Rockin' da Fuzzy Ulu

I grow facial hair as a cost effective solution for my lack of a flesh and bone chin - a prothsetic chin of sorts. That being said I am not the most prolific beard growers ever to stride the earth. I usually blame my Asian ancestry for that but that solution is at odds with my tremendous ability to grow hair on my back and shoulders (and increasingly my ears). I think that Karl Popper would have problems with my solution because it contradicts other observations...I'd look up his technical term for it, but my books are at the college office. Anyhoo

I have spent most of my adult life with some form of chin spaghetti ranging from the traditional goatee to the moustache-less goatee to the racing stripe (I started shaving away the sections with grey in them - no longer a viable option) and I now have stumbled across my latest bold move in the psuedo-prosthetic maxillary coiffures is a little something I call "The Ulu".

It is an homage (please pronounce that as OH-maj) to my Aboriginal upbringing and the time I spent in the North. Inuit a special knife that is a multi-purpose cutter, dicer, skinner and all-round world's greatest pizza cutter.

So if the tabloids start to recognize this new trend in Hollywood A-listers you can say you saw it here first...

Migwec,

Ehkosit!

My whine poureth over my cup...

Well the gout is receding and you would think I would be happy. HA - obviously you don't know me. Now all I can think of is the shooting pain in my calf. After a week of walking on a bent leg the muscle cramp is so intense I will sign on to any petition that would ban high heel shoes!!

BTW just as a word of warning, make sure you have safe or moderate search on if you google "fat guy in high heels" YYYIIIIKKKKEEESSSssssssss that coulda been bad - sometimes you just click search and then realize that the internet has quite a collection of curiosities. (luckily I leave my set on moderate so I was okay, but I'm just sayin....that coulda been nasty - even the clean search was disturbing)

Home Gout Kit

I woke up two days ago with an extremely stiff knee and as soon as I put weight on my leg I knew I was being paid a visit by "My Old Friend the Gout" (reader can choose to hum along to the Steve Earle or Proclaimers version of the song). I can't put my finger on where it came from. I haven't eaten much red meat, my last glass of red wine was about six years ago (for a wedding toast) and I have been drinking a lot of water.

Gout is one of the most debilitating aspects of my arthritis - you can't walk on it (it hurts) you can't sit (it swells) you can't just lie there (it stiffens). About all you can do is drink lots of water and cherry juice and wait and wait and wait. It has always just affected by feet (usually my left big toe) so it was kinda different to watch my knee swell up and take on all of the joy that is a gout attack.

If you are wondering what it is like, I have the recipe for a Gout Simulation Kit that you can assemble with items from around the house, mostly. The first thing to do is go to a sport supply store and get the liquid heat in the pure form (normally you would dilute it but that wouldn't give the burning red glowing effect of gout). Next take an old picture frame and remove the glass; shatter the glass and collect it in a sock. Now place the sock on your red, burning foot. Find a shoe that is at least a size too smal and jam your foot in. Tighten up your shoe so that even if you don't walk on it the slightest movement will cause the glass shards to cut into you feet. Finally, carry a roofing hammer with you at all times and everytime you brush up against something or someone comes in contact with your foot (or even looks like they might come in contact with your foot) wind up and deal a crushing blow to the joint on you big toe (always hit the same toe and even the same joint to make the most authentic re-creation). Of course walking means that your foot comes in contact with the ground at every step so it may be more convenient to carry a golf club so you don't have to bend over to strike your foot.

The best way to speed up the healing process is to drink massive amounts of water and cherry juice to flush out the uric acid that has crystalized in your joint - so that means that you will be walking to the bathroom constantly for next few days (don't forget to take your hammer).

I am beginning to see why old men get so grumpy - after a couple of days of gout I am ready to snap at anybody in a three foot radius of me and my enflamed joints!!

Mike Frost and Matching Sweaters

Here are a couple of sketches I did the other week. The top one is Mike Frost - a writer, pastor, speaker that was the keynote at the Church Planting Congress this year in Calgary. The other is just a couple walking their dog and sporting matching sweaters. I was thinking of doodling their dog with a matching sweater as well, but the cutesie-pie quotient would be far too high (and I know because I'm taking a stats class right now and could crunc that through a Chi-Square test to quantify it if you want).

Organic Church Planting in my "Tribe"

I hate the way people from my denomination refer to themselves as a tribe. I don't know why, but it drives me nuts. Maybe its a holdover from my degree in anthropology and the realization that they use the term improperly. Maybe should be referring to ourselves as a moiety or possibly a coterie...anyways those would start to bug me too. I guess I just have a bad attitude.

Another thing that drives me nuts is that we have all the window dressing of being a powerhouse in the area of church planting and yet we struggle to have any real success on the ground. And I don't mean success as I define it, I mean spread the tent wide with your definition of success and still see if you can find many happy campers inside it. I think we all have small victories here and there but there is a considerable amount of frustration and even anger amongst our ranks of church planters. Its too bad because my pack (flock, herd, horde, throng...just trying out some new terms) is exactly where I want to be - on paper our theology, ecclessiology and missiology line up - and it has a strong history. We lose way too many young leaders because we don't know how to encourage and enfold risk-takers. A glorious past is often the enemy of a triumphant future.

Anyways, my days of going on rants or tirades to ears that don't hear are a thing of the past. Instead I once again dipped into the acerbic well of my ink!!

BTW on a technical side I have became fascinated with using fountain pens and brushes in my sketching - maybe I will post some less acrimonious drawings in the next little bit.

Life and Lemons

I had a particularly bad day a while back. With a day full of deadlines I had my truck go kaput and wound up sitting in the University parking lot waiting for a tow-truck! It gave me time to do a little doodling based on the theme of "When life gives you lemons you just make lemonade!"

Pimp My Lunchbag

Juli has been away this week at our denomination's Pastors Conference. She took our youngest (Matthew, who is 15 months old) and left the older kids with me. I started the week with plans of getting caught up on reading and doing some little jobs around the house. Well, things didn't go as planned. I got most of my reading done, but I'm still treading water and with our semester break over I'm right back into having assignments due on Sunday. And the handy man projects...not a one.

On the upside I have a lot of fun with the kids. One of my highlights was packing them lunches. Not because I like making sandwiches (don't get me started about the banning of peanut butter in our school systems) but because I like to pimp their lunch bags. While we watched some TV together I would elicit requests and then do up the lunch bags with pictures. I do this from time to time and its kinda fun. Here's a few samples...






The hardest part is that the colours don't actually show up when you colour the lunch bag. You sorta have to go by faith that the right colour will come out. Anyways, Juli is back this afternoon so I should at least try to clean up a bit.

Migwec,
Ehkosit.

Spent the last two weeks feeling completely overwhelmed - that's a word that gets used too often, but I think it is the best word for the experience. It started when I got sick. Usually I can just keep going (with a fair bit of whining) and power my way through a sickness but this time I was in bed for two days - I even missed a hockey game.It was then that I realized how little margin there is in my time. I have spent the last two weeks trying to pick up the dropped balls in all areas of my life. That put me behind in reading and writing assignments for my PhD classes.I had a hard time getting everything done for church. I made a promise that I wouldn't carve time out from my family to do my studies and it was very tempting to go back on this promise. They are the easiest people to rob time from - but they are also the most important and so I fought the urge, handed in some papers late and kept playing catch-up.

For the first time in a long time I felt good about my productivity yesterday. I locked myself in the home office and plowed through several articles and finished off a couple more papers. Part of my problem is that I forget about time when I am interacting with the material I am studying. Much like a jogger who loses track of the miles when 'runner's high' kicks in, I can literally have the day evaporate when I get immersed in a text (sort of a 'reader's high'). Lately I have been totally geeked on the post-structuralist writings of Bonnie Norton (who I saw at TESL 2009), Homi Bhabha, Claire Kramsch, etc. Of particular interest is their (re)conceptualization of identity and the creation of a third place when cultures intersect.

In another class I have been reading Chinese philosophers Suntze (The Art of War) and Laotze (The Tao Te Ching) and waxing elequently on their advice to leaders. I have read The Tao Te Ching before, but I was younger and didn't get it. I decided to come back to it when I was older and had a better shot at understanding it. Well, I didn't get it at 15 and I am still fuzzy at 39 so I guess I will try again at 55 or so. One of Laotze's big things is this idea of Wei Wu Wei (action without action) or just letting stuff take its own course. I was thinking about it this last week in how it might connect with modern living and one of the guys on my hockey team gave me a great illustration of it (although to be honest he never actually referred to it as "an exemplar manifestation of the Taoist concept of "wei wu wei"). We won our game and so everybody was a little chattier in the dressing room afterwords and talked about the pucks that went in and the numerous near misses. That's when John said "The problem with the last chance was I had too much time to think about it...if I would've just shot it I would have scored. I always play better when I just play and don't think about it" I was about to point out how that lines up with the Tao Te Ching's teaching, but decided to just keep unlacing my skates. It would've been another case of 'too much thinking.'

Migwec,
Ehkosit.

It is all lining up...

Since September I have been trying to figure out how to make everything fall into alignment - how do I make my PhD bring benefit to (1) my work as a pastor, (2) my background in linguistics and TESOL and (3) introduce an original contribution to the academy.

On Oct 2 I ran out to the TESL Canada Conference because it was in my backyard (well technically in Banff but I have a pretty big backyard). The keynote for the day was Dr. Bonnie Norton. She presented on Identity and Language Learning. It was amazing! She was answering questions I was trying to formulate on multiculturalism and the multiple identities L2 learners hold. One of the thinkers she referenced was Homi Bhabha from Harvard. I have spent the week working through articles from Norton and Bhabha. Both authors talk a lot about the Third Space that gets created when cultures come together - in a society (Bhabha), in a classroom (Norton), or in church (c'est moi).

I finally have a sense of what my research will look like. I want to look at the way that we 'translate culture' in a third place context such as a ethnically diverse congregation. The leadership question is how we architect this third place so we don't default to the hiving tendencies of multiculturalism which can create as much ethnocentrism as it dispels (kinda like a fridge creates cold but puts off a lot of heat to do so). I will look at the role of the teacher/pastor in this as well as the unique people that will 'sign on' for this kind of community. One of the benefits of studying at Eastern is that they have a number of top notch scholar/practitioners. Among them is Dr HeeWon Chang (she has done a lot of work on autoethnography in education) and I am looking forward to studying with her in the next on-site as she brings a strong anthro background into the mix. As I dig up more resources I will post on them. I am genuinely, academically, ecclesiologically excited about this research!!

Happy Birthday to me...

Today I turned 39. I spent the day doing the usual tasks - getting the kids off to school and then up to the college office to get a dent put into the phone calls and emails that were missed while I was in Philly. I also wanted to get caught up on some reading of journal articles - it doesn't take long to get behind.

I ran across some books on leadership that I bought a years ago. It hit me, as I read over the margin notes, that I really believed I was going to make a difference. I really believed I was the 'bottle rocket and pepper pot' that my thesis advisor described me as.

Reality has an ironic way of pimp-slapping your life and it was kind of sad to come home and have to sort through the loose change container in my office to scrape up the $12 needed to pay for my birthday meal. I resolved myself to the reality that I was drastically changing the trajectory of my life when I stepped away from academics and consulting but that was a bit much! Fortunately my wife found the discount bin CDs I had misplaced so there was a gift for me.

I shouldn't be so mopey - the kids got me a football game for my birthday so we can play against each other. On a side note they played it all last week so they would be sure to beat me when we play!

Maybe its just realizing that I only have one year left to make it on one of those "Top 40 under 40" type lists and my career seems to have started into a screaming descent that would make a Stukka dive bomber pilot sweat rather than building to the planned crescendo. [okay that may be a bit drastic but there is some dissonance between where I want the church to be and where it is organizationally]

Maybe a good night's sleep is all I need. As Tony, my driver from the Philadelphia Airport, would say in his made-for-TV Italian accent "Whatevs...dats craze...fuggetabowdit!"

Migwec,

Ehkosit

A Crash Course in Community

Over the next four years a large part of my life (and therefore blog entries) will be marked by my pursuit of a PhD at Eastern University in Philadelphia.

The PhD program I am a part of is very interdisciplinary in nature. It involves students in three tracks: 1) Business, 2) Education and 3) Non-Profit. But from the word 'go' those three are mixed together. I am glad that I have had experience in all three because it would be quite daunting otherwise - it seems everybody is a heavy hitter in one of those those tracks (e.g., directors of programs at Ivy League institutions and addictions centres, leaders in major relief organizations, senior management in large corporations, etc.) . Not only are there people from different backgrounds but there is a geographic diversity as well. The cohort brings together people from all over the place - Left Coast, Right Coast, Africa, South America, and a growing number of Canucks (Eastern may need to consider starting a Ice Hockey Team). And in a field that will require us to study the impact of the Glass Ceiling, my cohort group has more women than men.

What is even more amazing than our differences is they way we have been able to connect with one another. Up until this week we were names on email headers - I didn't know anything about them, nor they about me. Before we travelled to Philadelphia we received a booklet that gave a little bio and picture of our fellow cohorters (cohortees ...cohortians...??) but I still had no idea what to expect. It did not take long to develop a sense of community within our group. Some people stepped up to make sure logistics were taken care of. Others became gatekeepers in online and in class discussions to make sure people were heard from. The locals made sure we all got the skinny on where to get the best Philly Cheese Steaks (whether locally or in historic Philadelphia) and have started to get a line on 76ers tickets (possibly even Eagles tickets for next Sept). There is a shared sense of mission in our midst - its not just about individuals achieving their goals - it is about the whole cohort graduating and being PHinisheD.

I have to admit that was a new experience for me. Most of my adult life I have been around doctoral students - my dad was a professor, I spent time in research-heavy degree at the honours and graduate levels. Doctoral students are a competitive lot - you don't get there without being determined and focused. There is certainly a comraderie in their ranks - but there is also a scarcity mentality that says there is only so much pie - resources like profs' time, research funding, TA positions, etc. - and the more pieces it is cut into means that there is less for me!! At times it can be quite cut-throat.

Although it is early into this journey it seems that this won't be experience at Eastern. We spent one afternoon in our interdisciplinary groups sharing research interests and how they could relate to Leadership Studies (and ultimately our dissertations). Nobody hogged the conch - everybody shared ideas from their backgrounds, suggested different angles to pursue or other resources to explore so that we all had the benefit from the diverse expertise around us.

My church's tagline is "A place to Belong, Believe and Become." We see these as the ways that we create true Christian Community (not just a buzz-word version of it). This is what my week in Phillie felt like. There is a long way to go but it is great to now I won't be journeying alone - I have my cohort, my church and my family with me. In an initiative as solitary as a PhD it is comforting to have this growing sense of community around me!

Migwec,
Ehkosit.

Not such a great start...

I got to the airport in good time, but when I tried to get checked in they told me that my suitcase was too heavy. This means I have to unpack it and transfer some books into my carry-on. The reason I had them in my checked luggage is that they are stinking heavy. As I do this I can feel the Superman stares of the other passengers waiting in line behind me...at this point the Air Canada representative announces that she's going to go on her break as it looks like it will take me awhile to get my stuff all together (I feel the stares intensify into something more like the laser blasts from Cyclops than xray vision from Clark Kent).

I hobble off to the boarding gate like a hobbit on laundry day - an odd assortment of socks books and various sundry spilling out of my computer bags. I catch the attentive eye of the Security staff and I know this is not going to be a laid back start to my trip. At 5am I look like a crazed terrorist in general - but now I am definitely marked as a person of interest. The guard makes me take off my shoes and belt (and manages to break the button on my jeans in the process). I think everything will be fine once I get to my plane - but I am wrong. Nothing is in its proper spot - I can't find my earphones, the book and notepad are no longer together and I can't find where I re-stuffed my pens. I feel a familiar warming of my neck as the passengers I held up at the check and security gate are now waiting for me to solve the case study in chaos theory that is my carry-on luggage!

Things seem to settle down as we start the first leg of the journey. However once we get to cruising altitude the guy beside me pulls out the newspaper and starts to read it. But not in the "I'm on an airplane so I should confine myself to the small amount of space represented by my seats footprint" manner - no he decides to stretch out and read like he is at home and has picked this week to be the time he has decided to take the William Shatner / All-Bran Challenge. In synchronised swimming precision the person in front decides to adjust his seat into full recline mode. He only stops when the chair cannot go any further back without driving my knees into the cargo hold (but he takes a few runs at it before being sure this is the case).

I decide to resign myself to the discomfort - but I am not making this journey alone and decide to take these two travelers along with me. I move the magazines and drive one knee into Capt Lazy Boys kidney (if I am going to lose the feeling in my legs I decide to make him pee blood for the rest of the week). I also decide to claim my fair share of the arm rest so that Bowel Buddy can't get his arms into a comfortable 90-degree angle.

UPDATE: In a touching homage to Patrick Swazey's passing the guy in front of me has managed to pass my guard and has me in a position where I am straddling him...if he starts to throw a pot (a la Ghost) on his drop down tray I may need to strangle him with the dorky vest he is wearing - or at least stare at his neck until he feels my disapproval.

Oh Well we can only go up from here!

Migwec,
Ehkosit.

new heights of Nerd-ines

Return of the N.E.R.D. pt II

As a part of my PhD there are three site visits to Eastern University. Beyond those three weeks I also have a number of "Synchronous" and "Asynchronous" online classes...also known as "Webinars." In preparation for these I have had to dig out my old webcam and throw on a microphone headset. Yikes it is too Geekalicious for ya babee...

Its neat to have the classroom interaction and dialogue but since these will be the first images I have of everybody in my cohort I am afraid I won't recognize them without dorky headsets on - I may pack my to wear around the hotel just in case.

Every time I see myself up on my computer screen I think I look like an aging version of that youtube kid singing that stupid Numa Numa song.

I Got Me Some Great Kids...

While I was taking the CELTA my daughter went in for minor surgery - she was having her tonsils and adenoids taken out. That went well and she beat me home that day. However, the next week was a string of late night visits to emergency until, finally, she wound up back in the Alberta Children's Hospital with IVs and tubes.

Needless to say it made the coursework a little less of a priority and created a few long nights. I am 6'3" and am somewhat 'big-boned' so the sleep that I got in the window-sill in her room was not the REM-producing ideal I would normally shoot for while taking classes being
'offered under the auspices' of the University of Cambridge. Long story less long - she is fine except for a voice that I still don't instantly recognize and I think I will still get my Pass Plus credential from the course (equivalent to honours or distinction).

It made me spend a lot of my spare time at class thinking about how much I love my kids. They really are great.

Seoul Savvy Fashions

I haven't been very diligent in posting - not that anybody would notice b/c I'm the only person that actually visits this blog (and I have to admit it bores me to tears). But just so I can claim to be a blogger (very important so that I can keep up with the other cool cats out there) I had better actually blog. I think that I could single handedly bring down the the whole twitter/tweeting craze by posting frequent updates from my life!! Anyhoo I was busy with a class all last month (I mentioned it in an earlier post that nobody read) and so I wasn't able to keep up with my usual torrid pace of 1 post every 3 weeks.

I did, however, squeeze in some time to doodle fellow commuters, learners and diners during my CELTA course in downtown Calgary. I was especially enthralled by the panoply of Almost-English fashion items...although by far my favourite was one young chap with a t-shirt commemerating the death of Michael Jackson. For those not acquainted with the subtle nuances of Konglish (Korean-English) fashion - the lower case 'l' and upper case 'i' look very similar (l and I) which would have never been noticed by any but the most veteran of Seoul Savvy fashionistas if the manufacturer hadn't in turn capitalised the l making it L...which is actually quite easy to differentiate (L and I). The end result is a splendid t-shirt saying "MJ RLP 2009"

Here are some lunch time/commute time sketches as well:

Move over Soul Patch...its the Forehead Mustache

The school my kids go to doesn't offer bus service - some days its a pain but most often it is good because it is one more point of intersection in their lives. I was listening to my kids talking about their day and they were talking about some adults they saw when they were doing some community service. As my oldest son struggled to describe and differentiate two men that were there he dropped the funniest description of a man with (somewhat) unique facial hair growth. The fella apparently had a world-class "unibrow" going, but this is a common (read 'overused') term my son is (thankfully) unfamiliar with and so he described the gent as "the man that was growing a mustache where his eyebrows should be." The best part is he wasn't trying to be mean - its just the way he saw the man.

Sunday Sketching

Beyond the tremendous amount that my wife does at the we co-pastor - she focuses on the children and family ministries but that is 99% of who we are so it really is a huge undertaking - she has also served in a consulting role with another church plant that is just setting up its nursery and children's Sunday school. GoodTree Christian Fellowship meets in the afternoon, which means we often head there straight after tearing down at SouthGate. On theSunday Idrew these our youngest, Matthew, fell asleep on the ride so I said I would hang out in the car. I found a few scraps of paper and started doodling the people walking down the street (including a rare air-bassist) and the people coming out of the Chinese church that meets just before GoodTree.

Migwec,

Ehkosit

Insomnia and General Ramblin'

It is just after 3am and I am awake again (or is that still). Today - technically yesterday - was a big day on a number of fronts.

First of all our church has decided to put in an offer for an acreage just south of Calgary - although now it is officially in Calgary. I am pretty sure that the city limit sign is attached to a cart on wheels. Every time I head out of town the city seems to have gathered up more vacant land. With all of this talk of a slow down it doesn't really feel that way. This potential purchase is a huge step for us. We are a small congregation and the price tag for property is pretty daunting. Yet there was a sense of faith and willingness to stand up to this challenge. I think Soren Keirkegaard or Steve Earle (I am forever mixing those guys up) once said "It isn't courage if you don't feel some fear first."

Secondly, I cobbled together the last of the funds required to get my student visa for doctoral studies in Philadelphia. Its too bad I couldn't have done this when Canadian money was at par. Although I should just be happy because I was beginning to think that this was going to be another PhD I would have to walk away from...and to be honest I wasn't too happy with that prospect. God is good and it worked out. I officialy start at Eastern University in September, although more and more emails are flying back and forth between the cohort members and faculty already. I am really excited about getting back academics.

Thirdly, and finally unless I wake up again, I have gotten my tablet PC back. More than a few times I have threatened to throw it across the room, out the window and even once I decided that I would throw it out the window across the room (I think that is why they call them a 'windows' computer). I managed to resist these temptations - but just barely. Although I don't want to sound like an obnoxious Mac-convert (but I am one), I don't know if I will ever go back to using a PC as my main computer. The exciting part of getting my portable Myocardial Infarction Catalyser (aka the Gateway M275) is that I like to do digital design and drawings on it and I have started to mess around with Photoshop and Illustrator to a greater extent. I am looking at illustrating a couple of children's books and may try my hand at a freelance writing/illustrating project in the near future (if time and opportunity allows it).

Well if this hasn't put you to sleep yet you have far worse insomnia than I do because I am now ready to attempt sleep again. This would make me happier if it wasn't for the fact that my alarm will be going off in three short hours.

Migwec,
Ehkosit

Singing the CELTA Blues

In August I will be back in a classroom - but for the first time in many years not as the teacher. As part of my accreditation with the national ESL organization (TESL Canada) I need to go back and do some introductory TESL training. At first I was pretty upset about this because:

 

(1) I am applying for Standard Three and the course is for Standard One

(2) I have taught ESL/TESOL for universities in Canada, Korea, Japan and China

(3) I have three times the hours needed for Standard Three and six times for Standard One

(4) I hold an MA in linguistics with professional development in teaching

(5) I have spent most of my career specializing in Adult Education

(6) I have taught the same courses I am now needing to take.

However, after taking a deep breath and counting to 'ten,' I am fine with going back to school to complete my CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults). I will walk away with the global standard for ESL - the course is recognized everywhere without explanation. Another perk is that it is issued by Cambridge University's extensions program (so I can now claim to be Cambridge ejimacated). It will also be a nice ramp up to the PhD classes that start in September.

All in all it isn't bad to feel flummoxed  once in a while cuz  - as Willie "Blind Dog" Brown says in Crossroads - "The Blues ain't nothing but a good man feelin' bad."

Migwec,

Ehkosit.

thinkin' and doodlin'

The more I have to think about, and the bigger the decisions, the more I find doodling is a great distraction. Currently our church is pursuing the purchase and renovation of an acreage. We have gone back and forth with the sellers a few times and are trying to confirm what we might expect from our support network of churches. It is a time of "two parts excite and one part anxious" as we move forward.

I don't know if I really saw these people at the Second Cup - but they just kinda jumped out of the pen as I doodled.

Migwec,

Ehkosit

SketchBucks Coffee

Tried to make use of some time sitting in Starbucks waiting for a meeting. Not having a physical building/office is both a good thing and a bad thing. I get to spend a lot of time drinking coffee better than I could ever make it, but sometimes I get stuck sitting and waiting. Luckily I never go anywhere without a book and/or a sketchbook (fairly addicted to Moleskines).

I have to admit I don't draw women very well - I think its because I don't want to be seen as the creepy dude in the corner oggling the wimmenfolks! Today, however, I decided to try to sketch whoever came in and it just happened to be a group of runners and the staff was all female as well. The other picture is a son and dad - I liked the quality of the dad's neckbeard and so had to capture it as I sipped lukewarm Pike's Peak.

Migwec,

Ehkosit

Quick Sketching & Colouring

Just fooling around with a different style of drawing people. I have been following Thom Glick's sketch-a-day project and really like his style.

Migwec,

Ehkosit

SouthGate re-structuring...

Scripture has a way of connecting with us in different ways and places throughout our lives. Indeed we want to make sure that our lives ‘line up’ with scripture. That is also true of how we organize our church. In the first years of our being together SouthGate has explored several different structures.

In the beginning we were a congregation of First Baptist Church – not organizationally different in our relationship with the traditional Sunday morning service than the evening service. Our difference was that we met a different location rather than a different time. In this beginning phase I (Jeff) was on staff as FBC’s Pastor of ESL & International Ministries and Juli was the Pastor of Family and Children’s Ministries. As the SouthGate congregation grew this changed and the church council recognized a need for us to develop a leadership team that was more focused on the needs and opportunities of the SouthGate congregation – this was more in line with relationship between the traditional service and the Spanish congregation.

The next big change was during last summer when we became an autonomous church plant. This was an exciting time – not unlike a young adult moving out from their parents’ home. We received recognition under the provincial government’s Societies Act last April and earlier this year we became a registered charity in the eyes of the federal government. This was not an easy task and we managed to get through it in a relatively short period of time when talking with other churches going through the same process.

As of May 1^st we have once again adjusted the look of our structure. And as with the earlier changes, we first want to make sure that this is not just change for change’s sake but rather that it is change to bring us more in line with our God-given mission and biblical mandate. We may consult organizational books or models, but the final say is found in analyzing our decisions through a screen of scripture.

The new model is best embodied in the scriptural example of Priscilla and Aquila. With that in mind I want to take time to look at these leaders in the early church. This married couple is mentioned by name in several places in the New Testament (Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Timothy) and their influence is felt throughout many other passages.

They were a Jewish couple that was among the people expelled from Rome by the Emperor Claudius. They set up a home and business in the city of Corinth – where they meet Paul (acts 18:2-3). Paul ends up living with them and works as a tentmaker alongside them as well. They eventually leave Corinth and minister with Paul as he heads to Syria.

Some of the things that jump out from this couple are that they regularly ‘stick their necks out’ in an effort to spread the Good News. They are known as powerful teachers and dedicated workers. They are also known as gentle coaches and mentors – the most well known example is how they take Apollos (a young but commanding teacher) aside and disciple him in a way that gives him a better understanding of the Gospel (Acts 18:24-28).

Following Emperor Claudius’ death they return to Rome but their commitment to the church takes them on to ministry in Asia. They eventually die as martyrs for the cause of Christ.

Priscilla is an interesting person, especially when seen in the context of Roman society. It is clear that she is a leader within the church – a fact underscored by the fact that her name is mentioned before her husband’s in five of the seven appearances (not the usual format of the time). In fact there are some scholars that suggest she may be the un-named author of the Book of Hebrews (others suggest Paul, Luke or even Apollos).

Aquila is not to be seen as hiding behind Priscilla, living in her shadow, or being a Walter Mitty character (Sorry if that is a missed analogy for some – but that is what Wikipedia and Google are for ;-). He was a leader in his own right. In fact church tradition holds that the reason they leave Rome for a second time is because Paul makes Aquila one the first bishops in Asia.

What does this have to do with SouthGate and the new staffing arrangement passed at our Annual General Meeting for me to go to 2/3 time and Juli to take on a 1/3 role? Well, in short, it is the inspiration for the new changes. We recognize that it is not the norm or even common for a married couple to be called into ministry in the way that Aquila and Priscilla were. However, Juli and I have always felt that we were one of those rare couples that see these early church leaders as a template for our own ministry (even down to the concept of Tent-making but that’s another blog entry).

Caffeinated and ready to Draw

Grabbed a coffee and some perspective. This spring I reduced my hours at the church to make room for Juli to come on staff (as it was in the beginning) but it isn't as easy going to a partial freelance position as I thought. There have been a couple of steady writing gigs, but every time I respond to an RFP it takes a fair bit of time - and getting 1 in 4 is considered doing well (even 1 in 10 is a decent rating). I can't go after everything because there just isn't time. As it is I've got so many projects on the back-burner that I'm running out of stove-top space. In the middle of all of this I keep pushing off pursuing some art-related projects that I would like to explore.
"Yet you have time to blog?" you query...yeah but only because I am doing it while my 11-month old is screaming in my ear at the same decibal levels as a Ted Nugent concert and pawing at my keyboard like a miniature Oscar Peterson.
I have a big writing contract that should be awarded on Tuesday - so pray for me because it would solidify a few things and allow me to make some decisions with the clarity that comes from not choking on the fumes of fiscal depletion.
Here are a couple of drawings - one doodled on a napkin and the other one drawn earlier this week but I finished up some of the colouring today. I was really hoping to do it on my tablet PC. I got it back a while ago (thanks Martin) but now I can't find all of the discs for my Adobe CS and so it isn't functioning yet. There's always next week.
This first drawing is in a "visualization vs. reality" style. Every Sunday I pick out clothes that I hope look good - but I suffer from a form of "dyslexic anorexia" in that I think I look better than I really do. [No offense meant to people who actually suffer from either dyslexia or anorexia its just the best way to describe why I wear some of the outfits I do.] Some people can get away with wearing anything and making it cool - I have the inverse affect - I guess that is how God keeps a cosmic fashion-balance in check. I wouldn't doubt it if one day I will throw together something very similar to the outfit from a couple of posts ago!!


This is a quick doodle I did while waiting for the kidlets. I was just sketching on this loose napkin when I remembered the way they sucked back some noodles for lunch the other day. It reminded me of the Cthulhu - a creature from a Lovecraft short story...
Here is a finished painting by somebody - I got it off of google images - so you can see a more detailed conception of the creature:

Anyhoo - Happy Drawing Day everybody.

Migwec,

Ehkosit

I'll scan something later...

Not feeling much like drawing today so forget it. Maybe after a cup of coffee I will scan something in - not feeling 'da luv' today - its snowing in June and that isn't even the worst part of the day...in fact the stupid weather doesn't even crack the "Top Ten Things That Stink About June 6, 2009" list. Oh well enjoy this fresh take on the old Russian nesting dolls - I saw it at Drawn.ca (a cool li'l blog for illustrators and graphic artists and wannabes like moi)...

Matryoshka Army Dolls from Albinal on Vimeo.

Drawing Day 2009

I am going to sleep now but I will post some stuff tomorrow...

Getting Ready for "Back to School"

There seems to be a bit of a theme to my pictures lately...my old-man head on a kid's body. Hopefuly this is the extent of my "Mid Life Crisis" because I'm not sure what kind of a sportscar I could buy with the $26.84 currently residing in my savings account!
Over the last few days I have been getting emails from the administrators and members of Eastern University's Cohort #3 in preparation for our first on-site / face-2-face meeting in September.

Up until now I have been plodding through the Statistics primer they sent out in May but there has been very little in the way of peer pressure. I usually work on it late at night once everything is done, all the meetings are over and the kids are entrenched in their beds. This means that personal appearance (and hygiene admittedly) have not been much of an issue. All of a sudden I realized that I was going to be more than a slightly nebulous screen name (I was assigned "phdstudent10").
As I thought of meeting other students I joined Mr. Peabody in the Way-back machine and was an elementary student of the 70s again. The Logan's wood-paneled Country Squire would make the thirty minute drive into the big city (read: Brandon) so we could shop for clothes and supplies at the fancy stores (read: K-Mart). It ushered back memories of going through the children's section of industrial strength denim jeans. I don't know if they any haute couture flair but I do remember the only pants that met my mother's requirements of (1) fit and (2) durability had names like "husky," "hefty" and "burly" ... which makes me think they rated low on the fashion scale.

On a side note my oldest son Mason is currently going through a 'coming of age ritual' that is a crucial rite amongst all of the Plains Indian tribes I have ever been associated with - Lakota, Cree, Saulteaux, etc. Today he is making his first box of Kraft Dinner. I grew up truly believing that this fell in the category of traditional food along with bannock / pahkweshikan, moose stew and fighting over who got the brains and eyes from the rabbit that was trapped in the noose we made out of an electric guitar string belonging to the (not much older than us - sometimes even younger) uncle of a friend . Each family had their own special twist on KD - ranging from cut up pieces of boiled hot dog to crushed tomatoes and enough seasonings to make an Italian grandmother suggest you go easy on the garlic. For some families the secret ingredients were held on to with a tenacity that would be worthy of Dan Brown's Priory of Sion!!! In traditional communities these recipes were paced down with the sacredness of a Copper in the WestCoast or the Mdewewin medicines in the east.

Oh well, I should go and see if the KD has boiled over yet and show Mason how to add the .... oh wouldn't you like to know the special ingredients of Logan-style KD! Sorry, dear reader, that is an ancient Chinese (Japanese/Norwegian/Irish) Secret!!! Besides I have to run out to Zellers and pick up a pair Lee pants in "Husky" that I special ordered earlier this week!! ...Hopefully I can find a plaid pencil case that will fit in a three-ring binder

Singin' 'bout stinkin'

Trying hard to just hang out with two of my kids. I don't find it easy to take time off - there always seems to be something that needs to be done. I have to get to a place where I take time off and not feel guilty. If you look at the 10 Commandments breaking the Sabbath is right up there with murder - God takes this rest thing pretty serious and so should we.

Anyhoo Matthew just fell asleep and Maggie and I are watching Barbie Island Princess and Backyardigans. To keep it interesting after the 438th viewing we are using chopsticks as microphones and making up our own lines to the songs - mostly about the rancid odours emanating from the other's personage and general lack of strong dance moves! Good times; Good times...if this doesn't get me the nod for Parent of the year I think the whole thing is rigged!!

Migwec,

Ehkosit

Fashion Theft that Must be Stopped

I don't know about you, but nothin' gets my girdle in a oysterman's-stopper-hitch (a real knot name BTW) like finally finding that knock out ensemble for the new season and then seeing someone else in it!!! That just happened to me. I had picked out a nice (not too garish but not too ho hum) outdoorsy outfit. It was going to be the signature piece for the Summer of Oh-Nine...but then I see a friend posting pictures on FaceBook...and there it is... AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Anyways I think it is time to let the people vote. If it is deemed that Kaleb pulls this outfit off better than it will immediately go to the back of my closet, GoodWill or wherever. This is democracy in action - not to mention a statement on the rampant age-ism that has long hobbled my efforts to capture the field of high-end children's fashion modeling.

Rock the Vote Peeps!!!

New Office - On the Road Again...

Rick Warren - from Saddleback Church and Purpose-Driven Church/Life Fame - used to say that they moved so often as a church that you could worship with them if you could find them!! In a similar way you can meet me at my office if you can find my offices current location. In our three and half years as a church I have had an office downtown at First Baptist Church (our planting church), an office at Bonavista Baptist Church (our closest sister church), home offices in our old house and in two different rooms in our current house, there was serious talk of renovating our garage to become garage-fice and now I have moved into an office at Alberta Bible College where I do some adjunct teaching and coordinate the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program.

The nice thing about this recent move is that I am able to get my anthropology, linguistics and TESOL resources out of storage in the garage. It is an indication that I am officially an uber-nerd that I found it quite emotional to go through and pull out each book. I can recall each class, conference or research project that was connected with the books.

I am hoping that this office will be conducive to the writing and administrative portions of pastoring - it is quiet and inspiring as I am surrounded only by my books. This is also where I will work on my PhD (September is coming quickly) and some of the free-lance writing I do for government and private sector organizations.

I plan on keeping a study in my home where I will house my dictionaries, concordances and inter-linear bibles. This will be where I prepare my messages. I think it is important to have a place where my kids see me at work and especially where they see me digging deep into the Word of God.

As always, I also plan to be a regular at the Starbucks in the SW corner of Calgary. So if you want to get together we can meet at my house, up in the northwest at the college or at a coffee shop.

Ehkosit,

Migwec

What's the deal...

I don't like to get into preaching on pain - although I will. I don't like to examine my own brokeness - although it is an important point of growth. I don't know why but there seems to be plenty of both around.

The new year has brought in a boatload of brokeness and pain for the congregation I pastor. The economic downturn has resulted in lost jobs and found worries. There has been death and sickness. A wonderful couple waiting to adopt a child have watched technicality after technicality after ineptness after incompetence delay the culmination of their journey. I have seen the pain of relationships breaking down and the impact it has on the adults and kids and wider network the couple were a part of.

I spent January preaching about the commitment God is looking for from us - I touched on the reality of struggling though our faith. I thought that I was done, I have been planning to start a study of James. But as I sit here on Thursday night I have the feeling that I am not done with this motif.

I spent the week at our pastors' retreat. The speaker talked about the role of our pain in our ministry. He spoke of his childhood in a poor part of Glasgow and a horrific car accident while a missionary in Kenya that could have (should have) killed him. He talked of his darkest moments when he knew he would never minister again - but God has used those times of pain to allow him his greatest ministry - an acclaimed book, work with traumatized Canadian soldiers returning from Afghanistan, Bosnia and other theatres, etc.

I don't talk too much about growing up on a reserve (maybe others would disagree) but after Paul - the speaker- talked about the violence and addictions of the Glaswegian Ghetto I didn't sleep much. I had memories of kids dragging a bag of puppies behind a bike and then setting it on fire, shingle fights (the poorman's ninja throwing star), and destructive drinking that I didn't understand until I was a lot older.

I spend a lot of my time wondering how - even if - God can use me. I left this week thinking that God uses broken people in ways that he can never use people that 'have it all together.' As far as a time to look inward the retreat was good - although I feel less refreshed than I had hoped because I spent a lot of time engaged in introspective activities.

ehkosit,

migwec

The Week of Sleeping Dangerously

It has been a strange week. I have been on the run, getting up early and working late and yet I would have to say it is has been less than a productive week. Partially it has been marked by the Tyranny of the Urgent as everything had a sense of needing to been done right now. I was cleaning  the last of our rental kerfuffle (is that how you spell it) as we suddenly ended the year with no rentals for 2/3 of our commitments in January.  Anybody who talks about the joys of renting 'neutral space' as a church and doesn't give a slight wince as they do it has only ever read books written by people who have forgotten what it is really like!!! I switched phones over Christmas and in doing so kept getting error messages from Blackberry about my emails bouncing - so nobody knew if I got messages and I never was sure if they really went out. It was a mess. There was a lot of other stuff going down with a number of people grieving losses - loved one, jobs, relationships - and others facing challenges that seemed pretty insurmountable. I sometimes feel like I am supposed to have all the answers to these issues and provide them to the congregation like some sort of salve. The truth is I have no idea and most often I sit with people completely gobsmacked and silent. The only consolation is that I hate it when my fellow 'spiritual raconteurs'  dole out trite, condescending wisdom and then walk away because they have built up a filter between themselves and the people in their congregations. Add to this I finished up dental work that has been pushed off for a number of years.

The end result of this week has been one I have been fairly sleep deprived (even when the day finally finishes I have 4 kids that all seem to wind up in my bed) so I have tried to grab sleep wherever and whenever I can. On Monday I was having my face drilled for cavities and they had to put in a special mouthpiece because I kept falling asleep and closing down on the drill. This might be why they suggested I do the next set (on Thursday) without any freezing (it wasn't too bad and I did stay awake). I spent Tuesday feeling like they might have wheeled me out to the parking lot and used my face as traction to get a car out from being stuck in the snow. As painful as that was I am writing this post in an even greater degree of pain from falling asleep on the seats at the Calgary Airport. The actual ergonomic design of the public seating must have been sponsored by the Calgary Chiropractors Association.

As I get set to upload this I know that there is one more painful sleep ahead of me after I board my flight and get ready to be shoehorned into a a airplane fuselage that looks like footage from one of those PETA-produced shockumentaries aimed at Factory Farms.  I don't want to fall asleep - I have brought books on exciting topics like Training Evaluation Models and theory to keep me awake - but I know by the time we hit cruising altitude I will be pressing up hard against the only other man over 6 foot 3 on the flight. I hope he at least is a little bit soft and a whole lot understanding.

Ehkosit,

 

Migwec