Tools of the Trade: iPhone 2.0 [part ii]

Since my phone took a nice swim in the Atlantic, so conveniently before the new iPhone3G release I’ve been really wrestling with diving into the madness [See Tools of the Trade: iPhone 2.0 Part i]. Many of my friends have fallen victim. They eagerly demonstrate every app they’ve downloaded and ridiculously show off the iBeer app every chance they get.

****Sigh****
There’s no doubt that cell phones are critical to our lives now. It was inevitable. I know of a few people who still don’t have one. Good for them but I hate that they’re unreachable especially if they’re on my leadership team;) With all the texting, messaging, emailing, facebooking I do now…an iPhone makes some sense. Plus I’d like to be less attached to my 15″ MacBook Pro as much as I love this baby. I spend more time looking at it’s beautiful screen than my with my wife. Perhaps this post should be filed under Pastoral Confessions.

Here’s a snap that I took at 9:30am last Friday at the Apple Store in the King of Prussia Mall with my new Motorola RiZR off ebay which I will be reselling. I needed to get my MacBook Pro looked at and I stumbled into this madness. I spoke with the Apple Concierge and they said this is the 6th day straight they’ve had these lines and then I entered the den of temptation for my technolust. I’m still holding out.

Apple iPhone Line at KOP at 9:30AM...6 days later

Bruce Reyes-Chow fesses up too.

Feeling The Burn

I’ve been on a little hiatus from blogging. Sorry faithful readers and friends. Summer is here. The heat has turned up not only in terms of temperature but in life as well. There’s a slew of transitions that I’ll be undergoing in the next few months like increased responsibilities in pastoral leadership alongside a new baby, just to name a few. So pray for this ABC pastor.

In two weeks, I’ll be speaking at New York Summer Conference with friends, Ken Fong (Evergreen Baptist Church LA) and Dan Hyun (The Village Church, MD). I’ll be delivering 6 messages and 3 days of workshops. It’ll be a marathon!

I’ve been working on some partnerships for ABCPastor and working towards version 2.o of this blog. We’re getting there. The vision of this blog is to be a resource and a nexus for connections. Again if you want to contribute to this blog just holla.

We Need To Get Out

This is one of those days. It’s clear skies and somewhere in the 70s outside here in Philly. It’s supposed to stay that way at least for a few days. I’ve been plugging away for hours on this Sunday’s message in my office with the lights off [I can't stand fluorescents]. We’ve started a new series recently called ‘Heaven on Earth‘. I look outside my window and I’m thinking yea…

Sometimes we need a reminder to just unplug and get out.
This little comic [We The Robots] is a perfect reminder…enjoy!

Is it possible that God intends to bring heaven down to earth and that the in-breaking of that reality of hope and peace is to be found increasingly in the everyday lives of his people?
Truly, we need to get out. Love, laugh and learn.

Here’s a promo for the message series, “Heaven on Earth”

Chinese in the Mainstream: Learning from Kai-Lan

I sat down to watch a few DVR days worth of Nick Jr’s “Ni Hao Kai-Lan” with my virusy family. It made it’s debut on Chinese New Year. (btw Xin Nian Kuai Le! 農曆新年) Jayden’s picked up more Chinese in one week than he has since he was born. The show is an interesting venture capitalizing on the bilingualism of Dora the Explorer and the play along think along techniques of Blues Clues. What’s more interesting to me is the emotional intelligence that Kai-Lan teaches. During the middle of the episode a character demonstrates some issue and Kai-Lan encourages kids to figure out why they acted in that way and find a solution. I can appreciate that and the Mandarin lessons.

The NYTimes has a good article on the show and its creator, Karen Chau. I found her relationship with her dad quite amusing and all too familiar.

Ms. Chao, who earned a degree in digital art from the University of California, Irvine, in 2000, didn’t quite follow the path her father preferred. “He set me up for an internship at PaineWebber, but I doodled on the cold-call sheets and taped the phone receiver down,” she said. “I wasn’t a very good worker bee, but Dad was ecstatic because I was wearing business outfits with shoulder pads and big pants. In Chinese culture criticism is love. So my dad must really, really love me, because he has a lot to say.”

Kai-Lan is timely. Kids are more influenced by Asian culture than ever before getting beyond Kung-Fu and Moo-Shu Pork of my childhood experience. Makes me think of all those years of Chinese school. To think, my parents were cutting edge then. It’s essential now to learn Chinese in American schools in order to prepare for a global economy.

An estimated 50,000 American children are being taught Mandarin in public schools, with an additional 50,000 studying in private settings. Next month the first 2,000 high school students will take the College Board’s new Advanced Placement exam in Mandarin. The number is small but an indication of big things to come, said Tom Matts, director of the board’s World Languages Initiative. “We expect to see growth in this course unlike any other introduced in the last decade or so.”

Also read Nick Jr on Ni Hao Kai-Lan

J.J. Abrams on Mystery

Cloverfield opens today. The trailers have been brilliant.
Everyone wants to know what destroys NYC.

At TED (the conference featuring leading thinkers and doers in technology, entertainment, and design) director J.J. Abrams shared something very interesting about mystery. He showed a wrapped box with a large question mark on it that he had purchased years ago but never opened. He probably never will either.

He says the mystery of what’s inside the box is more interesting than anything that might be in the box.

“It represents infinite possibility; it represents hope; it represents potential… mystery is the catalyst for imagination… maybe there are times where mystery is more important than knowledge.“

I love how he describes mystery as being full of possibilities. It reminds me of how each of us is a mystery like that box. Our future is a mystery. Everyone has their own idea about what “could be”. That’s an exciting thought. It celebrates our diversity and how our lives can unfold a particular story. It takes shape and form as we are engaged in this world on this side of heaven. Also we won’t know how our lives affect one another. When we meet, share, play, learn or stare, glare and crash through life, it all gives shape to the mystery of our lives. There’s a greater story to be told.

I think about a new life in the womb, I’m speechless as to the infinite possibilities.

You can download the talk in 420p here >>

New Look

Why Not?
New Year. New Header. New Focus.

What do ya think? Well it’s not much different from the previous header but the graffiti in the back makes it a little more urban. A little more me.

I’ve also added my Technorati Profile

Apple Release, A Family Event

I mentioned last week that the Mac OSX Leopard release was going to be a family event.
So, we ventured out to the Apple store in Ardmore, Pa.
It was pouring rain out and yes there was a line around the store. We waited on line for about 20mins and then the cheers began. There was quite a commotion. Hi-fives all around. We nabbed ourselves some event shirts.

So I’ve been playing with the new OS and I really like it but I’m probably not going to install it on my Macbook Pro just yet.
I’ve got too many applications to update and no time…sigh.

Savoring the Moment

The other day I resisted the urge to put the kabash on Jayden’s television watching. He was watching sesame street. I’m so glad that’s still on. Well, I was at the dining table working on my sermon. The credits were rolling and I was about to get up and grab the control and let him know that his time is up. But I didn’t right away this time. When the credits roll he puts on this little dance. He’s so in the moment - so happy. so free. it’s his time and it’s my time.

He’s engaged in his own reality in front of this light box and from the dining table I was watching mine. It was a precious moment taking a breath, watching him dance along with the rolling credits.
I need to breathe more.
Gosh I love this kid so much.

Here are some more moments to savor

That’ll give you a rash. . . I hear child services ringing. [link]

This is why our son doesn’t gain much more weight. He falls asleep eating! [link]

Becoming a Bi-Racial Family

Read up on my boy Todd Hiestand, pastor of The Well in his process of adopting Mason Carlos Hiestand. He shares the process through a series of letters written to his new son from Guatemala. The process as most adopting parents know is long and disheartening at times. It’s a journey. Different from the experience of carrying a child within your body then facing the labor and birthing but a journey that also gives us insight into the heart of God.
These letters should make you all warm and fuzzy inside. I loved reading them and journeying with my brother through this process.

He and his wife, Melanie, went down to Guatemala this week to pick up their new son and bring him stateside. We joke around about being bi-racial and having that in common now. I have no idea what he’s talking about.

Here’s a snippet of his thoughts,

You do need to know something about the first nine months of your life. Your foster mother loved you deeply (I know that she still does too). For some reason, I didn’t think about how hard it would be for her to pass you off to us. I knew it was going to be for you, but I hadn’t thought about her. For the first nine months of your life she cared for you, bathed you, fed you, held you when you cried and loved you well. And now she has passed you on to us so that we could do the same and make you part of our family. I imagine she finds comfort in knowing that you have changed hands and families for the final time.

Honestly, Mason, I don’t know exactly how to process the role of your foster mom. I can understand your birth mom knowing that in order for you to have a full and best possible life she would have to entrust you to another loving family. I can’t imagine doing that, but I can at least get it a little in my head. But for some reason I think the love of your foster mom fits into a different category. She welcomed you into her home, knowing full well that she would one day have to say goodbye.

todd hiestand, web-designer and pastor.

The Family Structure and Cultural Clash in Chinese / Asian Families

Cultural differences are clearly something that we wrestle with more than ever in society, church and even homelife. Things are not simply black and white. Those who live in the margins know that very well.

djchuang recently highlighted two articles from the gospel herald about Dr. Peter Lam (director of Asian Family Today and father of two second gen children) on improving the communication between Chinese parents and their ABC (or not) children. lam points out the obvious problems or methods employed (to those of us who are ABC) - rebuking, punishment, guilt - and he offers simple advice to parents - encouragement is key - and other biblical sounding counsel.

two articles
Researcher Comments on Cultural-Clash in Chinese Families
Communication Must Improve in Chinese Families, Researcher Says

i also enjoyed this thoughtful post from Nikki Toyama co-contributor of more than serving tea, about boundaries, enmeshment and justice. she poses some great questions that i wrestle over with my non-asian wife. how do you manage boundaries on the mission field, in doing mercy and justicework? do you?

I’m beginning to wonder if boundaries are the luxury of the middle class. Is there such thing as boundaries when you’re doing justice work?

I’ve wondered about boundaries, Asian American families, and Christian discipleship. What therapists call “enmeshment” is a common occurrance in Asian American families. Is it an issue that we need to fight against in the Asian community. Or is family therapy culturally bound.

What some might called “enmeshed” has great characteristics. There’s a wonderful sense of involving everyone, and a corporate identity that is a healthy antidote to a narcissitic individualized model. But it has its problems too.

From my limited vantage point, it comes across as parents who are very upset at a young person’s decision. A lot of emotional pressure lands on the young person to comply to their wishes. I’ve heard extreme cases of threatening suicide unless a young person changes their plans. More common examples are sleepless nights, extreme anxiety, etc. Are the young people just clueless and self-absorbed? Or is the older generation enmeshed? Both?

Is this just how things get done in Asian American households? What’s the Christian response?

What’s cultural? What’s Christian? What’s do we embrace and what do we work against?

Back in 2003, the BBC had featured the cultural clash in The Asian Family.
Listen to their program here.