Ben’s Blog
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This is a super interesting article from the Economist blog concerning what kind of happiness brings health. The premise of the experiment was what kind of pleasure brings health, is it basically selfish pleasure or selfless (giving to others) pleasure. Past experiements show that both bring roughly equal happiness to a person. And we know…
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Just for some fun: A resident of one of the European countries – an atheist – became lost during a trip to Africa. After a while he came upon a tribe of savages. Suddenly, he sees that the leader reads the Bible. Going up to the leader, the European said to him: – Bible reading?…
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It was a wild ride, reading and studying every verse in all 66 books of the Bible. Maybe it seemed challenging at the beginning. And maybe there were days when I just couldn’t do any more. But I walked away with a firm grasp of understanding of the whole Bible! What does the Bible really…
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When was the last time that you took down the binder or journal from a conference, retreat or series of messages and read through them. I almost never do. Who actually has time for that? I certainly don’t. Of course, note-taking does help with the initial remembering and even processing of information, but except for…
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I had a new friend invite me over to his chair the other day. He wanted to ask me a question. “Have you ever hated someone?” It’s not everyday I’m asked that. He explained a little more and I suggested he give this book a read, “The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom. In it…
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Ten years ago, on this night, I went to bed early while my brother Jonathan and four of my best friends, Kyle, Juergen, Shaun and Colin were hanging out in the living room. Kind of strange. Maybe. I was of course, on the verge of getting married -the step in life that one is ever…
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I don’t know if you’ve ever done it, contemplated it or know someone who’s done it – but we did it. For a whole month, July 18 – Aug 17 we deactivated our facebook account. Actually, its quite a great feature. Facebook will keep everything on your account, but people won’t be able to find…
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Please click here to see the pictures fullscreen! Happy Birthdayhttp://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf If you really want, you can also view it on Issuu or just open up the PDF right here.
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When it comes to living in far off places there are so many things that we have to learn. So when I read an article about what people need to learn if they are coming to Canada or America I thought it kind of interesting. HSBC has a culture guide by country which is what…
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We have travelled and taught and studied multiple new languages with such variety as Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian and Russian. Of course, as teachers it is incredibly important to show humility by also being a learner, of culture and language, so that we don’t think we only have something to offer without also realizing that we…
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I’m not totally sold on all of the ideas presented in the article below, but now that I’ve got two growing little boys I definitely am seeing the need for a strategy in developing them into next gen men. Angela and I sometimes chat about prioritizing the most valuable characteristics they should have; patience, loyalty,…
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Yes. Yes we do! It’s not a totally abnormal event for the power to be off at our house, even up to a few hours. It happens more now that it is really hot and everybody’s air con is on high. Anyway, maybe you’re not like us but before leaving for the night to go…
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Hey Dad! I just wanted to write you a little note and say I love you and I’m so thankful for you! Since you’ve been gone I’ve been trying to include Jay and Cas in more things I do, not just getting the jobs done but trying to let them be a part of it.…
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Taking care of the properties used for serving people is clearly important. Whether its a building used for meetings, a van for transport or a beach for camps, the time spent in cleaning, maintenance and repairs is part and parcel of the opportunity to use them. Here in Kyiv, we have a property with some…
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I read the list from Forbes and noticed that there were a lot of Russian’s on it. So I copied the list into excel and found that most (36) of the top 100 billionaires came from the United States (not surprising) but that 12 of 100 (2nd most) came from Russia. Russia is not a…
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A quote by the trends manager at youtube. He told his young audience, “We all want to be stars, celebrities, singers, comedians.” Not “most of us”, or “some of us”, but “we all.” Of course, to be overly stereotypical, its true. To some degree we all want to be the object of someone else’s attention.…
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The leadership team we are a part of is reading together through this book, Crucial Conversations. It has been the perfect book to read because we are growing and learning together about all sorts of important things regarding have healthy, helpful, safe conversations with people. Our brother Ike recommended it to us and I think…
Teaching Adventures 