by | Nov 2, 2007 | Uncategorized

Okay, Here’s A Look


Passion Regional, Chicago. A collected assortment of musicians.

To be honest, I was surprised at how plain the formula was. And how long the sessions were. Without understanding the culture (just a little bit) that supports some of the structure and content, it would be easy to make the mistake of assuming that there is a lot more ego involved here that what I really think there is.

One of the main session presentations was John Piper on video. I was interested to see whether or not this as a teaching format could sustain the attention of the crowd. To my amazement, it seemed to – but perhaps this was more to do with the nature of the crowd. We’ve discussed this as an option for possible connections between camps, as a way of connecting into broader community. I’m not convinced, although I can think of a bunch of ways to experiment with making it work. However..I’m not prepared to experiment with it at the Eastercamp platform just yet.

I’m going to steal a word from Marko, because he supplied the word I had struggled to find. At the Passion conference were a bunch of people already sold-out to the Passion concept. So the ongoing promotion of the movement and values-therein seemed overkill. The audience were “compliant”. They would have loved whatever was dished up.

I was surprised at the lack of interaction between the content presented, the presenters and Passion ‘reps’. The volunteers were amazing, but I struggled to see obvious connection points between the presentations and the people, except for the easy laughs. I suspect that this would have been a dramatically different experience in breakout sessions and workshops, had it been a fuller programme.

I did really really like the consistency of response options. I thought it made it simple, clear and straightforward, although again, it seemed like there was a lack of intermediary leadership and response teams to people. The difference between a movement where your key constituency is actually nameless and faceless to a certain extent.

There’s every possibility that I’m sounding overly harsh. I don’t mean to in anyway. I thought there was some great teaching – particularly Louie’s rendition of Beth Moore’s pitdweller material. The “Do Something Now” project was simple and effective. I learnt a lot from watching Chris Tomlin work with the band at various points. I have a lot of respect and love for the passion of Passion, but I was really hoping to come away with a much clearer understanding of what about this movement is capturing people.

I think I certainly got a much clearer picture of the kind of people that Passion has really won over.


The tunnel between concourses at O’Hare International.


The palisades of Concourse B.

The Fifth Corner of the World.
There is a billboard advertisement to the left of Gate E7, Concourse E at O’Hare International. It says “O’Hare, waiting to take you to the fifth corner of the world.” I simply contend that O’Hare is the fifth corner of the world. So far this trip I have spent 40.5 hours in transit, 7.5 of them at O’Hare. No other airports smell the same. The place has it’s own culture, even down to the pilots, cabin crews and airport staff that share the concourses with passengers. There is a soft, smiling side to O’Hare that I haven’t seen at LAX, or Sydney, San Francisco, Indianapolis or even St Louis. Definitely not at home… it’s a sense that these people working in a different time & place from everybody else, in a world called O’Hare. Everything new is built on top of something old. The shoeshine stations in the midst of neon light sculpture. The relaying of new pipes under the feet of Concourse F. The older red on white lightbox signs of the 80’s, next to hanging clocks from the 90’s and the placid United blue in squares, circles, constant reinventions placed next to each other in four different upholstery patterns, five different seats.

O’Hare feels lived in, even though the bathrooms are crisp and pristine. The floors are clean, the information up to date. The waiting staff are friendly in the restaurants and diners, where there’s enough variety that you could hibernate within the terminal for several days not running out of places to eat, new bathroom facilities to try and books to read. It’s a comfortable kind of place so strangers feel comfortable to make conversation over sportscasts and peanut shells.

So I like it. Which is good – because I’ll be stopping there at least one more time before I go home, my trip to the USA comprising of eleven flights with four landings at O’Hare in total.


The falling leaves.

Indiana is one of the most beautiful places on earth, where I’ve only just begun to explore it. This is my favourite time of the year too, because the colours are perfect. I was out walking on Tuesday and I walked into the glade of the Maple Ridge Trail. There, the sun was slowly seeping out of a polaroid blue sky, letting the warm glow of light come in through yellow and gold sinew on the trees. The slowest breeze I have ever felt came dancing through the trees with a crinkle crush like someone rolling tin foil and baking paper together.

One by one, the leaves started to let go their trembling hold on tiny branches and sink their way to the earth below. It was a slow, gentle, swirling dance that let each leaf fall and play with the light above and below. There was no sense to it, it was just like being caught literally in a sunshower of falling leaves. The romance in the air was heady and sweet – almost reminding me of crushed kowhai leaves at home. On and on the breeze came through as I wandered my way through, as if my walking was enough to stir the wind in my trail. A confetti of autumn in slow motion raindrops.

by | Oct 25, 2007 | Uncategorized

Letters From America 2.1

greetings lovely ones from the glorious fall colours of indiana

well i’ve officially been here a week and it’s definitely time for a bit of a catch up on the journey so far..
for those of you with way too much to do today.. here are the highlights

1. Nightime Chicagoland is beautiful.
2. You can get a whole workout at O’Hare International.
3. Airport shuttles are a great way to get local advisory on the city.
4. The accent still works wonders for favours, freebies, smiles and general all round goodwill.

After an enormous 36 hours in transit, I finally got to Chicago at about 7pm last Thursday night, in admist a massive lightning storm and unseasonal winds. Usually Chicago is called the Windy City in reference to some hot-winded politicians of last century, but in this instance, the winds were really warm and there were a bunch of tornados over the state the same night I arrived.

I checked in downtown and pretty much headed out to walk the streets straight away. Having not really had a chance to walk about Chicago by night last time, it was pretty blurry trying to orient myself in the midst of jetlag and the redeveloped front end of the Plaza but I managed to find my way to a oldstyle grocery that curved its way through the downstairs basements of three buildings on N.Michigan. I walked all the way down to Millenium Park, taking note that there were homeless people on just about every corner. Even in New York, there wasn’t the same prolification of homeless around. It was a constant theme of the next day also, the same 30 or people strewn along Michigan Ave in the area of where I was staying. Sobering to see the tourists and professionals bustling past them in the midst of a lunchhour shopping rush into Bloomingdales and Macys.

I could rave on and on about Chicago – I think it’s one of my favourite cities – but instead I’ll just save it for later. Heading out to Hoffman Estates, I transferred hotels and settled in for the Passion conference, the first of my stops. Ridiculously enough, my hotel was surrounded by restaurants, shopping centres and movie theatres but I couldn’t get to a single one, because the four lane highway doesn’t have a single crossing, nor do Americans favour sidewalks – at best you’ll only ever find one side of the road traversable!

Managed to connect with a bunch of folks at Passion and sort myself out for rides most places, when I didn’t want to walk. There’s not too much to say about the event itself that wouldn’t be boring for half of you and make the other half ridiculously envious.. so i’ll leave it at that. Saturday night I met Joshua, a Chicagoland native who graciously took me to Willow the next morning, where we then had lunch with Emmanuel (from Ghana, moved to Chicago when he was a kid), Lee and Fabbio (both pastors & college leaders from Sao Paulo, Brazil). It was a magic time talking and laughing, sharing stories through language, accents and general hilarity.

At best, I’m a raver and it takes me ten minutes to tell what ought to be a 2min anecdote, so you can imagine how long some of my best stories took this time around. Gulp.. but there was much trading of phone numbers, contact details and emails, promises to talk and communicate more and an open invitation to visit Sao Paulo anytime. I think we were all pretty excited about that, considering that Josh has been travelling to South America once a year for the past little while.

O’Hare International is a stunning place. Especially when you’re flying United and you get to enjoy the concourses. I was lucky enough to land at sunset on arrival, seeing the concourses stand like a grand glass palisade on their north-south axis. The use of glass, steel and light both in the concourses and the underground tunnel is a bold statement to life, and the triumph of technology that sees us lift into the sky. Every line of design and construction leads your eye always upward to the sky, reminding you that you are part of the airborne story yourself. In addition.. just walking laps of the concourses whilst waiting for your plane will take you just over an hour and burn off every calorie of the rich, over-laden airport food. I remain convinced that there is no smell on this earth like the nutty, sugary, cinnamon and coffee sweet aroma of the United terminal.. where everything smells so strong that you taste it in the back of your mouth before you even see it.

My flight into Indianapolis was slightly delayed.. I was grandly amused to be sitting waiting to board at the gate, when 4, 5 and then the 6th fire appliance went racing past the windows, lights flaring in the falling darkness. Then about 15 minutes later they all came back, same lights flaring but at a slightly slower pace. I was slightly disturbed that I seemed to be the only one that noticed both trips – so one can’t be too surprised that the security measures I expected to be so intense, have actually been fairly cruisy so far.

The unseasonal warmth throughout Illinois had spread to Indiana, but now it seems to be cooling off. The colours of the leaves are crisp and golden, the sun doesn’t rise properly until about 8am and falls off the horizon around 8pm at night. The daylight savings time is coming to an end, but in the meantime everything seems to get bumped up a notch in colour and hue. The smell of the grass and sun is almost as fragrant as the port magnolia at home. It’s nice just to get outside and breathe in the air of the place, although seven days on I still feel a little bit wobbly on my legs. The trucks around here have broad flanks, gleaming chrome and rust spots that would never make it through inspection back home. The flags are flying, both for the Indiana Colts and the Stars and Stripes. Fall Harvest festival is in full swing – which finishes with Halloween next week. There are pumpkins, lights and decorations everywhere and local radio 93.1 is in the midst of their 93 days of Christmas songs. Everything is golden, orange, red and autumny.

I think there’s something about the changes of pressure or whatever .. that for the first time I’m really reorienting myself in this body of mine! But the walking helps. The coffee doesn’t. Andy, I can’t wait to get home for the beans.

Meanwhile… that probably wraps up everything exciting I have to say for now. Goff, I’ve found your treats and I’m bringing ’em home.
You’ll all be waking up real soon – enjoy Friday. Tomorrow I’m going horse-racing.

If you’ve caught up on the California fires – reports here are rife now about arsonists with Al Quaeda connections, as well as the hundreds of thousands affected. Thankfully when I last heard, marko and jeannie (who I’m staying with in San Diego in about 10days) haven’t had to evacuate. Prayers appreciated for that part of the world though.

by | Oct 8, 2007 | Uncategorized

Would You Like Something For Less Than Nothing With That?
Yesterday I needed to fill up with gas, at a whopping $1.55 per litre. Whilst filling the tank on my way to band practice, I was sorry enough to purchase a gas station coffee to hit the road with. I was completely under the premise of ‘warming up the vocal chords’. The sales assistant offered me the In-Store deal. But can someone explain how this works to me?

REGULAR gas + coffee to go = $81.58

YESTERDAY gas + coffee + kitkat chunky = $77.81

Help. It’s beyond me to understand exactly how increasing your customer traffic by reducing each of their spends can possibly be so pragmatic in the long run, if you’re only talking about small bites? Hmm. Maybe I should check the date on the kitkat bar…