04T18:04:00.003-05:00

I appreciated Matthew van Leeuwen's words to the Regent College Community today in his piece, A Brief Election Day Suggestion, as editor of the "etc", Regent's weekly student newsletter.

Today is election day in the United States. Let us keep in mind today that neither a Republican president nor a Democratic president will bring about the reign of Christ on earth. Neither candidate will remove the requirement of the church to proclaim the Lordship of Christ and to daily pick up its cross. Neither candidate frees the church from the need to learn the art of departure, from imagining exodus from oppression in all its various forms, from standing at the crossroads with Jeremiah and discerning the ancient paths, from finding the good way and walking in it. Let us, whether we vote or abstain, resist putting our faith in the democratic process. Let us keep in mind that Adolf Hitler was elected in free elections with the full support of many Protestant Christians such as ourselves.
Lord, have mercy.

relational trade [part 3]: visit to Level Ground Trading

2008-10-28T20:26:00.009-04:00

Over the summer, I met Hugo Ciro, CEO of Level Ground Trading [part 1]. I am really impressed with Hugo and his business from a ‘relational trade’ perspective [part 2]. This week I took a trip out to visit Hugo and see Level Ground Trading first hand [part 3]. Mark, a good mate from College who also met Hugo over the summer and is doing a Marketplace concentration, came along.

It was a big day, ride to the bus, bikes on the bus and two buses to the ferry terminal, the 95 minute journey to Vancouver Island and then a 17.5km ride to Level Ground. When planning the trip, I thought was only appropriate that public transport and pedal power get us there, in honor of Level Ground’s environmental endeavors. Hugo’s recumbent bike was parked outside; Hugo greeted us and had a lengthy discussion about his experimental transit machine. We were sweaty, hungry and late, but Hugo was pleased to see us.

It was 2pm: after handing Hugo my two empty coffee bags (that can't be recycled, but can be turned into energy), brewing espresso from Café La Paz was the first order of business. I usually don’t take sugar, but thought I had to try Panela de los Andes – the cappuccino was sweet! We sat down, got to know each other a little better over a sandwich and coffee - all very relational – and we started to talk about Hugo’s background and the story and motivations that led to Level Ground’s birth eleven years ago.

On the ferry, Mark and I agreed we should start our time with Hugo by trying to understand his personal story and how that brought about Level Ground’s “relational business model” (how Mark and I saw Hugo’s business [see part 2]). Hugo told us about his childhood, spending two months a year on family coffee plantations in Columbia, then working in San Francisco and finally ending up at Regent College to think through missions work, where he felt affirmed by Eugene Peterson that he could be a Christian and pursue a career in business. Combining his knowledge of coffee, his desire for mission, and his entrepreneurial talents, Hugo came up with the idea of starting a Fair Trade coffee business. Hugo noted that it was the Mennonite missions group, Ten Thousand Villages, was the Fair Trade pioneer and gave Hugo the opportunity to distribute Level Ground’s coffee, on the condition that the coffee was excellent quality, and it is...

Here is where the four owner families of Level Ground got involved, contributing capital and expertise. My burning question was how and why did the four families agree on the relational trade model, instead of the typical profit-maximizing business model? For Hugo, this was easily answered – the four families had a shared story and values, they were followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. My sense was that relational trade wasn’t an ideological position for them, but rather it flowed naturally out of their identity in Christ. This still amazes me… my experience is that Christians don’t agree on much within the church, let alone in the marketplace, except that they often have nothing to say about how faith interacts with business. Yet, as Stacey (Hugo's business partner) put it, "everything we do is about relationships", and in a separate conversation, Hugo said his desire was to have "righteous relationships" as central frame for what Level Ground was about, which manifests itself not in "free trade", but in "fair trade".

Yet, Level Ground never considered itself a “Christian business.” Rather it is a business run by Christians (about half of the 30 staff) on Christian principles and values, as if there was no other way to run a business.

We weren’t long into the conversation when Hugo mentioned that an excellent question was raised by a reader in [part 2], about how to raise capital relationally. Hugo was excited, and after I heard what he had to say I was blown away! From before its first day of business, Level Ground has always raised capital relationally. It all started with a loan from one of the four founding families to buy the first shipment of coffee beans and has evolved into Level Ground issuing promissory notes to friends and family of the business. Level Ground pays 7.5% per annum and will pay back the money on demand. In today’s economic and credit climate, unsecured promissory notes are risky business. But, the friends and family of Level Ground like the business and are engaged with Level Ground’s ongoing story, and are happy to risk their cash. The money is loaned in trust in a relational context – as Hugo said it “we aren’t going to shaft our friends and family”.

Touring Level Ground’s facilities was an education, we learned how coffee is grown, picked, dried, shelled, shipped, stored, roasted, packaged and sold. It was also great just to be in a vibrant workplace – everyone was friendly, relaxed, in good spirits and not fazed that the CEO was walking through the facilities - there was a great vibe!

We talked at length about Level Ground’s advanced payment of a micro lot of beans from the Montaños family in Bolivia. The advanced payment was made by Level Ground unsecured – paid back at harvest time in coffee beans, the first crop that the dryer would produce. Quantities weren’t negotiated, contracts not signed, but a relationship was the basis of this deal to allow the Montaños to build their business long term, and to provide Level Ground with the best-of-the-best crop. Hugo admitted that any number of Level Grounds producer deals could go bad by doing business this way, not writing contracts, only letters of intent to buy X number crates of beans. Yet no deal has ever gone bad for Level Ground, the deals are made in relationships where faith and trust abound.

to be continued…

[part 1] / [part 2] / [part 3] / [part 4]

relational capital: lessons from Islamic finance?

2008-10-12T20:15:00.009-04:00

In my previous post on relational trade, a question was asked about how to raise capital in a relational model - I offer an example of alternative capital raising in the comments. Perhaps Islamic finance may have a few lessons to teach us…

An interesting article appeared on smh.com.au this week: Islamic finance rides the storm. This is not the first time I have read about the rapidly growing industry of Islamic finance, but in light of the world financial crisis that is unfolding, and the Islamic finance industry's resilience to the turbulence of plummeting world markets, perhaps this is a good time to peer outside our dominant capitalist model to see how else things could be done.

There are several relational elements of Islamic finance (pulled from the article) that are appealing, such as:

the partnership between the lender and borrower is arranged such that the risk is shared, and therefore the lender does a better job at evaluating the risk before granting loans
interest is not charged because it is considered immoral as it does not take into account how changes in the value of the loan's security can affect the borrower
the short sale of shares is not permitted because it stops traders profiting from assets they don't own
depositor know their money will not be invested in unethical industries

I don’t have the expertise to layout a comprehensive analysis between our system and the “sharia” way - Clancy Yeates does a good, but basic job in the article. However, I find it fascinating that Moslem's have seen the incongruities between their faith and Western capitalist finance, and in response have developed a model that does not sacrifice their faith to the prevailing model. If Christ reigns over our world, and our economies and financial markets, why is it that Christians have assimilated their beliefs, largely uncritically, to a financial model that isn’t congruent with Kingdom values?

Readers who know more about financial markets and systems - any reflections in light of the credit crunch would be most appreciated. As would anyone who knows of examples of alternative, and perhaps Christian motivated, financing arrangements?

relational trade [part 2]: Level Ground Trading

2008-09-11T18:26:00.017-04:00

Studying some marketplace theology at Regent College, I have been reflecting on my experience of working in the business world and looking to find examples of businesses that are run by Christian people, who don’t follow the pervasive rules of strict profit-maximisation that the capitalist market economy demands, seeking instead to run their businesses by different rules, with multiple bottom-lines, perhaps even going as far as God’s Kingdom rule here on Earth. During summer school, I met Hugo Ciro [read part 1], a founder and the CEO of Level Ground Trading, a business leader and a business with which that I am deeply impressed.

Being involved in the fair trade movement, seeking to bring economic justice and opportunity to small-scale producers of coffee, cane sugar and dried fruit is impressive in itself. Hugo’s company however seems to take the ‘fair trade’ concept far beyond a simplistic definition, and thread the ‘fair trade’ ethos throughout the whole of Level Ground’s business activities and relationships. Here’s how they do it:

Fair trade & relationships with producers – there are established minimum premiums that are paid to producers in order to be certified as a ‘Fair Trade Company’. However, instead of meeting the minimum, Level Ground seeks to know their producers personally, and thus their producers' needs and circumstances. As a result, they frequently pay in excess of the minimum requirements, to ensure a fair deal is negotiated.
Level Ground goes beyond the traditional B2B supplier relationships, by donating time, money, and expertise to enable its supply partners to produce more efficiently and develop communities, thereby supporting farmers who are seeking to experiment and farm using sustainable techniques, like an organic farmer who uses “a bio-digestor that converts his compost and manure into usable cooking fuel.”
Level Ground seeks to be actively open and accountable to their stakeholders, including customers, by making information about "what the farmer gets" available online, and be audited to prove it.
Fair trade & relationships with the environment: through composting, twelve recycling streams and smart purchasing decisions, Level Ground only trash one shopping bag of waste each week – a growing medium sized business achieves a feat that would be impressive for a small household! Plus, they try to be aware of where they are failing, be open about it with their customers and seek solutions.
Hugo arrived at Regent College, coming from Vancouver Island not in the company car, but on his recumbent bike (see similar bike). Level Ground also support their staff who are seeking to make environmentally friendly decisions that are connected to their work: “On an on-going basis, staff who regularly cycle, bus or carpool to work are paid a monthly green transportation bonus.”
Hugo’s business card was “Printed on 100% post-consumer paper”.
Fair trade & relationships with employees – They try to recognise that employees have different motivations and commitments outside of the workplace and seek to be flexible to accommodate these needs to achieve an effective, rather than just talked about, work/life balance. In-turn, Level Ground has been recognised by the provincial government with a WorkLife award.

To me, this model of business is remarkable in how the ‘fair trade’ concept is permeating all facets of Level Ground Trading’s business, or in Level Ground's words:
“Level Ground Trading envisions a world wherein lifestyles are simpler, relationships are deeper and justice is inherent in each exchange. We remain focused on Direct Fair Trade through dialogue with producers, payment of a fair price, respect for the environment and transparency in the marketplace.”
In class discussion, Hugo told us of interactions with other sellers in the coffee industry, who could not comprehend why Level Ground would not want to maximise their profits by paying the premiums they do. Hugo then challenged us to re-think our business relationships, ensuring that they were fair. The ongoing success, growth and profitability of Level Ground Trading gives me hope that seeking fair trade relationships in all aspects of marketplace exchange is viable, and much of the exploitation, injustice and dehumanising tendencies of our global economy can be overcome, if we have the will to pursue fair trade relationships.

I am thinking about making a ‘field-trip’ to Level Ground Trading's HQ on Vancouver Island; I think taking my bike on the ferry would be the appropriate way to travel, and I will take my empty coffee bags with me, so that Level Ground can turn them into energy (as they aren’t yet recyclable). I want (or need) to ask Hugo about what is the primary motivation behind his company:
- Is it that Hugo is a Columbian-Canadian, who knew first-hand of unjust trade relationships in Columbia?
- Is it a shared Christian faith among Level Ground’s founders that drives them to seek shalom in this world?
  Are they seeking to live out Micah’s challenge ‘to act justly’?
  Are they seeking to be aligned with Jesus, as he read from Isaiah’s scroll ‘to release the (economically) oppressed’?
- Or something else?
I would like to ask Level Ground’s Canadian based employees…
- If they feel like their work is more fulfilling and rewarding because they work for this fair trade company?
- How so they think fair trade relationships could be encouraged and implemented in other business?
Over to my readers: please post a comment…
- Are you impressed with Level Ground Trading?
- What else do you think I should ask Hugo and the Level Ground staff?
- Do you value fair trade relationships enough to sacrifice a ‘maximum profit’?
- What do you think Jesus would say about the need, or lack of it, to pursue fair trade relationships?
- Do you know of any other businesses that adopt Kingdom of God ethics to their relationships in the marketplace?

[part 1] / [part 2] / [part 3] / [part 4]

Wondering what the Mosers are up to?

2008-09-11T12:15:00.000-04:00

Whistler Summer

2008-09-08T13:16:00.020-04:00

The last week has been hectic - long days and late nights getting summer school assignments finished, so I haven't yet had a chance to write my follow-up post on why I am impressed with Level Ground Trading. Having worked hard all week, we thought we'd enjoy a few days of Whistler in the summer-time before we start classes again today.
I spent a ski season in Whistler in 2002, but after three days of mountain biking through the valley and hiking in the alpine, I feel like I have discovered so much more of this spectacular place than I got a chance to experience in the winter. There are endless mountain bike trails, both paved and off-road with skier type difficulty ratings (Green, Blue & Black), which wind you along streams, golf courses, railway tracks and to beautiful lakes, parks and vistas throughout the valley. We spotted a HUGE black bear from Green Lake lookout, wandering through the 'Golden Bear's' Nicholas North Golf Course.
Hiking the High Note trail (see map) from the top of the Peak chair through the alpine and meadows on-top of Whistler mountain was incredible! Wildflowers were abundant, views of the 'Black Tusk' and Cheakamus Lake superb, and finding a posing Hoary Marmot a real treat!
After an energetic few days of hiking and biking in spectacular Whistler, we are now feeling ready to start the Fall semester at Regent College...

[more pics of our time at Whistler @ www.flickr.com/photos/shadrachs]

Thank you to the various 'sponsors' that helped make this trip possible: H. Ross (Truck loan), Sung-Ock (Hostel $), Pinpoint (Universal Gift Card for food), UBC Lodge (Cheap beds for Regent students), Intrawest (Free tickets to the Peak).

summer school + relational trade [part 1]

2008-08-27T12:53:00.004-04:00

If you read our blog, you could get the impression that all Jess and I do is spend time in places like Hawaii, the Rockies & the vineyards of South Australia – it isn’t true… so here is a post that branches out from one of my Summer School courses a few weeks ago.

The one-week course was called The Christian Leader in the Secular World of Work, which I took for my marketplace concentration. Peter Shaw, a former senior British public servant who is now an executive coach, ran the course. Peter has written extensively to both Christian and secular audiences looking at the life of Jesus to see what we can learn about how Jesus lead (as a visionary, servant, teacher, coach, radical and healer), made difficult decisions, used conversation as a tool, and made the most of each moment. While enjoying the discussion, at times the approach was perhaps a bit too reductionist and had the danger of straying into ‘eisegesis’, or reading stuff into the text.

The highlight of the course, however, was the discussions that Peter facilitated, which formed a solid chunk of our time together. The group consisted of about 25 people including a former big business CEO, a CFO, a high profile Vancouver lawyer, several management consultants, senior pastors and a teacher. This mix of people brought wonderful insights from the range of experience people had, which was truly valuable. Each day we sat in a different seat and in pairs got to share parts of our leadership and workplace journeys. By the end of the week, I got to know five people well.

One of the guys I got to pair up with was a CEO, this time of a smaller business. Hugo was part of four families who formed Level Ground Trading, a fair trade company, established in what seems to be the pioneer-days of the fair trade movement, in 1997. Hugo was a fascinating guy, and it was great to hear about his experience as well as his values for operating in the marketplace. Hugo’s business really impresses me too, and not just because he’s buying coffee beans at a price that is fairer to the farmers who work hard to produce them. In my next post, I’ll explain why I am so impressed with Level Ground Trading.

This morning, our coffee beans had run out, so I went to our cupboard and reached for the new two-pound bag that we bought last week. I got a pleasant surprise when I realised that we have been drinking Level Ground’s Café Mbeya since March. We were astounded to come across Fair Trade Coffee at Costco (a large wholesale chain in North America) and we were even more surprised at how good this organic dark blend from Tanzania tasted, and at the great price of $15. When I first came across the coffee’s packaging, it was the big bright pictures of the local communities, their stories, and a map showing where the beans were from that stood out to me, and not the Level Ground Trading logo. As a marketer, I could critique this as a mistake, but after learning more about Hugo and his company, I think the packaging’s emphasis is just right.

More about Hugo and Level Ground Trading next time… but in the meantime, I invite you to check out levelground.com, which is a beautifully presented website and really informative too.

[part 1] / [part 2] / [part 3] / [part 4]

Road-trip through the Rockies

2008-08-21T22:40:00.005-04:00

After putting my mum to work for a week painting our unit in Vancouver, we figured it would be good to go and do something fun together. So, a couple of days after my dad arrived (yes, we put him to work during those two days too!) we took off for the Canadian Rockies. Now, I was the only one of the group who had never been through the Rockies here in Canada, so I had no real idea what to expect. After a long day of driving, we arrived at the edge of Jasper national park, where we spent the night. The highlight of that evening was certainly the surprise waterslide at the hotel pool. At three stories high and far faster than I imagined, the slide was good fun and Andrew, dad and I queued up with the 10 or so kids to make use of it.

While many visitors to the Rockies never get to see Mt. Robson, which is just outside of Jasper, we were blessed with a spectacular blue sky and sunshine to see Robson in all its glory. In many ways, this set the tone for the rest of the trip, in which our timing seemed to be right for viewing just about everything, from the kamikaze kayakers who took on a waterfall to our 8 bear sightings in two days.

[View the full-screen slideshow]

Perhaps the highlight of the trip, though, was in the realisation of my father’s dream to spend the night at the Chateau Lake Louise. Andrew and I volunteered to camp so that my parents could enjoy the 7th floor suite and full-lake view on their own, but (fortunately for us) they wouldn’t hear of it! In classic student fashion, Andrew and I made a dinner on the ‘free’ hors d’oeuvres and tried to use every single available amenity, even taking quite a few of their signature teas as a souvenir. After High Tea in Banff Springs Hotel the following day and a “shortcut” through the BC backcountry where we found wild raspberries and more bears, we returned to Vancouver and our freshly painted walls, new light fixtures, and heaps of other decorating touches thanks to my mum’s hard work. Now, Andrew and I are enjoying being at home, just the two of us, for the first time since April 21st (that’s 4 whole months!). Needless to say, there’s no place like home...

On YouTube: Kayakers on Overlander Falls & Grouse Mountain Grizzlies

serious about food

2008-08-21T15:52:00.003-04:00

If you spend anytime with Jessica’s family, you will quickly come to see that they are serious about their food! You will often hear certain dishes reminisced about as “the best I have ever had,” where the particular ingredients in a sauce were brought back to the taste-buds years later. When planning a road-trip, you are almost certain to be told of great places to eat along the journey (and encouraged to plan your trip around these stops). The Boyles have also been known to drive 2 hours one-way to eat at a particular restaurant – now that’s commitment!

So in a week of culinary road-tripping with Steve and Linda through the Rockies, I was privileged to sample: caribou steak, bison burgers, venison hors d’oeuvres and a saddle of rabbit. Not bad for a ‘practical vegetarian’ like myself who rarely gets to eat meat.

While there is much eating-out to embrace this culinary passion, the Boyles don’t sit back and let others prepare all the food. Rather, at the sight of wild berries off a dirt-road, they are likely to screech the car to a halt, jump out and start picking wild raspberries for the next mornings muffins (they were incredible!).

It’s not all about fine-dining either… without a doubt, if were an In-N-Out Burger in Canada, we would have stopped for the customary animal-style burger, fries and chocolate shake.

It’s safe to say… I always enjoy eating with the Boyles!

Aloha: Hawaii stop-over

2008-07-11T17:23:00.014-04:00

On the way back from our 10 weeks working in Sydney, we had to fly through Honolulu. On our last visit to Honolulu in December, we spent the night in the airport - this trip, we thought we'd spend 4 days seeing Oahu.

On advice from some Hawaii residents that we know from Regent, we stayed well clear of Honolulu city and Waikiki beach, and instead spent most of our stay on Oahu's beautiful North Shore at Shark's Cove - Waimea Bay was only a 10 minute walk to the east, to the west Sunset beach and Pipeline were very close by, and across the road we had access to some great snorkeling with abundant fish life in one of HI's top shore Scuba diving spots.

[View the full-screen slideshow]

We ate most of our meals at the local 'shrimp vans' that operate out of camper vans that are parked in nice locations around the North Shore. The food was tasty and cheap and served local produce cooked in typical HI style, our favorite being the shrimp and vegetable shish-kebabs. One van served it's food using exciting new 'disposable' plates, cups, straws and cutlery... made from corn or potato starch, with no petroleum and 100% compostable (visit Styrophobia.com). The use of these products over wasteful plastic was representative of our experience of North Shore locals, who all seemed very concerned to look after their beautiful corner of the world.

It was nice to visit a place outside of Australia with truly magnificent beaches! Waimea Bay beach was our favorite - the water lapped the shore in an amazing array of tropical blues and greens, the sand was bright and clean, and you could stay in the water and feel refreshed, but not cold, all day long. During the summer, the North Shore beaches are calm, which is hard to reconcile with the winter swells that bring some of the largest waves crashing down on their shores.

On our last day, we hired a car and drove around the islands. Lunch in Waikiki was enough time there, see the 'zoo' photo. We climbed the extinct volcano crater, Diamond Head, and took in some amazing views of southern Oahu and were refreshed by some 'shaved ice,' a local treat, at the bottom. The mountains on the west side of the island were also spectacular - these scenes have been used in many movie and television settings, because of their lush green coverings, and their long and steep descents that seem to plunge from the sky into the sea - quite spectacular!

Just before we flew out for California, we were able to visit the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. 1177 young men died there on 7 Dec 1941 - the memorial was a moving tribute to a horrific tragedy. The museum and a 20 minute video were quite informative, revealing, in hindsight, a series of errors that left the American forces fatally exposed.

Mahalo Hawaii!

Adelaide quick-trip

2008-06-09T06:36:00.009-04:00

The Queen's birthday seemed like the perfect opportunity to take-off for Adelaide to visit our Regent College buddies, Matt & Leanne, and to enjoy some of South Australia's delights with them!

Adelaide is blessed by being surrounded by world-class wine regions that include the Barossa, Clare Valley, the Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale. We were able to enjoy being with Matt & Leanne as we taste-tested our way across the country-side from winery to olive grove to winery to boutique beer-house and again to more wineries... it was a taste sensation!

The pick of the weekend for us was Coriole's Fortified Shiraz, which went down really well with some 70% Cocoa Lindt chocolate for dessert. For beer lovers, the Porter and American Pale Ale from the Lobethal Bierhaus were really good. The Olive Grove was a great spot for lunch, with locally sourced food platters, their 2005 McLaren Vale Shiraz exploded with flavour, and the Shiraz Jam was brilliant, but perhaps a little too indulgent for the humble piece of toast on a daily basis.

[View the full-screen slideshow]

On Sunday, we were able to visit Glen Osmond Baptist Church where Matt works part-time, and later have lunch at a missional cafe, Soul Food Espresso, connected to Matt & Leanne's church network that is seeking to build relationships with the local community over good food and great coffee.

Thanks Matt & Leanne for a wonderful weekend away with you guys!

pay-cheques: big, small, and not at all

2008-05-17T17:26:00.000-04:00

On the 28th July 2006, I worked my last day as a Marketing Professional. 21 months later, I have made a return to my old employer for a 9 week 'summer holiday' stint. I've had to do some hack-work for sure, but I am also managing a project for a high-profile financial services company - so it has been interesting and challenging work to be involved in.

While not "working full-time" as most people would regard it since July '06, I feel that I have been working harder, longer and better ever since. My work has involved a full-time study load, 2 part-time jobs, plus a paid ministry position. Jess and I work very hard, and really enjoy the work that we are doing in these chapters of our lives.

I am also using my 'summer work' in Sydney for my Masters degree requirements, which involves a workplace placement, quite consistent with one of Regent College's goals of teaching and modeling holistic living. So right now as I type, I am actually meant to be working on a journal entry, communicating my experiences of "re-entry" into the marketplace - the challenges, frustrations and compromises that I am experiencing in my 9-5 (or 8:30-7) job [blogging should help the writing juices flow... that's my justification anyway, but I am sure Jess wont be happy with me for writing this and not my journal entry].

In general, there is other "work" that I do too, the house work, D.I.Y. work, some yard work here in Sydney, some web work for Jess' moms ministry, and volunteer work in Mexico last summer. I'm finding that more and more I really enjoy and get great satisfaction out of the work that the market (probably) wouldn't pay me to do (or at least pay very much).

It's a quandary for me, because I enjoy the work 'outside' of my professional work more - I find the work healthier, better relationally and perhaps it contributes more to God's Kingdom. Is part of the quandary living with the curse of Genesis 3, where as a result of sin, for Adam "all of your life you will struggle to scratch a living from the ground"? Perhaps, the Kingdom contribution work isn't as much of a struggle? Then is the challenge, to find work that the market values and builds the Kingdom? Or to turn elements of the market work to the Kingdom's advantage? Or to just see the good things in the market work that contribute to the Kingdom everyday? I also think that a more free-embrace and non-monetary valuing of the other work (which doesn't pay at all) is important too - the implication is that I don't let market forces dictate every choice I make in regard to all of the work I enter into.

I am looking forward to taking a course, starting in September, which will wrestle with a "theology of work." I am sure that being back in the full-time professional workplace for a stint and these reflections on all kinds of work will be good fodder as I dive into that course material. For now, for a short 9 weeks, it's also nice to receive a pay-cheque in the "thousands", rather than the "hundreds" which I have grown use too as a student.

bridgeclimb

2008-05-04T20:26:00.001-04:00

At Christmas the Hugheses gave the sons and daughters-in-law each a gift-certificate to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge together, voted Australia's #1 tourist attraction, to redeem on our return to the beautiful harbour city.

The day was perfect, blue-skies with views to Manly and the Blue Mountains. I was surprised how easy it was to get up to the top, only 4 ladders to reach the 'coat-hanger,' and from there, it really is an easy ascent on stairs and then a flat path to the 'summit,' 134 meters above the water.

Doing this with the family was an obvious highlight, but I also really enjoyed all the unique views of Sydney: looking down on the traffic on the bridge, gazing over the curves of the land to different parts of the harbour, and seeing the skyline from a new perspective. I think I could have spent all day up there with my camera, but they don't let you take anything along with you.

To finish the experience well, Mum joined us all at the Australian Pub and enjoyed some pizza and beer together, including a pizza with one of our national emblem animals on it, the Emu. Kangaroo and crocodile were also on the menu.

Thanks Dad!

four weeks

2008-04-06T14:56:00.003-04:00

Some of you may wonder what we’ve been doing for the past month, given our silence on our blog. Well, in mid-March we headed to Mexico and San Diego to spend time with our friends in Ensenada and with my family. It was, generally a great time except that my mum gave me the stomach flu. That was bad enough on its own, but my grandparents and aunt and uncle were noticeably smiley and somewhat unsympathetic for the first 24 hours. I later found out that they were under the very false impression that I may be pregnant (I mean, if you are 29, married, and having stomach problems, what other explanation could there be?) Once they realised that the killer stomach cramps, fever, chills, and associated issues were not, in fact a child, but a viral or bacterial infection given me by my mother, the sympathy level increased noticeably.
We returned to Vancouver two weeks ago with four weeks remaining in the term. In those four weeks, we had the following tasks to complete (this represents only a fraction of the work for the term).

Andrew
3000 word (10 page) history paper
2x 1000 word exegesis papers
2500 word exegesis paper
3x 500 word history tasks
Plus numerous small tasks for business ethics

Jessica
3000 word literary theory paper
3000 word thesis proposal
2x 1000 word exegesis papers
2500 word exegesis paper

As well as lead a church retreat and cook on said retreat for 26 people. And work 3 jobs (Jessica) and 2 jobs (Andrew). And we had 13 people for Easter dinner.
As I write this, I have completed, in two weeks, 7,000 (23 pages) of my 10,500 words to round-up the term. Andrew, likewise has finished 5,500 of his 9,000 words, so the end is in sight. The problem is, at this point we are running out of things to say, especially academic things to say, which is why I’m writing a blog rather than writing an exegesis assignment. Fortunately, the end is in sight and we will soon be on a plane back to Sydney, where at least we’ll get to . . . work full-time.

Taste of the World

2008-03-02T13:50:00.002-05:00

Last night, we enjoyed Regent College's annual 'Taste of the World'. An event that celebrates Regent's rich international diversity by offering the Regent community a chance to taste the culinary delights of each country represented, see people dressed in their national attire and be entertained in a manner that represents the culture of each country.

Roast lamb & vegetables, cheesy-mite scrolls, Pavlova, Anzac Biscuits, LL&B's and fairy bread were on the Australian menu (sadly Regent's insurance policy didn't allow for Aussie Shiraz to be part of the offering). As for Australian attire... Rugby jerseys, Driza-Bone hats, fly-swatting-cork-hats (do they have a real name?), and of course the Aussie flag turned into the national cape all featured.

For Australia's cultural entertainment, the community was quizzed (or rather informed) on the meaning of some Aussie slang and instructed on how to respond to an Aussie if they simply couldn't understand a word they were hearing... "fair-dinkum?"

Due to a technical glitch (it worked in the test-run... arrghh)... the audio/visual offering that Jess and I prepared did not get seen... we gathered together the personal photos of some of Regent's Australian contingent (+ a few surfing pics from AY). The result (on YouTube for you)... a small taste of Australia:

D.I.Y. drywall + the journey to manhood

2008-02-23T15:46:00.007-05:00

My time in Mexico (May/June '07) building houses is bearing more fruit. First we installed a toilet, a week ago we fixed a 60x60cm whole in the wall. I have never done a drywall patch-job before, but after helping to install drywall from scratch into several new houses in Mexico, I was confident we could do a patch-job (a look at a D.I.Y. web tutorial and a call to Grandpa Clyde were also reassuring, that I was on the right track). I am amazed at how far a little know-how and experience can take you, not to mention save you $. This job cost us $12, including the cost of buying a new tool. Our hole appeared after we had to get a plumber to install a new faucet set into our bath/shower (on the other side of the wall), a job we could not do by ourselves.

Here's how we did it (click on the pics to see a bigger picture and read the info more clearly):

While I was in Mexico, I indulged in some replenishing reading, and turned my attention to John Eldredge's The Way of the Wild Heart. Eldredge quotes a guy who has followed the modern path and "ceded mastery of his world over to hired hands" by outsourcing every job around his home to tradesmen of every kind. The cost:benefit analysis reveals it doesn't always make sense to D.I.Y., but neither does reaching the point of not being able to do any simple job yourself. What are we going to outsource next... finding a partner? As Eldredge would probably ask, how can we impede our initiation into manhood anymore? Besides, there is something incredibly satisfying in using the tools well, testing yourself with the work and having a great D.I.Y. finished result (plus, I now enjoy going to hardware stores!).

a fork in the (Anglican) road

2008-02-14T02:03:00.014-05:00

In December, I wrote two posts on the 'Anglican crisis' that is affecting the church we attend and work at, St John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church:

Tonight, St John's held their annual vestry meeting. All of the usual (and fairly mundane) agenda items featured: financial reports, adoption of previous meeting minutes, ministry snapshots etc... but that wasn't why the church was as full as I have ever seen it. Rather, the members of St John's showed up to vote on a "motion to accept or reject the offer of temporary Alternative Episcopal Oversight" from the Diocese of the Southern Cone, an Anglican diocese based out of Argentina.

The reason to seek such oversight, in a nutshell, is that the Anglican Church of Canada and the Diocese of New Westminster, who oversees St John's, have been "walking apart from the Anglican Communion." The parting comes primarily in regards to different views of the authority of scripture, of which the "tip-of-the-iceberg issue" is the blessing of same-sex unions. Much of he Episcopal church in the United States is in the same boat as much of the Anglican Church of Canada in regard to these issues.

3 of 4 pics by kim y

So tonight, it was up to St John's members to decide. Voting "Yes" would go against the Bishop of New Westminster's sincere wishes for those in his diocese, a vote for schism as he saw it. Or in the word's of J.I. Packer to vote "Yes" was to choose "not schism but realignment" - a move back to the rest of the Anglican communion who has repeatedly stood against the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal church for their trajectory of adopting a liberal approach to understanding the scriptures.

A letter (dated 6 February) by the current Bishop, Michael Ingham, was distributed to members of St John's as they entered the meeting describing the proceedings as "schismatic," threatening "immediate termination of license or removal from office" as well as the possibility of civil proceedings were directed at St John's clergy, wardens and trustees, and noting the diocese's "fiduciary responsibility to preserve and protect the assets of the Church for its future ministry", ie, take St John's financial and property assets out the church's control.

After 5 years of battling with the Bishop, having no episcopal oversight, not being able to hire new ordained staff, and having so much of the church's energy directed towards this crisis, St John's came together (for a 3 hour meeting) and voted on the motion, to either accept or reject the Southern Cone's offer of episcopal oversight and in doing so leave the Anglican Church of Canada, with the following outcome:

Vote "YES" = 475 (96% accepted the Southern Cone's offer)
Vote "NO" = 11 (2%)
"Abstain" from vote = 9 (2%)

A decisive result, which indicates a strong degree of unity and gives St John's the ability to move forward with the Southern Cone while being largely undivided. Rev. David Short, said the decision "closes the door on uncertainty, and opens the door to other uncertainties" as the possibilities of lengthy legal proceedings now await.

Being an Aussie and only in Vancouver for a limited time, in some ways I feel like an outsider at St John's (even though I work there). From that outside perspective, tonight I witnessed and joined-in to vote with a congregation who chose to define themselves as part of Christ's church, who together are desiring to honor God's word and seek the Lord first ahead of the possible legal, financial and leadership risks that lay ahead. It could be costly discipleship for St John's, but is there any other road to pick up a cross and follow Jesus down?

two (personal) firsts

2008-01-27T18:23:00.000-05:00

This winter we have embraced (or accepted) the cold and wet weather, and have gotten out on our bikes a whole lot more. Mostly for convenience in getting places since we don't have a car, but also for exercise and to enjoy the beautiful city in which we live. The beanie under the helmet, wind-proof gloves, a scarf and some new cold-weather active pants (for Andrew) make the 'fresh' conditions bearable and often enjoyable.

I am not sure what inspired us to do so, maybe it was the Long Way Down adventure that we just watched, which took Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on their bikes across fourteen international borders in Africa, but yesterday we did our first trans-national ride from Canada to the United States - first #1!

We stayed the night at Ken & Julie's cabin in Pt. Roberts Washington, got some reading for our classes done, watched two James Bond films from Ken's collection, cooked ourselves a Mexican meal and drank some cheap (but good) beer - a good time! We woke up to freezing weather and accumulating snow. So our #2 first was riding out of Pt. Roberts to Tsawwassen on the Canadian side in about an inch of snow. Sadly, we have no pictures to capture the experience. Imagine cars struggling for traction, and trying to stay very straight and upright as you peddled, otherwise the slip and slide would take over. Small steps of adventure...

"Canada not so safe: website"

2008-01-26T13:09:00.000-05:00

Apparently we aren't safe here...

"CANADIANS have been left bewildered by an Australian Government advisory warning travellers to be cautious when visiting their country.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Smart Traveller website warns potential tourists of terrorism, dangerous winter driving, heavy snow, ice and wind chills, as well as tornadoes, earthquakes and forest fires.

Canada is listed in its second-safest category while countries such as Chile, South Korea and Latvia are regarded as safer.

ABC online reported yesterday there had been no response from the Canadian Government but plenty of public reaction, with many residents wondering where Australia was sourcing its information.

There is no warning for Australia on Canada's Foreign Affairs website, except for an advisory to be wary of pickpockets and avoid demonstrations because they could turn violent, ABC online reported."

source: smh

I would be more inclined to go with the Canadian's advice, as someone has tried to pickpocket me here. Other dangers we have experienced/heard of:

the risk of freezing to death after Jessica's clothes were stolen from the university pool
being hit by a slap-shot hockey puck
starving to death due to the low minimum wage and high price of cheese
(and sadly and realistically) being Tazered to death in Vancouver International Airport

Sydney Visit

2008-01-11T13:30:00.001-05:00

Our four weeks in Sydney are quickly coming to an end. The trip has been a wonderful chance to bask in the summer sun unfilterd by a pesky ozone layer, enjoy some excellent and controversial cricket, talk long bushwalks through national parks and "shortcuts" through suburban backyards, and a truly delightful sail on Sydney Harbour. Of course, the reason we came in the first place was for Rob's wedding, which seems a very long time ago now with all the eating, drinking, and merrymaking that filled the remaining weeks. And, as a "souvenir" of sorts to inspire envy in our winter-bound friends, I have ignored the Australian skin-cancer ads and engaged remorselessly in tanning, at times without suncream.

While it has been wonderful to be in Sydney, it will also be good to be back with our friends in Vancouver and to recommence our studies; we both have challenging and exciting classes to tackle next term. Even though it is almost impossible to get our minds around the fact that the weather in Vancouver continues to be only about 2 degrees and raining, this jumping between summer and winter worlds means that we get swimming at Manly beach and skiing at Whistler within a week of each other, which is hard to beat!

re-claiming old photos (and memories)

2008-01-08T18:40:00.001-05:00

Our international lifestyle doesn't bode well for carting photo albums across the oceans. With some time on our hands in Sydney, we have been re-claiming some old photos (and all the memories that come with them), with my Dad's new scanner. Jess' parents have been doing this too, to fill their Christmas gift, a 'digital photo frame', with pics from yester-year too. Flashback...

[View the full-screen slideshow]

Rob & Bev's Wedding Day

2007-12-24T03:06:00.001-05:00

[View the full-screen slideshow]

Rob (my youngest brother) and Bev got married at St Peter's Anglican Church in East Lindfield on 22 December and celebrated with a reception at the International Tourism College at St Patrick's Estate in Manly.
It was great to see Rob & Bev make this committment to one another after being together for the last 4 years. The ceremony was joyous and full of praise for our Lord who gives us the gift of marriage, and the feast at the reception was a true celebration.
Jess and I MC'd the event. While we aren't natural comedians, we got a few laughs and people were very gracious in their comments on our efforts. Plus no one was offended. A great day... it's good to be in Sydney for it!

en-route: the long way (time) down

2007-12-15T12:13:00.001-05:00

We have been travelling for 26 hours now. Our bus driver was late, but comical. He told us that the current generation of young men has forced the US congress to consider installing sensors on the toilets of all inter-state buses and planes forcing guys to take a seat so that they "hit the hole" when doing the #1. We had just enough time for a burrito in Seattle airport before boarding Southwest to fly to Oakland and then onto ATA for the 5 hour flight to Honolulu. The dancing girls in grass skirts, who were meant to greet us with hibiscus lei's had gone home by 11:45pm.

After picking-up our bags an hour later, we had 4.5 hrs on our camping mattresses and pillows, in an airport which doesn't sleep. Ukulele music played all night over the loud speakers, lights stayed on, staff moved around us. I'm not sure how much actual sleep I got, but it was good to lie down, relax and close my eyes for a few hours.

Then from rags to riches (or "mud-slums" to "holidays by the sea-side") - Jess and I were the 3rd and 4th people to check-in - exit row seats locked-in, then the first to enter the Qantas Club. A trade-mark long and hot shower was enjoyed, followed by some local fruits (the pineapple and guava juice here rock) and some coffee, of course. No doubt some freebies will make it from the Club to our JetStar flight where the food is not so conveniently priced. Entry to the Qantas Club was worth every penny ;-) ... thank you Qantas!

Our plane has been delayed a little and the palm trees are blowing side ways, so we may be here for a little longer than expected - it's a good place to be stuck! So door to door, we are likely going to crack the 40 hour mark, that's a long way (time) down!

It seemed like a good idea at the time …

2007-12-13T22:00:00.001-05:00

In my year working as a travel agent, I would never have wanted to present a client an itinerary like the one I booked for Jess and I five months ago:

14 DEC 2007
Departs: Vancouver by Bus at 08:05
Arrives: SEA (Seattle) at 12:15
Departs: SEA (Seattle) at 15:40
Arrives: OAK (Oakland) at 17:45
Departs: OAK (Oakland) at 19:55
Arrives: HNL (Honolulu) at 23:35

15 DEC 2007
Departs: HNL (Honolulu) at 08:15

16 Dec 2007
Arrives: SYD (Sydney) at 15:50

Travel Summary …
4 hrs 10 mins on a bus
14 hrs 15 mins in airports (+ arrivals in SYD)
18 hrs 20 mins on planes
TOTAL TRAVEL TIME 36 hrs 45 mins

In the Xmas high-season, you do-what-you-have-to-do to use frequent flyer points (thanks Dad!) to get to your brothers wedding cheaply. I’m sure the night in HNL on camping mattresses will be… memorable…

We will be in SYD (recovering from our travels) until 12 January, give us a buzz at my folks place 91XX 7563 if you want to hang-out with us. It will be good to be back!

I'm procrastinating (a little)

2007-12-11T13:22:00.001-05:00

My Systematic Theology exam is done, now an assignment to finish before we take-off for Australia on Friday. The assignment for my Christian Education and Equipping class is to write a bible study booklet on the book of James. I have taught James twice now, with my Year 8 guys in 1997 and in Mexico over the last summer. Now it's time to see how this education and dwelling on James' message over the last 6 months can bring God's word alive even more as I write. I'll get to teach the series I am writing at Ekklesia starting in January, which I am really excited about.

While I'm looking forward to writing the assignment, I am stuck in a brief moment of distraction getting other stuff done - and in doing so, I found a great pic that my grandfather-in-law, Clyde, took on our trip to Victoria over the summer. Beautiful...

Time to get to work!

It’s a small (Anglican) world after all

2007-12-09T14:42:00.000-05:00

A few posts back, I reported on J.I. Packer's role in giving some Anglican parishes in Canada the option to “realign” themselves under the diocese of the Southern Cone in South America.

Yesterday, the conservative San Joaquin Episcopal diocese in California also voted to realign itself under the Southern Cone (CNN story). Which means, St John’s Shaughnessy that we attend in Vancouver, may become part of the same diocese as St Paul’s Bakersfield, the church where we were married. It’s a small, small world…

12 Dec Update - The Sydney Anglican's support the San Joaquin Episcopal diocese' move.

let it snow...

2007-12-02T21:55:00.001-05:00

First snowfall of the year - so beautiful to walk through the back streets of Shaughnessy to church this morning and enjoy the: quiet, peace, light and freshness that a new snow fall delivers.

More snow pics on Flickr... note the contrast with the 'Fall' pics I posted there a month ago.
as well as Nathan Tasker in-town for the Spice Girls World Tour kick-off (snapped practicing his 'sporty spice' routine)!

schism or realignment? prophecy, Packer and patience

2007-12-01T13:18:00.000-05:00

Last week was a significant one in the ongoing division that has been growing in the Anglican Church of Canada over some Bishops’ move to a ‘liberal understanding’ of some bible teachings, and in particular the blessing of gay unions, and consequently the ordination of homosexuals into the church.

The way forward for churches like St John’s Shaughnessy (that we attend), is to leave the oversight of the Anglican Church of Canada and come under the leadership of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America (based in Argentina), and directly under the leadership of a retired Bishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, who will leave the church and take up duties serving defecting Canadian churches for the Southern Cone. For St John’s church plant, St John’s Richmond, the decision has been made. But for St John’s Shaughnessy, who risks loosing it’s property that is owned by the Anglican church of Canada, the decision will be discussed and decided at their annual vestry meeting in February.

A key player in this way forward has been Regent College’ Dr. J.I. Packer, who delivered a speech last week to delegates of a meeting representing the frustrated churches. Dr. Packer, who was described as “a doctrinal Solomon” in regards to wisdom, spoke of the move as “not schism but realignment.” Packer’s speech includes his description of, or vision for, the Anglican communion – high ideals which have lead him to remain an Anglican and be a shepherd to Canadian Anglican’s in this time of crisis.

In 1984, Jim Packer wrote in Keep In Step With The Spirit of how to respond to a personal prophecy that a ‘prophet’ articulates for your life, Packer suggests the only response should be an openness of mind to the prophecy being fulfilled, and also to the prophecy not taking place at all, that is, no action on behalf of the receiver of the prophecy. Packer reflects on a prophecy given to him about why God may have brought him to Regent College:

“we are not to be led by the possibly deluded predictions of self-styled prophets. (I think in this connection of the certainly sincere charismatic prophet who told me in 1979 that God had not brought me to Vancouver to write books, as I supposed, but to lead Christian people through a time of great internal division in the city churches. Well, the churches seem much as they were in 1979, and here I sit writing this book.)” pg. 216

As it turns out, The Lord plans some things in advance (28 years in Packer' case), and through his Spirit gives his ‘prophets’ the message early. It looks like this prophecy was fulfilled, and God indeed brought his servant J.I. Packer to Vancouver, at least in part, to “lead Christian people through a time of great internal division.”

living courageously, running with the horses

2007-11-27T14:26:00.000-05:00

At times I think we live in a world where most people are pretty timid and only a few are game to take some risks and see what happens. This can happen in all areas of our lives: in our friendships, playing sport, while adventuring or travelling, in marriage, as a parenthood, in leadership (especially Christian leadership), in business or our jobs, and in our journey with the Lord. Eugene Peterson writes a stirring and almost poetic account depicting the battle that Jeremiah faced to live out the life that the Lord had install for him:

“Life is difficult, Jeremiah. Are you going to quit at the first wave of opposition? Are you going to retreat when you find out that there is more to life than finding three meals a day and a dry place to sleep at night? Are you going to run home the minute you find that the mass of men and women are more interested in keeping their feet warm than in living at risk to the glory of God? Are you going to live cautiously or courageously? I called you to live at your best, to pursue righteousness, to sustain a drive towards excellence. It is easier, I know, to be neurotic. It is easier to be parasitic. It is easier to relax in the embracing arms of the average. Easier, but not better. Easier, but not more significant. Easier, but not more fulfilling. I called you to a life of purpose far beyond what you think yourself capable of living and promised you adequate strength to fulfill your destiny. Now at the first sign of difficulty you are ready to quit. If you are fatigued by this run-of-the-mill crowd of apathetic mediocrities, what will you do when the real race starts, the race with the swift and determined horses of excellence? What is it you really want Jeremiah, do you want to shuffle along with the crowd, or are you going to run with the horses?” *

Jeremiah’s life became the answer “I’ll run with the horses.”

I have a good friend that is living courageously and taking a risk. He’s got a baby on the way, and he’s just walked away from his safe salaried job to pursue a dream that’s been in the pipeline for a while, starting up his own travel consultancy. The road ahead for him will be rocky, but I’m confident he wont give up at the first sign of trouble as many do. But, if you’re an Australian reader, he could sure use your help, by giving him a call and giving him (instead of the big-guns he used to work for at Flight Centre) the opportunity to arrange a flight, hotel, tour, cruise or travel insurance for you. I think it’s worth supporting someone who’s living courageously! Contact:

Evan Snow
Travel Director
33 Degrees Worldwide Pty Ltd
56 Berry St North Sydney 2060
P: +61 2 9455 0535
E: evan@33degrees.com.au

*Run with the Horses: the Quest for Life at its Best
Pg 18, drawing from Jeremiah 18

What are you thankful for?

2007-11-26T23:57:00.001-05:00

wild boar shank at a great Italian restaurant
plenty of Fat Tire Amber Ale
a backyard hot tub
a bike ride with my wife along the Idaho River
going to a pro hockey game
an incredible feast
watching college football
playing Xbox with the men of the family (and the gay cat)
free alcohol on an American domestic flight
time with Jess’ uncle’s family who graciously hosted us for American Thanksgiving
Jess’ parents and grandparents joining the party, driving all the way from CA
and the opportunity to travel to Boise Idaho to enjoy it all!

This was my second thanksgiving in the USA, although since the first was spent riding roller coasters with a bunch of Aussies, Jess’ bridesmaids and her brother the day before I got married 4 years ago, I count this thanksgiving as my first.

I didn’t know what to expect, and am still sketchy on what “Thanksgiving” is beyond the survival of the pilgrims after they survived the Mayflower, and the turkey eating and football watching that is enjoyed to commemorate the pilgrims survival.

“What are you thankful for?”
I had my answer prepared, I thought it was part of the tradition to be asked around the banquet table, but I never was asked, and neither was anyone else.

My impression is, that America doesn’t get much time to ponder or answer this important question anymore. The Boise malls opened at 1am, only 1 hour after the “Thanksgiving” day was over. 80% of the sales that are made during the “Thanksgiving Sales” are made by 10am – I’m not surprised, after nine hours of shopping, I’m sure 80% of the shoppers would be pretty tired and would be thankful for going home to left-over turkey.
Maybe I don’t get it… but with so many things to buy tomorrow, it seems much harder to be thankful for what we have today.

The day before the trip, I had to read and write a response to a fellow students paper, written on the topic of “Measuring Wealth and Poverty”. I wrote my response knowing full well that a glorious week of indulgence and abundance lay ahead and also knowing that the paper I had just read was calling the church back to a “moral vision of poverty as manifested in the Eucharist”. That is, in our poverty, as sinful human beings before a Holy and wonderful God, we are brought to our knees as impoverished people, where being rich or poor (financially and socially) doesn’t matter, as together we receive the body and the blood of the one who became poor so that we could become rich (this is no prosperity gospel). It is when we are on our knees receiving God’s grace together, that we can be gracious towards one another, and lift one another out of our economic and social poverty.

As I emailed the paper off, I couldn’t help but write a few off-the-record words to the author, sharing my experience of reading and responding to his paper in light of the rich week that lay before me. I was very aware of what I didn’t want to give up – my entitlement, my comfort, my security, my opportunities – the trappings of living this-side of any measure of poverty – yet knowing that the “conceptualising and measuring of poverty is a sombre yet important duty. It must start with the sad recognition that the pervasive reality of poverty is a manifestation of sin.” Is it my sinfulness that plays a role in others being poor?

I am not yet ready to deal with the reality of the quote that the paper ended with:
“not to share our wealth with the poor is theft from the poor”. From what I understand, the church fathers, who walked the journey of faith closer to Jesus’ time than us held similar convictions. I do think however, that taking plenty of time to ponder and answer that key question maybe the first step to loving our neighbor who we kneel beside in Eucharistic poverty.
So, what are you thankful for?

Sydney: from spectacular to uninhabitable?

2007-11-15T01:46:00.000-05:00

Read all about it:
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=1395

Pessimistic? Realist? Sensationalist? Prophetic?

I do fear for the reef...

Is Kevin'07 or Howard's 'Go for Growth' going to help?

Trans-Gendered Prose

2007-11-02T13:02:00.000-04:00

While googling something only distantly related, I came across the “gender genie” http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php, which will analyse a passage of writing and determine, based upon word usage, whether the author was a man or a woman. So, for fun, I put some of my writing through the genie. The result – I (jessica) write like a man!