I've been getting a lot of positive feedback on our current message series, 'Friends on Facebook.' If you don't attend True North, we've been talking about how our online interactions and behaviors are changing how we think and act in real life.
The NY Times has been publishing some great stuff on this topic lately. Here's another article REALLY worth reading if you suspect your internet activity might be compulsive.
How are you doing with this? Are you justifying the amount of time you spend online? Are you telling yourself (and others) things like "I can quit any time." ?
Read on. And ...
A Better Job than Jobs
I've been doing a little ruminating on the life and death of Steve Jobs and it's only just now occurring to me how much this guy's work has impacted my life. Driving to work today, I listened to a podcast - a word added to our lexicon to describe spoken word content placed on iTunes to be downloaded to and played back on iPods. My iPhone is like an appendage to me. It keeps my contacts, my calendar and innumerable other apps and digital helpers. And when I write a sermon or an email, or a blog post like this ...
Hurricanes and Power Loss
I recall an instance from several years ago while Jen and I were still living in our first home. I was in my kitchen and I heard a loud 'bang' followed by what appeared to be flashes of light seen through the front window. It was daytime so I knew it had to be a significant light source.
I walked out of my house and saw a full size tractor-trailor about 4 doors down from me. The roof of the container had snagged an electrical wire which had snapped and now lay beneath the truck, sparking on the ...
Sunrise
I was woken up this morning at around 4:15 by the sound of my daughter gently crying as she entering my bedroom. She’s basically been in the pool non-stop since school got out and her dedication has yielded a painful case of swimmer’s ear.
A couple of children’s Tylenol and a quick prayer got her settled back down, but I had an unusually hard time falling back asleep. It could have been that I was thirsty, or that my back was sore, or that I was hot and feeling angry at myself for not pushing my wife harder on ...
I love Thanksgiving. I really really dig this holiday. I’ve got this amazing set of memories from the Thanksgiving Day dinners at my grandparents’ house when I was a kid. I grew up in a small family and that meant that the locations, people and key ingredients for these events were fairly stable. Boring? Not hardly. My brother and I still have some great daydreams thinking about those days.
It’s funny what sticks out to me now. The unusual details. Like the fact that King Kong always seemed to be on TV that afternoon. I’m talking about the original 1933 black and white version with Fay Wray. The real deal. The ’76 remake with Jeff Bridges was passable, but there’s just something about those stop-motion claymation battle scenes with the dinosaurs that fascinated me. But I digress.
So I learned a LOT on this trip and I have many hopes and dreams about what will come next for Ecuador and True North, but I think the best way to tell the story is with pictures. I took LOTS.
Here are a few, with captions.
This is at the Compassion Project in Quito. Hundreds of kids, all incredibly cute. We spent a great afternoon playing and interacting with them, and seeing firsthand the amazing work that Compassion International is doing in this city.
Two weeks ago I had a pretty unique opportunity – I got to travel to Ecuador along with about 12 other pastors from different parts of the country to see the work being done there by an outfit called Compassion International. They are best known for being a ministry through which American individuals or families can sponsor a child in a developing country. For $38 a month, the child gets schooling, food, clothes, medicine and a real sense of hope.
I’ve seen all this firsthand. It’s no joke.
Compassion does all its work through local churches. No church? No Compassion project. So Compassion is partnering with an outfit called Stadia (whom we are loosely affiliated with) who plant churches. Compassion and Stadia put this trip together to visit some areas with no church and no project, to get some American pastors behind the idea of helping to pay for a building, a well, some supplies – basically everything needed to get something started from nothing.
It’s an exciting idea, and you’re going to be hearing more about it as we ponder what our level of involvement will be.
For now, here’s a couple of vids and pics I took while I was there.
I'm tkng a personal retreat & will B unplugging from all social media 'til Saturday the 11th. Humbly suggest U make some time 2 do likewise. 6 days ago
Recently published on The Right Thing: "A Movie Preview Worth Watching" Ongoing conversation on digital communnication. http://www.bertcrabbe.com6 days ago
Phil: Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster?
Mrs. Lancaster: I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen. #groundhogday6 days ago
Just published on The Right Thing: "A Movie Preview Worth Watching" Continuing our discussion on digital communnication. http://www.bertcrabbe.com6 days ago
It’s funny what sticks out to me now. The unusual details. Like the fact that King Kong always seemed to be on TV that afternoon. I’m talking about the original 1933 black and white version with Fay Wray. The real deal. The ’76 remake with Jeff Bridges was passable, but there’s just something about those stop-motion claymation battle scenes with the dinosaurs that fascinated me. But I digress.