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Kids in Church

Today I was in church watching the kids sitting there in their seats. Forced to go by their parents, they showed no interest at all in the proceedings around them, be it the sermon, notices, or the worship and singing. It seemed to me that they were really only enduring their time in the seat until it was over and they could once again be free to play and have fun.

This brought me to thinking about the service of a church and many other aspects of it. But to stay on topic, I started to ask myself why it was that the kids were just not interested. I also started asking if the adults were any more interested in the whole proceedings or if they too were enduring it all out of a religious duty or some other motivation not related to the proceedings.

So where is this power that Christians had? This authority? This essence of a life that shows God is real? Why is church such a show? It has been very few times that I have entered a church and felt the presence of God there. When that presence was there, even when I was completely exhausted I remained attentive and interested in everything. It felt like I was drinking in the atmosphere around me. Most of the times that I am in church it feels dry and painful. Many times I am relieved when it is over. How can this be? Why is it so bad?

If there is no reality then the kids are not going to be interested. Sure, they may end up “Churchified” and good religious people, but that has nothing to do with God. It is time that we started to return to the truth of life with Christ. That we started living and obeying God in such a way as to be in His presence. Otherwise our testimony as a church holds no strength at all, but instead starts to turn people away from Christ.

The Bible says that if we disobey God, if we have sin in our lives, if we are proud and selfish amongst other things, then God will distance Himself from us. Could this be the problem with chuch today? If God was present in the church… really present in the church, then it would show up not only amongst the adults, but also amongst the kids too.

Kids in church… they tell you a lot.

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Bagel Virus Finally Arrives

It was only this morning when I received a strange looking email. It had an attachment and looked everything like a virus. My immediate reaction to something like this is to simply delete it as I don’t consider messing with viruses a very wise thing to do…

This time was a little different however, and I stopped, my finger poised above the delete key. There was something about this email that made me mad. It said that it was not only TO me, but also FROM me. I started to investigate a little more, and sure enough it appeared as though it was coming from me. Now that was bad. Not only that, but they had misspelled my email address.

Although it was sent to me at groovyguppy.com somehow they had mashed the from address to make it groovyboovy.com – I don’t like viruses, but I hate impersonation. And this was not only impersonation, but bad impersonation at that.

So now I was angry and started looking at any possible way to track down this offending sender. With a little basic research it became obvious that the email originated from an ISP in Brisbane, Australia. I have a lot of friends there, so it was likely that one of them was infected. But when I checked out what I thought was a misspelt domain name, I discovered to my surprise that the address really exists. And ironically we are both Robs. What are the chances of that? Probably a lot I guess, with so many domain names and people in this world. But it caught my attention.

So the end result was, after finding out that it could be genuine, I checked out the attachment. Sure enough, it was a virus. The Bagel Virus. The BBC News mentions how getting it from Australia is not too uncommon:

Many people in Australia look like they have been caught out by the virus as many of the copies of Bagle caught by MessageLabs have originated there.

The worst part of it all is that the virus makes your PC remote controlable:

As well stealing e-mail addresses Bagle also attempts to let its creator know when it has managed to infect a new victim. It also opens up a backdoor on infected machines that hands over control of that machine to the virus’ creator.

That was all news back in 2004. Once again however, in June this year it took to the headlines again. Not much has been heard about it since then, but obviously it is still circulating. So make sure that your antivirus software is up to date and functioning.

And finally, in the famous words of Roy Johnson, “If you receive something that says ‘Send this to everyone you know,’ pretend you don’t know me.”

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YWAM Conference and Photos

It was just after seven in the morning on the 12th of November, and somehow I managed to drag myself out of bed after only three and a half hours of sleep. I had been creating a website with the photo highlights of the conference. Within a short while the last day of the conference was about to begin, and I needed to be ready for the events of the day. Camera in hand, I wandered over to the bathrooms only to discover that there are no showers. The pump supplying water had blown up during the night, overloaded by the influx of the thousands of people that have inundated this place during the last five days.

Somebody tells me that there is water down the other end of the property, so I begin my search. Warned to look for long lines of people, I almost wander past a small line with only a few people. They were waiting for the use of the one toilet that still had water. This was the place. It was amazing that there were so few people, but I figured that many were still trying to grab a few more moments of needed sleep.

Around the corner I found people standing at the washing tubs, brushing teeth and washing their faces. They all seemed content that there was a way they could carry out a part of their morning routine. I snap a few shots of the action, then hang up my camera and join the activities.

It seems like only moments of relaxing in the morning sun, interspersed with shots of people here and there, before it is time for the conference to begin. I head inside and prepare my corner, hidden with all of the other technology people.

As the program for the day plays out, I am there in the midst of it all, taking as many photos as I feel are needed to be able to capture the feeling of the event. Places, actions, and events. Faces, people, and emotions. Constantly scanning around me for something that would represent the moment. Searching for that photo that would express the emotion of the people.

When the last event for the day had finished, I put my camera down. It was wonderful to finally stop. Something that I love doing, after five days and more than three thousand photos I had grown weary. It was good to see the end of it all.

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Fotos de la Conferencia (Conference Photos)

Hola amigos, he sacado más que 3000 fotos de la Conferencia de JUCUM Argentina, y he puesto algunos de estas aqui en mi página de web. Hay que tener Flash (removed) en tu máquina para verlas o puedes descargarlas a través de las ví­nculas en el fondo de la página. Disfrútalas. [ACTUALIZADO: Todas las fotos ya han sido removido.]

Hi guys, I have just taken over 3000 photos of the National YWAM Argentina Conference, and have made some of the highlights available on my website here. There are around 200 photos per day for the five days, and an overview. All in Spanish, but should be easy enough to use anyway. You will need Flash (removed) to be able to see the photos, and can download them using the links at the bottom of the page. Enjoy. [UPDATE: All photos have been removed now.]

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Alien Death Ray Kills Internet

Well, it was hardly alien, but the death-ray part is pretty accurate, since it killed a lot of things. Late last week, when I had just returned home from a bout of travel, I woke up to a nasty green looking sky. It was obvious that something was not right, and when I looked outside there was a very ominous looking storm heading our way. In the distance was a lot of electrical activity, but it was still a fair way from us yet. That is why what happened next surprised me so much.

Leaving my house, I wandered down to the neighbouring home, only moments away. No sooner had I entered the house than our property was struck by lightning. The death ray. Only 30 metres away is our larger teaching building (this is the mission site where I live and work) with a telephone antennae on top of it. A strong, thick bolt of lightning struck this very rod.

Even today, many days after the event, we are working out just how much damage it has caused. It would be safe to say that virtually anything electronic was burned, damaged, destroyed, or otherwise rendered unusable. For example, today a telephone technician came out to fix the tower and discovered that not only the signal box was blown, which is the normal part that blows in a lightning strike, but also the antennae itself and the cable connecting it.

With everything now connected by telephone lines and network cables, it did not take long for the super-juiced cables to start frying everything they touched. The central telephone system, only recently purchased, was hit so hard that it melted in several places, and the phone cable entering it from the tower was charcoaled and severed by the electrical force.

Other spectacular damages were also wrought in items such as a network card of one computer that literally blew up and exploded inside the computer, leaving a hole in the middle of the chip. The network hub had a lovely burned smell to it, and upon opening there were melted parts all over the place.

The rest of the damages have been things that you cannot really see but it just doesn’t work any more. Things such as computers that won’t start any more, network cards that don’t work, browning marks (signs of massive heating) on chips, and more. Only a few people survived without any damages at all.

Because I had only just returned from travelling, all of my gear was safely packed away still. This has allowed me to focus my work on fixing the damaged equipment. This work will keep me busy for another week yet. So if you are wondering where are the stories, then wonder no more. I have a few ready to post, but without Internet have been unable to do so. Hopefully sometime this week we will be connected once again.

But now you know what happened… an Alien Death Ray killed our Internet.

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Christian Warriors – Or Not

Listening to a seminar today, in the conference that I am currently part of, I heard part of the testimony of a communist warrior who lived in the jungles of South America, fighting for his cause. Converted to Christ, he was unable to return to his group for fear of them now killing him, and could not go near the populated areas for fear of someone recognizing him as the head of this group and turning him over to the authorities. As a result, he could only remain in the jungle, alone.

This was how he spent his first month as a Christian, and since somebody had given him a Bible he read it all day and night, using candles to light the words, during the entire time. Suspended in a hammock high amongst the trees, he simply read, and prayed, for that first month.

Over this time of reading, of discovering the life of Jesus and his disciples, of seeing how strongly these guys held their values and beliefs, this converted warrior started to build up an idea of what this Christian church must be like. He started to conjure up images of a valiant and brave church, filled with warriors. Anxious to meet some of these amazing Christian warriors that he could imagine based on what he had read in the Bible, this ex-warrior jumped at the first opportunity that he was able to visit a church.

Entering the church building, he closed his eyes, just wanting to take in the atmosphere and the amazing environment into which he was entering. They were all singing a warring song, something similar to “Onward Christian Soldiers, Marching as to War.” This was similar to some of the communist war songs that he had been used to singing only one month earlier.

But it wasn’t long before the current state of the church started to become obvious. Apathy, laziness, discontent, judging, and more all started to loom up and show itself. This was certainly not the church that he was expecting. All of these things that the Bible asks of us, he had already lived. Self-denial was part of the communist lifestyle, as was sharing and giving to the others so that they too would have. Love had never come into the equation as a communist, but many of the principles from the Bible were present, including a commitment to the point of death. Now, here in the church, there seemed to be little of this commitment, nor much else.

It was so very different from what he had ever imagined.

It is really disappointing when somebody enters the church to find it in such a state of disarray. A quote I heard once sounds something like, “the problem with Christianity… is the christians,” meaning that many have the name but not the form nor lifestyle of a “Little Christ” as the name implies. If you are part of the church, it certainly makes you think.