So it’s that time of year again when all the churches in the country move into VBS mode (we actually call it Camp Cornerstone here, doesn’t sound quite as scary to me, but doubt the kids care what the name is, they always have a blast). Anyway, last night was the kick off for this year and as usually it was all hands on deck fantastic. I really doubt the kids have any idea what-so-ever how much work goes into pulling off Camp Cornerstone, but I do, and the time and effort put in by the staff and volunteers was well worth the excitement on 200+ faces last night. There is a lot planned for the rest of the week and I know they will have a blast while learning about Jesus, our faith, and how to live a life devoted to Christ. Above are just a tiny few shots from the opening set last night, others will be posted by the crew of photogs we had on hand last night. The sign of the day though goes to Mike Fisher with “Sock Puppets are Real” on his guitar… nice!
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I love it when the church actually is the church. Paul had such a desire to get to the unreached nations of the world that he probably died on his way to Spain, not in retirement, but with a passion to reach Spain and the world beyond for Christ. There are many things and purposes for the local church, but one undeniable charge to us from Matthew 28 is to tell those people who have never heard about Christ, the great news of salvation.
This week our church sent the latest team over to Uganda. After commissioning them on Sunday in the photo above, they were off to Atlanta for 16 hours of flight time through several countries. We are partnering with a local church in Buloba, Uganda to literally help build the church over there. It has been such a great long term, ongoing effort, and I know everyone that has gone to Africa has come back with a great exhilaration for what God is doing in Uganda.
If you would like to follow their blog posts while they are over there for the next week, you can read their posts on their blogs at Lee Cadden and Brian Johnson. Some photos from Uganda taken from Lee’s blog are below, the sunset is looking over Lake Victoria in Uganda, very near where they are staying. Be sure to check out both of their blogs for the latest.
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How often do you get a chance to shoot your worship leader, not often enough right? Yesterday I had a chance to do a quick photo shoot with my creative / worship leader here at Cornerstone to do some head shots for his blog and online profiles. It has taken me about 10 years to realize how much I enjoy shooting people in addition to animals and aircraft, and before some PETA and FBI office starts calling, of course I am referring to photography (for those who think I am kidding, some day I will post my story about my run in with the FBI in Memphis for taking photos).
Photography is one of those funny creative areas where you think you never get anything right and it always looks bad until you get into the dark room and see that you did actually accomplish something. I do have a few photo shoots coming up and Brian’s was just part of a longer shoot I had told him I would do when this new year rolled around. So far it has just been to cold, but this week I did manage to get some new head shots in and wanted to post them here.
Next week I will be doing some head shots for Rob with Marth’s Trouble. If you haven’t heard Martha’s Trouble live yet and you are going to be near by you should check them out, great stuff. In the mean time… here is Brian Johnson (or bslash as he likes to be called). Which one is your favorite (yes I know they are not numbered, just wing it)?
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I read a post the other day from Brian Johnson called Random Acts Of Kindness // sounds like a cop-out and pretty much lifted my title here right off his blog. (For the purposes of continuing his discussion, I feel it necessary to first make the disclaimer that the title are his words, not mine, thanks bro.) I figured a comment on his blog post would take up to much space and just decided to write it out here. I love listening to or reading articles that are thought provoking and inspirational, but in my mind I usually come back to, so that’s great, but how do you do that. Many of us have listened to great sermons on living scripture and walked away from the experience thinking, ok great, now what. So here is a beginning to my thought process, in 5 steps of course.
1. The Whole Idea is More Difficult
This is not to say that Brian’s post was incomplete, I don’t think that was really the purpose, but it did make me think, yeah, now what, or even, why should we think making this part of our lifestyle in the first place?
Random acts of kindness make it seem like what your life is about has nothing to do about kindness and only randomly will you offer an act of kindness to another individual. You recognize that it is a good thing, but its not really what you do€¦its just a random act… the whole idea [thought-out, and well-planned acts of kindness] is much more difficult.
Much more difficult indeed. Random acts of kindness are all the rage possibly because they are easier to successfully achieve, sometimes (maybe most of the time) require small amounts of time and money, and once completed, leaves no further obligation of any kind. So how do you do thought-out and well planned acts of kindness, and really, and as I said above, why are you doing this in the first place?
I mean really, we have a lot going on each day and just as the saying goes, nice guys finish last, not a business principle being taught in many MBA programs right now. The word kindness does appears 59 times in the [NIV] Bible, my favorite being the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
2. Practicing Kindness is a Lifestyle
So there, apparently we are supposed to practice kindness. So what does it take to do this? I would say, time. The most precious resource we have is really what it takes.
- Who is the person (or organization)
- What is your relationship
- and most of all what are the needs, wants, or troubles this person is dealing with in life
Nothing to me says I don’t know a thing about you or your organization (or case to) more than giving them something they don’t need or want. Why bother giving a millionaire a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant… if you know one, perhaps find out what is important to this person and volunteer to help in an area important to them.
Point is basically you need to get to know someone before you try to understand what their current needs are in this life, and perhaps you might need to spend some time getting to know a person before you can understand what kindness means to them. I would argue that it means different things to different people.
3. Get To Know Someone by Listening
If you want to get to know someone there is a surfire way to do that, which I don’t do very well. Listen. Listen without interruption, without thinking about what you are going to say next, without looking at your cell phone, watch, or being distracted by everything else going on in our world today. Pretty tall order, and very rare when you are talking to another person.
This is something I try to work on all the time but it can be very frustrating on the other end (the one doing the talking) to have someone do everything but pay attention to what you are saying. Even if you are listening but the other person can’t determine if you are or not, you aren’t. If makes the other person feel like why should I bother opening my mouth and saying anything.
4. Execute, Live it Out in Your Life
If you are going to follow the Fruit of the Spirit, ultimately it comes down to actually doing something, right? So if you have taken the time to do everything to this point, why not actually put it into practice in your life. This is not something to do to check it off your list. We are talking about a lifestyle of being kind to others. (If you think this is complicated, see step 5.)
One other note on execution. Kindness is not a reciprocal thing, it is something you do because you want to and are lead to do, not because someone is going to do something or give you something in return. The reciprocal part of being kind has already been sacrificially paid and that totally defeats the purpose.
5. Do Not Make it Complicated
This elongated comment on Brian’s post is basically a long random thought (random thoughts are ok, just not acts, ha). This does not have to be complicated at all. In some cases, a smile works or where appropriate, a hug, can go a long way. I wouldn’t particularly advocate standing in a circle and singing kumbaya since that is what people already think we do anyway, but it doesn’t have to be some long drawn out thing.
I realize for some, this is much harder than others. Being kind for some is about like pulling teeth and for others it comes naturally, but it can be simple, thought out, and well planned, not random.
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It has been an extremely busy last several days and my normal daily journal post (as in this one) has been lost the last few days. We have been very busy with the books and all other aspects of work, but I also took on a few extra projects that took a bit more time than I anticipated (not unusual). Yesterday was Deborah’s birthday, see post Happy Birthday, Deborah, and I hope she had a nice day, but it was one where we didn’t have to leave the house for work, but just tried to get things done here at our home office. That basically means carrying boxes up and down the stairs all day and getting them listed on our store.
Deborah went through more books yesterday than in a typical day, which means I carried more boxes up the stairs and down the stairs than a typical day, BUT, we are starting to be able to see the floor in our dining room. Something we haven’t seen in going on two years now (we received a shipment of about an 18-wheeler load of books some 18 months ago and are still trying to get through all of them).
Photography (With a Little Worship), Finally
It has been a while since I have done some actual photography shooting on location, but last night I had the opportunity to do some shooting at the church of the band while they practiced. Below is just one small “head shot” of the worship leader. All in all I took about 500 shots over the hour and a half so it will take some time to go through (hope Brian doesn’t mind me putting up his mug shot for everyone to see).
I am trying to get some graphical images of the worship band up on the worship leaders blog site (now over at http://th.eophil.us or http://www.worship-journey.com for the long url). It is an ongoing project and hopefully will have a great impact on those who read and follow Brian’s story.
Everything Else
I was able to get to my guitar lesson this week, although I have been so busy I haven’t had time to practice yet. I now know exactly how much I don’t know, just about everything. I did get some new music arrivals this week as well, they included another interesting mix:
- David Benoit – Here’s To You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years! (mix is a little off here)
- Dan Fogelberg – Greatest Hits
- Phil Keaggy – Inseparable
- Phil Keaggy – Acoustic Sketches (great guitar album)
- Billy Joel – The Nylon Curtain
Yes, those are from all over the place but I like to collect a wide range of music. Today should be a calmer day, one that we can stay here at the house and work. Glad to finally get back to my journal blog here. I am not to happy with my newish theme so I might go back to the other one and use the head graphic I did the other day, who knows.
