Spolit brats get iRate at Apple

I was surprised to read this insight from a non-Christian journalist this morning.

“There are lots of reasons why Jobs (Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple) is under siege, but the most potent is the spoiled brat phenomenon of humanity.

The more we humans have, the more we want, the more dissatisfied and ungrateful we are.

Even though iPhone and iPad devotees revel in the functionality and design of the devices, at the same time we take them utterly for granted, as a natural extension of ourselves.

Of course I'm going to email on the bus. Of course I'm going to watch trashy TV shows on my iPad at the gym. Of course I'm going to read the newspaper or a book on my iPad in bed.

These things that were unthinkable 10, five, even one year ago, we now simply expect.

What we need is an app for gratitude, not cynicism, for just taking a moment to appreciate the magnificent achievements of the human mind, which are captured in that slim, sleek device our ancestors scarcely could have dreamed possible.”

From: Spoilt brats get iRate at Apple, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 July 2010 Miranda Divine

Oversupply of Presbyterian Ministers in the US

 Tim Ryan, who lost his job as a pastor at a megachurch in Mechanicsburg, Pa., now works as a carpenter.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (Joblessness Hits the Pulput, May 17, 2010) "Right now, the Presbyterian Church in America, which includes about 1,700 churches, has about five pastors looking for work for each of its 54 job openings, about twice the level before the recession, said the group's business administrator, John Robertson."

Seems like there is quite an oversupply of Presbyterian ministers in the US.  I wonder if some would consider relocating to some rural Presbyterian Churches in Australia.  Or there are always needs on the mission field.

US Center for World Missions

Last week Nick (team leader) had a chance to visit the US Center for World Missions (where the Perspectives course was developed), courtesy of Larry Dinkins an ex-OMF Missionary to Thailand who works there.  After Larry gave a seminar to the faculty on storying, he organised a meeting with most of the faculty to discuss evangelism amongst Thai Buddhist and our situation in Lampang.  Many of the faculty are experts in their fields and it was an amazing discussion.  It was a but surreal meeting many of the people who write articles for the Missions Frontiers magazine which I used to pick up at Bible college.  I certainly left the meeting with many things to think about.

I can say the same after the Threshold conference.  The sessions didn't help me as much as I had hoped, but hearing the testimony of a group which had started an organic church in Gainsville, Florida last year made me long for the community they had.  Many of them sold their homes to move to Gainville to join the new group which formed out of last year's conference.  The US economy is pretty bad so not all of have found jobs and are still living off the proceeds of their house sale.  The sense of community and love from what they were sharing was amazing.  I got many of their contact details so that I can keep up with how the group develops in the future.

I think the two things above made the trip worth the large personal expense of flying to the US.

In the US for the Threshold Organic Church Conference

I'm in the US right now to attend the Threshold 2010 conference, which is conference for those wanting to plant "organic churches".   I'm here with our team leader from Lampang.  Yesterday we had an opportunity to go to the US Center for World Mission with Larry Dinkins who used to work in Thailand with OMF.  It was an amazing time to chat with some of the staff at the US Center for World Mission about the issues we face in trying to reach Buddhists in Lampang and setting up organic churches.

I haven't slept more than about 3-4 hours in each of the last 3 nights due to jet lag and long hours of travelling, so I'm off to bed.

New Additions to our family

We have two new additions to the family given to us by fellow missionaries going on home assignment for a year.  They are two kittens which are just over 2 months old.  On our first term we were given a dog by some missionaries leaving Lampang and then quickly ended up with 8 extra puppies.  We decided that we weren't a dog family with our children so young.  They were like have extra children.  Cats apparently are less maintenance so we thought we'd give them try.

Well the kids absolutely love them and we hope they won't die from all the attention they are getting.  I love the fact that it was so easy to get them to use the kitty litter.  So far they are so much less work than the dogs were.

What! We have a new prime minister?

O.k. For all the Australians in Australia reading this, this is old news already.  But I only found out today that Australia has a new prime minister, and our first woman prime minister.  It happened 5 days ago already!  It shows how out of touch we missionaries can get living away from home.  I can't believe that only 5 days later, it wasn't that obvious on the Sydney Morning Herald online either.  There was a video clip of Julia Gillard (the new prime minster) moving into Prime Minister's office and I thought that's a little old.  Has Kevin Rudd (the deposed prime minister) gone on another one of his overseas trips.  I couldn't believe that she had deposed him (I didn't see it in her and neither did Kevin Rudd or the majority of the nation I'd think).

Stunned.  Unbelievable. Better go and break the news to my wife.  She's think I'm joking for sure.