Some samples of Friday’s photography. Very different shoots but both a lot of fun.
We are wrapping things up here in Hawaii. In two weeks we will be freezing our butts off in Ohio…
I’ve been doing a lot of photography lately. It will all be posted on our photo blog soon. I’m trying to get those edits wrapped up, and then we have one more family shoot next week.
We’ve got to pack up all of our stuff and clean…
Our students are finishing up Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi and then finishing up with Chronicles. Their final exam is next Wednesday then we are having our “love feast,” a nice final meal together at a restaurant at the Ala Moana mall. Then everyone is flying out, all over the world.
I’m doing my last one-on-one meetings with the guy students this week. Jess is doing the same with her girls.
I need to buy a pair of jeans and get them hemmed before I leave since I don’t have any long pants to wear. I think I have a pair of dress khaki’s in my closet somewhere but I don’t want to travel in those. I should go buy those tonite.
Pray for us as we finish up. It’s quite a whirlwind. It’s a sprint to the finish of this 10 month marathon. I’ll write a more reflective post when we settle on the mainland.
Engage: What is the most extreme weather change you’ve ever experienced? Let us know in the comments.
My guitar shortly before leading worship on Monday.
The above photo is a photo of my guitar… or should I say, was my guitar…
The rest of this story is over on Flickr as a part of our 365days project.
Engage: How can you choose to be generous in your life today? Let us know in the comments.
Yes I realize this is not a butterfly. It’s a snail that I saw on the path during my morning walk.
Reconnecting with old friends the other weekend, I heard about a girl that went to our high school that was murdered…
Butterfly Effect The butterfly effect is a term used in chaos theory to describe how small changes to a seemingly unrelated thing or condition (also known as an initial condition) can affect large, complex systems.
She had two children and was employed at a Baltimore strip club, was addicted to drugs and had a drug debt. She was shot 5 times in a park in Baltimore.
This girl went to school with me for middle and high school. That means I probably saw her at least once a day for 8 years. She didn’t just randomly, end up in a park, shot 5 times. There were so many choices that she made to get herself into that situation. I’m not saying it is or isn’t her fault. I’m asking what my responsibility is in all of this is.
I’m not beating myself up, I didn’t really talk to this girl in school, and I didn’t keep up with her after… but what if I had? What if others would have? What if I would have encouraged her when I saw her, what if I would have called forth the giftings that God had put inside of her? What if I would have sat with her and listened to her?
I don’t think we realize the impact we can have on others lives. I know the choices that I’ve made in my life were not made in a vacuum, I am who I am today because of the influence of others.
Remember that photo of the snail that I saw on my morning walk? As I walked away from taking the photo, it was still in the middle of the path, I thought to myself… this little guy is going to get run over by a bike or stepped on. But I walked away not wanting to get my hands dirty. Literally.
When I came back during the afternoon, this is what I found not very far at all from where I left him.
I’m not trying to make light of, or compare a snail to a human life. There is no comparison. But I am asking us, are we willing to get our hands dirty to save lives?
“All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” – Unknown
Jesus forgive me for my inaction, forgive me for looking the other way, forgive me for not being willing to get my hands dirty, forgive me for underestimating my impact on the world…
Engage: What positive impact can you have right now on someones life? Let us know in the comments and then go and do it.
Day 26 of 365
As you might know Jess and I started taking a self portrait a day starting on November 1. We are almost to the end of one month and only 11 more to go!
In other news, I took a team down to Waikiki on Tuesday, I feel like its been forever since we’ve been down there. I sat and was talking to Tony with one of my students. Tony told us like 3 jokes while we were there. He thanked us for coming around.
Tony mentioned that “Spider” got a house. I was trying to figure out who spider was.
Soon after that Jim came walking up, and it clicked. Spider. Jim had shaven, had a giant smile on his face and was walking with a lady that was pushing his walker for him.
December 11th will be our last outreach to Waikiki with this school. It’s cool to have a happy ending to the nine months that I’ve spent a few times a month on the street with Jim.
You can read about one of my last run ins with Jim here.
I’ve had a pretty solid day today, but was struggling in the beginning of the week. Some days are good and some days are not. I guess that’s life.
3 more weeks and then we’re boarding a plane to cold cold cold Ohio. I need to buy a pair of jeans before we do that.
Engage: What’s on your mind? Leave me a comment about anything. It can be something about this post or something completely random. A digital high five for a joke that will make me laugh out loud.
photo by Esther Kim (No I didn’t eat all that food, they thought it would be funny to put all of the left over plates in front of me.) Some of our students and staff!
Here’s a personal post catching you up on the recent happenings…
Last Wednesday our YWAM base celebrated an early thanksgiving. This allowed people to actually have the day of thanksgiving off. So we gathered and ate a nice thanksgiving meal Wednesday evening.
Jess was on the set up team. Since we needed every table on base, she tore down the tables in our classroom and carried them to “the tin” which is our main meeting area. The tin is appropriately named because it’s just a cement floor with a tin roof.
I was on service duty, so my team brought out all of the food from the kitchen. We set up two serving stations and an appetizer and dessert table. During the meal we also refilled anything that was running out. We had normal thanksgiving grinds only the base cooked up two local favorites, Lau Lau and Ahi Poke.
Thursday happened to be my birthday as well as the real Thanksgiving. The base has a tradition to serve a nice brunch on Thanksgiving. If you know anything about me you know I love breakfast meat so that was a nice treat
l-r Joanna (photobombing) Mary, Jess and me
Joanna and Joby invited us over to their church Thanksgiving. There I got to see, and introduce Jess to a friend named Mary. I stayed at Mary’s house the first time I came out and visited Oahu in 2008. Mary also happens to have grown up on the same street as our friend from Maryland, Deirdre. They grew up together in NY. Small world. I enjoyed sitting outside on Thanksgiving day next to kids playing in a pool, with a lei around my neck for my birthday. We shared a great meal with new friends and then finished off the night with some pie and a couple hands of canasta.
Captain’s chair, Kaneohe Sand Bar
We spent Saturday on a boat on the Kaneohe sand bar with a friend from high school, I recently reconnected with. I haven’t seen Megan, in over ten years. Our other mutual friend Annliese along with her boyfriend Mark were visiting as well so it was a great time to reconnect and catch up. We shared another Thanksgiving meal together that evening and laughed a lot. It was refreshing.
l-r Annliese, her boyfriend Mark, Megan, Jess and me.
So that was our Thanksgiving and birthday weekend. Tomorrow… back to eating healthy and exercising, and work too.
Engage: How was your Thanksgiving? What did you do? Who did you spend it with? Did any fun or unique dishes end up on your Thanksgiving table? Let us know in the comments.
Here’s some thoughts for a Monday…
Thoughts for a Monday written on Saturday, finished and posted on Sunday night…
I expected there to be a bit more fanfare for my 200th post on Friday. I envisioned that cheesy fire work graphic that they give you if you win at solitaire on the computer. I thought that post would have gotten more hits too. It only was viewed 44 times which is about my average. I thought it was a catchy title. I was a little bit let down. Oh expectations. I will write on expectations soon.
Although, over the past few days, I’ve had people tell me specifically that they read my blog and enjoy it. That’s nice to hear
I felt strange after posting Friday’s post… for a few reasons. That story actually happened MONTHS ago… so my memory of it is a bit blurry, I had the title in my drafts but I don’t think I had anything written. All of my trips down there kind of blur together. I THINK I remember talking that same night to one of our students who left our school after month 4 so that means it was at least 3 months ago when that happened.
So as I was writing it… I couldn’t remember if the liquor incident and the marijuana incident were the same night or not, I really think it was, but my timeline could be off, I think the liquor incident happened earlier in the night, but the way I wrote it it looked like it happened after…
And then Friday after posting it, I was trying to remember if my clothes really did smell like weed or not… I remember smelling my shirt, thinking I would, and thinking it would be a great blog post… but then I think I remember being disappointed that I didn’t actually smell like weed. But I wrote it as a fact that I did… so do I go back and change it now that I’m remembering differently? I want to have integrity in what I write. Or do I just leave it as it is because it closes up the story well?
Engage: I really want to hear your thoughts. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments.
Two guys smoking cigarettes 2007
A couple of months ago I got offered a joint twice in the matter of minutes…
I was sitting at the pavilion where we meet to hand out pizza to the homeless in Waikiki and talking to one of the regulars. The guy besides me starts rolling a joint. He lights it and starts smoking it. The lady I was talking to was like “ugh, is that weed? I hate the way that smells.”
The guy smoking reaches across the table. He then ripped off a piece from the cover of the guy’s book across from him. He attached it to the last of his joint so he could smoke all of it. The owner of the book looked pretty flabbergasted. Somewhere along the line, the guy smoking, offered the joint to the book guy, who then offered it to me. I declined.
Then the next table over was rolling a joint and passing it around. A guy offered it to me a couple of times. One of them said something along of the lines of “Hey man, I know you’re with the church, and we really appreciate you coming down here to feed us man, and we’re sorry about this man, we’re not bad people this is just what we do.”
Then later there was a bunch of commotion behind me. Someone had left a few bottles of liquor and these guys acted like they just won the lottery. They scooped it up and walked away.
While all of this happened, I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to say. I felt uncomfortable. I wondered what Jesus would do in that situation. My immediate thought was that I needed to proclaim TRUTH, and proclaim it loudly, in typical hell fire and brimstone. But I knew that wouldn’t work. What did Jesus do when He was at parties? His first miracle was turning water into wine… GOOD wine.
I’m not being some pansy whamsey not take a stand on issues person here… I don’t think smoking weed is a good idea, even though 2 states just legalized it, and I don’t think drinking liquor to get drunk is a good idea either. But I didn’t have to tell any of those guys that, they already knew that, and they knew where I stood as a Christian.
How did Jesus treat me while I was yet a sinner, He loved me. Jesus was so gentle with me. I didn’t start following Jesus because of some scary message of hell. I followed Jesus because He offered me hope and a better life.
In the areas where I fall short now, Jesus does not berate me into submission. He patiently, gently, helps me to realize that His ways are better. It’s His kindness that leads us to repentance.
I returned home that night after outreach with the smell of marijuana on my clothes. Maybe every Christian should smell like weed, it means we’re keeping company with the “sinners” just like Jesus did.
Engage: What do you think Jesus did while He was hanging out with “sinners” at parties? What was it that made those people attracted to him? What do you do when you get around “sinners?” Let us know in the comments.
A Photo from the grand opening of Charity’s closet in Savage Mill, MD
Jess and I were on a walk the other day and stopped by a small boutique called LMS Boutique here in quaint Manoa, Hawaii.
I had seen this boutique the day before, and it reminded me of one of Jess’ favorite shops called The White Picket Fence in Bemus, on Chautauqua Lake in NY. So when I had to run an errand in that area we went in.
We were greeted by two ladies who were very friendly, they introduced themselves by name. Then they quickly told me that there was a chair in the back if I wanted to sit down and make myself comfortable. I declined the offer, which was suggested again after a while of meandering through the store.
As I walked out I appreciated the solid customer service, and the brillant idea to put a chair in the back of the store for men to sit at.
Soon after that we were doing some more window shopping around North Shore. Store after store had a sitting area for men. I even sat in one that had a Clark Little photography book which kept me occupied while Jess looked through the store. We also heard another store owner and a guy joking about how many men they have seen fall asleep in those chairs.
If you provide a place where the men can sit and just chill out the women will be able to shop longer. This area takes up space where other merchandise could be sold but the people that have made this small adjustment have obviously seen it worthwhile.
Engage: What small change can you make in your life, ministry or business that might look like a risk, but really is a well thought out way to do better at what you’re trying to do?
A Violin I borrowed last time I was trying to learn violin
You know how we all set New Years Resolutions? Somewhere along the line those goals that we’ve set die…
It’s usually unconcious, by February we forgot we even set those goals, or somehow we quietly justify why it’s just not going to work this time…
Jess and I spent some recently, reviewing what has happened while we were here in Hawaii, and looking to the future. Part of that for us was reviewing our Life Plan. I need to write a post about this life plan soon.
I made a list of goals before I turn 30, I’m not sure exactly when I wrote them down, probably in my early twenties. I remember three of them, and they kind of hang over my head. Along with everyones goal of weighing less, another one was to record a full length album. I don’t think it had to be a super profesional album, but it was just a goal to write and record some music. The other goal, learn another language fluently. The last goal that I just remembered was to learn to play violin.
The problem is 20 year old Jim Baker, didn’t know anything about almost 30 year old Jim Baker. (I’ll be 28 on Thanksgiving, so I have two years to meet these goals, which is totally do-able, it will just take a concerted amount of effort and focus)
When I was 20, music was my life, I was in a band, I was pursuing my, at the time, life dream to be a Christian rockstar. 8 years later, I’ve sold all of my music equipment, and play a guitar that was given to me, only when I’m leading worship.
IF I’m going to pursue these things, I need to start taking TANGIBLE steps in that direction. Implementing TIME in my schedule to study a language, and start writing some more music. I on one hand get overwhelmed at trying to make more time for these things, but on the other hand I am having a hard time allowing these dreams to die. I can’t seem to take them off of my list of goals without feeling a tinge of guilt…
Engage: What are some of your life goals? Are you taking steps in that direction? Let us know in the comments.
30 sec handheld exposure while driving 2007
So we were house and car sitting for some friends that were in Europe last week. Both things a huge blessing to us, since we don’t have a car out here and we live in a house slightly larger than a double wide trailer with 8 other people…
Our friend told us before he left, “I topped off all the fluids on the car, and fixed the brake light that was on, so you should be good. Let us know if any big emergency happens cause they always do.“
I was driving his car around and realizing that the brakes were a little soft, not so easy to stop. After a while I realized there was a serious problem and talked to a friend of mine that was a mechanic. He couldn’t look at it until the next day. So this morning we left to go into work, as I pulled out of our car port, the brake pedal went straight to the floor, I pulled the e-brake and still nothing, we were still going forward. Eventually we stopped, but the brakes WERE not responsive.
I backed it back into our spot and tried to figure out what to do, work is just right around the corner, so I threw my hazards on, threw it in LOW gear and made sure I had TONS of room to brake. I made it to work fine and my friend looked at the car. We bled the front brakes after adding some brake fluid and found out the problem was with the rear drums. I don’t know anything about cars so I’m going to stop there.
I’m writing this post to tell you what to do IF your brakes go out or your gas pedal gets stuck.
I always remember this because it happened to me in high school. I was riding with my friend Graham in his champange colored caddy, he gunned it out onto Tamar drive from Phelps Luck or High Tor which is a 30mph road. He starts freaking out and the car starts jumping all over the place. His gas pedal got stuck to the floor when he pulled out onto Tamar. I think we hit like 60mph on this 30mph road. Maybe it wasn’t that high. But Graham was slamming on his brakes which wasn’t doing much good as the car engine was revving, he tried putting it in neutral, and the RPMs just redlined, he then stuck it in a lower gear which caused the car to jump, but it did slow it down and then put it in the lowest gear to get it to slow down even more until he could safely pull over.
I asked why he knew to down shift. He said he learned that in drivers ed. I didn’t remember learning that but it’s a lesson that will forever stick with me. I hope it sticks with YOU now too!
Engage: What is the craziest car experience you have ever had? Let us know in the comments.
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by Jim Baker
I lived in NY and moved to southern China. No other comment necessary.
When I left Ireland in May it was still chilly 50s and rainy, then I stepped out of the airport onto MDs pure humidity on an already 90 degree day. Made me miss the rain
On another note, when will you guys be back in MD? Cause I think its high time for another half priced wings night.
yeah that’s a totally different type of humidity! EW BECKS! Oh man, you’re right, we haven’t been there in AGES! Lets make it happen!
Not necessarily (I am wearing a sweater and a scarf right now) but compared to NY it feels like spring. I’m constantly confused as to what season it is.
haha, i hear you. i think i’m starting to slowly see the subtleties of the seasons here in Hawaii.
Most extreme weather change for me was from the bottom to the top of Mt. Haleakala!!! It was quite chilly at the top and I was glad I grabbed a “just in case” light weight hoodie on my way out the door. It was especially helpful since I was wearing shorts and a sleeveless top. Loved the views and the people I was with.
thanks for sharing
That was a fun trip and indeed a pretty extreme feeling weather change.