Finally, after holes and a lot of drilling we have the internet at our new space.
Starting today, this is my second home and full time work space; being lenient on the meaning of full time.
Pictures and more details to come soon.

I am doing a small test and have switched away from Firefox and moved to Flock. Mind you it is based on Firefox but apparently it has fixed a lot of the memory leaks. This could be temporary but we'll see. It incorporates blogging, flickr, youtube, facebook very seemlessly, and works with a few of my more important extensions for firefox so so far, so good.
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Tonight Saskatchewan Roughriders moved past Sarnia Imperials in Grey Cup Wins. I didn't even know we ever had an CFL team, but it's still sad and by sad I mean more sad for the Roughriders because it took them so long. (ht)
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Is critiquing consumerism a legit argument? Afterall, it's part of our lives to buy and sell things.
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I got this e-mail the other day, and I wanted to share about it. It was from Pei-Chung Ting from Albany California, I never knew him before this e-mail. It seems that my posts on renting and mortgaging and living in community have struck chords with them. Here is his e-mail, it's a long one, but it was encouraging to see people doing the same things that I've been thinking.

My wife just directed me to your blog, and it is a bit of something I've been waiting for for quite some time for many of the ideas you express about community, and community living to emerge from somewhere else (not my mouth :) ) I've been convinced that it is something God is up to for the past 5 or so years, and I've been vigorously positioning myself to be able to participate and contribute in the right time, in the right place, with the right people.

A bit about me. I live in Albany, California.. . . right next to Berkeley California where I did my undergraduate studies in architecture. Roughly 5 years ago, i was driving from the Los Angeles area back to Northern California, talking as usual with my Jesus when an idea hit that would shape the course of my life. . . something I like to call "The Plan for World Liberation" because it sounds so amazingly corny.

I saw that most of us spend the majority of our lives just trying to get to par. The best of our time is spent working to merely survive, get food on the table, and pay a mortgage. The left-overs that remain of our time, energy, and resources are used for extending the Kingdom of God. We are, indeed slaves. . . and such is the case due to the curse that was placed on man and the land as a result of the fall. With Jesus, the curse was broken, and a restoration process begins that effects man, the land in the context of community. We progress from slaves, to servants, to friends, to sons. . . and all creation (that incidentally suffers frustration from the curse) groans and waits for the sons of God to be revealed.

The initial idea was simple. . . but the implications sparked some serious re-examination of many foundational principles. The simple idea was what if we could "spring" a group of people from a position of slavery to a position of freedom (owning property outright and generating excess passive income). Then, from a position of freedom, we can work together to rapidly free other people for the expansion of the Kingdom of God? What if the freedom extended not only to housing, but to other areas as well? Can we pay off a restaurant owner's business loans so he can operate his business from a position of freedom instead of slavery? What possibilities would that open up for him to expand the Kingdom of God? Can we send people loan-free through law school, business school, or medical school? As diverse as the city and community we live in, that is where the Kingdom of God threatened to extend. Deeply, permanently, profoundly to alter the fabric of society. Incrimentally, by deed and title, the kingdom of this world comes into the ownership of the kingdom of God.

I will not write about the serious re-examination of foundational principles particularly spiritual authority in this email. I just wanted to touch base to see if there is someone out there who also sees what I'm seeing God point at.

All that is well and good, but what am i doing about it presently? Well, by miraculous circumstances, my wife and I own our house outright. I am just finishing up the final touches to a massive addition on the back side. We have been keeping our eyes out for people to partner with. Plan A was to have people of similar vision come live with us, save money together, scheme and do business together, and save cash to free other people. We've had our share of friends come and stay with us, but up until this point, not too many who the vision has taken root. Things were quiet for a bout 2 years until last week.

The neighbor's house went up on the market. We are jumping on the opportunity to buy it in a declining market. Monday, we will submit a cash offer. We will have to borrow against our house, which was not the ideal setup, but we don't know what God is up to, and it's better to re-invest your "talent" than to bury it under a tree. A long-time friend Jon, who I've talked with extensively about "the plan for world liberation" will sell his house, we will knock the neighbor's house over, and build a custom home for Jon and his family to live in next door. They will reduce their mortgage by 50%. During the construction phase, him, his wife, and 3 young boys will live with us in our house. Our plan is to end up with a 75%/25% split ownership on the new house after construction, pay down our 25% FAST, and seed ownership completely to Jon and his wife.

Simultaneously, another friend Jimmy, who I'd also been scheming with about world liberation, quit his full time position in LA and will be moving in with us while maintaining a contract position with the same company. He will be staying for free and saving money like mad while we work simultaneously on a business plan to start the financial engine for world liberation. We will aggressively work together to knock out all mortgages and then generate strong positive cashflow to extend further. The owner of the house next door also owns the house next next door. We have our sights set on it and want to be in a strong financial position when that one goes up on the market. . . to build again both physical buildings, and community simultaneously. God will reveal the right owner when that time comes.

The situation is not ideal as we would like to have started out from cash only instead of taking out a loan of any kind, but I have always believed that for this to work, it would not be through the singular efforts of one person, but would happen in the context of a closely knit community. We dig a hole by taking on the loan, but by digging out together, we are forced to shoulder the same burden and forge a stronger relationship and trust between us.

All the while, the community now has the required pieces to start "traditional ministry" again inside my house and the one next door (if we get it). It has been some time since our exodus from the institutional church as we pushed ahead to try and build a new kind of infrastructure to support the new directions God is calling us to.

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theStory website has a new RSS Feed, so update your readers if you care.
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Tomorrow I'm moving my office into theStory's new building. So like promised, pictures and more details still soon to come.
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Cultivate last week was my favourite one yet. Met some great people and was challenged by thoughts and conversation.
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My camera is at Canon and an estimate to get it fixed is awaiting. Hopefully I'll be out on the streets again in the next few weeks.
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We have sold our Mac G4 and purchased a PowerMac G5, dual 1.8 with 3gb ram, and there will be 1TB of space. So hopefully this can handle the documentary editing a little better. So when we move into the new building we will have two PC and one MAC video editing machines which is what I'm excited for because I'm currently working on the beginning stages of a feature length film with some guys in Sarnia. More details to come on that.

We are doing an 8 month study on Genesis at theStory. This is the first time I have spent this much time in any book (or probably the Bible) fueled by my own personal desire and not by due dates and mandatory readings or guilt trips. I've only read one entire book on Genesis so far (besides Genesis itself) but it has been enough to keep me turning the pages of more books and keep me hooked on Genesis for a long time coming. The book I read was Genesis by Laurence Turner and its out of print so it cost us around $80.00. I will admit though, I'd pay double for it. It changed the way I look at Genesis. I'm excited we are taking the time to walk step by step, theme by theme, story by story through Genesis with our community because the book is so full of truth and beauty.

Genesis is also filled with so much heart break; which is what this post is about. I never really realized until a few weeks ago how inappropriate Genesis is. I'm not even talking about the mass murders, crazy sex stories, incest and lies. All these things are quite scary and uncomfortable in themselves, but what sits wrong with me on top of all that is how God seems to ask for it.

After reading through Genesis a couple of times, I can't help but notice how God seems to take the side of the sinful one over and over again and leaves the better/righteous one out to dry. All my life I've been accustomed to read Genesis as if the good guys win and to think I know who the good guys are. I heard the nice stories; you know the ones where the giraffes are sticking their heads out the ark (as Darryl puts it) as Noah and his family float away on a log water ride forgetting all along that the rest of the world just drowned a violent death. This sort of view of Genesis is strongly one-sided and is in desperate need of some balance and reality.

For example, let's take Cain and Abel's story; one that most of us are familiar with. In this story, Abel is the good guy. God finds favour in his offering, and that's about all the details we get of him. Then the rest of the chapter is dedicated to his brother who decides to kill him. So Abel gets killed off and his story ends, so what is to come of Cain? It must be a lot worse you think, right? Well he gets the rest of the chapter to whine about his punishment of having a hard time harvesting some crops and to be a wanderer. Poor guy. Well God seems to think so cause then he marks Cain so that he won't be killed and then states that if anyone does kill Cain that they will suffer vengeance seven times over. So not only does he assure that no one will kill him, he throws out a warning anyway that if anyone does kill him well then they'll be sorry. To bad Abel, didn't get that sort of protection. He should have brought the crappy flock. Then probably just to piss God off, Cain goes against his curse of being a wanderer and decides to build a city and stay put. Nice choice God, way to protect the one who's really making you proud.

Let's think about some of the other people God seems to be with. Jacob, well now there is a messed up character. Sleeping around with whoever is thrown in front of him, getting into wrestling matches, screwing his brother over. Really if God was thinking straight he should have picked Enoch. He's the forgiving and loving one and he is just as successful all without his father's blessing, imagine if he had it. Then there is Joseph. He's the one we all want to love. The despised one by his brothers and then the whole Potifer incident just makes our heart really go out to him. Well if Joseph was so innocent and was such a great God follower I wonder why he tried so hard to fulfill his dreams on his own or why he decided to reek havoc on his family by tormenting him with his games or why he made so much profit on his 'intelligence' of saving up the grain? I'd probably choose Benjamin or Reuben.

The stories are endless in Genesis of God constantly taking the side of the most messed up, and sinful ones. These are not stories of great men who do great things and make us proud. These are stories of miserable failures who none of us should want to mimic and follow in their paths. Yet we constantly put them on pedestals and tell our children these stories as if something in their lives is leading us in the right direction. I'm tired of looking at Genesis through this filter of retribution theology where God blesses the good and curses the bad. It's just not like that. I'm tired of looking at the Bible as if the good guys win and the bad guys lose and then the credits start rolling.

If anything I'm starting to see more and more that Genesis is not a book of heroes meant to inspire and urge us on to have more faith in God. Instead Genesis is a book about God, who decides to take the pedafiles, murderers, drunks, liars, rapists, faithless and thief's (yes they are all in Genesis) and use them to tell us more about himself. It's way to easy to love Abel in that story. It's impossible to love Cain. Yet God takes Cain and protects him, and uses him to start a nation. It's impossible to really love Lot throughout Genesis, he's a selfish bad father who has no problem handing his girls over to be raped. Yet God saves and protects him and has no problem calling him just and righteous. Genesis is a book about a God who loves those that are impossible to love and who are undeserving of it. I have so much to learn from a God like that.

Still to come...when God decides its time to drown everyone he created.

We here in the West have it real hard. No wonder so many of us are unhappy, miserable, depressed and angry all the time. I’ve noticed this all the more in the last few months for some reason. We really do have it hard. Just thinking about these things that cause such negative emotions makes me depressed. Not being able to afford that beautiful car that you would just look perfect in, not being able to go to the vacation place of your choice, gas prices, the wrong political party getting elected, the TV writers going on strike, our house not matching, our teeth being crooked, our being a few pounds overweight, our breasts not being big/small enough, our feelings being hurt, our car breaking down, getting butted in front of in the grocery store…you know the real bad stuff…these are all things that plague our culture every single day.

You know what really gets under our nerves. The fall. You know when all the leaves start dropping all over our lawn. Sure it’s beautiful, but they just keep falling and falling and we have to keep bagging and bagging to keep our lawn looking the way it’s supposed to look. We obviously don’t like leafs on our grass because there are bags and bags of it ready to be taken to the compost lining our streets. Budget cuts at our public schools really get us going too, how dare they take from our children’s education. It makes us all want to take our kids out and send them to the catholic schools where the money is a little more abundant (or at least they give that impression). What are some other things that just makes our lives so horrible and depressing? I’m sure you, like me, have lists and lists.

We live in a world of polar opposites. Half the world is starving to death while my side is eating so much its killing them. Half the world can’t afford any sort of transportation while my half complains about car repairs to their third vehicle. Half the world never sees their children grow up because they are dead, my half doesn’t see them grow up because we don’t want to. Half the world is dying to have a job that pays anything and the other half struggles to make it to work on time. Some of us are trying to have plastic surgery to fix our self esteem while some of us try and fix our broken bodies with therapy. Some of us complain about our lawns while others can’t grow enough food on their farm to feed their family. Some of us complain our computers aren’t fast enough while others have never heard of one. Some of us are having unexpected babies while others who desperately want them can’t have them. Life is happening brutally and beautifully everywhere we go.

I can start to see what Paul meant when he said rejoice always, because really there is always something to rejoice about. There is no issue in expressing our sorrow and grief, and there is no issue in expressing happiness and contentment. The issue lies when you get one without the other. With every smile we should remember that there is a frown somewhere else. With every tear we need to remember that there is a laugh elsewhere. To lean heavily on one side is to discredit humanity in others and in ourselves. The same is true for every situation. We have lost our perspective. We live in a world where people fail and succeed, receive and lose all the time. For us to focus on one while forgetting the other is to forget the people around us and to forget the world we live in. Oh the quandaries of the West. The problems we think we have. May we never think that we have it all bad or all good. May we never lose our perspective of the people and the world around us. May we learn to see our lives through the filter of the lives around us instead of the box we like to build around ourselves.

I haven't posted a thing in the last few weeks, and here is why (and it's not because I'm giving up on blogging forever like some people.)

1. We got a new building(s) for theStory that we have signed a two year lease with the option to buy after a year using our payments that year as a down payment. The buildings are beautiful, there is one dedicated specifically for the children also, so we are excited about that. I am also going to move my office into the building to get out of my basement and hopefully regulate some of my hours. We have started the move in process and last week was our first Sunday there. I'll post more info and pictures next week.

2. We are going to Ottawa this week and Joe is presenting bits and pieces of the documentary. Video editing (especially 20 hours of tape) is the most tedious process ever known to man. Mind you I'm not editing at all, I have just been on 24/7 (literally) call over the last week to help Joe work through all his Mac problems.

3. I'm trying to get a column in the local paper so I spent some time writing some sample columns to the editor, we'll see how that goes.

4. My computer has been doing weird things lately and my camera broke. The two things that I use the most in the world. This little mirror piece fell right off inside the body of the camera which apparently is an important piece because it doesn't take pics without it in. I am running RAID with my data drives now to prevent data loss and my motherboard doesn't like it too much. All these signs point me to the reality that I might need to get new equipment soon.

All these factors have caused me to be a blogging slacker. But I will be back on soon enough, because my mind has been racing lately and I've got a lot of questions to tackle.

Flash is a cool way to do web design. Most developers stay away from it because its very time consuming and it's hard to have a site that is flash and also give you good content that is easy to edit. However, here is a list of 65 awesome flash designs, and this one just made me laugh.
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This is the best Halloween costume I've ever seen.
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Rachel has some stories about when I talk in my sleep and the things I say.
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So we did Paper Rock Scissors, maybe the Twister is next?

All this talk about renting or mortgaging got me thinking about other ways to ‘live.’ So I thought I would start another category at the side of this blog and keep at this for a bit longer trying to understand and work through the different ways people live under roofs. Another way that some people live is in community houses or communes. This is a peculiar type of living because it’s very rare in our culture and in many ways it goes against everything culture demands for success and independence. There is a lot about this way of living that attracts me and a number of reasons that scares me. Here is a post I wrote over a year ago about my dream of living in community and I still feel very passionate about it.

Positive Reasons For Living in Communes

- The idea of sharing resources with more than just your family helps us remember that it’s not ours to begin with. Some of us even have a hard time sharing with those in our family. It’s important for us to be constantly giving of ourselves and our stuff, and the more people that it can go to the better. Why buy two cars for two different families when you could have one between both of them? Why have two kitchens when you only need one? Why have two homes when you only need one? Learning to live off less so we can give away more should be a key discipline for Christians and this is a great way to head in that direction.

- My favourite living arrangements was at my apartment 109 in Toronto with Darryl, Nathan, Jon and Trevor. I’ve never had so much fun over and over again. Living with people is fun. This might be only for extroverts like myself, but I thrive off of having people around me all the time. Living with others is fun.

- When you share major things like homes and cars, you end up not spending nearly as much money as you would if you were providing all these things by yourself for your family. You would in a lot of ways be able to cut your expenditures in half. This means there is more left over to give away and do good with at the end of the month.

- When you live with your community as opposed to living across the city from them you are forced to be in community all day long and not just when you feel like it or are in a good mood. People see you in your worst and in your best. In a lot of ways you actually learn how to live with and around people unlike you would ever do unless you lived together.

- You actually have a community all around you all day that you can invite people into. Imagine a community of people living together who tried together to live like Jesus and love everyone around them. Imagine the community house being a place where anyone is welcome and they would be accepted by all.

Negative Reasons or Questions for Living in Communes

- People are strangely attached to their hard earned money. When you live in community too many things can go wrong. There are a lot of risks. People could bail half way through. Some could pay their bills late and wreck things for other people. You name it and it could go wrong when you put people and money together.

- People are attached equally to their things. It would be difficult for some to share their things with other people. We like things the way we like them and leave them. If whatever was mine was also the people that I lived with I probably would have some issues (or at least they would grow in time.) What if someone breaks something, who is responsible for get it repaired?

- Living in community means a lot less private time and time to yourself (reading, praying or in front of the TV or computer). Some people love their time alone and their homes are a sanctuary; a place to retreat from everything that happens around them all day. Living in community would change that a lot. The home would be a different sort of place; no longer a place of to get away but a place to be with.

- Everyone would have a different personality that they would be adding to the mix. I can annoy the heck out of some people and others would love me around every minute. How do you run a community house then? Do you just jump into it blindly and learn to love anyone put in your path or do you head hunt and only move in with people that you fit perfectly with. So they would fit emotionally, missionally and physically with you and the space. What if there are fights that take a while to get resolved?

- Kids bring an entire new dynamic to the picture. What are the limits of disciplining kids that aren’t your own? Or is there any sense of authority at all besides their parents? What really does it mean to properly and godly raise children together in a community without losing the role of the parents? When do kids start participating in financial matters? What if they are twenty-five and still living with the community and not doing anything? Or should they be a little responsible even as soon as them getting their first job? What about privacy with nursing mothers or toddlers or children’s nap times? What about safety? Can you really invite people off the street to sleep in the spare bedroom if there is a four year old next to them?

I’m sure there is lots more positives and negatives. Any to add?