THE JOURNEY

Just when you thought you had seen it all...

Hi - I have to share this with you. A British film maker has discovered a colony of amazing penguins: penguins who can fly. Here is a short but beautiful video. I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of creation!

Sorry I haven't posted for the last month. I thought April 1st was the perfect date to start again — and a perfect one for this story too!

The Dutch and their bikes...

Everyone knows how the Dutch love their bikes. Bikes are everywhere, and every one has at least one. In a flat country like The Netherlands, overcrowded as it is, bikes are an ideal way to get to where you need to go. And so you will find all kinds of strange bikes: painted strange colors, or with odd addendums, different shapes, etc. But here is one model I had not seen before...

Walking around Utrecht with a friend last night I came across this bike: a tricycle with a coffin on the front. It's a coffin bike! I took the picture with my mobile phone.

A writer Christians have loved to hate...

Well, here's a surprise. For years Christians have spent time and energy on pointing out the evils of the Harry Potter books and the (supposed) evil agenda put in them by their author, J.K. Rowling. Sure, it's about witchcraft, sorcery, monsters, and goood and evil, so there's plenty to be suspicious about.

But here's a Link to an interesting interview with her. She admits to going to church and calls herself a seeker. Go figure!

An open letter to all my American friends

My dear American friends, I love you, appreciate you, admire you and thank you. We have much to be grateful for in you. In many ways you have led the world well, you have taught me well and you have demonstrated brave leadership.

But today I need to talk to you about the way you operate in this world. The UN Climate Change conference has come to an end, and it’s basically thought to be a failure – and there is only one reason: the United States of America. Get this: the rest of the world was willing to commit to cutting CO2 reductions by 25 to 40% of 1990 levels by 2020 – yet one country refused to sign: the U.S.

I read your press and watch your news broadcasts. I see what you are telling yourself. I see how especially American Evangelical Press is playing down the global warming issue.

Here are some facts that you need to know. I ask you to read this seriously.

1. Global Warming is NOT a myth! Maybe that for a long time there have been questions about global warming: yes, the earth’s temperature does fluctuate, and, yes, the polar ice caps do shrink and then grow. These things are true, and they do not in themselves prove that global warming threatens us. But in 1998 the UN convened the best scientists and professors from all over the world, including the skeptics and the critics and the non-believers in the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In 2007 the IPCC presented its final findings: Global warming is real, it is here, and it threatens our planet!

2. There isn’t a reputable scholar left on the planet who doesn’t think Global warming is a fact. The 2007 report of the IPCC is conclusive, and it signed by professors and doctors from every major university. Go to Wikipedia and look for Global warming, IPCC, Greenhouse effect. Wikipedia has a list of scientists and researchers who still question the idea. There is not one person from a major school on the list. Your own best scientists are firm believers in the reality of Global Warming, and they are shocked by your government’s stance at the summit in Bali this week.

3. You are being lied to! I know American TV shows documentaries that questions the greenhouse effect. I know there are people who still stand up straight and say this is just a planetary hick-up. Sure, of course. People love the camera; it’s always fun to proclaim an opposing message, especially when there is money to be made doing so. I suspect major oil companies and car-manufacturers would like us very much not to believe the message (this week lobby organizations for BMW, Audi and Mercedes were given a European prize for initiating the dirtiest lobby to misinform the public). These companies have money, and they have a market-share to protect – no where more than in the U.S. They operate much the way tobacco companies did for a long time: “no, Ma'm, smoking doesn’t cause cancer. No Sir, there is no research that proves that. No, there are so many researchers who can find no link between smoking and cancer, sir…” Listen, you are being lied to! Don’t fall for this! You are smarter than that!

4. The United States of America only has 5% of the world’s population – yet it produces 25% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Twenty-five percent! You are taking more than your share. You are contributing to problems elsewhere, and you are not taking responsibility. It’s not fun to hear, but you are the proverbial bully in the playground, taking too much, giving too little.

5. Do you know that people are already dying because of our life-style in the West? For instance, did you know that Global Warming is causing the Sahara to grow? Do you know what happens? The soil dries up, vegetation dies, crops do not grow, and people die of starvation. It’s a direct result of our CO2 emissions. It’s that simple!
   Closer to home, scientists are warning us that natural disasters, such as Hurricanes, will occur far more frequent because of Climate Change. Says one scientist: the once-in-a-lifetime storm isn’t even the once-in-a-season storm any more. How many Katrina’s do we need before we understand that our planet is sick, and we are the cause?

6. Do you really think God has nothing to say about this? When it comes to our expectations of what the future will hold there are many in the American government, and particularly your President, whose views of the future are formed by the eschatology of the Southern Baptist Denomination. In this view of the future Jesus will come back, probably fairly soon, and will take all the believers with him to heaven. After that, this earth will be destroyed. The logic is simple: “why spend a lot of energy on a planet that is going to be destroyed anyway. God gave us this planet to enjoy, and it only stands to reason that we were going to run out of its resources one day anyway, right? It only makes sense that eventually this planet was going to run into natural crisis, with it being a fallen planet, and all…”

   Listen: that view of God and the future is a mistake. Yes, I believe there is a God, and yes, I believe Jesus will return. But if scripture makes one thing explicitly clear it is this: this is His creation. He loves it, and he entrusted its care to us human beings – and we have made a mess of things! And we can’t do that! Being in relationship with God surely has to mean that we seek to live in a right relationship with our fellow-man and the world around us – doesn’t it?

This is only a small blog, and sometimes I doubt anyone ever reads it at all. And if you read it, and you are an American citizen, I can understand my writing angers you. Listen, that is not my intent! But this issue is serious. Your children and your grand children will live with the consequences of our actions. I hope that in this one instance, your government does not speak for you. I hope you will join the rest of us, as we seek to adopt new ways of doing life better and more responsibly. Thankfully there are many, many good initiatives all over, including where you live. Find them, join them, improve them. It’s time we become good stewards of this beautiful creation, not just users.

Two Time-links

A friend of ours, Rueben, serves at the YwaM base in Denver, CO, where a shooting take place. It's all over the news and even made the Dutch papers. Two people were killed, a third critically injured. A little while later a shooting took place at a large church in Colorado Springs, where four people died. The two incidents may be related. Our friend escaped with his life, but is very shaken. [link]. The article references people we know.

Time magazine also has an interesting article about Rob Bell, one of the hippest pastors around and an excellent speaker. [link]

Can the world be saved?

Interestingly enough the UN conference on climate-change is only a small topic in the news, and I doubt that any church has spoken on it: but the importance of this conference is fairly huge! Right now we really need to wonder in what kind of a world our children and our grand-children will grow up: we can still avert major disaster, but time is running out!

TIME magazine has an article entitled "Can the world be saved?". I encourage you to read it.

For a while there it seemed like scientists were still in disagreement about whether our climate was changing, why this might be, and what the impact on our world be. But since the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) released its reports there is LITTE DOUBT! And so this conference is important to us all!

More about Climate Change on Wikipedia.

Sex, money and Carbon Dioxide

How much CO2 did you emit today?

OK, I admit it, not a question you get asked a lot. Or a question you might be comfortable answering. Sort of like 'how much money do you make?' or 'how often do you have sex?' It's sort of embarrassing: you don't talk about that sort of thing! Most of us know we emit CO2, and feel guilty about that, but figure it is up to the government to do something about it.

Interestingly enough most (or all) of us have checked the internet with regards to those other two 'embarrassing' questions, and we know exactly how we measure up. Well, now there is a website that tells you exactly just how much (or little!) you damage the environment. And - and this is the good news - it tells you how you can compensate for your behavior!

Doing God's work and damaging his creation
I drive a 1999 Ford Mondeo with a 2 liter Diesel engine, 20.000 km a year or so -- and I have often felt guilty about the damage I am doing to the environment with that car. So often I have sat in my car, going to some church meeting, praying something like: "Lord, I am going to this meeting to do your work; would you please bless it -- and, oh, by the way, I am sorry for having to damage your creation to get there!"

The website www.climatestewards.nl (both English and Dutch!) has helped me understand how large my contribution to the emission gas-problem is and what it costs to compensate for it. For instance. my driving costs 69 euro's per year. My next upcoming airplane flight to Dublin (next week for a ServeTheCity conference) will cost 4,10 Euro (the CO2 emission, not the flight itself). Excellent, now I know!

What can I do with that knowledge? From the website:

How does it work? For every tonne of CO2 emission you’re associated with, you pay to help our partners plant trees which absorb at least one tonne of CO2 from the air, or to develop projects which reduce future CO2 emissions by the same amount.

These development projects happen in places that have been impacted the most by Global Warming: places like Ghana, where the increased heat has increased the desert and burned of vegetation. Climate Stewards is an A Rocha initiative in combination with Tear (formerly knows as Tear Fund). A Rocha is a international conservation organisation which I have supported now for quite some time. I recommend them to you warmly! Tear works to bring relief in areas where natural disasters (such as the ones caused by global warming) do the most damage. Sounds like a great match to me!

Here's why I am writing about this. I want you to do something! Here are some ideas!

1. Go to Climate Stewards and calculate your share in the problem. It's easy!
2. Donate the amount to solutions that compensate for the problem.
3. Tell your friends about this site and encourage them to do it to. And then to tell their friends!

Would love to hear from you! Let me know what you are doing to preserve this beautiful planet!

Brian McLaren: what is the Kingdom of Heaven about?

Short video from Brian McLaren about Jesus' core message: the kingdom of heaven. Is that a kingdom in heaven - or is it a kingdom that needs to come here on earth? And, if the answer is 'here on earth,' then what does that look like?

The happiest people on earth... well, at least in America

Hello! Just came across this interesting article on the TIME website. In an article titled 'America by the Numbers' they provide all kinds of interesting statistics about Americans: average commute, average traffic delays, job happiness...

The last one is interesting. You'd never guess which group of people was the happiest: it's priests (clergy)!

Have a look: it's really interesting! [link to article].

Some info as it relates to me: 67,2% of clergy say they are very happy with their job; 31,4% of designers say the same, and only 20,5% of photographers are very happy. Makes me wonder... still, being a photographer beats being an Amusement Park Atendant (a job I've always thought was a lot like being a clergy-member) or a Garage station operator (same comment).

How happy are you in your job?

Put your sins in the garbage

Good news for people with sins: this coming Sunday you can throw your sins out with the garbage in the city of Utrecht.

People living in Utrecht have all been given a special garbage bag in which they can put their sins. This garbage bag can be put out with the rest of the trash this weekend.

It's a promotion-campaign. by the Museums of Utrecht. They share a theme this month, "The 7 deadly sins."

...

I heard the craziest rumour. It's actually even easier to get rid of your sins than they make it in Utrecht. Apparently all you need to do is to turn to God and say a prayer. Now there's good news.