It’s been quiet in here. My life, on the other hand, hasn’t been quiet at all. Voltage, thesis and work keep me entertained most of the time. And during my free time, I hang out with friends (or with myself) or do other awesome things, such as going to Owl City’s concert (last night!), going to Kidshaper (next week!), picking up my beautiful girlfriend from the airport (today!) and singing. Yeah, singing. Sorry about that…

Cadu

Since 2009, when I’ve been taking Kidsong World seriously, God has used it to teach me amazing things. And I’m loving it! Last week was the 25th Hillsong Conference. As usual, I was serving as a kids leader in our kids conference Kidsong World.

This year was different because I was a tribal leader instead of a group leader and didn’t have a specific group of kids allocated to me, but a group of about 7 leaders who were leading a group of 100+ kids. And I had two electives to present. In addition, my friend and leader Dave had a great idea during conference and needed my help to execute it. As a result, I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted with the kids.

However, this lack of time didn’t stop God from using me to impact the lives of a few children, which made me happy. I love when God does that! I love when I see the smiles of children after conference, and how much fun they had, and how sad they are to leave (ok, this part is not fun, I also feel sad when conference ends and I have to say good bye to the kids who live far away and whom I might never see again).

After Conference, when I stopped to thank God for everything, He reminded me that even though I feel good when He uses me to change children’s lives, He is the one who makes it happen, and it is all for His glory. He also reminded me of the great honour and privilege that it is to be trusted as a leader to the little ones whom God loves. And He reminded me of the impact my life has in these kids.

While being a children’s leader with influence is amazing and is a blessing, it is also a great (and I cannot stress this enough) responsibility, because the kids watch every step I take, and my decisions can have a positive or negative impact in their lives. As it is written:

“But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.” – Mark 9:42 (NLT)

Now, I definitely don’t want to be thrown into the sea, or, even worse, make the kids I lead to fall into sin, or stumble. Of course, that doesn’t mean I have to be paranoid about everything I do, but I must live a life that honours God and leads people to God. And it is not supposed to be very hard, because the Holy Spirit lives in me, and all I have to do is listen to Him and do what He tells me.

And this is one of the great things about God: when He reminds you of something, He already has all the tools you will need ready to go! What an amazing God!

Cadu

PS: By the way, you should watch the video Dave, FMD and I made during conference (this was Dave’s great idea):

This blog is kind of quiet lately… but I am not. I’ve been busy making some videos… Have a look at them, and if you want, follow me on Twitter to know when I upload more videos. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel or Vimeo channel or RSS feed.

My Favourite Things! from Carlos Dyonisio on Vimeo.

Trio With Myself (or A Duet For Three Myselfs) from Carlos Dyonisio on Vimeo.

Cadu

We all know that having vision is important. But not evaluating our ministry according to our vision is like not having vision at all. Some obvious questions we should be asking ourselves are “is my ministry going where I want it to go?” and “what do I think of it?”.

However, there are other important questions we should be asking ourselves, and in this post I will talk about some of them. In my case, I am in charge of one of our kid’s services, and the questions reflect that, but you can change them to whatever you want.

1. What does God think of my service?

The first thing we have to do is stop and listen to God. Often He has things to say and is just waiting for us to stop and listen to Him. After all, we are doing everything for Him, right? (If you are not, then stop!)

2. What do my leaders think of my service?

Sometimes our leaders won’t be present during our service, but we must know their vision well enough to be able to answer this question. Are we following their vision? Is anything happening that they wouldn’t like? Is anything missing? Can we do anything better? Don’t wait until they come and tell you what is wrong, fix it before that happens; and don’t bother them with trivial problems that you can fix yourself.

3. What do my kids think of my service?

What would a new kid think/feel/experience once they arrive in the room? Will they feel welcomed, or lost? Are the kids having fun? Is your team focusing on the kids? The service is for the kids, and if they are not experiencing God, having fun and enjoying the friendship of their leaders and other kids, something is wrong.

Cadu

Instead of sleeping I decided to sing a song to God. Since I have an awesome new microphone I decided to record it and now I am sharing it with you. I didn’t sing to put it here, but to worship God. Therefore it might be long and possibly boring (not to me or to God) and it is mostly in Portuguese (with some parts in English), but feel free to listen to it or download. It was not edited and it has clear errors, but I don’t really care…

My free translation of the words is as follows:

Oh I love you God

I love you God
God of my Salvation
Neither on Earth or in Heaven
is there a King greater than mine.

I will look in your eyes
I will jump on your arms
Like a child spin me around
This is the moment I am longing for
This is the moment I want more
The moment I will meet with You

Download audio file (te_amo_oh_Deus.mp3)
Download: flac ogg mp3

Enjoy,
Cadu

It is the 3rd of May, and I missed the opportunity of posting something yesterday (the only day of the month which is prime and even). Nevertheless, today is also a prime number day, and I shall post something before the spiders decide to move from my house to my blog and fill this place with spider webs…

First I would like to apologise for the lack of posts. And now I would like to inform you all that I moved! I really don’t like moving houses, but hey, now I live in Coogee, 3 blocks from the beach, and the photo above I took this morning while reading my Bible and having breakfast (sitting on the sand, at the beach). Isn’t it awesome?

The not-so-awesome part of all the moving thing is that I have so many things yet to be organised and cleaned. I am also trying to stop doing nothing while I should actually be studying maths, otherwise I will fail again this semester, and this is not something I desire. In addition, I am working on an iPhone (and Android, of course) app that will soon (at some point between today and next decade) be announced and fill you all with wonder and excitement. But that is all I can say about the app for now.

This means that if I fail to post on prime number days, please don’t eat me alive for at least two reasons: 1) I think I don’t taste good; 2) I have good reasons for it… 3) if you find a third one, write it on the comments!

But to not post something useless, I will teach you two important lessons, one regarding maths, and another one regarding life. Let’s start with the most important one (or not):

Did you know that any integer greater than 1 can be written as a factorization of prime numbers? Not only this, each number can be written as a unique product of prime numbers (not considering the order of the factors)! For example, 25 = 5 x 5; 192 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3; and 100 = 2 x 2 x 5 x 5. Isn’t it awesome? This is called the Unique-Prime-Factorization Theorem, and it is the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. See, now you know…

The second (and probably more relevant lesson): If you ever have a problem with someone, please choose one of two options (or both): 1) talk to a good friend about it just to get the problem out of your mind and then pray for the person and forgive him/her; 2) or if it is something you should do something about, talk directly to the person you have a problem with (after praying and/or talking to a good friend might help), and solve the problem. Do NOT talk to other people about it in an useless attempt of fixing the problem. This is not only idiotic and foolish (ie. totally unwise), but it will make everything worse. I am not very old, but I can tell you this advice is true and good by (lots of) experience (and the Bible says so; it must be true).

That is it for today… I love random posts!
Cadu

5/5/09 – Redfern

Isaiah 40

“All people are like grass, and all human faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of MY GOD endures forever.”
- Isaiah 40:6b-8

“WHO can fathom the Spirit of the LORD (YHWH),
or instruct the LORD as his counselor?
WHOM did the LORD consult to enlightem him,
and who taught him the right way?
WHO was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?”
- Isaiah 40:25

“‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the HOLY ONE.”
- Isaiah 40:25

“He, the LORD, gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
[...] those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faint.”
- Isaiah 40:29,31

WHO can compare himself to God?
Nothing in the universe is comparable to God.
Idols are made of wood, metal, plastic…
they have eyes but don’t see,
they have ears but don’t hear,
they have hands but can’t move.
Not even flies are scared of them;
Flies come and sh*t on their faces,
but the idols can’t even clean themselves.
They are useless like a fly’s sh*t.
But GOD, THE LORD OF HOSTS, created the flies.
And with His word He can kill them.
The LORD is Almighty, Holy and Glorious.
His word will remain forever.
His enemies fear Him,
they run away like a scared rabbit.
Before the LORD they can’t do anything other than surrender,
for the LORD of HOSTS is powerful.
People are like ants to Him,
He can kill them with His pinky finger.
One little breath and they fly away like sand in face of a hurricane.
Compared to the LORD, they are NOTHING.
He is GOD. He is what He is.
He is because He is.
He is Almighty God.
He is the alpha and the omega;
Everlasting, Beginning and End.
Creator of the Universe, King of Kings,
Lord of Lords, Perfect and Eternal.
He is the Righteous Judge,
the LORD of HOSTS,
the ONE that never lies and keeps all his promises.
He is also MY GOD.
He came to Earth, became an ant like me,
layed down His life for me and died on the cross.
His death was not an accident, He died for me.
That cross was mine, the punishment for my sin, but He took it!
He died and rose again.
He is victorious over death!
And all His power is now mine, through His Son Jesus Christ!
Even though He is so HUGE and powerful, He calls me “son”.
And I call Him “Daddy”.
And if anyone wants to harm me, I can call my Dad.
He is scared of no one.
I am victorious, because of Him.
And because of Him, I fear nothing.
Daddy, all I am is yours,
every moment of my life is an offering to YOU.
Please take it and use me as it pleases you.
You are mine, and I am yours.
And I love you…
even when I don’t understand anything.
Even when it looks like the world is falling apart, I trust in you completely.
I just love you forever.

Amen.

Cadu

Today I am reviewing the series called “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” written by Jeff Kinney. So far it consists of 4 books, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid“, “Diary of Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules“, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days“. Apparently there will be only five books, with the last one coming out this year.

The books all look like a child’s diary, and have drawings and hand written stories relating the things that happen in the life of Greg Heffley, a kid that has just started Middle School (Junior High School). Although he is a fictional character, I think his stories reflect how many kids of his age see the world around them.

Greg lives with his two brothers, one older and one younger, and his mum and dad. His parents apparently don’t really understand him and don’t know how to show love to him, and he strives to be popular and look cool. In fact, according to him, nobody really understands him, and most of the time he is the best person he knows. Except for when things don’t work as he expected, and that happens very often.

Despite the lack of accurate dates in the stories (he only writes the day of the week, ie. Monday), I really love the way the stories are written. Some stories are incredibly funny, and all the books are interesting and can entertain me for hours. While it is written for kids, many adults will love them (specially the ones who work with kids…).

Bringing the books to reality, there are many kids like Greg, who don’t get real assurance from their families and strive to be popular and maintain a status of cool. While reading the book sometimes I feel sad for Greg, even though he doesn’t exist. As Children’s ministers we should be looking for these kids in our Church services and making sure we do everything in our reach to impact their lives. We can be the ones who will make these kids write a possible “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A God Encounter” book to complete the series…

I really think you should read all the books! They are awesome!! The first three books are based on an online journal that you can find at Fun Brain. You can also buy the books from Amazon or your favourite book shop.

There is also a movie already available in some countries (including the USA) based on the first book of the series. I haven’t watched it yet, but if it is like the book, it is probably awesome!

See you again tomorrow, the 3rd!
Cadu

At the end of last year I decided to set up some goals for 2010 and the years to follow (2011 and 2012 perhaps). One of the goals was to blog more, and so far I am achieving it. Another one was to learn how to skate, and I also achieved it! There are many goals, some more important, some less important, but all of them are good and fun. The one I am really looking forward to achieving is “Learn how to fly”.

I don’t know exactly why I want to learn how to fly, but airplanes have always fascinated me… the sad part is that it is very expensive to get a license, and after I have the license, when will I fly? I don’t even have an airplane! I could hire one sometimes, but… for what? Sometimes I think I would like to be a commercial pilot, but I am almost finishing my Computer Science degree, and I am a software engineer! Ah… too many dreams, too many questions… I am a bit crazy, yes.

Nevertheless, some time this year I will have a Trial Introductory Flight (probably on a Cessna 152) to see how it feels like… apparently they let you guide the aircraft for a while, which is exciting and scary! What will happen after that? I don’t know…

(And that is only one of the goals in my list… lol)

See you again on the 29th!
Cadu

I decided to start a new series (actually two series): “10 things I love about me” and “10 things I hate about me”. I am working on both lists, and I should start posting soon. I will post one item at a time, and probably one love item and one hate item per day (prime number day, don’t forget!).

When I decided to write those series I was hoping to evaluate my life and get better by the end of it… let’s see how it goes. I also plan to write some fun posts about some of the items… you will see!

Now, just some unrelated riddles that my friends from twitter couldn’t find the answer (even though Google knows them very well):

- When do giraffes have 8 feet? A: “When there are two of them.”

- What is the shortest mathematicians joke? A: “Let epsilon be smaller than zero.”

See you again on the 23rd!
Cadu