More Pledges! KLOVE!

I'm probably going to get a lot of flack on this.. but here goes.
NOTE.. if you dont want to read all of it... read the second half... the first half is an overview of klove and my snide remarks along with it..

KLOVE... our favorite, family friendly, Christian music radio station... established in 1982 in California, it soon launched into 440 stations across the U.S. (many thanks to wikipedia for the source)

However, in 2007, Mike Novak (aka, Mr. Krabs from Spongebob) took over as CEO of KLOVE... and from then on, it seems that every other season there seems to an abomination to mankind that is known as the pledge drive. (please don't quote me on this... KLOVE may have had pledge drives before 2007, but I vaguely remember first hearing about pledge drives around 07 or 08 while i was in college...)

the reason KLOVE has a pledge drive is because it is a listener supported radio station.. meaning that money that you donate help pays the bills and it also keeps advertisements off the air as icing on the cake...
While asking for money to help support a ministry of any sort is okay in my books.. Novak has turned this into a complete joke... (Novak might not be the one with the ideas.. but he is the responsible for going through with them)... Instead of doing this in a humble, quaint way... it's turned into a full blown circus... the DJs are acting (terribly) excited about getting to said goal with the sound effects of telephones going off in the background... They all sound stressed, chaotic, etc. and when they finally get a pledge from a sucker supporter, they act like Jesus just came back and Hallelujah He has risen indeed and all that sort..

Then at the end of the week, when the pledge drive is over and they (most likely) missed their goal (i think they actually hit it once or twice in the past).. Scrooge McDuck aka Mike Novak comes on every so often as the "commercial" and announces that they didn't meet the goal and what their plans are going forward... all this is in a disappointed tone with a hint of condescending... in other words... it sounds like he's saying to all the listeners "Hey all of you... you all screwed up" .. and to the chumps people that donated "why didn't you give more? you all are a bunch of screw ups as well"

But these examples aren't even what makes my skin crawl.. Here are 3 points on why the pledge drive is an utter joke

1) Literally begging for money - As I said before, asking for money for a ministry isn't bad... however, how they do it is in bad form... There's a difference between asking and begging; begging is asking over and over again with a sense of desperation while asking is once with a sense of wonder... it is asking if i hear it once in a while... it's begging when i get in my car and they're asking, i get out, get back in after a class and they're asking, get out and go to work, get in and they're asking, get back from bible study when it's nearly midnight and they're asking..

I'm literally writing this at 1:52 am and turned klove on and within 5 seconds i hear the word "pledge drive" ... i mean.. seriously.. are they hoping that somewhere, there's a midnight snacker that's going to his fridge in his underpants and go "huh.. im going to pledge to klove right now"

and here's the biggest kicker .. what happens if a lost person suddenly turns on klove (since that's what they're "biggest goal" seems to be).. they hear christians asking for money.. heyyy... that's a stereotype there... christians are after your money... /lost witness
seriously... chill out with saying pledge drive a gazillion times a day klove...

2) Twisting of Scripture ...this is seriously not a-okay with me... especially if they're doing it for their personal gain of trying to encourage givers...  I don't know if they do it now since I don't listen to them while they're doing their pledge drive.. not cool at all..

3) Song usage ..."After this next song, whoever pledges will win a CD pack" ... after this next song? You mean the song that is a prayer/story of a broken person/a cry out to Jesus... that song? KLOVE.. you're basically making a song that Steve Curtis Chapman wrote after his daughter died into a stopwatch to try to encourage someone to quickly donate money... anyone else see a problem with this??

well how would you propose to fix it then Shane? Well... I'm no expert in these type of things at all.. but I would suggest that you get rid of this whole "listener supported" junk and let some advertisements in... there are plenty of sponsors out there that would give money for some sort of airtime.. churches, Christian speakers... go for it... I don't know about you but when I hear "listener supportive" I don't go oooohhhh ahhhhhh..... I go "k" ... really it's not impressive to me at all and I don't get the hype of it all..

that's all folks

Hello again!

It's been a while since I written here... actually probably more than a month or so since the last update was from Taiwan. Nothing much to write about really other than being an intern at CLBC and working with Andrew Leeper.... But I also been wondering if anyone would like to see me write about my trip to East Asia (not Taiwan..) ..I have my journal with me and some of it would obviously would be in code and a bit hard to read... but it was also a good experience as well.. If interested... please tell me (somehow)... because I'm not going to spend time writing about it if there is 0 views on them... I'll spend about a week or so with one post each day...
OR.... if you think it's a bad idea... you can also tell me as well

Have a good day!

It's almost over...

The message on Wednesday went better than I expected, though no kids came forward, I could tell by the looks of the kids that they had a lot to think about... Lesson was about Noah's absolute faith. It was a bit shaky, but so were my first lessons that I've ever taught so I was a bit relieved that it wasn't a total disaster.

I spoke again on Thursday to my English class, telling them to never give up on learning another language. There's been an obvious improvement in their English since I've been there, the tutor sessions have even bought a girl's score up from a 0 to an 80.

Today was sort of a last day for me. I'll be back in two weeks to say my final goodbye, but as far as working there, it's all finished... Even so, it didn't feel like it since it was Children's Day today and most of the students were with their parents. I was fortunate, however, to participate in their flea market they held at their school. Most of the children were extremely happy to see me walking around and participating in helping them raise money.

Tomorrow, I'll be visiting my grandparents' grave on my mother's side of the family for the first time. Not much to say there... This is the last place of the places that I needed to go...

I'll be on a second site starting Monday... if you want to know where, ask Seth or Brandon... But most people by now should know where it is....

too sleepy to think of anything else or to check grammar on this...

Till Next Time!

Oh right.. I have a blog...

There hasn't been too much going on since the last update...
Every week's about the same... Often going out after church to see where God leads me. Had a few good encounters... and a few blah ones...

The trip itself is starting to wind down... I'm teaching my first devotion in Chinese for the church on Tuesday and Wednesday, so pray that goes well and have people respond to it. Currently, I'm in the process of translating the message from English to Chinese at the moment, but I'm feeling a little bit stressed since I wrote quite a lot down.

Overall, my Chinese have improved on this trip... but not to where I want it to be though. I have started to pick up on a lot of what people say.... especially today's sermon when we had a guest speaker. I noticed he didn't open his Bible along with the rest of congregation and I noticed he talked a lot about himself and a seminary... so basically the lesson today was his testimony.. which I really didn't care about. But he did end with an invitation, so mixed feelings there.... Usually when someone doesn't even quote scripture to support what they're talking about.. I tune them out...

Anyways, that's it for now... I'm a bit too tired to think of anything new right now.... I kept waking up to the bugs biting me again.... stupid mosquitoes >_<

Till Next Time!

And on the 7th day he rested

Yep, noticed that I didn't capitalize "he" otherwise it would imply that I'm God... which I'm certainly not.. (infinitely times not.... maybe even more..)
Anyways, it has felt like a long time since I've last updated... more than a week I think... Last week I was exhausted... mainly because last Sunday I felt that I needed to get out more and decided to hang out with my family on my mom's side... Bad idea... no, not because I don't like them, but I've gotten into a schedule where I rest on Sundays.. basically stay in my room with the lights dimmed, watch tv/get on the computer/anything free... Basically resting up for the next week....

So to sum it all up, last week was a pretty much a bust... A little less patient and a little less willing to be social whenever I went out.... which I tried everyday which also wasn't a good idea since I was ready to collapse on Friday... Although I did interact with a few people in the beginning of the week... the Buddhist didn't count however, since he was doing a ritual which is rude to interrupt...so I gave him a track and money instead...

So currently, I'm resting up for the next week... Watching Toy Story and just taking it easy... Hope the weather's better this week so I can go out and play some hoops with the kids which is where I have the best opportunity to witness..

As for the Japan earthquake, Japan is 1400 miles away from Taiwan... so we were lucky not to get hit with anything. A tsunami alert was in effect on Friday when the earthquake hit, but nothing big fortunately came our way... However, with the nuclear plants in danger of melting down, there is a 10% chance of the radiation reaching us if it does... Small chance, weather is favorable if it does.... but pray that it doesn't... 10% isn't high but it's still a possibility....

Of course, pray for safety for the rest of the trip... anything can happen from here till when I leave... I experienced a small earthquake when I was in Taiwan the last time I came... so again... anything can happen...

Till Next Time!

I feel like I'm thinking like Pastor Brandon...

scary isn't it?
Well, not at his level of thinking currently, more like his first few years at Cross Lanes back in the day... when I was in high school... (has it really been that long?)
Anyways, I remember back in the day... (uh oh.. sign that I'm getting old) when Brandon was trying to use activities to witness and invite youth to church.. such as Halo or basketball or something fun of the sort..

Wednesdays are basketball days, where I take the older kids to the local school and play some hoops with them. I do notice how much more I talk (or shout out) at other kids that don't belong to a church, such as inviting random people to play or just being a lot more open by talking to them... but I do need to be careful since I do represent a church and I don't want to hurt a witness.. But it leaves a lot of opportunities that I've been looking for
There was this huge guy today as well  who was sitting by himself and I was extremely close to talking to him, unfortunately, there were also 10 people telling me to continue playing (which I'm still shooting myself in the foot)

Earlier today I went to get my Visa renewed so I can stay longer... Hard to believe that it's almost been 2 months... definitely over halfway right now... I'm surprised of how fast this trip has gone... Reading back, it seems to drag on and on... probably because I was suffering so much.. But as of now... the weeks are flying by... mostly I enjoy my schedule.. wake up, work out, go to church, go out different subway stops, exploring and having an open heart; go home, sleep... and repeat.. keeps the days busy

I realized recently that my delivery in the Gospel is pretty weak right now, so I bought business sized cards with Bible verses on them so I can use them to help... I can drop them into beggar's hands or just give them out wherever...Even though, I do need to start translating the Romans road as well.

Also been walking around after I get done with my projects at church, if I have the energy to do it... Trying to pace myself and not get burned out too quickly... I keep reading about missionaries being burned out too quickly and have it affect their ministry so I'm currently trying to prevent that.

too many I's, me's, and my's on this one... sorry about it.. I hate talking about myself, but I can't really think around them for this posts... perhaps because I'm exhausted because today was an extremely long day...grammar is also really off as well.. but I blame that on how little English I've been speaking nowadays..

I think that's enough for today...
Till Next Time!

It's been more than a week...

since my last update...
Even so, there isn't much to update on... Whenever I can I try to go other places and see how God uses me outside of the house and church. On the side note, it also keeps me away from the overprotected aunt that treats me like I'm 13 instead of 23...

Teaching ESL is the same.. Kids are forgetting their materials which isn't good. One thing I realize is that the teachers are much more strict and meaner. They don't hold back on their anger and will yell at the kids instilling fear in them to make them improve and not make the same mistakes again... I've also noticed that it works... unlike in the US where every assumes the kid is right and the teacher is wrong. Too much babying the children in the US where they need to be cuddled and protected.... where in Taiwan, if the teacher yells at you.. you screwed up and made yourself and your family look bad...

I've haven't had a really good night of sleep this week... Mosquitoes have been attacking me and waking me up constantly in the middle of the night.. Sorry if it sounds like I'm complaining but it does get on my nerves having to wake up at odd hours of the night..

Other than that... I have nothing new

Till Next Time!