The ad that reads “My American Express Card Gives Me The Chance To Cruise on My Own Luxury Sport Boat” is accompanied by a picture of a couple holidaying in this sport boat and instructions how to get a AmExpress card.

It is easy to do things based on what we don’t have. Credit card makes it so.  But not many people know that it is easier to do things based on what we do have.

Feeling a bit tired today I listed out the list of what I have and here’s what I discover.

• 3 great kids around me
• 3 dollars in my pocket
• A wife that is dedicated, loving and responsible
• A box of second hand records
• Parents, friends and colleagues
• Two days of planning for 2010
• Legs & hair
• Lionel Ritchie’s Hello
• A house that is a home
• People around me that are passionate about what they do
• Listening ability
• Rina & the dinner today
• Ride from Ps Jeff from bus stop
• Jeremiah 12:5
• Touch typing and sight
• 2 year old handphone that die so often can still be used

I can go on but its enough to fill me with gratitude of what I have. God thank you, I’m off to bed.

Don’t … what you don’t have, Do … what you do have! It really makes a difference

“A transformed tomorrow with the hope today”.

That’s what we want to see when we disciple a child in ministry.

Was talking to my daughter about bullies and we conclude that “Bullies make others unhappy because they are unhappy with themselves”.

We project how we feel to others. Always. 100% of the time. That’s why we cannot hide the condition of our heart. The people around us are our heart’s thermometer. Ask them how they feel and you’ll get the measure of what’s the weather inside of us.  The last time I asked someone how he was, he give me a very serious look, almost in a sulky matter. This person’s “life sucks look” really read “life sucks when you are around, I’ll be happy if you are happier”.He’s right, I have something in the back of my mind and I wasn’t sincere in my asking. I could have brought more energy to the person. Unhappy people always encounter other unhappy people.

Happy leaders gets all the happy followers because they can’t help it but make others happy.

Watched this video recently and can’t get it out of my head. As I’m preparing the kids sermon tomorrow, I can’t help but be reminded about what Itay Talgam has shared in the video. He was talking about a conductor needing to let the music of the rest be heard. He’s speaking about how it can be applied to leadership in general, but I’m looking at how it can be applied to sharing a kids sermon.

As a communicator to kids, I think these 3 things that can happen

1. You Can Share The Story
2. You Can Share Your Story
3. You Can Share Their Story

When you share the story of God, you should tell yours and also seek to inspire them to think that it is or can possibly be theirs too. To be great in speaking to kids, if you can do these 3 things simultaneously then you’ve got it all together.

Possible? I think it is very. Basically in short..

Share The Story, Tell Yours and Inspire Theirs

I’m so excited to try it tomorrow.

Going through some adjustment. I acknowledge fairly that I do often feel terribly uncomfortable about leading and leadership. Most of the time I feel the sense of loneliness, insecurity and fear. It’s like part of what’s in the parcel of life and there’s no way of not getting them.

But time and time again, I know too well that I should not quit because things are difficult and hard or in the state of anxiety. I should only quit when things are colorless and dull or in the state of boredom.

Between stress with purpose and no stress with purposelessness, let’s choose the right one cos everyday will have its time of rest, shower, food, sleep, prayer, friendship, devotion to God and other things that no one can easily take away.

There’s a little bit more effort to own a turntable because unlike CDs, records or LPs need to be cleaned almost always before and after each spin. Because its a rare product, its also harder to shop for record cleaners.

A while back, I bought a carbon fibre record cleaner after talking to a record shop owner. He told me it’ll work and I trusted him.

When I brought it home and took it out, I saw something that didn’t give me a lot of confidence.

I mean its okay to say ‘Good luck’ if the product isn’t from you. But when it is, it’s unneccessary to wish customers good luck unless you mean it (That it requires luck to be able to use it).

I am not sure how many times I would have convinced someone that I can help and yet have a face that reads “Good luck” to him or her. I hope not a lot. I hope don’t ever have to.

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us and it pays to have confidence that we can do it and give people the assurance to the best of our ability.

It was the second night with Eric Feng and his trainers.

What a remarkable night as 30 of us learn about public speaking. Now we can have the skill to communicate and speak to people more effectively.

My greatest take home is PREP where we ask these questions of our speeches.

1. Whats our point? (Point)
2. Why is it important to the audience? (Reason)
3. Tell a story (Example)
4. How does it apply to the audience? (Practice)

Because applying to children’s church sometimes we speak well but we don’t have a point. We also don’t care what we share is important to the kids. We don’t have a story to make it real and no application for the kids to take home and use.

Now with some of these skills, we can do better in our speaking and communication with kids….  or we can also use it to rule the world.

(See first night @What I Learned last Night)

Pastor Wayne Cordeiro talking about keeping things right in the family. The person interviewing him is his own son Pastor Jason Cordeiro himself. Now how cool is that?

With new children in the ministry and many to connect to now, I’ve been thinking about How To Small Talk With Children….. here’s a not too serious (but hopefully helpful) way I do it…

Before you small talk with children, ensure you enjoy vision of children freely connecting with you. No matter how bad it is now, you need to believe that it is possible and that you have victory over your nerves and fears.  If a child is on the hyperactive side, the more you need to believe that he is a human being who need understanding and someone to converse with respectfully like anyone of us.

STEP 1.  Don’t be scare of them. If you are, pretend you are not.
It’s harder to feel confident than to look confident. So try looking confident and chances are when you look confident, you somehow feel confident. If you project a courageous and controlled countenance, it’ll help the child be secure and confident talking to you. So take a deep breath and walk confidently to the child….

STEP 2. Do something intentional (like ask an open ended question)
If you are looking the part, start doing the part. If you get nervous easily, hold something, a toy, a stick or something that you can intentionally have with you (eg. I always like to hold my cup and sip) If your nerves show in things you do with your face or hands, you will strike out. Another good way is to intentionally go down to their eye level. Do something intentional that is confident to solicit a respond or conversation with your child.
a) Things you can intentionally do
-  Hi fives, Low fives, baby fives and other iterations
-  Punch him softly on the cheek
-  Pat on the back and say hello
- Use or create a secret handshake
 b) Things you can intentionally ask…
- Hey, buddy, how are you? <give him a friendly punch
- You don’t look happy/sad? What happened?
- How’s your week?
- What happened to you last week?
- Tell me about your exams?
- Did you eat a cow/pig this morning? Err I mean ham/bacon

STEP 3.  Anticipate 3 types of responses and act accordingly
a)- If response is vague or interesting, ask another question
- Tell me more?
- I don’t understand what you mean? Are you saying……?
b) - If response is positive, do a ‘Wow’ remark and affirm your child
- Wow!, you must be proud of that
- Fantastic! you really did a great job there
- Amazing! You did that? You must be the man!
- Great!, now I know who to call if I need someone to eat my breakfast.
c) - If response is negative, do a ‘Bummer’ remark and reflect how you think the child might feel.
- Bummer, now that’s sad, you must feel really down.
- Oh dear! thanks for telling me. How do you feel? are you okay?
- Oh man! you must be sad about this. But I’m sure God will help you

STEP 4. Be prepared to end with a smile and a bye!
Yeah, this is small talk, you are not counselling or teaching them maths, so if the talk is not getting anywhere, end it. Do not give the child a chance to feel uncomfortable with you. Smile and say ‘okay, enjoy or enjoy the service!’ and move on (to the next child). You can almost do anything if you know how to be friendly and wacky. eg. “Can you excuse me cos I need to go to the toilet.. psshh.. <whisper> I need to change to my superman costume, you know, the one with the underwear on the outside?”.

If you are talking to a new child, a good way to end is to turn back to the child and asked “So what’s my name?”, “Do you know my name?”.  Make sure he/she knows your name and encourage him next week to come and look out for you. They may forget but it ok, this talk itself makes the child feel special that you care to talk. The key objective of “small talk” is to make the connection so that you can connect deeper later on. With the type of small time given to us on Sunday, we really need to home run with our small talk with children.