Enklings Studio

The Night Watchman - Mark Mynheir

The Night Watchman by Mark Mynheir

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was pretty excited to see a new book out by the former Marine and current detective with the Criminal Investigations Unit of the Palm Bay Police Department. I assumed it would be real life fiction and it was!

The Night Watchman by Mark Mynheir is a great police/private detective story centered around Ray, a disabled former police detective that is now a night watchman. He gets caught up in a very interesting investigation and struggles with his own alcohol dependence, pain and disability while trying to help out a woman whose brother was killed in the apartment complex where Ray is a rent-a-cop.

It's a good story with some depth to the characters and detail to the plot, all in all a very good read. It doesn't button up at the end as you would expect a book in this genre which took it up a few notches for me. Definitely worth reading.

Where to Buy:  http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781590529355&ref=externallink_mlt_thenightwatchman_sec_0414_01

Simply,

Tim


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The Hole In Our Gospel - Richard Stearns

Have you ever read a book you felt was written for an audience of one - you?  "The Hole In Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision, U.S. is one of those books for me.

My takeaway is this: "That which breaks the heart of God, should also break my heart."  Mr. Stearns mentions this throughout the book and it is the underlying theme of his story as well as the stories of others called to take action. 

There are heart breaking stories and statistics in this book, but each is woven with the underlying message that it is not too late to act and I am not to small to make a difference.  This isn't a call to the Church to wake up, though that is a message of the book.  It's not a call to join the efforts of World Vision, though there are plenty of personal stories Richard gives of his own journey from a comfortable corporate CEO to meeting desperate people around the world as President of World Vision.  It's not even a call for us to pull out our wallets, though his statistics on our overwhelming wealth in America will make you look at your personal wealth differently.  This is a call to do something.  Not us...me.  Not the Church...you and I, personally doing something.

If you've followed my journey from a Corporate VP job to where we are at today, you know I've been looking and waiting on God for the past two years for something significant to do for Him.  Well, apparently He's been waiting on me.

How about you?

Simply,

Tim

Join me in an effort inspired by this book to skip a meal on June 1st and use the savings to fund world hunger relief.

Twitter For Food Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Tim Blair
Twitter For Food Founder
P:  (805) 748-1333

Twitter For Food World Hunger Campaign Begins On Twitter

On June 1, 2009, the inaugural Twitter For Food day is set to launch.  Tim Blair, the founder of Twitter For Food is asking everyone on Twitter to skip a meal on June 1st and donate the savings to any world hunger relief organization.  The goal for this first campaign is to raise $5 million from twitter users for the relief of World Hunger. 

“I believe one person can make a difference and a million Twitter users could significantly impact the desperate problem of people starving around the world today” says Tim Blair, a Twitter user, freelance writer and founder of Twitter For Food.  “I recently read ‘The Hole In Our Gospel’ by Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision, and was so struck with the tragic stories and statistics of world hunger, I just felt I had to do something immediately.”  

Tim has been a Twitter user for quite a while and has made many friends through the service across the world.  He feels it is the perfect venue to launch a big campaign like this quickly.  His hope is that he can reach 5 million of the 20 million Twitter users and that at least one million will answer the call to donate even a small amount on Monday, June 1st to any World Hunger organization.  If this is successful, Tim will choose more dates later in the year to repeat and hopefully grow the Twitter For food campaign. 

There is a Twitter For Food website (http://enklings.typepad.com/twitter_for_food) that explains the simple campaign and will be posting updates and results of the campaign along with links to many relief organization websites where people can donate.  Tim Blair will also be giving regular updates and notices on his twitter account: @enklings. 

You can follow the campaign at: http://enklings.typepad.com/twitter_for_food

You can also follow Tim Blair on twitter at : http://twitter.com/enklings  

### 

Twitter For Food is a campaign started and funded by Tim Blair who is the founder of Enklings Studio, a business consultancy and freelance writing firm located in San Luis Obispo, CA that works with start-ups and small businesses in industries such as: Ecommerce, Green Building, Organic Farnming, Wine Sales and Marketing, Non-Profits and Graphic Design.

Squidward and Seth Godin

 

...I'm just sayin'...both wear orange, bald, witty, intelligent, friends that are sponges, Squidoo.com....

Simply,

Tim

twitter for food

 

So here's the deal.  I'm just about through with "A Hole In Our Gospel" by Rich Stearns, the President of World Vision and I'm pretty fired up to do something while I look for something more to do.  (Pretty normal for me, I hate to be idle)  I'll post more about the book when I'm done with it.

So I started a campaign on twitter to skip a meal on June 1st and give the money you would spend to a charity for hunger.  I explain it all over at a new site twitter for food .  So for the next two week I'm going to be raging to get people to retweet the message and hopefully on Monday June 1st, something cool will happen.

If you're on Twitter, connect with me @enklings and go to the twitter for food site and see the message you need to retweet for me.

Join me, won't you?

Simply,

Tim

Business As Mission?

I've been watching the growing trend around "Business As Mission" on the web and particularly on LinkedIn.

I fully understand the desire to link our occupations to our faith, I think it's right and normal for a Christian to do.  And there are some businesses that truly are missions in the literal sense of the word such as the many micro-finance businesses (though mostly non-profit) that loan small amounts to business people in third world countries to help people start businesses that will support their families.

  For a business to remain in business, they must be aware of what keeps them in business - profit.  If you take your eye off that goal, the business will eventually fail.  When you're in business, you need to count the cost and be focused on staying in business.  If you don't care about profit, you should be a non-profit and thus a mission. 

So how could "Business as Mission" work?  The same way"Life as Mission" does, I suppose.  You can easily be in business and lead a missional life.  As believers, our faith should seep into and out of everything we do.  God puts us where He wants us.  As the Bible says, some of us are feet, some are hands, some are ears and some are eyes.  Which is more important, the heart or the brain?

The Church are* not just the Pastors and the buildings or the missionaries and the worship leaders.  The Church are* the community of believers and some of us are in business and some of us are in ministry, but all of us are a part of the mission of the Gospel.

Simply,

Tim

*In information services, you hear it said that the "data are..."  The data are not the collection, that's the database.  The data are the individual pieces of information, thus are referred to as "are".  I think it's the same with the Church.  The Church "are" all of us.  I doubt this could ever possibly catch on, but I think it would help us understand better that the Church are not the institutions, but are individuals, each having a part of the whole and responsible for our part.  We are the body of Christ.  The Church are the body of Christ.  Hmmm...what do you think?

The Small Group - really funny

Missed Opportunities

"Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to him and said, 'Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night. There is nothing to eat here in this deserted place.' But Jesus said, 'You feed them.' 'Impossible!' they protested. 'We have only five loaves of bread and two fish. Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?' For there were about five thousand men there. 'Just tell them to sit down on the ground in groups of about fifty each,' Jesus replied. So the people all sat down. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and asked God's blessing on the food. Breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples to give to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they picked up twelve baskets of leftovers!"

So this is a famous passage out of Luke 9 about the feeding of the 5000.  Before this there is the story of the disciples going out and performing all sorts of miracles healing the sick and preaching to the villages in the surrounding area.  

What slays me about this is Jesus' statement in the middle of this passage: "You feed them." 

Have you noticed that before? They just got back from healing a bunch of sick people and performing miracles in the name of Jesus and yet this is "impossible"?  The disciples didn't get it and missed out an an opportunity to be used in more miraculous ways. Jesus handled it and fed them all, but do you think it's any coincidence that there were 12 disciples and 12 baskets left over?  Point made.

You realize don't you, that this is what Jesus is saying to us today: "You feed them."  It's not metaphorical.  It isn't flippant.  It's expectant.  "You feed them."

Don't miss out on being the conduit for the miraculous.  Trust that even though the task is perhaps monumental, God is asking you to do something. If you don't, He'll likely get it done, but you'll miss out.

What is God asking you to do?  If He's asking, you're equipped.

Simply,

Tim

MaaS Blog - Marketing as a Service

I've started a new blog that is dedicated to my Marketing as a Service consulting business.  I'll be doing  most of the business blogging and posting web tech information over there, so I can keep this blog more personal and spiritual along with authors, books, poetry and the rest of the more aethetic side of Enklings and me!

Check out the new blog: MaaS, and let me know what you think.

simply,

Tim

Tuck - Book 3 of the King Raven Series by Stephen Lawhead

Tuck by Stephen R. Lawhead

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A little slow in starting, this one kept me up way too late to read the last few hundred pages.

A very good ending to the King Raven trilogy, Tuck has a variety of twists and turns and kept me wanting to hit the hay early once I got into the story line after a hundred pages or so. Don't give up on it, it's well worth the read. This is a great series now that all three are out to take on a reading vacation.

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