Thoughts and observations on God, Culture, and Life in general.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Genius = Wheel + Shovel


The Wovel is pretty much hands down the most amazing new product I've seen in a while. Aside from the computer, this may revolutionize the way men and women now (no more excuses ladies) clear snow. Check out their website commercials and demos when you have some spare time and bandwidth.

I have to be the first person on N. Connecticut to get one of these - but this new innovation will cost you. Still, despite being more than a shovel and less than a snowblower in cost, it's still a heft price to pay for simply marrying a shovel w/ a wheel...

Monday, December 05, 2005

Lyrics

Here's a new chorus to a new song I'm in the midst of possibly writing / finishing. It's kind of about this fictional character - who embodies a lot of my tendencies for co-dependency, and deriving self-worth from relationships and how that catches up in life - not the type of life I live, but the way I see it through the eyes of those around me sometimes.

I only have the chorus, which isn't much, but the melody behind it is powerful and passionate, everything I wanted to feel when I was singing it. I'll have to get it recorded and post it here someday soon.

Chorus:

You said, don't worry, I'lll still be here in the morning
She said, don't worry, I won't leave without a warning -
Anymore -
We've gone too far - to turn my back again.

and then it dives into this minor chord progression which the verse is beginning to talk about a lack of trusting my own heart, or the idealistic ways of love that always seem to let a person down. something really broken like that.

That's all, just thought I'd share a bit.

W

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Return

Tim and I actually have no idea what we are about to drink here at breakfast - turns out the green one was some strange soda type of thing, not really lemony or limey and the orange was a mango tasting juice.
Our hotel bathroom - and all on the trip had some sanitation isssues in my opinion
Our plush 3 person master suite, yes, this is the whole room
A shot of us out in Independence Square (the center of Kiev for all intensive purposes) singing worship before a crowd of onlooker - most of whom don't really understand english, but love the "sound" of american music...

Janice explaining a piece of art she and Kari made during a concert given at an english speaking high school in kiev. This was an amazing form of art which spoke to the kids of choosing a better way of life. Due to the seperation of church and state similar to America, we could not talk (or sing) about God or Jesus, but rather we we could only point people to conversations with Nikolay the pastor we were with if they had questions or wanted further discussion. We ended up seeing one of the students from this school at a service we played at a few days after this was painted and she relayed a story where the principal hung up this piece of art and commented to the students around him that this signified a new beginning for the school. This same principal invited all 14 of us as well as Nikolay into his office after the event to thank us and tell us we are welcome back anytime and he believes it is the beginning of a strong relationship with Nikolay - Mission Accomplished!
The photo above is on the street in independence square singing worship songs. Some of these people actually ended up coming to the services where we played and taught. What really struck me is how God always got us into spiritual conversations with these people, and often times it was the most unlikely ones that would open up...



I realized that I have all of these wonderful pics of Kiev I have not posted so here are a few to tide you over until I see you in person.

Here is a small group of college-aged students creating art that basically has a person painted on it pointing. The students then wrote in words that express what they want to see in them in the body of the person. Surrounding the person were the words representing the things that the world tells them to want and desire.