with all the opportunities there were over there for photography, I was in heaven! I was given many, many chances to push myself in the photography I was doing – trying to capture moods and moments, trying to get the best shots I could with the light available (some of the shots are quite dark because I forgot about my hotshoe flash quite a few times and I’m not a fan of my cameras pop-up flash!

Anyhoo, for the most part, I’m quite chuffed with the shots I got – I’m even more chuffed that I was able to discipline myself to not keep all of them! Over the 2 weeks I (or those who used my camera – Jonny Simpson, Suzi Shortland and Joanna Ramsay) took over 3000 pictures – by cutting out most duplicates and blurred or meaningless shots, I’ve cut that down to around 1200 ‘keepers’.

There is a reason that it has taken almost 2 weeks to get them all online. I shoot pictures on my camera in a format known as ‘RAW’ this means that, instead of uploading my pictures to my computer and puttingt hem online straight away, I take time processing them properly – doing as good a job as I can with them in the digital darkroom. Also, the sheer volume of photos means that it takes a while to get them all up – I’ve been constantly uploading to flickr since Saturday evening – my computer was glad of the rest today!

I’ll be putting a ‘best of’ album on facebook – maybe, and I’ll be adding a page on my website with low-res copies of the ‘best-of’ album. In the meantime, you can view all 1200+ at your leisure by going to my flickr page.

Enjoy!

It’s been a wee bit of a tense week leading up to leaving – the eryognsdioghdgfklgdj!?!??!!? volcano still seems to be spewing out ash which disrupts UK air traffic now and then. There have also been some Maoist led strikes out in Kathmandu, thankfully they are over now and remained peaceful (for the most part).

While I was packing all my things, i came across a very interesting sheet that we were given at the training weekend a few weeks ago. It’s a list of things that we should ‘come with’ on these types of trips:

Come:

With flexibility – visitors come to be part of what is going on already. They should be ok if their need to ‘do something’ isn’t met right away

To build relationships – A good ‘missionary’ will focus on the people they have come to be with, rather than the events they have come to do.

With an attitude of listening and learning – not only does this help understanding about local people, but it empowers local people to explain their ways of thinking and doing things.

To follow instead of lead – while we are called to ‘go and make disciples’ it is only after we ‘come and follow’ Jesus.

With appropriate gifts – sharing resources is part of God’s call on our lives, but make sure they are useful and have a positive long-term impact.

Ready to encourage anyone – it is not just the poorest who look forward to cross-cultural exchange, but there are many people working behind the scenes to keep these programmes going. They should also be part of a cross cultural exchange of ideas and support.

Without a to-do list – being task focussed limits the impact you can have, and the impact the local people can have on you. Come prepared to stand with people, rather than doing something yourself.

Without a guilt-trip – don’t feel like you should come, and don’t think one trip lets you off a lifetime of resonsibility as a member of the global church.

Without unwanted stuff – most locations you are going to do not need western consumerist junk.

Without thinking you are the ‘centre’ – the people you meet were there before you arrived and will be there after you leave.

With questions, they can be more important than you think!

Peace Out

Chris

My only complaints about the film would be that not enough was made of Oher’s background – use of more flashbacks could have been quite effective and would have made more of the turn-around in Oher’s life. In the film, Oher was made out to have no knowledge of Football and to be quite a passive player, in reality he already had experience of Football and knew what he was in for. Also, the opening section about LT would also have benefited from some expansion to set the scene for the importance of the left tackle (or right tackle if the QB is left handed) and why Oher’s protective instinct was an important attribute.

It’s definitely a moving story, whether you read the book or watch the film. And I would certainly recommend that you read the book, watch the film or both! Quinton Aaron is very good at playing Oher, Sandra Bullock is fantastic as Leanne Tuohy – it’s without doubt the best performance she’s ever given.

Being a Youthworker, I of course saw the potential benefits this movie could have for use with youth groups and classes to make them think about many issues that the film brings up – equality, class divide, inspiration, encouragment, determination etc etc

Go see it, enjoy, be moved, be encouraged and make sure you encourage others to see it!

Peace Out

The story of Michael Oher itself is an inspiring story, looking at how he came from practically nothing to being one of the starting linemen of the Baltimore Ravens.

I’ll say more about the film once I’ve actually seen it. I hope it stays true to the real story, there’s not really much that can be added to it in terms of drama and how people will treat each other. At just over 2 hours, it should be able to fit in a great deal of what the book covers. If you get the chance to read the book, take it, it’s definitely worth the read.

Peace Out

“What these years have brought me
What these years have taught me
Heartache and fame, a chance to change
A hope to be stronger
That beauty can smolder
A stage and a curtain, that nothing’s for certain
Oh these years have been hard on my bones

What this world has brought me
What this world has taught me
Senseless spinning, never tie instead of winning
Ice cream for licking, the clock’s always ticking
No one is free, someone must have a key
Oh this world has been hard on my bones
All this time I’d been seeking my own
Oh this road has been hard on my bones

What this love has brought me
What this love has taught me
Patience in battle, who’s in the saddle
Joy and despair, that I really do care
Uncertain desire the risk in going higher
Oh this love has been hard on my bones

What this God has brought me
What this God has taught me
Passion and grace, how to stand in one’s space
Laughing at lilies, what truly fulfills me
Death on a cross, it was I that was lost
Oh this God has been life to these bones
Oh this God has been life to my bones”

Peace Out

There’s been a tragedy in Haiti. How have you responded? Have you pledged some sort of donation? Gone out to help? Said ‘thats a real shame’ and then thought nothing more? another response?

I’m a member of a photography forum where Haiti was mentioned. Some of the responses shocked me. One response asked ‘why should the UK donate anything’. Another asks why even bother to donate any money/ help – their reasoning being twofold: We’ve been putting money into Africa for years and the problems still exist; and Haiti has been run by incompetents for years so why should we jump in?

These are responses from 2 adults in a seemingly civilized country? What happened to looking out for your neighbour? I wonder how they’d feel if their country was devastated and the world stood back and said ‘We can’t help, we have our own problems, deal with it yourselves’.

Please don’t be like these folks, have a heart and show some concern for the people of Haiti, sure they’re not the only ones suffering at the moment.

Check these sites out for ways that you can help, and, if all else fails, pray!

http://www.dec.org.uk/
Jonathan Blundells Blog post

Peace Out

• noun (pl. communities) 1 a group of people living together in one place. 2 (the community) the people of an area or country considered collectively; society. 3 a group of people with a common religion, race, or profession: the scientific community. 4 the holding of certain attitudes and interests in common. 5 a group of interdependent plants or animals growing or living together or occupying a specified habitat.

— ORIGIN Old French comunete, from Latin communis ‘common’.

I think that all 5 of these definitions of community can be useful for informing this discussion. Also informing my side of the discussion are chapter sin the following 3 books:
Postmodern Youth Ministry; Tony Jones
eMinistry; Andrew Carega
rewired; Peggy Kendall
To make things easy, i’ll take each chapter in turn, starting with rewired:
basically, in her section on virtual community, Peggy talks specifically about online community and the issues it raises, there seems to be no discussion or questioning of the presence of online community. her focus is on the lack of ‘responsilbe’ adults within teenage online communities, which could and does then lead to a lack of adult accountability amongst teenagers. no credit is given to peer accountability on the teenagers part, she seems quite resigned to the idea that without adult supervision and authority all teenagers will resort to swearing and sexual innuendo. An idea that may have some basis in reality, but I don’t think is a fair judgement on all teenagers. not that I’m supporting mono-generational communities!

What about Carega?
Carega also seems to go with the assumption that communities do exist online, then spends his chapter wondering why? He asks why more and more people are seeking to experience online community. What does it offer that people aren’t finding in ‘real life’ is his main question. He also spends some time acknowledging and thinking about those that argue point blank against the viability of online community. But ends up concluding that their definition of community is all about geography and physicality. Perhaps they are right? Who’s to say that community can only have one definition?

So what about Jones? i like jones approach, because he isn’t approaching the idea of community from a purely online context he isn’t hampered by what examples and inspirations he can call on. He doesn’t have to trawl the web for examples of online community that works, he just has to call on his and his peers experiences of good and bad community. He talks about community being a place of support and relationship, Jones is more concerned with community being authentic and honest than where it happens and what group of people are involved.

Obviously the 3 ‘reviews’ above are not extensive about the relevant chapters, for a fuller picture of what each says I would recomend looking up the book, i just wanted to give you and idea of what I’ve been reading while pndering this question. As I write this blog, I’ve asked my twitter buddies if the think community can exist online, If there are any responses before I finish this post, I’ll include them at the bottom. if you use twitter and want to follow me search for Chris_Hoskins

what about me? This is my blog, what do i think?
Bascially: yes, I do believe community can exist online. i don’t believe it will be as mutually beneficial as community which exists in the physical locale, but I still belive it can exist. All we need to do is respond to the notion of online community with a re-evaluated notion of what community is and can be. If we revisit the oxford english definitions again; 3/5 definitions rely on locale. 2/5 rely only on holding an attitude/belief/interest in common. And I’m quite happy to hold belief in all 5 definitions of community and accept that no community is likely to ever fit all 5.

I’ve found over the last 3 years that it is those whom I converse with online rather than in person that I’ve found to be most supportive in hard times. Does this count as community? Apart from my wife, most of the people I would consider my closest friends live at least 60 miles away from me, some even on a seperate continent. Yet I would still consider them to be part of my community, why shouldn’t I? how could i recieve support from and give support to my friends in Canada, none of whom I’ve had any physical interaction with for 5 years, and not consider myself in some sort of community with them?
Another case in point would be #twurch. A twitter ‘community’ that I was intorduced to through Stewart Cutler twurch is basically a group on twitter who both twitter and are Christian. I’ll include a twitter quote at this point, from tobite, a fellow twitterer who I’ve started talking to through twurch. He answered this to my twitter question: tobite @Chris_Hoskins yes – #twurch being a good example of this. I have met new people and am forming new bonds and friendships

I’ve just recieved a corker of a tweet from headphonaught, another twurch friend, he says:  headphonaught@Chris_Hoskins community isn’t a physical thing anymore. its a collective ideal. its the sharing of & participating in something beyond us
I love that notion of community. Even more so now that it supports what i said earlier about changing our definition of community in light of new experiences and revelations. It’s also, i think, a pretty good definition of church, no?

I hope this is all fitting together and making sense, I’ve not planned it, just sat down and let it come out!I wasn’t looking to write an academic text, just letting some stuff out of my head!

I think I’ll finish there for the time being, please comment and add to this discussion, i may come back and add more at somepoint.

Peace out

Chris

ps: this post is also available at missional tribe and SYMN

I had hoped to say more than I did, but a combination of not being asked the questions I hoped for and stage fright prevented me from doing so!!! When you get to the linked page, listen to the podcast dated 9th January 2009, titled ‘How is Gaza dividing world opinion?’