Sunday, June 24, 2007

Intraspace

A few months ago Andrew asked me to be a contribute to his review blog intraspace. It has taken a couple of months for me to actually contribute but you will now find a review of the book Leadership Excellence by Phil Pringle. Check it out

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

World youth culture dominated by Asia

In visiting Steve Taylors blog I was fascinated to find a link to this blog about how Asia has become the dominant trend setter in World youth culture. In particular the video link in the blog has some very interesting facts.

The technological changes are already well and truly effecting the face of NZ youth culture and subsequently NZ youth ministry. However it will be interesting to see how other Asian youth trends effect our culture.

Monday, June 11, 2007

The power of encouragement

Our Senior Pastor spoke on the power of encouragement. As his closing illustration he played this video clip. Their was hardly a dry eye in the church and well.... the clip speaks for itself!

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Charlie Boswell

The following is a true story which I read in the book Leadership Excellence by Phil Pringle.

Charlie Boswell was blinded during World War II while rescuing his friend from a tank that was under fire. He was a great athlete before his accident and in a testimony to his talent and determination he decided to try a brand new sport, a sport he never imagined playing, even with his eyesight . . . golf!

Through determination and a deep love for the game he became the National Blind Golf Champion! He won that honor 13 times. One of his heroes was the great golfer Ben Hogan, so it truly was an honor for Charlie to win the Ben Hogan Award in 1958.

Upon meeting Ben Hogan, Charlie was awestruck and stated that he had one wish and it was to have one round of golf with the great Ben Hogan.

Mr. Hogan agreed that playing a round together would be an honor for him as well, as he had heard about all of Charlie's accomplishments and truly admired his skills.

"Would you like to play for money, Mr. Hogan?" blurted out Charlie.

"I can't play you for money, it wouldn't be fair!" said Mr. Hogan.

"Aw, come on, Mr. Hogan...$1,000 per hole!"

"I can't, what would people think of me, taking advantage of you and your circumstance," replied the sighted golfer.

"Chicken, Mr. Hogan?"

"Okay," blurted a frustrated Hogan, "but I am going to play my best!"

"I wouldn't expect anything else," said the confident Boswell.

"You're on Mr. Boswell, you name the time and the place!"

A very self-assured Boswell responded "10 o'clock . . . tonight!"

Monday, June 04, 2007

Andy Haden

Part of New Zealand rugby folklore is a 1978 test between the All Blacks and Wales, New Zealand were losing by 2 points with only moments left on the clock. As a lineout was formed Andy Haden took a huge dive and threw himself onto the ground pretending that he was illegally pushed over by a Welshman. A penalty was given, kicked and the All Blacks won the match. The referee confirmed later that the penalty had not been given for the Haden hollywood but for another infringement.

All who saw the Haden dive knew that a hand was not laid on him so the media brandished him a cheat. After days of being hung out to dry for his unsporting play Haden made the following comment in response to the criticism "All of your ridicule and scorn is preferable to me then to get back into the changing sheds at the end of the game, look at myself in the mirror and think you could have done something more to try and win"

Andy Haden's attitude to rugby is the same attitude that all of us should take into life. So often we are silenced by the criticism and opinions of others and by allowing these voices to dictate to us we run the risk of one day sitting down at the end of our lives and thinking I could have done something more.

Change

For a while I have been meaning to change the name of my blog and have finally got around to doing so. So with this change I have also made a commitment to myself to try my very best to update this at least on a weekly basis. Exciting, I KNOW!!!