Remember how I was telling you about our Love For Uganda initiative?? Here’s one of the reports back from the team who is on the ground right now just north of Kampala - 

By 9:00am yesterday, we were in the midst of putting together “Love for Uganda” packages. At first the job looked quite manageable, but by 11:00am we had a much better idea of the scope of the job ahead of us. Our assembly line started with two 500 gm packages of salt and one large bar of soap. Then 1kg of rice had to be scooped from a large bag, put into a small plastic bag and tied, ready to be added. The next step was to do the same for one kg. of sugar. Once the bag was complete, it had to be tied and taken to another room for storage. With a great deal of help from Ugandan staff, by 6:30pm we put together over 1900 packages, enough for each of the students and staff members at the two schools.

This morning we were up and ready to present the assembly at Buikwe at 9:00am. However, the weather had different ideas, as the rain, that started before dawn, continued until after 9:00am. Many of the students who have to walk long distances wait until the rain stops before they come to school, so it was around 9:40am before we were able to start our assemblies. Following the assembly, the students came to us by class and we distributed the food packages – lots of smiles. A truck was loaded with food packages for Kiyindi, and before long we were off to the school there. At Kiyindi we went through the same process, beginning at noon. We also blessed the staff by giving them food packages.

Beautiful. A bunch of Christians in central Ontario giving their money so that a bunch of kids in Uganda can eat over their winter break from school.

I like contests. I like prizes. I like winning things. And I like to see people encouraged.

If you’re not reading Joel Klampert’s blog, you really should. Check it out here – www.klampert.com – and leave him a comment.

Joel – Looking forward to meeting you in February!

I’m doing some work off-site today and they had the Bryan Adams MTV Unplugged album playing and I was thinking about my favourite unplugged albums of all time. Here’s my top 3 -

1. Eric Clapton – Unplugged
   
   This was one of the first CD’s that I ever bought and I remember spending hours and hours with it playing as background music. Clapton’s re-working of several great songs and some new tracks as well. Everyone is pretty familiar with the brilliant version of “Layla” as well as “Tears From Heaven” which became a hit single and helped this album win SIX Grammy Awards, including Record, Album and Song of the Year. It still gets very regular rotation both at my home and office.
2. Nirvana – MTV Unplugged In New York
   
   The most intriguing thing about this album is that it was released after Kurt Cobain’s death in April 1994. It won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in 1996 and was a commercial success. The contrast of this performance with the band’s reputation is what did it for me. Nirvana was generally known as heroes of the grunge movement – slackers, uncaring about appearances, rebellious attitudes, etc – but the presentation factor of this performance is incredible. The slacker attitude of the band in the midst of this beautiful stage and lighting design is really shown in their performance of “All Apologies” – check the video here. Of course having Dave Grohl playing drums adds to the “cool factor” of this album, too!
3. Bryan Adams – MTV Unplugged
   
   Ignore the fact that this guy is Canadian and just appreciate that this album is killer. He took a bunch of his rockin’, electric-driven songs and turned them in to a beautiful collection of songs presented in a unique, artistic way. The re-work of “Cuts Like A Knife” and “18 Till I Die” are my favourites on this album. To me this is the truest unplugged album of the three because of the way that the songs are arranged with a variety of acoustic instruments which wouldn’t normally be thought of in listening to the original versions of these songs. There is some really beautiful music on this album and you definitely owe it to yourself to check it out if you haven’t heard it.

We’ve been doing a building expansion/renovation project since about April and the end is just about in sight! I was able to take some more pictures today and wanted to get you up to speed.

First, here’s a panoramic photo from the door leading in to the room in our north venue -

Right in the centre is the new stage and on either side are the floor-to-ceiling windows which let in a crazy awesome amount of natural light. Still to happen in this room? Acoustic panel around the sides, projector/screen installation, sound system, flooring and finishing the new sound booth which you see framed over on the left.

I know that some of you were concerned about the state of the carpet job in my new office so here is a photo update to put your mind at ease -

Here’s a nice shot of the view outside my office window. I’m looking forward to actually having a window in my office!

 If you want to check more posts on our building project, click here.

This week started off great. Our ministry staff spent a good 24 hours away with each other – we ate, laughed, told stories, prayed, bowled and just got caught up. Our senior pastor has returned from his 3-month sabbatical and it was good to hear about what God has been speaking to him and also good to get him caught up with what’s been going on while he’s been away. It was a productive time both for our team and for our relationships – spending unstructured time with the people I serve alongside is a great use of time.

One of the main topics of our conversations was Twitter. If you’re plugged in to the whole idea of online community then you probably know what Twitter is and you’ve probably made one of two decisions – you either think it’s incredible and you’ve jumped in with both feet, finding the best desktop app, how to tweet from your phone or Blackberry, been looking for the funniest tweeps to follow.. OR.. you think it’s a big waste of time, has no real relational value, that it’s just another internet fad and is in no way worth of your time.

I have been on both sides of that fence. But I am much more in the former category rather than the latter. I have seen the benefits of Twitter several times this year in developing genuine relationships, fostering communication and the sharing of ideas.

As a staff team, we live along the spectrum of wired/connected/early adapter to traditional/skeptical/slow to adopt – I think every team needs to be diverse and so the fact that we have people along that spectrum is a good thing. BUT.. We did spend some time talking about Twitter and let’s just say that some people really get it and some people rrrrrreally don’t get it.

Do you get it? If you have no idea what Twitter is and why anyone would be interested, here’s a quick video -

Here’s where I’m at with Twitter. Does it take time? Yes. Does it take some attention? Yes. Does it have its value? Yes, definitely. How? It is a communication and technology tool that can be leveraged by individuals AND teams to develop along missional and relational levels. How? Imagine if a large percentage of our church was Twittering and following each others’ updates – instead of only seeing each other on Sunday morning and at their small group there would be an increase in “virtual connections” where people would have quick updates on what other people in the church are doing through the week.

The missional implication? As other OBC folks are twittering about how they are living out their kingdom ministry through the week there are others who are following those updates and praying for them as they go. The relational implication? When we gather again on Sunday morning we have an increased sense of what has been front and centre in the minds of those people all week.

There are a whack of sites out there that will give you the top 10 reasons FOR and AGAINST Twitter but for me there is definite value in being involved in Twitter-land so I’ll keep doing it.

Are you on Twitter? Do you think it’s a waste of time?

If you are, follow my updates at www.twitter.com/chrisfromcanada

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UPDATE – Okay I think this is going to be a post that gets some good attention so I want to start keeping a running tally of people from OBC who are on Twitter. If you or someone you know isn’t listed here and they Twitter, leave it in the comments.

Chris Vacher – @chrisfromcanada
Earl Marshall – @earlmarshall
Ami Alexander – @amionajourney
Noelle Klassen – @dandercas
Teresa Aukema – @cowsrus 

Wow – thanks for posting this, Jordan!

This week we had a great morning at OBC but we did things a little different. Because a good number of our creative arts ministry folks were heading down to a conference on Friday & Saturday we wanted to bring in a guest worship leader to lighten the load on our team. We also had a guest speaker, one of our partner missionaries from India. On top of all that it was the first Sunday back for our senior pastor and his wife after their 3-month sabbatical. So it was definitely a unique morning with its own unique challenges compared to a regular Sunday for us.

For worship we brought Joel Auge and his band to lead the service. Joel is an incredible musician and a great worship leader. His CD on Integrity released earlier this year and he has been busy touring all over North America. Joel was one of the worship leaders at the conference we attended so we were able to bring him and his band up to Orangeville on Sunday morning. They did a great job leading us in worship – you should definitely look at bringing him to your church sometime.

It was nice to change it up a little bit and give our congregation a bit of a taste of a different worship style from where we are right now. I heard lots of positive feedback from people who really enjoyed having Joel and his band there. I also really enjoyed Joel’s ministry and just having him in Orangeville with us.

So why not try changing things up every once in a while? If you’re the leader of your worship ministry and NOT taking Sundays off stage you are missing the opportunity to let your ministry grow, to see things from a new vantage point, to let God inspire you in a new way. Why not schedule a Sunday a couple of months from now when you are planning to not be on stage? Prepare your team for the idea and help them get ready for it if that will be a big jump for them. Or bring in a local worship leader from outside your church to give you a break and give your Sunday morning a new flavour. It will keep things fresh for you and for your church!

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We’re posting all of these confessionals and linking them to Fred’s linkfest over here – check it out!

Terrace Crawford posted this and I needed to share it – wow! This is a performance of the song “New Creation” by Fellowship Church. It’s going to be released on their upcoming CD “Closer To The Start” – check out this video!

You can follow along with the news on the release of Fellowship’s CD “Closer To The Start” at www.closertothestart.com.

RSSers – you may need to hit the blog to check out the video and before/after mp3′s!

Check it out for yourself at www.transposr.com. Sorry for the audio – my mic is crapping out on me and I really should get a new one.

As promised, the before and after versions of this mp3 file -

Before: “How Awesome Is Our God” in D -

#dddddd;background:#f8f8f8" id="audioplayer_1">Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

After: “How Awesome Is Our God” in E -

#dddddd;background:#f8f8f8" id="audioplayer_2">Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

As you can hear, it’s not exactly a picture perfect recreation of the song in the new key but if you are just looknig for a way for your band to play along with a chart you’ve given them that’s in a different key than the recording they’ve got then this is a really simple way to make that happen.

If you’d like to hear the whole song and download a chord chart, you can do that at this post here – http://www.chrisfromcanada.com/?p=734

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada! Enjoy it!