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DMDC version 2.0

Consider this blog officially re-loaded! The plan was to launch in January, but last weekend I got distracted (in a good way) by our campaign for clean water in India. I was originally hoping to coincide with the 200,000th hit on this blog, but that happened over 6000 hits ago now. Then the plan was to have this particular post as my 1500th blog post, but I used that one last weekend to help drum up support for the water project. So…

… welcome to DMDC version 2.0!! (Technically it’s version 4.0 if you count the 2 templates from the old blogspot days.) I liked my old template, but it was time for a change, and I really like this new one. I wanted to keep some consistency with colours and general feel.

The header and sidebar photo is of the Collaroy Cinemas about a kilometre down the road from where I live. It has the old school Art Deco style with a worn sky-blue colour scheme. Rowena was keen for more colour in the actual header on this site, but I like how the black and white feel draws your attention to the colour in the individual blog posts. I still have a few more things to fix/update with the new template. So any feedback would be welcome.

This blog is no longer my primary source of income. So I won’t be doing any more design work, and I’ll be doing much less external speaking.

On my 1000th blog post I shared why I blog. Those reasons are more or less the same.

Finally, while I want to continue sharing stories like my incident with wrestling a lion or being forced to drink instant coffee, my overwhelming desire is to use this blog to point people to Jesus. Do you know him? Keep clinging. No? Check him out he’s the Saviour and King of the world!

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Clean Water, Dirty Water and the Dash for Cash

A year ago family, friends and social network buddies all helped DMDC to raise $1741 toward safe drinking water for a community in Rwanda. This year, we are aiming to raise $2000 to help provide clean water for 601 children in India. We’re currently sitting at $1560… sweeeeet! There have been some developments today worth sharing.

  1. Nathan Campbell has offered a 250g bag of fresh coffee beans to anyone who gives $30 or more this weekend. Pretty sweet deal. He’s one of those coffee-coffee coffee-people, he has even recently launched a new coffee blog… all that’s to say, he’s got a sweet rep for sweet beans! He’s extended the offer for the rest of the weekend. MORE INFO.
  2. This evening, when the total was $1400, a generous person offered to match all other donations – up to $600. What this means is that if we make it to $2000 by midnight (Sydney time) on Sunday evening, we will actually raise $2600. Pretty sweet yeah? They wish to remain anonymous. MORE INFO.

Stoked to use the internet and social media to raise money for worthy causes.

MORE INFO or DIRECT LINK TO DONATE PAGE

At the time of publishing, that’s less than 25 hours to raise $440… easy!

MORE INFO or DIRECT LINK TO DONATE PAGE

EDIT: IN THE SPACE OF JUST OVER 24 HOURS, THIS PROJECT WENT FROM $1400 SMASHING THROUGH THE $2000 TARGET AND LANDING ON OVER $2800!!! CRAZY GOOD. THANKS AGAIN TO ALL THOSE WHO GAVE TOWARD THIS PROJECT, AND THANKS ALSO TO THOSE WHO ENCOURAGED OTHERS TO GIVE. STAY TUNED FOR FINAL TOTAL AND SPECIFICS ABOUT THE PROJECT. PEACE

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Thankyou Water

Thankyou Water is brilliant! You’re rich – you can afford to buy bottled water. When you buy Thankyou Water, you can actually help to provide water for some of the 900 million people worldwide who don’t have access to clean water! Click here for more info.

Thankyou Water supplied the water last week (and presumably this week too) on Next Gen conference. Good stuff. Check them on twitter and facebook.

Running events? Own a cafe? In charge of ordering for your school canteen? Got a youth camp coming up? Get yourself hooked up with Thankyou Water.

You can also give toward the DMDC project to raise money to help supply clean water to 601 children in India.

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Surge Conference 2011

Surge Conference 2011, run by RICE, is on in a couple of weeks. It’s a great conference for Christians aged 16 and above to help them think through how they can serve in their local church. They have an emphasis on helping people to find their gifts and how they can be used among the People of God.

Justin Moffatt and Steve Chong will be the main speakers. Jonathan Pratt, Tim Adeney, Greg Clarke, Murray Smith and Dave Miers will each be running electives.

It’s is on 4-6 February. Go check out the website for more info and to register!

See below for the blurb on my elective:

Continue reading “Surge Conference 2011”

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Entertained by Earthquakes, Floods, Haiti and Queensland

I’ve often had an uneasy feeling when watching large-scale tragic events unfold on television and the internet. Sometimes I’m keen to find out the latest news, the death toll, the extent of the damage. Not because I need to know, not because I will necessarily do anything in response, not because it will fuel my prayer. But often it’s because – in a perverse kind of way – I’m entertained by the unfolding drama. In reality, I do care, I do respond, I do pray – but often I need to switch off the constant coverage to avoid falling into the entertainment trap.

Yesterday, Tim Challies reposted an article that he wrote in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. I think it has a particular relevance to the 24/7 media circus surrounding the tragic floods in Queensland, Australia. Each of the core free-to-air TV stations are jostling for the exclusive interview, they want to be shown to be in the thick of the disaster zone, and they want to be seen to be helping. I don’t think I’m just being cynical.

Challies’ article is written with an intermingling of quotes from Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death (I’ve briefly referenced Postman’s brilliant book before). Postman’s book is all about media in the age of entertainment. I was going to insert an extract, but you’re better off clicking here and reading the whole article.

Am I alone on this one? How do you avoid treating tragedies like entertainment?