Sivin Kit’s Garden

One of the things I love to see in Gareth (and which I think a habit he got from me! ) is his natural tendency to just bring along some reading material whether with some words or lots of pictures anywhere and anytime.

When we visited his Grandpa at Hospital Kuala Lumpur, while other people were talking with his Grandpa, he asked for a chair, and the rest was automatic.

I asked him whether he might join the Read while waiting Project this Saturday at 3pm (venue to be confirmed!), we’ll see. But if there’s anyone interested let me know. I’ve invited friends and family of BLC too.

Sleep is important …

wow! it’s free and it tries to include the world’s different languages on the project … phew! For fun I checked out Bangsar Lutheran Church (separately).Here’s what it says about Bangsar (then Lutheran … then Church):
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Bangsar is a popular district in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, known for its nightlife.

and yet a bunch of us meets at the Father’s House where there’s peace and quiet at the edge of Bangsar …
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Tonight, I need to facilitate a session where we get those involved in BLC’s ministry to children on the same page and same direction. While I was driving I couldn’t help but think about Gareth who’s 16months old now. The big question coming from a very personal level is this … “What kind of Children’s Ministry would I send Gareth to?”. From a more leader’s perspective I’m asking “What kind of Church are we as we learn to help children along their spiritual journey?” (of course, I can’t help but also think about families and the church as a whole now as well).

The first thing that surfaced in my mind honestly is what I don’t want to see … and that’s of course some “harmful” ideas I’ve seen practiced today and in the past which until now I not only not comfortable with them, I have an immediate distaste for them. And yet, I wondered again and again, “Am I too critical?”, “Maybe I don’t understand?” , or “Is this just a personal baggage?”.

Surfing & stumbling into gave me some framework, ideas and thoughts to “focus” my engagement with this crucial aspect of Christian life and ministry.
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Stephen Wolfram has made the complete text of his New Kind of Science (a 1000+-page treatise on the way that virtually everything in the universe can be explained with cellular automata), which he self-published a couple years back with some of the squillions of dollars he’s earned on his seminal Mathematica software program, available for free on the Internet ~ via Boing Boing Blog

I read the preface and will probably find some time later to check this book out. I like free books online … it’s good for people like me who find books very expensive nowdays and tough on the budget! But, the attraction for me in reading this book is it sparks in my mind what a New Kind of Theology could be … or a New Kind of Ecclesiology or a New Kind of Missiology … or a New Kind of Spirituality, the list goes on … (that was sparked after reading McLaren’s The Church on the Other side and A new Kind of Christian)

FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. I’m still figuring how to use it properly … tried it last week to organize my thoughts on the retreat. I still prefer markers, pen and paper … but this is still useful!

Thanks to Winn for these simple & profound scribblings…
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Like most things in life, when I find a new toy to play with I spend a lot of time with it to the exclusion of other toys that I have, wondering if this new toy will be the “ultimate answer” to my “toy playing,” hoping so, so I can rid myself of all other toys that now have no value.
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Here’s a good collection teaching quarterlies (with challenging articles, interviews, and reviews) from the C.S. Lewis Institute (I’ll try to leave some on a table for people to pick up this Sunday and see what happens?!)