Earth hour

I think my concerns for environmental impact seem to continue to deepen. Checking out a celloguy called Cello Joe, who also is a bicycle-touring cellist and also “the wildest beatboxing cellist in the west,” I came across this seemingly impossible idea, a band on tour on bikes. Electric instruments and a 1,000 watt PA. Also given they use the type of bike I have also been dreaming about the SUV xtracycle or free radical. In fact there's a whole world I didn't know about here.



So what will you do on Saturday March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm for Earth Hour. Don't just switch stuff off - That's good. How about having a party or celebration or service without being attached to the power grid? Prove it to yourself and others that for a moment the world can be different. Let's get something going? sign up here.

For the Audience of One - Chapter 3

In this blog I'm going to try and be more of a push and pull technological expression. This will be an attempt to provide some questions for reflection on Mike Pilvachi's book For the Audience of One.

Read Chapter 3 The Language of Worship

I remember meeting Mike Pilavachi in 1991 and remember a very strong impression of a passionate man. The love of God calls for a passionate response, yet sometimes that's the very thing we're scared of - being out of control.

1. What changes did the touch of God's love in worship bring to those at the Soul Survivor festival?
2. What is your experience of of God's love? What changes has it brought?
3. Is there a difference? In worship what I want and how I want it done?
4. In the challenge of offering all, what am I hanging onto most and what are my feeling attached to it?
5. Read Mark 12:29-31 and ask God to help you open your hands and let go.

Setting things

I've been reading about the importance of plants in the home. It seems that Kamal Meattle used just three indoor plant species to dramatically improve air quality in a New Delhi business park. However to achieve this eleven plants per person are required. The plants recommended are the Areca palm, Mother-in-law's Tongue, and Golden Pothos (Epipremnum aureum). They clean the air removing especially organic pollutants.

Recently I have come to see plants are important in many ways. A Long time ago I set aside a space in my my bedroom for meditation and contemplation, it is a desk extension I found in the garbage over 7 years ago almost 7 feet long. Recently I cleared one end and placed a group of my jade plants (Crassula ovata). There are 3 types the normal full size form, a dwarf form and a cultivar called Gollum. The interesting thing is these plants take in CO2 at night rather than giving it out like other plants.

I think my bedroom air quality has improved as sleep patterns have changed but I also find that my daily devotions seem to have a different feel to them. Just having living green plants who I can see changing and growing each week gives me a different sense of the world. Gollum is sometimes called the finger jade because the leaves look like fingers. Seeing this formerly sick plant recovering and reaching upwards and outwards for the sun is a great exaltation to reach also for the Son.

Fighting over nothing

The Cholera Bacillus

The name "Bulawayo" comes from the Ndebele word kwaBulawayo meaning 'At the place of He who Kills-With Affection' or 'place of slaughter'. Wikipedia

It is ironic. Can it get any worse? The country is a disaster and economically broken. Mugabe has stepped back but not necessarily out. Morgan Tsvangirai has been sworn in as prime minister of Zimbabwe. The new administration is a shared government between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. The new MDC deputy agriculture minister Roy Bennett has been charged with treason reduced to plotting “insurgency, banditry and sabotage”. Any trace of the possibility of peace or hope is evaporating.

The trouble is people want power. The new troubles are the work of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), a five-man body comprising the chiefs of the army, air force, police, prisons and intelligence. They are a group with no accountability and an awful lot of power. They are chaired by Mugabe.

Cholera is worse than expected. Before Christmas 60,000 was considered the worst-case scenario. That number was passed last month. Now, things could exceed 100,000 especially as the World Health Organisation (WHO) note that the rainy season floods could only make things worse. Zimbabwe is broken from a country with the highest number of students in school and an infrastructure with clean water and sewage treatment to a rapid descent into I don't know what. In one sense total anarchy would be better as aid agencies and global groups might be able to give some help. Doesn't fighting over power here become meaningless?

Jesus cried for Jerusalem. Who will cry for Bulawayo, for Zimbabwe?