It’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally taking spanish lessons.
I started trying to learn spanish back in 1995 on a trip to Ixtapa. I think I learned the basics but that’s it. Then with a few trips to Cuba I learned a little more and couple of years ago I took 5 days of lessons in the Dominican Republic.

The net result was I could almost get around in a spanish conversation as long as the speaker also knew english. I know… not a great scenario.

So this year I decided I’m going to get serious about learning the language. Fortunately I came across a Groupon for a year’s subscription to LiveMocha.

LiveMocha is a language learning community where you can study any of 36 languages. My choice obviously is Spanish.

The key with the website and the community is that you get feedback from native speakers of the language you are learning. So every lesson when I write a letter or record an audio dialogue, I get a critique from a native spanish speaker. Incredibly helpful. I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying it.

I have to admit though that every time I have to record an audio conversation, I get nervous. I still get that weird feeling of speaking a language that I’m not fluent in. I think I’m improving though so that’s good.

The bottom line is I would recommend LiveMocha to anyone that’s trying to learn a new language. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

On this day fifty years ago God’s special gift to me was born.
It took me a few years to find her but it was worth the effort.
Darling, you are the one who makes me smile. An encourager like no other. A true believer with everything that implies.
I can’t remember life before you and I can’t imagine life without you.
I know there have been seasons of life that have caused you pain but I’m praying that this season would be marked with joy and the rewards of your labour. Because you deserve it babe.
I don’t know anyone more industrious, loving and sincerely caring. You have lived your life for others.
So on this day I hope you will relax, enjoy and simply be blessed.
I love you!.

Mustard Seed

Luke 13:18-21

New Living Translation (NLT)

Parable of the Mustard Seed

¹⁸ Then Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it? ¹⁹ It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches.”

Parable of the Yeast

²⁰ He also asked, “What else is the Kingdom of God like? ²¹ It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

I don’t know about you but these verses are quite disturbing.

Jesus is giving us a couple of metaphors for the Kingdom of God and the common attributes shake my thinking.

Think about this one point. The kingdom of God as seed or yeast expands or increases in a way that is entirely disproportionate to its beginnings. It grows both rapidly and exponentially.

If I’m reading that right, then I’m not sure I have ever seen the Kingdom of God at work!

Your experience may be different from mine but the more I think about this, the more I think I’ve been duped. I’ve accepted a reality of the Kingdom of God that falls very short of what Jesus taught.

I can’t, you can’t settle for something less than what Jesus says.

• The kingdom of God should RADICALLY change people’s lives.
• The kingdom of God should RADICALLY affect our culture.
• The kingdom of God should RADICALLY shift our cities.

If not, then maybe it’s not the kingdom, or maybe the soil or the bread is bad. Just saying!

I realize it’s been awhile since I checked, but the other day I googled myself.
Normally I find myself within the first couple of entries but this time… nada! Couldn’t find myself on the first page, or the second or the third or on any page prior to about page 45.

Gasp…!

How could that have happened?
As far as Google is concerned I no longer exist.

Me? Techno geeky nerdy me!

I forgot the first rule of technological excellence. You have to keep up or you lose! Period!

I didn’t update my blog regularly. I didn’t tweet regularly. I hid on facebook. Didn’t interact on LinkedIn. Didn’t go to other blogs and get involved.
In fact I started trying to protect my privacy a little more. And that’s exactly what happened. I am now a ‘private’ citizen to Google.

So… for Google ratings and my personal technological pride, I will attempt to get back to where I should be. Top of the Google heap.

Watch out world!

Things can get ridiculous when you are stuck with a process but don’t know the purpose behind it. I’m sure we all have been required to do something when we don’t know why, but often we do it anyway.

We recently made a trip to Ecuador. Although we ending up travelling for nearly two days to get there, the delays were not man made. Coming back however, we encountered a definite separation of process and purpose.

In Guatemala City our plane landed and we were supposed to continue on the same plane and flight number. However, we were required to disembark and go through security again. Although we did security in Ecuador (x-ray and metal detector), we had our luggage scanned and another metal detector. In addition, right at the gate, someone went through our luggage and we had a pat down by a security officer. Even though it was redundant, I do get some of the paranoia and each country making sure security is done to their own standards.

The breakdown came when the officer was going through my wife’s luggage and he found a tube of toothpaste. It was the only liquid or gel that she had in her luggage so when he told her it had to be in a ziplock bag, I was really surprised. The reason for putting all of your liquids into one clear ziplock bag is to limit the number of liquids and to allow the inspector to see it clearly. Obviously he could see her toothpaste and it was the only liquid in her suitcase. Then a further disconnect from purpose was when she pulled out the ziplock bag that we got at the airport in Calgary when we first left on this trip. The inspector said it wasn’t good enough because it had a hole in it. Complete disconnect from purpose. Just a small thing, but very frustrating and time consuming.

When your process gets disconnected from purpose, things no longer make sense. To you or anyone else.

What can you do to make sure you keep your actions connected to your purpose? Maybe there is some way that you can help your company keep their process connected to it’s purpose. As always, I would love to hear from you in the comments below.

This is obviously a strange way to turn on the lights again but hey… that’s the way I roll.

Kim and I have been in Ecuador for the past week. Primarily to attend/perform the wedding of a young man from our church. He and his bride met while he was in ministry school and on a missions trip.

Their relationship is a wonder of modern technology and air travel. They got to know each other courtesy of the Internet and a couple of flights to Ecuador. She has yet to visit Canada since her tourist visa was denied.

In any other era, this would have never happened but it did. And we are here as living proof. It gets me thinking about the incredible and unique opportunities we have that were never presented to previous generations.

What opportunities do you have that no previous generation enjoyed? Think about it for a few minutes and take a moment to be thankful. You could also leave a comment below.

Oh yeah! Congratulations Mitchell and Enma

Just sat through a teaching session with Ps Dave Sumrall. I’ve never heard him speak before although I’ve certainly heard of him. My friend Al Furey speaks at his church from time to time.
The Sumralls lead a very large church in Manilla. And by large we are talking over 30,000 people.

He spoke on pastoring and shared probably one of the most profound messages I’ve ever heard. It should be on the c3churchglobal.com website in a few weeks. Anyone that feels God calling them to pastoring needs to hear this message. All church planters need to hear it.

By the way, check out all the messages on the website from the conference.

We live in an era of sound bites and 140 characters. Here’s a few that influence me. I don’t remember where I heard most of them, but if you know the source pop me a note and I’ll attribute them correctly.

• Live in the moment
• How you do anything is how you do everything
• Motivation is the key
• If you are always early, you are never late. @philpringle
• life makes you hard, Jesus makes you tough @markkelsey
• play to your strengths
• provision follows vision
• money is just a concept
• believing is seeing

It would be kinda cool if you could add some of the one liners that influence you. Maybe a tweet that really motivated you. Add them in the comments below and I’ll update the post. TIA.

Begbie Falls ©Dave Olson

Since I actually got my new boots on Father’s day, I’ve been wearing them as often as I can. Full grain leather boots probably need to be broken in a little more than your average synthetic footwear. The boots feel pretty solid and support my ankle well. My one complaint was one lacing hook was a bit tight and wore on the lace until I expanded the hook with a screwdriver.

My first real outing with the boots was an 8km or so hike into Begbie Falls and back. I loaded up my daypack with 5 litres of water (a platypus big zip and a couple of water bottles), a couple of books and my camera. The trail was pretty diverse with plenty of roots, rocks and fairly steep grade to test drive. The weather even through in a bit of rain so I could check out the traction too.

The boots performed really well. Despite the wet rocks and mud, I didn’t slip at all. The boots

felt very secure and solid. My feet felt well protected and my ankles had great support.

When I picked up the boots at Universal Footwear, I opted for a slightly larger size than I originally tried on. I’m glad I did. I suspect that the smaller size would have been torment. Even on a long decline, my toes didn’t feel crammed into the toe box and there was no discomfort. A couple of times, I felt a small amount of pain in the balls of my feet, but that went away almost immediately.

After spending around three hours walking, my feet didn’t hurt but were a bit fatigued. Even though I opted for a pair of Superfeet insoles, there may not be quite enough padding for what I was doing. I’m not sure what the solution is for that but maybe a bit more break in time will solve the problem.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how these boots perform and I expect they will get better over time.

And the best thing of all was the beautiful scenery and the falls.

[quote]As jobs turn into projects, the leaders we need are those that relish the project, that jump at the chance to push themselves harder than any coach ever could. via Seth’s Blog: Dependency on external motivation.[/quote]

This little statement has got me thinking.

In the ‘job’ world, instead of thinking careers or jobs, should we be thinking projects? Is this concept more in keeping with our present economic situation?

Or maybe that’s just how entrepreneurs think and that separates them from the rest of the ‘job seekers’.

Either way, its food for thought and I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.