For a lack of better title for this blog and a support raising idea, I'm calling it Words in Wood. :P
I am selling wooden cut outs of words out of pine wood. It can spell your name, your title, team name, or whatever like "I<3JC." The letters are approximately 3-4" tall and 2-3" wide.
(cardboard box not included)
# of letters:
-8 or less = $20
-9 to 15 = $30
-16 and up = that's a long name
-primed for painting = $5
I can also do custom work including symbols and numbers. Please contact me for custom work with a sketch. These are HAND MADE with love and prayer. :) They'll be one of a kind, the only one in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE, and it'll be yours! :D
These
can be gifts, desktop ornaments, wall decorations, or whatever you want
it to be. :) You might even just want to see your name in 3-D!
If you live in Toronto, I'll hand deliver (what service!). If you live outside of Toronto, I'll be bringing the orders to training camp. For payment, please wait until I tell you that I have made your order.
So these are the countries I'll be in while the rest of the world keeps on truckin'.
October '09: Guatemala
"...I saw a sign in a hotel saying that if there's anything I forgot, feel free to call the front service desk to ask. That's when I realized that I had forgotten the capital of Guatemala. I called front desk, and they DID NOT KNOW! I had to call two other hotels to find out. Oh, and for those who are wondering--the capital of Guatemala is Guatemala City..."
November '09: Nicaragua
A group from my ex-church (I make it sound like a break up) went there for a Habitat trip two or more years ago. I think they said it was pretty hot there, and I lent to someone on the team all my dri-fit type clothing to help with the perspiration. I'll be bringing those shirts with me. Then if anyone recognizes the shirts, they might think they know me.
December '09: Nigeria or Cameroon
Lions and elephants and monkeys, oh my! I root for these two countries whenever they are playing in the World Cup, but I have not seen them get too far. I hope to play soccer with the locals when I'm there.
January '10: Ghana
A teacher I used to work with is originally from here. She's a great teacher and mother, so by process of assumption(?), everyone I meet in Ghana will be a teacher and/or a mother.
February '10: PIONEER AFRICA
Twice during your World Race, your
team will take a month Ask the Lord for a new mission field. He may
lead you to a location developing, growing and booming or He may lead
you to a land untouched by the World Race or even Christianity as a
whole. It will be a time to listen to the voice of the Lord and, with
true abandon, follow Him into the wild blue yonder.
March '10: Romania
Romania mania! I met a kid from Romania once. His name was Vlad. He called me Mr. William.
April '10: Ukraine
Kramer to Newman: "Ukraine is weak."
Ukrainian on subway: "Ukraine is no weak. She is strong!"
Kramer: "Listen, buddy, we're trying to play a game here."
Ukrainian: "Ukraine is game to you?!?!" flips Risk game board over, game pieces go flying everywhere.
May '10: PIONEER EASTERN EUROPE
Twice during your World Race, your team will take a month Ask the
Lord for a new mission field. He may lead you to a location
developing, growing and booming or He may lead you to a land untouched
by the World Race or even Christianity as a whole. It will be a time
to listen to the voice of the Lord and, with true abandon, follow Him
into the wild blue yonder.
June '10: Vietnam
The friend I've known the longest is Vietnamese. I currently have a friend who's in Vietnam at the moment, but don't think she'll be there by this time. Unless she misses her flight over and over and over and over and over...
July '10: Cambodia
My brother had a staged wedding here while on a business trip. He told me that the fruit is really cheap, as are pirated movies.
August '10: Thailand
I told a local in Railay Beach in Krabi that I'd be back next year. It's been two years now, but I am going back. Probably not to the same beach, but I am going back. It's here that I fell in love with climbing and diving, and ultimately, travelling. :)
Jay made a mistake, but I did not mind. When he was on my staff at UCLA he had the task of developing Lew Alcindor's inside skills when Lew was a freshman. Jay was imaginative in creating drills that kept Lew's attention, but the big man's knees started to get sore. Lew told the trainer, but he did not tell Jay. We had to back off of the jumping drills for a while. Jay's mistake was one of commission, not omission. It was the right kind of mistake to make.
The person who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success. I expected my players to make mistakes, as long as they were mistakes of commission. A mistake of commission happens when you are doing what should be done but don't get the results you want, such as anticipating a pass by the opposing player but not actually picking it off.
I didn't want mistakes of omission. That happens when you are not doing something you should be doing, such as failing to cut off the baseline. I would rather have a player try to make a play and fail than be afraid to try.
I wanted my players to be doers. I told them not to be afraid to act. The greatest mistake of all is not taking action when action is needed. The team that makes the most mistakes usually wins, if those mistakes aren't careless.
You can make mistakes and not be a failure if you give it your full effort. Effort includes both preparation and execution. You are never a failure if you gave it your all, unless you blame others for your mistakes. When you place blame, you're making excuses; when you're making excuses, you can't evaluate yourself; and without self-evaluation, failure is inevitable.
You are going to make mistakes. Just make sure you make ther right mistakes.
Some final thoughts on my study on "personal walk (in community)" at my small group this week:
I believe that your personal walk is (in) Faith. Without
faith, we wouldn't be who we are right now: going to church, leading various
ministries, serving others, etc. It's when your faith in God grows, you become
closer to Him.
Faith begins with knowledge; you can't believe what you
don't know. There must be some propositional knowledge of the object to whom
your faith focuses. Then you must assent that the knowledge is true. It's one
thing to have knowledge; it is something else to believe it. I know a lot of
things that I don't believe. (I stole this part from some bible study website I googled)
For me, whenever I struggle with other people, or see others
struggling, my faith takes a hit. My faith in people or my faith in God is
rattled when I see injustice, hypocrisy, or even myself and how weak and sinful
we all are. While I continue to believe in the God that is our Lord and Master,
it can be difficult to have strong faith in such situations.
Thus, I believe it is important that a Christian community
needs to not only share the Godly teachings and values, but live them on a
daily basis. When there's someone who seems to be struggling spiritually, or
living not-so-Godly, we have a communal responsibility to them.
Let me introduce you to one of my teammates... Bill Bush!
There are now four members on the 2009 October WR including me. Bill, Nicole and Amy. I just read Bill's blog on how he was called to the missions field, and WR in particular, and it's such a testament of faith and service to God. You can check it out here: http://09wr1001.theworldrace.org/?filename=how-i-was-called-to-the-mission-field1
So, looks like so far, I'm the only one on the 2009 October WR trip. :)
Originally, I wasn't even going to share to the entire congregation, but only to my people that I actually know and talk to on a regular basis. I didn't want to seem like I was trying to get money off people I don't even talk to on Sundays.
When I had shared that notion with my small group leader, Jon, he pointed out that by me sharing, not only will I get more support from the church, but that I would be a testament and encouragement to others how God calls us to ministry, to serve others, and to be used for His purpose. So, I thought and talked to my pastor, Tim, about sharing about my trip
on this past Sunday after service. I was kinda going for the 1 year count down going on
at church or something.
Tim brought up a good point, however, that made me postpone the sharing. Using baseball playoffs as an analogy, teams that usually do better in post season are the teams that end the season with a positive momentum. A team could have had the overall better record, but if they lost 8 of their last 10 games going into the series, they have a lesser chance of winning against a hotter team with a worse record.
So if I were to share now, raise money, get lots of support, encouragement, etc, it's all good. But if 6, 7, or 8 months later, things may get stagnant b/c the trip is still some time away. It might be more effective if I were to wait a little longer, so that it doesn't get lost in the back of people's minds a few months later. It would be better for people to support me financially and prayerfully and having me go in a month or two or even less.
I'm still going to be blogging, sharing about World Race, and sending out support letters until then.
We were asked to write a blog about how we felt before leaving on this mission trip. Here is what I'm expecting...
Although I feel excited about the trip that's starting in
just over a year's time, I can't help but feel not ready. I think I know what
to expect, but then again, I have no idea what is going to happen. Sure, you
can read up on the blogs of current and past members and watch their videos.
That's great and all...but that's THEIR adventure, not mine.
I can sort of picture the similar experiences I might
encounter, but like the blind men that each described an elephant, how and what
you perceive differs from one person to the next. So that gets me to ask,
"Am I really going to do this?"
I will be living in different time zones, sleeping in new
and strange places, eating new foods, all with a group of people I haven't even
met or know the names of. I feel that all of that and more I can handle. It's
the unknowns that I am not so certain. What will God show me? Where will He
lead me? How will He change me? How will I live the rest of my life after? What
will I need to do?
I also expect to experience certain things with my team and
other WR members. I expect us to have moments of friction when little or big
things may irritate one another. At these times, I expect that we will be able
to discuss it, and prayerfully build each other up. If we ever need to "rebuke"
one another, it will be out of love for one another.
We'll also experience great joy, love and care for one
another. If you can imagine all the great times and laughter you've ever had
with friends and family on trips, cottages, parties, etc, and combine all of
those memories and emotions into a giant ball, that's what I think everyone
will experience. Amazing photos, unique experiences and the adventure of a life
time all for God's Glory.
We were asked to write a blog about how we were called to this mission trip. Here is my story...
I had not really been a traveller. The only "travelling" I have done were to cities within 6 hours of driving, or flying to Vancouver or San Jose to see friends or family. It wasn't until March of 2007, at the last minute, that I decided to meet up with a friend who was already in Thailand. She somehow convinced me to come and as soon as I landed in Bangkok I got bit by the biggest, lethal travel bug whose only antidote is more travels.
I felt like I was on the show, Amazing Race, trying to find my way into the city my friend was staying, searching for cabs, holding maps, and trying to find anyone who could speak half-descent English. (Isn't it funny when we go to other countries, we expect them to understand our English, but when others come to North America, we're impatient with those that can't speak our language?) I went to Australia for 3 weeks after, to satisfy my cravings of the two new adventures I picked up in Thailand: rock climbing and open water diving. I don't know why I get so much enjoyment out of being away from sea level. :D
I believe it was when I came back from Australia, that my small
group leader mentioned World Race to me. He knew a friend who was
going on it and thought I might be interested too. I was very much for the idea, and couldn't believe such a thing existed. It was as if this trip was made for me! Everything about it sounded incredible. I wished I could go on it right away, but I was starting school in September, and I really needed to have something completed in my life first.
On my first and last short term missions trip with Habitat for Humanities, I don't feel that I served God
in the mission field that much. While I did learn a lot and it opened up the doors
for me to be more active with Habitat, but service wise, I received more than I
gained. World Race is a great opportunity to give more than receive this time around. :)
I am confident that God wants me to go. In fact, I am
confident that he wants EVERYONE to go. Not necessarily on the World Race, or even
across the ocean. But to simply GO and serve others; to love God and love
His people and to make disciples of all nations. He has called us to go, and I am
finally saying 'yes' rather than 'I'll go when I can afford to take time away from my
life.' My life can wait. This world can't.
(cardboard box not included)
I can sort of picture the similar experiences I might
encounter, but like the blind men that each described an elephant, how and what
you perceive differs from one person to the next. So that gets me to ask,
"Am I really going to do this?"
d thought I might be interested too. I was very much for the idea, and couldn't believe such a thing existed. It was as if this trip was made for me! Everything about it sounded incredible. I wished I could go on it right away, but I was starting school in September, and I really needed to have something completed in my life first.