Planet YWAM Leader.net

Hi ho, Chris here on the road with my good friend Jimmy. We've been in Ohio and Kentucky, hanging with friends and family. It's been a trip of meetings, prayer, discussion and lots of laughter. Some of that laughter was had last night at an impromptu recording session with my sister, Christianne and my nieces, Ally and Grace. So, as we run out the door to sit with a Burmese family and sample some traditional treats, here's our music from last night. Thanks to Jimmy, our producer extraordinaire. By the way, you can download and/or subscribe to all audio for this blog and thefirebowl.net HERE. Enjoy!This is "I dreamed a dream"...my nieces covering the song from Les Miserables... And this is my song "Pillar of Fire" sung by me and my sister, Christianne...

Most parent’s would probably admit that Colossians 3 verse 20 is one of their favourites to quote to their kids. I know that I’m a fan…

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
Col 3:20 NIV

Lately I have been challenged by the verse that follows which says:

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
Col 3:21 NIV

This is a challenging statement and it is telling that it comes immediately after telling the children to obey their parents.

As parents we have a huge responsibility for our children

God wants us to teach our children to love Him and His truth.

We need to teach our children that they can talk to God through prayer and can have a personal relationship with Him.

We are to teach them contentment with what God provides and excitement for what God has planned.

We also need to teach them that they have value in God’s eyes and that God has a plan and a purpose for their life.

While teaching and discipling our children in the way of the Lord we must also not embitter them.

What can embitter our children?

• Destructive criticism
• Overprotection
• Showing favouritism
• Not teaching and showing them that they have value
• Setting unrealistic goals
• Not showing affection
• Not meeting their needs
• Not having standards or boundaries
• Showing indifference or neglecting them
• Disciplining out of anger and not love

If I am honest with myself I can admit that I stuff up, a lot, as a parent. I look at what it takes to raise children and I can feel overwhelmed sometimes by the enormity of it all. They aren’t tasks or projects, they are people. They are created in the image of God, a God who has a plan and a purpose for their lives, and a God who trusted them with me as their Dad!

As parents we can always get better at what God has called us to do. We can read books, compare notes with other parents, and try harder. We can also pray.

God can give us grace and wisdom if we ask for it. This, above all other things, gives me hope for my children’s future…

Some more reading about Colossians 3:21:

• God’s Word for Parents- Union Church
• Precept Austin – Col. 3:21

After spending the last two years working on the YWAM Podcast and producing 55 episodes I’m feeling in a bit of funk about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that God has called me to be a missions communicator to tell others about what God is doing in Youth With A Mission around the world. I am not questioning God’s call on my life, I love what I am doing and feel very blessed to be able to do it. The team I work with is great, even though they are on the other side of the world.

Despite knowing God’s call on my life I’m still struggling. One of the articles that I read recently had the following quote in it that really spoke to me:

The real battle is when the lie comes: “There is no point to what you are doing, you are not making a difference”

The audio recording that you can listen to above probably describes better what I’m thinking than my writing does. In talking with others both inside and outside of YWAM I am not the only one involved in communications feeling like this.

Your prayers for renewed vision and passion would be appreciated…

Related Links:

• What is My Job?
• The Importance of Communications Teams in YWAM
• Why YWAM Needs Communication Teams
• The Desk Missionary
• Oh Yes, we struggle! Confession #2: What’s the point?
• Pastors on ‘Burnout:’ We Forget We’re Human

After spending the last two years working on the YWAM Podcast and producing 55 episodes I'm feeling in a bit of funk about it. Don't get me wrong, I know that God has called me to be a missions communicator to tell others about what God is doing in Youth With A Mission around the world. I am not questioning God's call on my life, I love what I am doing and feel very blessed to be able to do it. The team I work with is great, even though they are on the other side of the world. Despite knowing God's call on my life I'm still struggling. One of the articles that I read recently had the following quote in it that really spoke to me: The real battle is when the lie comes: “There is no point to what you are doing, you are not making a difference” The audio recording that you can listen to above probably describes better what I'm thinking than my writing does. In talking with others both inside and outside of YWAM I am not the only one involved in communications feeling like this. Your prayers for renewed vision and passion would be appreciated... Related Links: What is My Job? The Importance of Communications Teams in YWAM Why YWAM Needs Communication Teams The Desk Missionary Oh Yes, we struggle! Confession #2: What's the point? Pastors on 'Burnout:' We Forget We're Human

I thought it would be interesting to look at what were most popular posts on this site that I wrote in 2011. To be honest when I had a look at the statistics I was a bit surprised about what was popular. My biggest surprise was actually the post that came in at number 1…

5. Facebook, Twitter and Students…

With social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, so pervasive in the lives of people it’s important that we look at what kind of affect it has on students. The Discipleship Training School (DTS), and other second level schools in Youth With A Mission (YWAM) have previously been completely immersive experiences mainly because of the difficulty and cost of communication. Read the full article…

4. Lego, Why do you Spurn Canada?

Caleb spent the better part of two years saving up to buy himself a Lego Cargo Train Set. When he finally went to purchase the set we found that the set was almost $100 more in Canada than to purchase it in the USA.

In the end Caleb purchased the train set in the USA and had a friend pick it up for him. Read the full article…

3. Debt and Missions – A Toxic Mix

This is one topic that I have gotten more passionate about as I have spent time in missions. I have seen people removed from the missions field or prevented from entering the field because of personal debt.

As a missions agency we need to be asking ourselves what are we doing about this? Not only personal debt, but also what are we doing about ministry debt? Read the full article…

Teaching Personal Finance and Financial Stewardship in Missions

Although not in the top five blog posts this article was my follow up article to my debt and missions article.

In the article I explore a few different ways that we can help the staff and students in Youth With A Mission deal with their personal debt. Two options I look at are Dave Ramsey’s Generation Change and Lazarus at the Gate. Read the full article…

2. Using What You Know in Missions

Something that frustrates me is when missionaries abandon the skills and knowledge that they have developed before entering missions. Often these things are God given talents that are intended for use in God’s Kingdom. Often though because they don’t fit into the mould of a “young missionary” the talents are dismissed as being not “spiritual” enough for the missions field. What a travesty. Read the full article…

1. Explaining Idiots to our Kids – The Vancouver Riots

The number one article is the one that surprised me most.

Caleb came home from school talking about the riots that had occurred in Vancouver after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins. He was asking why people would do that and I tried to explain to him why, and also tried to get some advice from others about what causes people to act like that. Read the full article…

Following on from my blog the other day I found a review written by Kevin Purcell about Bible software for the Mac. I figure Kevin is probably one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes the Bible software industry. The others would be John Fidel and Ruben Gomez. Sadly John doesn’t blog any more, but Ruben runs a wonderful website called Bible Software Review.

Anyhow, interesting enough after referring briefly to Logos, Wordsearch and a few others, Kevin singles out Accordance Bible Software as the best of the lot for the Mac. I agree with Kevin’s sentiments… if “Wordsearch and Bibleworks got together and designed a Bible program” you would in effect get Accordance. In some ways, Accordance also reminds me of PC Study Bible of years ago, but much more powerful in the original languages. So the link to highly the acclaimed Bibleworks for Windows is not too far off.

Kevin does highlight the challenge that new Mac users face who have just switched from Windows. In many cases, these users have already made some sizable investments in resource libraries in Windows products. This makes it hard, if not financially prohibitive to consider Accordance. In this regard, Kevin suggests these kinds of users go ahead and try Wordsearch and Logos out.

This is not an ideal situation and does not create a level playing field when it comes to evaluation, but it’s unavoidable. For example years ago I bought Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) and in order to use it on Accordance I will have to repurchase it. It took me years to save up for it in the first place, so switching can be a huge financial mountain to climb again. WBC is one of about five major resources that I own and can continue to use in their original formats, but in effect means that I will probably never use Accordance exclusively. I have decided that even though I may have to live with this, Accordance is so good it is worth it.

Accordance does run a crossgrade program. It is the only one that I am aware of in the industry. Unfortunately this program is limited. This is no fault of Accordance because these deals are often highly dependent on the licensing agreements with publishers. It would be nice if there was an industry wide agreement with publishers to discount their products to allow for Bible software companies to cover for their production costs for tagging, but give concessions to users who have already paid for the resource. From what I understand, this was the original idea behind the STEP format of years ago that Quickverse and Wordsearch used.

Below is the review in its entirety. It is well written and points out many of the strengths of Accordance. I commend Kevin for a great review. Accordance Bible Software is a clear leader and for years now has delivered the goods when it comes to quality Mac Bible software.