All the James Bond fans out there will be excited to see a new vehicle that has already been shown at auto shows and could be on the market.
Cheezy video yes, but can you imagine driving one of these things.
That makes me laugh every time. Haha
I was laying in bed last night and my head was just thinking about all sorts of randomness. My short term memory started recalling one night last week when an aquantence and I went out for a video store adventure. You never know what you might encounter on commercial drive. As we were walking past the home made wine store I noticed something wasn't quite "normal". I looked again into the dark store front. The lights were turned off but I could see two figures standing in the middle of the store and it looked like they were in some sort of fighting stance. The next thing I knew these beams of light shot out from their hands. One was green and the other was red. Oh my gosh, these grown men are actually practice fighting with light sabres. You have got to be kidding me. I actually said to the other guy... "only in Vancouver do you see something as silly as this".
So we walked on and didn't think much about what we had just witnessed. We were only thinking about our movie selection for the evening. After picking up the latest and greatest copy of Balls of Fury we were on our way back. This is a great comedy about ping pong and kung fu by the way. 
I would say about fifteen minutes had lapsed. We came upon the wine store and sure enough, they were still going at it. Light sabers colliding in the dark store front. Two grown, actually middle aged men were practicing their light saber fighting moves. I'm sure the battle raged on for a while after we left. I hope no one got hurt or pulled a muscle.
Amazing. I hope people aren't writing blogs like this about me some day.
This is easily one of the coolest stores ever. Everything in this place is all fair trade. This means that wherever the item is from they were paid a good price for their handy work. They work with over 100 artisan groups in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to bring you fair trade jewelry, home decor, gifts and tons of other sweet stuff. As one of the world's oldest and largest fair trade organizations, they build long-term relationships with artisans that are based on mutual understanding and respect.
Fair trade enables artisans to earn a fair wage and
provides the opportunity for a better quality of life.
http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/
Check out the site to find a store near you and other products, or buy online.
With Valentine's Day soon approaching you could get some great gifts here to give to your significant others or your mommy. What I love about buying things at this place is that money goes directly to the people in other countries. All of the staff that work in the stores are volunteers. It is just a great store with a great mission to impact the world's poor. I would encourage all of us to think about social justice issues when buying gifts for others. 
Pictures of African kids is always a good way to market right? It makes me want to buy something anyway.
Any gifts that Carrie and I have bought for any one this year have come from Ten Thousand Villages. We love to buy their coffee, handmade gloves, teas, ornaments, journals, and cookbooks.
This weekend I seem to have come up with another dose of this sickness that keeps going around. I don't know about anyone else but I get pretty cranky when I get sick, especially when I can't breath. My head is so full of snot it is affecting my brain. Despite my cranky attitude my wife chooses to love me by running out and getting me food, drugs, neti pot. All the essentials.
Any way I really cannot stand not being able to use my sense of smell or taste. They are absolutely useless right now. I have been reading this book about discovering your God language and how I really build intimacy with God. I knew right away physical touch was out of there... Or is it? Touch is one of our senses. I knew it, physical touch can be a God language. I have recently discovered that I most often experience God's goodness through my senses. This would affirm the fact that good coffee, wine, cigars, and chili are not just food and beverages, but they are spiritual experiences. Recognizing this about myself has been helpful in understanding why I like the things that I like. I knew right away that my wife is not a sensate because she can actually eat poop. You should see what she makes for breakfast; nasty. 
Other Spiritual Temperaments include:
Activist
Ascetic
Caregiver
Contemplative
Enthusiast
Intellectual
Naturalist
Sensate
Traditionalist
Any Idea what you might be?
I want to have TIME to spend with people. Having time and openness for people is something I feel I need to incorporate in my life when I get back to cincy. I don't want to let myself get so busy I have no time for anyone. Some of the most meaningful people in my life simply just had time for me. For this next season in my life I just want to have openness in my schedule to allow to get together and have lunch or my favorite; coffee or beer or wine or a cigar. Anyway busyness can suck the life out of me and I have nothing left to give to anyone.
Most Fridays I am pretty darn tired from a long week. This Friday was no exception. Actually I was sick on top of my usual tiredness. I called Jacob's Well to let them know that I was feeling pretty crappy and asked if they even needed me to come in. Since a couple of others were out they were pretty short staffed and really needed me to just be there. So I went.
Man I'm glad I did. One of our friends Darren who has been struggling with addiction for a long time just showed up this morning at our meeting and was rather high. He has been in and out of recovery for a long time and just dropped out of a program because he hated it. So by an act of God (literaly) we got him into a new recovery discipleship house that could be a great fit for him. So after some prayer Darren wanted to flush all the heroin and other drugs he had on him down the toilet. We helped him dispose of his vices and got him a shower and then me and Berto drove him a good ways out of the city to this great house where he can get some great help. Amazing. A miracle. Yesterday there was no chance of getting Darren in this place and some how it happened. God can reach anyone. Then back to Vancouver for more fun.
While walking down the street this Chinese woman grabs my arm and whispers the words call 911. Apparently she was having a heart attack or something. We called and I prayed with her. She said that she "knew Jesus" with a peaceful smile. After a few minutes we saw her off in an ambulence entrusting God to do some work there in her life.
After that back at Jacob's Well three guys show up in fancy suits. These are not the typical people we get in there to have conversation and coffee with. These were some big shot entrepreneurs who knew of Jacob's Well through some friends. After talking and hearing stories about what we do the Holy Spirit must have come over them as they had tears in their eyes and the CEO says can we see your costs of operation and basically promised a whole bunch of money. These guys are filthy rich and they saw something that was real in that community. They saw genuine love that they may have never seen.
All this to say that things have been tough lately in our community. People have died, we have had experienced a lot with our friends on the street, and not really seen a whole lot of good. Then today makes things so worth while and is proof that God does provide if we remain faithful. This blog does not do today any justice what so ever. So just take my word for how awesome it was.
I have to be honest and tell you right off that I don't often do the laundry. If that were my responsibility we would be smelling funky most of the time. Carrie is really good about making sure that we have clean undies. Normally to do our laundry we put all of our dirty clothes into big suitcases and drag it down the steps and a couple of blocks to our community house where they have a washer and dryer that we use free of charge. This is a big hastle for everyone. No one likes it when laundry day comes around because we over take the machines and destroy their living room with all of our clothes. There really is just no good way of doing it.
Since we have had a battle of bed bugs on our hands we have had to take all of our garments and wash them in really hot water. This means more laundry to do. Carrie asked me last night if I would take the laundry and just get it done so we wouldn't have to worry about these bugs any more. I recognized this as a prime opportunity to help my wife so she doesn't feel so stressed out. So today I made a trip to the laundry mat just downstairs and down the street. We usually avoid this due to the added cost of using the machines.
For me the laundry mat was actually quite an enjoyable experience that I wish we would have utilized earlier. One thing that made it even better was the fact that I had a double americano from the cafe next door and it was amazing. I had a couple great pieces of reading material to dive into while I was waiting. The problem was that I couldn't concentrate on my reading. The mezmerizing sound of the washers and dryers was captivating. I escaped the natural world into whatever was going on in my mind. And I was also caught up in the interesting people coming in and out of the laundry mat.
That place was sweet. It was a great place to talk to some neighbors. Maybe I'll start hanging out there more often.
ACCORDING TO WIKIPEDIA:
A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missionem (nom. missio), meaning "act of sending" or mitto, mittere, literally meaning "to send" or "to dispatch," the equivalent of the Greek-derived word "apostle" from apostolos, meaning "messenger". In Christian cultures the term is most commonly used for Christian missions, but it applies equally to any proselytizing creed or ideology. Buddhism launched 'the first large-scale missionary effort in the history of the world's religions'.[1]
This afternoon I seemed to have a series of interesting conversations mainly with folk that we Christians label "unbelievers". This of course is the huge number of people who do not profess to be a Christian for whatever reason. Any way, this one guy who I have known pretty much the entire time I have been here in Vancouver who claims to be an atheist asks me over coffee today, "so are you a missionary?" I respond with, "what is your definition of a missionary?" My friend tells me that a missionary is pretty much like the definition used above by wikipedia only he used more forceful language. I have thought about this issue a ton before, but today was different. I wasn't hurt by this or anything, but I truly desire to change the face of Christ to the world into a picture of true love and not a targeting assassin ready to strike at any moment.
Well folks, I have to be honest and say that if this is the true meaning of missionary then I am the most pathetic missionary that walked the earth. This is not my first priority here in Vancouver or anywhere that I go. I do desire and long for everyone to know the love of Jesus in their lives. However; my mission is to love my neighbor as myself and truly have an understanding of what that means. No one wants to be converted or be a target. If mere conversion is our goal we aren't putting Christ on display. To me conversion is a process of transformation. I am still being converted each day.
If I havn't lost too many supporters read on:
I am going to Honduras in April to share the good news of Jesus in my life and probably do a lot of gross things that you can only do on a guys trip. It's gonna be sweet. It's gonna take a lotta prayer and some moola. I would love to talk more with you about it.