3 months

In three months I have been in 3 countries, visited 3 families.
According to this video, I could have learnt a new language:




See Fluent in 3 months

Whilst this is an enormous claim, it sounds like it could be like a 21st century L.A.M.P. We used LAMP to learn Spanish over a year, and I it really works because the goal is communication, so you start talking to real people about real things from day one.

Having said that I take my hat off to people we visited in Asia who are learning a language that has tones and doesn't use Roman script. To not only talk, but read and write that takes years - a real commitment from people who want to contribute long-term to a group of people.

Have you learnt a new language? Do you have any language hacking tips?

2 Blog or not 2 Blog

That is the question.

With facebook, people seem to care more.

Twitter is just broadcasting.

Has blogging become like sending a fax?

Whaddaythink?

Serendipity

OK. So I kinda think that I have had a few God organized encounters at this conference so far. I get off the plane Monday afternoon and miss the bus by about 10 minutes. Have to wait 1 1/2 hrs for next bus. I know you're gonna think: bumma. Well I did at first. Then I got a free subway pass from a new Japanese friend Kunio (he translates free bible software into Japanese). Next I bump into a friend of a friend from Latin America that I have never met before and we chat all the way to the conference venue and then somehow find our way on the subway to our hotel, which happens to be the same one! Yesterday afternoon I chat more in Spanish than English with a number of Latinos. Then today I bump into a former SIMer in Ecuador, but before my time, that now works in Mexico and also the YWAM director for Colombia - more Spanish conversation - yay! IN the elevator I talk with someone from Bangladesh that knows a MP working there. It's like everywhere I go I bump into someone who knows someone I know. Like 2deg of separation even works at a missionary conference with over 1000 delegates from 80 countries. Will heaven be like this? I hope so.

Tokyo 2010

Heading to Japan on Monday for Tokyo 2010

It is a missionary conference in the style of the Edinburgh 1910 conference.

I will try to post or tweet something each day.

Can't get that Vapours song out of my brain: Turning Japanese.
See: youtube - Turning Japanese

Missions related posts I am posting on no.8 wire, general posts here. Photos on facebook and random thoughts on twitter (see sidebar)

Rule of an antinomian

I always thought that monasticism was about wearing brown cloaks & hiding away from the world. Now I see that it is about ordering my life in such a way that I can live out a radical commitment to God, with a community of believers & amongst a hurting world.

Being the spontaneous (lazy?) person that I am, I don’t display the discipline my father showed every morning that I can remember, arising at 6am for a ½ hour quiet time to begin the day. To be honest, I hate mornings, loathe routines and often see rules as suggestions. So why am I writing about a “rule for living”? I have learnt the hard way of the need for rhythms in life. More

Lent

Great Lent resourses.
I am still thinking about how to best celebrate Lent ie. What to giive up. Any ideas?