A pinprick of light

A pinprick of light. You flew millions of years, avoiding asteroids and planets, meteors and black holes. Racing, racing to be here at precicely the moment where, in the shadow of my sun, I will glance so briefly and you appear in the corner of my view and fill my soul with awe. The purpose of another planet's renegade sunbeam.

Wordle

Click on the Wordle to make it big!

I just found this cool website, www.wordle.net (via www.twitter.com/therebelution) that'll make a cool graphic (like the one above) from a block of text or link that you give it. I made this by putting in the link to my blog.

I actually made one from my twitter first, but didn't like the words it came up with, and figured since the bulk of my blog is from my time on DTS, I might get something that looked a little more meaningful.

In fact, these 'wordles' challenge me. Do these words reflect my life? If they do reflect my life is that a good thing? It's great that 'God' appears as the biggest word here, but His name didn't appear at all on my twitter one. A lot of these words define themes that resonate with me (as I would hope coming from my blog!) it's interesting to see that concepts like 'time', 'want', 'witnessing', 'nervous' and 'encouraged' all appear. I don't think this goes by exactly how many times you use a word (there's a typo in there that I'm sure I haven't made that many times!). Anyway, I thought it was fun and looked cool.

Current Playlist

First Day of My Life: Bright Eyes
Broken Strings: James Morrison

Don't you love it when bloggers come back from a long silence with something short and seemingly insignificant? If there's any readers left out there...much love...I'll try and write again soon. Blessings!

Encouraging

I'm aware last week's post was a little on the down side. I truly have a much more positive outlook this week...my exams are over, I'm back at work and just generally looking forward to summer and looking forward to moving to Spain!

I just wanted to tell a little story. As the title of this post suggests, the story is one that encouraged me. Basically, yesterday someone told me that becoming a Christian changed their life and was a defining point in their making a career change into a career they'd always wanted but thought might be out of their reach or too stressful.

To be fair, it's not that unusual for someone to tell me that becoming a Christian changed their life. God changes a lot of lives and I know many people whose lives have been changed even quite dramatically by meeting Jesus. What was unusual in this case was that I had only just met this person and (unless God told them) they didn't know that I was a Christian. The comment he made was completely within the context of our discussion, simple and very honest.

I really felt for him in that moment because I know, for me, when the opportunity comes to share something like that there's so many mixed feelings - I'm excited, I'm praying silently, wordlessly, that I won't mess up, I'm nervous and often tongue-tied. I often feel very vulnerable in that moment because I have seen the times when the glaze comes over people's eyes or they don't want to speak to you anymore. That doesn't make me not want to share, but it does make me nervous and very aware that I just have to trust in God to look out for me.

But at the same time, I was encouraged. I still love to meet other Christians because it doesn't happen to me all that often outside of churches or church-related events. I was also encouraged just to see someone quietly sharing their faith - witnessing to the change God had made in their life and glorifying God when they could have easily left Him out of the story.

I'm praying that God will continue to work in me so that I can witness effectively to people I meet. At the moment I am praying about witnessing, rather than evangelism, because to me, witnessing is more about saying "I saw God do this" whereas evangelism is more specifically about sharing the Gospel with people. Both are great things to do and I do want to do both. Today though, I'm thinking about witnessing, and how I can share what I've seen and experienced God doing with christians and non-christians alike, to the glory of God. I don't have the answers, but I'm trusting that God will, bit-by-bit, build me up in this area.

Looking back on a year

I was a little unsure whether to write this post today, as the anniversary of my DTS graduation or on Tuesday, after I officially complete my first year of university by taking my last exam. I went for the date that's closer to my heart...

I can't believe it's been a year since I graduated, it feels like no time at all because my time in Australia continues to be in the forefront of my mind. Often though, it's not the lectures from DTS that stay with me as much as the community, the friendship and the time I spent with God over there. In all honesty, I miss being with YWAM so much. But that doesn't make me want to go back, because I don't believe this is a season for that.

University is a struggle for me in many ways. The learning style of university doesn't seem intuitive to me and I struggle to enjoy doing my work even though I find the subject interesting. The main issue I have with the work is the lack of interaction with others - I'm a social person and a verbal processer...I even enjoy watching TV more if I'm with someone else! WI'm doing the work to get a degree. I want a degree so I can get a better job, not neccessarily better-paid, but one that will allow me to use the talents I do have to their fuller potential. Sometimes I question that motivation but I only had a finite number of options and this was the best one at the time and it still is. I am interested in my subject, I have parents who support me personally and financially in persuing my education, I get to spend a year in Spain as part of my studies...I am truly blessed. And I am thankful.

So I try to make the most of it, remembering that sometimes the journey isn't all that fun, but I'm moving forward, and none of my other options would really mean moving forward. And then also remembering that actually, parts of the journey are great fun, even now.

In a couple of months time I get to move to Spain to study in Granada for a year. Again, this terrifies me, but also is exciting and an opportunity to face a challenge I really want to face - living & studying in a foreign language. One of my biggest hopes for this time is that I'll find the joy in the situation more than I have done this year, that it won't just be a challenge to be completed, but a season to be enjoyed.

I've not had a bad year, not by any stretch of the imagination. But remembering that the previous 12 months included doing the best job I've ever had followed by living in Australia and being a missionary for 6 months, it was going to be a struggle to match that!

So...here's to 09/10 and thanking God that He will continue to give me His joy, and His joy will be my strength!

Quit Project 365

That's right. I have officially fallen off the wagon. I've not stopped taking photos, I've just decided to go back to my old style of hobby photography which is to take no photos for a while then take lots all at once. It's what suits me. It's what I enjoy doing. I got to the point where it became a chore and I wasn't pleased with the results - there were too many half hearted images which I only took to tick off another day on the calendar. I still love the idea of 365 so maybe that'll happen one day, but 2009 was clearly not my year.

The photography continues...

Rising from the dead?

Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. "Don't tell a soul what you saw. After the Son of Man rises from the dead, you're free to talk." They puzzled over that, wondering what on earth "rising from the dead" meant.
Mark 9:9-10 (The Message)

To me, this passage sums up perfectly the disciples inability to understand as Jesus prepared them for his death and resurrection throughout his ministry. It makes me aware of some of the times I've done the same thing - failed to comprehend what God means because I'm failing to believe what He's actually saying. I know I do that sometimes, and I wouldn't be surprised if I do it more often than I realise.

He is risen indeed! Happy Easter (again)!

Hot Drinks

I've recently got involved with a ministry to the homeless once a month. The basic idea is to take hot drinks and snacks to Big Issue sellers in the city centre on a Saturday morning. (For those that don't know, the Big Issue is a magazine sold by homeless people in the UK and various other countries to earn money).

I LOVE doing the project so much!

It's a simple idea and it doesn't take long, but it's great to be able to offer something to these guys (it's mainly men, but a few women). It's also good to just hear their stories and be reminded of the problems of poverty even in our own affluent society.

Today, we also got talking to a young mormon missionary, which was pretty interesting. He's just moved to the city and doesn't really know his way around yet. There's a chance we might be seeing him again, which would be cool.

Has anyone else ever noticed that when you go out with the intention of just meeting a simple need and talking to people, walls just seem to break down and conversation comes so quickly? And, with it being Easter, what a wonderful thing to know that Jesus has brought new life for each and every one of us! I'll be praying that the people I met today experience this new life with the God who created them and loves them so much.

Happy Easter & God bless you!

Twitter

Some people don't 'get' Twitter. I love it. It's basically the status function of Facebook with a 140 character limit per post. My twitter is on the side bar of this blog and as you can see, I post there more often than I post here! I haven't given up on this blog though, sporadic as it has undoubtedly become I will be posting again.

CADBURY DAIRY MILK GOING FAIRTRADE!

I am very excited about this.

Linkage (and more)

Cadbury are the first major chocolate company to provide a Fairtrade product. Not only that, but they are doing it by switching their flagship Dairy Milk bar. Certification should be reached by the end of summer this year.

I don't need to point out what a major milestone this is in the journey of seeing the end to modern day slavery. The cocoa industry is one that has been implicated time and time again in use of forced labour, child labour, poorly paid labour. Cadbury's decision to switch this one chocolate bar to Fairtrade will triple Ghana's Fairtrade cocoa market!

Furthermore, it is proof that consumer power really does make a difference, and a massive opportunity for consumers to put their consumer power into action. From the end of summer this year, almost every corner store, petrol station etc. etc. in the UK and many more across the globe will be stocking a Fairtrade chocolate bar. So here is my challenge to all (3) of my blog readers: If you haven't already - go Fairtrade, and challenge others to do the same. Stop buying any chocolate bars that are not Fairtrade. If the public get behind Cadbury on this, it won't be long before the other chocolate companies have to follow suit.

I think I've mentioned on this blog before that I don't see Fairtrade as the whole answer to the problems in the chocolate industry. For starters, it requires a very different production set-up than the one used by many chocolate manufacturers. But, at the moment it seems to be the best thing out there, though I'd be interested to see if the Rainforest Alliance is chosen as the certification of choice by any of the others.

Either way, this story encourages me afresh that things really can change. We can see the end of the constant injustice and oppression suffered by many around the world, injustice and oppression that so often occurs to provide us with cheap luxuries. Things shouldn't be that way. They don't have to be that way.

Bird on a chimney

Safari, Spotify & the Story of Stuff

Safari
I'm experimenting with using Safari instead of IE. It's better in some ways (those graphics I posted actually look right viewed in Safari) but not so good in others (I haven't found certain toolbars/options that I have set up on IE). Overall, I quite like it but I'm not fully switched, at least not yet.

Spotify
Free music streaming in the UK. I've been using this for a few weeks. There's a few audio adverts but they really don't intrude, they just get put in between two songs every now and then (I'd say only about 3 an hour, max). www.spotify.com

The Story of Stuff



This video is about 20 minutes long, but I really enjoyed watching it. It was course reading for one of my modules this semester (videos as reading = excellent). Anyway, there's one or two aspects of it that I didn't like but overall I think there's a lot of food for thought there.

The main point of the video is how much waste our consumer culture creates, and how much of this is intentional. It also talks about the 'hidden cost' of a lot of the cheap goods we buy and states "We don't actually pay for what we buy". It's true and it's horrific. So much stuff, cheap and expensive, is made by businesses with unethical practices. Honestly, it seems little better than stealing to me. And yet...what will it take to get away from this? Fair Trade and such initiatives are a step in the right direction, but there's still so much more to do.

I hate that my lifestyle is built on the exploitation of the Earth and many of it's people. I love the luxuries I enjoy, but the reality is that western lifestyles are not sustainable, and frankly, aren't fair. So what can I do about it...?

"I know I've smiled upon injustice as I've washed my hands of blame
and in my selfishness I've lived for all that I could gain
While those with nothing never once complained"
-Pete James

hmm...still not quite happy with the lettering. However, I have always loved this photo.

Australia

Project 365

I've heard of this a few times, but now that I have some internet friends doing it at the same time, I've finally decided to do Project 365.

The premise is pretty simple - take a photo a day for a year. The uploading part is optional I guess, but to me it's a pretty important part of the fun. At the end of the year, you have a little album.

I'm uploading my photos onto Flickr. They'll probably usually upload everyday, but sometimes I'll upload a bunch at once. Go here to see my Project 365 set!

Also, it's not too late to join in! Just start from today. If you want you can always do the first few days of next year too, or leave it at December 31st. If you don't think you'll make a year, why not a month? Or do a Project 52 and do one a week (that's 7 times less photos to take!!) The Flickr group I've joined to keep me going is here. Look through their photos too, there's already some great shots.

Oh, and Happy New Year =)