There are those who quote Mother Teresa’s Letters who will never risk living her life.  There are those who live a monastic life who have waded through oceans of pain and worship. There are those who pretend to be Jeremiah, who have far too much to lose. There are those who are authentic, who have given everything they have, to receive what is completely other.

This is a spinning diamond wheel put to marble. I was in my dad’s garage surrounded by tools; crafting something for my brother.

For the past few days, my wife Darlene has been encouraging me through her daily readings of Jeremiah. This morning, at the office (between meetings: next meeting at noon with Bedford Biofuels), I’m here reading Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination, where we read the author’s diamond-tipped precision,

Kings know intuitively that the deception, the phony claims of prosperity, oppression, and state religion will collapse when the air of covenant hits them. The riddle and insight of biblical faith is the awareness that only anguish leads to life, only grieving leads to joy, and only embraced endings permit new beginnings.

From Clairvaux (headquarters of Bernard) to Barking (headquarters of William the Conqueror), the carved abbey stones cry out from the ashes, “By the grace of God we are what we are.”

As I attempt to teach in Clairvaux Manifesto, we have to remember rightly in a right way. We can remember rightly in a wrong way; typical of the human condition. But, we can never remember wrongly in a right way; typical of demonic intent. To make the wrong seem and appear to be right… The host of hell would not only erase all memory of the Good, they would superimpose their own twisted longings over everything Good, poisoning every deep well of truth. Sorry, not on my watch!!!

This was my office desk back in May, 2007. I smile looking at the first presentation I ever put together on our due diligence process at Woodthorpe Petroleum Ltd., a world bank report, an oil and gas prospectus, and a schematic revealing the infrastructure of one particular nation we were researching (water tables and tectonics I think).

Now, (after writing and publishing Clairvaux Manifesto in 2009) I’m back at it, planning for the future success of an oil company, fighting along side my friends. For example, earlier today we put in two bids equaling nearly 10 million dollars of potential work.

Sitting at Gatwick airport, 8 minutes and 19 seconds left on internet station. My iPhone has been giving me the whitescreen of death for two days… gotta get it fixed or replaced; nearly threw it in the Thames River yesterday… but at least it didn’t cause me to miss any meetings, had it all written down (luckily).

I covered a lot of miles in the City of London… so many stories. But, just glad to be getting home to Dar, Luke, Bree and Nate; I miss them terribly… especially sitting here staring at a thousand strangers and seeing so many kids I wish were mine.

I don’t know how else to put it; breadcrumbs.

Yesterday at this time, I was on a private tour of the Presidential Palace in Malta. Today, I find myself walking among Maltese Crosses in London’s St. John’s Square.

I didn’t plan it this way.  This morning’s meeting was set up to meet at a coffee shop called St. John; I didn’t set up the location. The meeting ended up postponed till tomorrow, no worries… So I started walking and praying, and voilà… I’m surrounded by the iconic images of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.

Malta is great… meeting great people like David Jones of www.stewardship.org.uk.  Felix and Miriam are supreme hosts.

Well, I have a radio interview in 20 minutes at http://www.faithfm.org/listen.shtml and Darlene is 7 time zones away with http://www.raisetheroofforhaiti.webs.com

Tonight’s gonna be a good night; and we’re just getting started!

Here’s Luke and Nate in January ‘08, surfing the waves of Gozo Island, part of Malta. The look on their faces captures our three weeks there; huge adventures.

Well, today I fly to Malta. I start the day in business meetings with Terry Woodthorpe, looking to raise funds with a group of investors. Then I fly into the London, Gatwick to meet up with Joe and Nancy who will  treat me to lunch and drive me to Luton. From there I fly to Malta, to be met at the airport by Miriam, Enya, and Leon – as Felix is in some meetings until the evening.

Dar just drew this Google Earth line between Canmore, Alberta and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Tomorrow, at our kids school assembly, Dar is sharing a power point presentation about Haiti, set to the music of a beautiful song called Lift Your Voice by our friend Crystal (on iTunes)

Compassion and World Vision take note; this song deserves a Dove Award!

The lyrics as I hear them:

The road’s been long, more than anyone should bear; you’ve soldiered on, to fight injustice and despair; and though the pain was overwhelming, you found a way to stand again

Yesterday afternoon at the office, Terry and I rediscovered this picture as we were in between handing each other phone conversations, rewriting legal contracts with potential team members, and prepping for investor presentations for two parties highly interested in the current needs and future direction of our company.

This picture is all about documentation; someone in our company is snapping a picture of me while I’m snapping a picture inside a generator building; contingency and redundancy.