Tuesday, October 22, 2013

for any of my pipe smoking friends

less than 9 hours to go and still the high bid is only 229 which is ridiculous come take a look rare eltang capped rhodesian
rev

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Read about my adventures at pipe camp

Just got back from Nashville, you can read about it here http://revspipes.com

rev

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Fund Raising, (why don't you just pay for it yourself?)

When I was posting my indiegogo fundraiser send the rev to pipe school to a forum I frequent someone asked, "why don't you just save up and pay for it yourself? why do you expect others to pay for your school, just because you are a good guy?"  Well I think that is a good and fair question.  Here are some answers:

1. I believe the world is a better place when we help each other.  I don't just believe it in an intellectual assent way, but I live it daily.  My family has lived this ethic for our entire lives.  We have helped others in many ways, so accepting help, and even asking for help is part of belonging to this kind of a world.

2.  We live in a society that is all about debt.  I borrow to go to school, I borrow to buy a car, a house, or even clothes.  Well I think if we all work together, we can stop all the borrowing.  And in so doing we can also stop a lot of the exorbitant interest and banking bullshit.  In addition, if we give through relational networks, we can also see what is valuable, or even see what is unworthy in our plans.

3. I believe individualism is wrong.  I believe it is not how we were meant to live.  I believe we are meant to live in community, to support one another, and help see dreams and gifts.  If we are to live in a world that rejects the popular narrative, we need to learn to live communally. 

4. On a personal level, we live very simply, we give a lot of our income to our community.  We also live in a way that takes time that could be used for income, and use it for work in our community.  My wife doesn't work so she can be free to volunteer full time at a local outreach.  This means outside of taking a loan, we have very little income to "save"

So this is an explanation for why I asked for help.  I would love any reactions, or thoughts about this.  In addition, would appreciate it if you gave my campaign a look.

thanks

rev

Saturday, May 04, 2013

A theology of food

It seems as though Jesus is always eating.  Moving from one meal to a next.  These are not just casual references to things that happened, but very important lessons in discipleship.  We often forget the scriptures were not biogrophy, but discipleship implements.  So the question is... how do these passages teach us to look at food, and how is it part of our discipleship?

I just want to ask the question, not give the answer, hope some people will reply.

rev

ps, if you get a chance please stop by my indiegogo campaign send the rev to school

Monday, April 29, 2013

SEND THE REV TO PIPE SCHOOL

SEND REV TO PIPE SCHOOL!!! I am going to Nashville to study with Grant Batson with your help

As some of you know my wife and I live simply, and spend much of our time and money on our community.  We are involved with local charities and have done some of our own work with homeless folk in our park.  But that means I need a bit of help to do my "schooling"  Grant Batson, an incredible pipe maker from Nashville, who's work really resonates with me on a creative level has agreed to take me on as a student for a few days, in which I will learn how to make pipes more perfectly, more efficiently and more creatively.  I am very excited to take advantage of this one on one instruction, and you can help.  Please follow the link and help as you are able.

john