Wordle is quite a cool little site where you can either enter a load of text or link to a website and it will pull out the words commonly used on that site and arrange them randomly on the screen and in colours etc … the more commonly used words will be bigger … here is the one from Grae.co.uk taken today!
Have a go at creating your own! www.wordle.net
The Singapore Formula 1 race was great other than Lewis getting taken out by Mark Webber … now I know there will be a difference of opinion here but I am a Lewis fan so I will always see it in Lewis’ favour! But Mark was in his blind spot and he could see what Lewis was doing there was no reason to hit him … Mark made the original mistake!
We had amazing seats on the pit straight over-looking (almost) the pit-lane! Was awesome. Great to see the start and there seemed to be so much more going on here than elsewhere on the track.
Heki Kovalienen was way too calm with his engine fire towards the end of the race and when told he couldn’t go into the pit he slowly drove down the pit straight and obviously stopped where he knew there was a fire extinguisher and put it out himself .. I didn’t know he was a part time fireman! Few photos below but ultimately it was really amazing to be there again! So lucky!
I’ve met some interesting people while I have been here and had some thought provoking conversations, 3 I thought I would share …
Church Looks Boring! Does it?
The first was chatting with some people and one person there was talking about church and their view of church. I should point out that it was the first time I had met them and they didn’t know I am a Christian so it was interesting to get an honest perspective of church without them thinking they might offend me!….anyway, they were saying that church looks boring, and if they were to go to one they would go to one of ‘those gospel churches for black people as they look like they are enjoying church’ … which is interesting. This person also said that ‘if God is meant to be everywhere then why can’t we just stay at home and eat pringles and drink red wine’ and I get what they mean and in some ways that is correct but the bible does talk about the importance of meeting together.
So this got me thinking, do we enjoy church? And if we do then why don’t we act a bit more like we do, maybe it is just a cultural thing which I think is part of it but not the whole story. There are those that go to church because ‘that is what you do’ … so those people aside and thinking about those that do want to go to church to worship and for fellowship with other Christians what is holding us back from being less enthusiastic…I am not suggesting we all get un-naturally enthusiastic but I am suggesting we should be more passionate. Why? Well I think if we really step into church with a Passion to worship we are going to get a whole load more out, less worrying about what those around us think and more focusing on God. Wouldn’t that be awesome to see?
Also, if we (as Christians) aren’t enjoying church and showing others that we are enjoying church then what on earth would make them want to come along? Who is Sunday morning church for? I am a great one for saying we should be stepping out, pushing into what God has for us and really going for it and if those that don’t like that sort of thing don’t like it then they can sit there … ok i am not meaning it quite as harshly as it sounds but you get the idea. But importantly we need to be thinking about non-church friends and family and passers by and how they see church. Again I am not suggesting we be silly about this, but if we are enjoying church lets show that and ‘enjoy church’ and if we are not enjoying church then if it were me I would need to ask myself … why?!
My meeting with a Yogi Man
A couple of days ago I was wondering around Raffles Shopping Centre, fairly aimlessly but I did want to get a couple of shirts (I failed) but I was stopped fairly early on in my aimless walking by a young man (mid twenties) and he said something about me and said that he reads people faces. Now I don’t often stop for this sort of thing, but I had the time and thought why not. He told me that he was a Yogi Man from India and that he had spent a lot of time training to read peoples faces. Everything he said when he started the conversation was true about me, but then later on I thought about it and in all fairness it could be true about 99% of people so that wasn’t a big deal really, it is a bit like reading your horescope ‘something good will happen to you this month’ … well I would hope so!
He then talked a bit more and asked me lots of questions about my life, my past etc and a loooong conversation made short, he had written something on a piece of paper earlier in the conversation and screwed it up and handed it to me. Basically what was on the paper was what I told him but what I don’t remember is when he wrote that down in our discussion .. I am not convinced it was before I told him for two reasons, 1) I didn’t entirely trust this guy, he seemed nice enough but I guessed he was after money! and 2) What I told him was as truthful and descriptive as I was going to tell someone I didn’t know. Now if it was a close friend I would have given slightly different answers … so again not convinced.
He was going to tell me something I had done wrong in my past and something I would get wrong in the future … well the list of things we all get wrong in the past is pretty long and I have no doubt I will get things wrong in the future and it was at this point he wanted my money.
Now I like to think I am fairly generous but I wasn’t going to be giving this guy anything for 3 reasons and this is what I told him, 1) he approached me and offered me ‘information’ about me … I didn’t ask for this so I had no intention of paying for what I perceived as a gift. 2) I didn’t know what a Yogi Man was, where my money would be going and what my money might be funding. and 3) He expected it. Sorry but something wasn’t right there.
A brief bit of googling doesn’t show vast amounts about what a Yogi Man is, it appears it could be linked to the Hindu religion but I am not sure, either way as interesting as it was chatting to the guy, I don’t trust it and am skeptical about the whole thing … maybe that’s just me.
Are you a Yogi Man reading this, have you been approached by a Yogi Man … want to share? I would love to hear more experiences and educate myself a bit on this…
“I’ve bought my place in Heaven!”
This made me chuckle … I over-heard someone say that because of good deeds they had done they had bought their place in heaven! Now normally I wouldn’t laugh at this and actually thinking it through more now it is sad that people think that it is like that but at the time this person was trying to make them-self feel better about something stupid but potentially kind they had done. Afraid I can’t share the story here but got me thinking (it doesn’t seem to take much to get me thinking) that the church needs to teach more on ‘getting to heaven’ … as doing nice things isn’t enough … read Romans 6:23 below from the NLT Translation and The Message.
Romans 6:23 (The Message)
22-23But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
Romans 6:23 (New Living Translation)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Source: www.Biblegateway.com
As the church and as Christians it is our responsibility to share that Jesus is the only way to heaven … ! Challenge for all of us for the day!
I can’t believe it is my last week in Singapore, it has gone so quickly! There are still a couple of things I want to do including the night safari and go up the sands skypark which is the top of the new hotel here.
Other than that this week will be a time to chilax before heading home.
I have found time here in Singapore to relax on the balcony and finsh Lucas out Loud! It is a book I got in Belfast last year and Jeff gave the warning ‘not for the easily offended’. Well I am not easily offended so I had to have it!
It is a short book of little stories which have a point to them but are also very funny.
For me it really stirs up the question, ‘who are we as Christians’ … not in some overly spiritual way, in fact I would say Jeff Lucas has tried to pull the reader away from that. I’d say the book enourages the reader in many parts to be a bit more normal, don’t be some super spiritual Christian but be yourself as others can relate to that so much better. Now if Jeff was reading this he may disagree that you could take that point away from his book … but each time we read the bible we take something different away from it for us for now so what makes Jeff think he is a better writer ;-)
In seriousness though it is a funny book and one that is easy to read but each story gives you something little to think about, or a little nudge about the way we do things or brings us into an uncomfortable reality that we need to be vulnerable sometimes with the right people around us so that God can shape us …
anyone else read it? Want to add their thoughts. Lemme know if you want to borrow it.
I was reading a short study of the grandfather of the famous Noah (in the bible, you remember, the boat, animals 2 by 2…) well his name was Methuselah and he lived for the best part of 1000 years. Not much seems to have been recorded of his life except his children. Part of the study posed the question ‘What an immense influence he could have exerted through the years if only, like his father Enoch, he had walked with God! It is not the length of a life that counts, but the quality of it.’
I am 27 so a few years off Methuselah but it made me think…make the most of everything, don’t be selfish and expect to leave something behind for people you meet but it’s up to us if it is a positive ‘thing’ you leave behind.
Ok, so it might sound a bit cheesy but it is true, we have an impact on most/all people we meet and that can be good or bad :-)
After a busy weekend I have started the week slowly, it has been nice, plenty of Iced Coffee trips, some shopping on Orchard Road where I got some nice jeans from Gap and the best Chocolate cake from Laurent Bernard the Chocolatier who probably isn’t famous but should be with Chocolate cake as good as that!
Last night we went to see Grown Ups at the cinema, pretty average film although did have some funny bits! but the best thing about it was that we went to watch it in Gold Class at Vivo City…where you get a reclining chair, blanket and a button to summon the waitress! Oh it is a hard life! :)
I have had my feet eaten by fish, well the dead bits nibbled off anyway which was a rather strange feeling! I have spent hours in the pool mostly throwing my cousins around and the tan is coming along nicely!
The view from my room at night is amazing .. well I think so .. see below
I took my cousin to football and watched him play and we kicked a ball about while they were training .. man it is hot playing football in the avo here! Then in the evening we went out to Margarita’s which is a really nice mexican restaurant and then to a Ben and Jerry’s shop!!!
Ryan about to cross the ball to his teammate -- what a photo hey!
Today (Sunday) we went to Sentosa Island and went on the Luge and then the Mega Zip, the Luge is is a little kart thing which you steer down a track … ok that was a poor explainaition but I love it .. raced my uncle but he won both times :( The Mega Zip is “Over 450 metres long and at 72 metres above sea level, the MegaZip flying fox lets you whizz over the jungle canopy and the buzz of Siloso Beach.” Crazy! Really great though!
Ryan, Grae and Erin getting ready for the Luge
Me in the centre of the pic and just entering the photo from the right is Erin and Ryan on the Mega Zip
So there we go … bit of an update for anyone interested and for my diary :-) oh and New Zealand Natural ice cream is rather yummy! :-)
