shanghai carrot

The chinese have a similar sense of humour to the English.

This is a funny shaped carrot.
Displayed in the form of a comodious billboard.

backinvancouver

Finally back.

Absolutely knackered, but enjoyed the week thoroughly.
Just went through my emails and successfully addressed more than 600, most of which had been sitting on the side whilst I was away nagging at me. Feels good to have knocked it off.

As for the weird stuff? Well, intercession in y has always been a bit weird, hasn't it? But that's okay, and as long as God gets the credit, I don't mind.
There was one weird worship session that didnt sit right with me (dodgy theological instructions from over excited rocknroll showman) -quote- "I'm a fan of the old school endings!!! *BAAADAAAMM!!!!* (Motions with guitar) and ended up with me forking out to fix my guitar at the end of it, but generally speaking, the week was great.

Fred was a great, provocative challenge.
Lots of cognitive information for me to digest and process (a welcome relief from "feely" stuff!)
Lots of people stirred and pondering on their role in missions, 10/40 and the will of God in their life.

insights

Great session this evening.

Fred spoke on the move of the gospelaround he world, particularly with 10/40 focus.
He shared some great insights as to God's perspective on communism (informed and insightful as opposed to political and indoctrinated) and the move of God in that realm since 1989.

He then went on to share about the move of the gospel in the muslim world during the last 10-15 years especially. Great stuff.
There have been a fewweird things happen, but nothing too much out of the ordinary for a y conference (I suppose you tend to focus more on the details when you've invested so much...)

Till tomorrow.

driving loren to drink

Currently out doing this Go Conference thing.

Focus is 10/40 window missions; (10/40 window for the uninitiated is a window 10 degrees latitude above the equator and 40 degrees somewhere else (?) where the poorest of the poor live, the most unreached and the list goes on).

We've had some really good sessions and speaking tracks/workshops so far, looking forward to the rest of it.
Ben is staying in the bunk above me; the sound of his sleeping bag introducing itself at a high pitch to the vinyl matress underneath at regular nightly intervals is enough to drive Loren to drink.

Fred markert speaks tonight, which I anticipate with baited breath.

kelownaispretty

Currently reveling in Kelowna Bc.
Helping out with this Go Conference thing we're putting on.
I get to be mr.guitar player and rock out with my good friend ryan. Tres exciting.

Bc is absolutely beautiful, and there has been plenty of great foto ops. On the downside I miss my roomies back in vancouver (a four hour drive).
My friend ryan almost killed us twie yesterday with his driving.
Good thing he's a cool guy.

larph.

linetosomewhere

Ifinally won something

My foto archives are on the front page of lomography.com at the moment.
They were yesterday, and probably will be tomorrow, as well.
What does this mean?
I won $50 to spend. My excitement runneth over.

The crows. They laugh at me.

A couple of weeks ago, I was out on a walk.

As saturday began to creep towards his armchair, searching for slippers and pipe, I began to notice dark cirrus clouds extending themselves out across the downtown eastside.

As befits the area, I observe a [crash?] of crows, gathering overhead in an invitingly Hitchcokarian manner.
And it begins to appear as if this moment may have been stitched together by the good Lord Himself, purpose built for my little russian box to permanently capture onto kodak film for all of eternity to admire.

So I stand underneath this pylon.
In an alleyway.
And wait.
For the perfect moment.
For them to land.
So I can take the picture.
And leave.

But they dont.

They sit and smirk.
For half an hour.

Until a man comes and chases me away.

And so my picture becomes a pylon; villainous crows just out of shot.

Surrealism

Afternoons in Pyongyang were incredibly surreal and striking for several reasons.

The sonority of literally hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren shouting in unison sweeps breathlessly across the city, providing moments of that appear to suggest biblical "ear tingle".
("... shall do such a thing that shall make their ears tingle...")

They kids pracitce after school and on weekends, making the daily pilgrimage to the local sports stadium in order to prepare for Arirang festival.
Streets are bombarded with kids from all across the district, each carrying their own coloured cardbboard placards.

After two years of practice, the big night comes at the end of October every year.
I read an article where Madeline Albright (ex US Secretary of State) paid a visit to the hermit hinterland in 1999.
She described how after dining for the evening, she accepted the invitation for eventide's entertainment, and jumped into the vehicles at the direction of her hosts.

Arriving at what looked like a bleak and empty stadium, she was mightily surprised to reach her seat at witness stadia lights turned on and 200,000 people howling in at the top of their communist lungs.

She was promply treated to what is now become known as one of the most elaborate displays of human performance ever staged.
If treated is an appropriate term to use.

(The picture is from one of my most surreal experinces - the first time seeing thousands of kids waving cardboard together).

The green place

The green place.

Eerily green.

Anneyong.

Arirang

The legend of Arirang.

Rirang and Songbu, are a young married couple separated by famine and feudal oppression - Rirang eventually leaving the family home in order to travel and retreive food and relief for his wife and himself.
He journeys with the additional motive to bring revenge for the years of humiliating despotism his family has suffered.

Rirang never returns, and Songbu in her anguish cries out - A-Rirang.

Arirang is also sybolic of the separation between the north and south koreas.
Representing anguish and grief contained with an ages old legend that captures the qualities of the nation itself.

I was given my own mural; Arirang, Reconciliation and Reunification.

"We are hoping for the day."

audgebennyboyhangukin

"A friend is a present you give yourself."
Robert Louis Stevenson

wendywendywendy

Square meat.
Or round meat.
That is the question.

Today I made kim chi tchi gae.

larph.

TV License

I don't know if you're aware of this, but in the UK we have to buy a licence to watch television.

This was established eons ago in the developmental stages of television broadcasting, but has managed to stick around in the UK. It gives us the BBC (which I'm all for) and other supposedly quality broadcasting, but at the end of the day you're still paying for a license to watch television.

Worse still, the prices for them seem to be inflating faster than inflation.
At least we get BBC, I suppose.

Korea

The land of morning calm.

Qualified

Well done to England; qualifying for the World Cup top of the group after a more than satisfying victory over Poland today.
Actually played well for a change.

Careers advice

Perhaps it's universal?

More Vancouver

Another Canadian thanksgiving celebration has once again been completed.

As my roomate astutely observed, surely turkey is the most annointed of all holiday poultry meats.
I still miss the way we do it in England, though.
*Sidenote - we are for the first time planning on celebrating Guy Fawkes Night here in Canada on November 5th. As long as we can get a permit (permit?!?) to build a bonfire a light off copious amounts of fireworks, that is.*

Autumn is definetely my favourite time of year. The colours come out and present themselves, darkness visits earlier and light evening drizzle whisks me momentarily away to London.
Congrats to Sara and Jon and little baby Florence born today!! *sniff*

Walking and Fotos

Today I walked alot.
Last night I walked, also. Took some pictures of the city.

These pictures are from the last "Day I Walked".

You can see therest of them by clicking my fotos link.

The picture

I read an interesting article this week.

Just as a follow up to the Tiananmen Square post I made about a week ago.
Apparently nobody knows what happened to the man in the picture. He was holding a plastic carrier bag in one hand, and as witnesses put it, he just sort of stepped out infront of the tanks.

At first they tried to move around him, then he was bundled away by secret police and nobody has heard from him since.
The article was written by the photographer (I think it was for Time magazine).
He said that as he was taking pictures from his hotel room window, the PSB barged into the room and confiscated all of his film and cameras.

He was threatened with a hefty prison sentence for filming during Martial Law.
After they left, he retreived a roll that he had hidden in the holding tank of his toilet - and that's where one of the 20th centuries' most famous photographs comes from.

He finished with this: "He defined the image with his character - I just took the picture."

Scraping it again

Got up early in the morning to dash down to cafe Napoli to take in the England game. Its fun taking it in with all of the other ex pats (los of rowdy english accents and arms thrown into the air in unison), however England's performance left a lot to be desired.

Beckham received the dubious honour of becoming the first player to be sent off twice in an England shirt (albeit from a disgusting dive from the Austrians).
We held on for the 1-0, but as far a our performances go we still have a long way before the world cup.

If Holland win against the Czechs later on today then we have definetely qualified.

day five

End of the week.

Teaching on this school was great - this group was incredibly gracious towards me.

This weekend in Canada is a thanksgiving weekend. It's not a holiday that I am particularly familiar with, seeing as though I am thoroughly British. Still I am happy enough to partake.

I will be unwinding a little, and will try to catch Vancouver on film during the "magical hour" of the gloaming tomorrow night. (There seems to be a special window during dusk which looks beautiful and casts some amazing silhouettes).

After that looking forward to getting back at it.

day four

Another day down.

The week seems to have flown by, and what a week.
I look forward to having these guys around the office for the next few months - just a great group of young people who seem to posess a deep hunger to know God.

High speed internet access has brought with it several privileges, but ultimately one of the most comforting for me has been the ability to connect with the things I enjoy most about England.
Recently I have really gotten into radio shows, and Armando Ianucci's Charm Offensive certainly has been one of my favourites of late. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/)
(Yes, I know it's Radio 4... but...)

There are alot of things that I miss about home, family and friends being foremost.

day three

Third day of teaching went well; really enjoy this group of people.

It seems that God is moving amongst us and we are all receiving fresh insight and revelation.
I find myself in increasing states of slumber, but enjoying the week nonetheless.

Tonight is the first night of the hockey season; go Vancouver. I have followed their last two seasons in their enirety before the year long lay off, so it's exciting to see Naslund and Bertuzzi back on the ice again.

More importantly, the England squad resumed for training this week in time for vital qualifiers on Saturday and on wednesday - Austria and Poland respectively.
We'll almost certainly be resuming a 4-4-2 with Joe Cole out on the left and Beckham on the right again (see "thoughts from the peanut gallery").

day two

Day two has drawn itself to a close.

Nervousness has subsided a little now that a bit of relationship has been established with the students.
It was incredibly interesting listening to personal stories of why people decided to do dts and come to vancovuer.

Tomorrow we are looking at the ways that God speaks.
I find myself becoming progressively exhausted as the weeks goes on; despite my newly increased caffeine intake.
Have you noticed how indelibly inescapable the new Coldplay CD is?
From coffee shops to shopping malls and public spaces to just-about-everywhere.
Surely "black matter" is now only the second most prevalent substance in the universe behind Coldplay's bland dinner party detritus.

ooo, controversial *wink*.
I'm in a feisty mood this evening.

day one

The first day of the teaching week is almost over.

It has been amazing listening to all of the insight provided by the class in regards to their relationship with God, and how they interact with Him and so forth.
(Intimacy With God is the topic this week).

I have been pretty nervous, but I was reminded this morning as I walked to the ministry centre of something He once said: "My peace, I give you."

I'm sure there is an abundance more to uncover and unearth between us this week.

larph.

The Donkey

"And as I stood there on the hill, fountain spurting and splashing like I had never witnessed before, I cast my sight towards the group.

Edging closer, I see 10, maybe 12 Koreans clapping and cheering around the donkey.

Advancing towards them and turning the corner for better perspective, hundreds - no thousands - had lined the streets and great boulevards.
Once accomodating military parades and tanks and missiles, they now cradled thousands upon thousands of schoolchildren packed together waving decorative fans and cards and displays.

Married women bedecked the People's Boulevard adorned in traditional chokori and hambok - turning even the greyest of concrete surroundings into a pannier of expectation and excitement.
Men danced with exhuberance never witnessed before, and almost as if the opportunity may never present itself again.

Leaves torn off of the deciduous greenspace lined the floor whilst others tossed flowers and stems alike.

And as the donkey ambled past, the impassioned throngs collapsed into the street, following, cheering and waving with abundance - no care for dignity or gravity alike.

And atop of the donkey, adorning it's old and withered back, with a face lined full of relief and delight - was our victor."

Morbid curiosity

Quite clearly I remember May 5th, 2005.

Having arrived in China's capital city hours earlier and with the days chores accomplished I excitedly made my way down Wangfujing's shopping streets towards the grandiose monumnets, mapped out almost maniacally by The Chairman just over 50 years ago.

Not so much revelling in toursit-y mindset - more the indulgence of a morbid curiosity.
Having only been alive for 24 years and only politically aware for a portion of those, there aren't too many world changing events that I can lay claim to remembering and - indeed - will never forget.

But Tianenmen is definetely one of them.

And as my feet began to grace the bleak concrete expanse that makes up the People's Square, I sought to cast my mind back to the events of June 1989.
I imagined what it would have been like to have been present in the same spot 16 years previously.
To read the thoughts and hopes of those gathered; surely they couldn't have been that different to myself?

And as I stood there breathlessly in the middle, only a stones throw from MacDonalds franchises and Starbucks outlets, it would almost have been too difficult to conceive this actually happened were it not for the ominous stare looming large from the giant portrait adorning the entrance to The Forbidden City.
Mao was still watching; ever present, ever there.

There is still a long way to go for many.

top five distractions

Top five distractions

5. Q Magazine
4. BBC News website
3. General procrastination over what to eat for
2. Rambling inner monologue
1. BBC News website

This sounds terribly domesticated, but "Arm and Hammer" laundry deturgent is on special at Safeway right now.