Are Christians responsible enough?

Recently, a dear sister asked for some help in drafting a template for consent letters to be given out to youth group kids’ parents to allow them to participate in a youth camp.

The consent letter however, includes a disclaimer which parents are to sign, which relieves the church of responsibility in the event of accidents. While I was thinking of some appropriate wording for the disclaimer, some questions popped into my mind, which ended up troubling me a little.

What is the purpose of a consent letter?

1. It is written proof that the children in the group have been taken with the parent’s knowledge
2. Our own confidence that the children have joined the activity with their parent’s knowledge.
3. Useful if there are any police roadblocks and they ask for proof that these children have not been kidnapped.

So yes, a consent letter is important when the church organizes a trip and takes under aged children along.

Sample disclaimer:

I understand that while every effort will be taken to ensure the safety of the child(ren) above, I will not hold InsertChurchNameHere responsible for any loss/damage of belongings and/or injury to the person.

Signature

 

……………………………………………………………………………….

 

Name of Parent/Guardian : _____________________________

 

What is the purpose of the disclaimer?

This is where I had a bit of problem. I can only think of one reason:

1. To protect the church from legal action by the parent in the event of an accident.
   

This raised two questions in my mind as I looked at it in the light of Scripture:

1. Are we taught this in the bible, i.e. to not be responsible for accidents that happen to children under our supervision? Are there any biblical principles, precepts, or practice that can justify this? I could not think of any. It appears to be a worldly practice more than a biblical one.
2. Should such a disclaimer be made to the brethren? Didn’t Paul condemn the Corinthians for bringing one another to the public courts for judgment? Paul says that among Christians, disputes ought to be settled within local assembly? (1 Cor 6:1-8)

Aren’t we all part of a family? If I take my brother’s kids out on a picnic, or camp, do I ask him to sign a disclaimer? No way, its unthinkable. I should not have fear of legal action from a Christian brother, nor should I have any intention of taking legal action against a Christian brother. If anything happens, we’ll sort it out as brethren.

I can understand if we make this disclaimer to non-believing parents, as they are not part of God’s family, but I’m just not comfortable with this idea of getting my own brethren to sign such a statement.

What about you?

Chinese new year in monochrome

Was tagged to do this.

Yes, I broke some rules, too bad ;-P

New Year’s Eve… The coffee shops were packed with people. I had to wait almost 10 minutes to get a place to sit. Here’s a man I shared a table with while I had my blood (teh si peng) transfusion.

Convinced Titus’s grandparents to baby sit him while Chin Ai and me took a break. Was nice having some just-the-two-of-us-ness. Had some ice-cream at Haagen Daaz. Mmmm.

Here we are making some funny faces.

My father in law expertly prepared a super steam boat for our reunion dinner. Here he is waiting patiently for everyone to gather round the feast.

Titus wasn’t so patient though.

Titus trying to dig uncle Joseph’s nose… yuk!

Post dinner conversations. In this pic, my brother in law, Joseph and Titus’s great grandmother. Wow.

Family time – Titus and Uncle Joseph.

Family Time – Joseph and poh poh

Lunch at Sushi King. Unc Eddie enjoying the free flow of green tea.

Titus and uncle Joseph having a light moment

He’s got penangite blood alright. So young sitting like apek beca.

This is a picture to keep. Titus and his great grandmother.

On an empty road, the man with the wheelchair sets the pace. Respect!

Standing on the crutches of the past

 

Standing on the crutches of the past

 

Herein stands this building,

majestic, proud, adamant.

Winking at its younger neighbors,

it holds is face up high.

Behold the garlands, the bays, the crest,

adorned with pride and hauteur.

 

 

But soon it becomes clear,

it is but a façade.

A remnant of a past zenith,

a veneer of a past glory.

Unable to stand on its own,

steel bars serve a walking stick.

 

 

Life behind the weathered frontage,

is nothing more than shrubbery.

The walls that housed life and fecundity,

now lie beneath the weeds.

All the tangible glory,

now exist in memory.

 

 

May my life not be as this building,

ending up as little more than a façade.

Fruitful in youth,

inutile when old.

Standing still on the crutches of the past,

reminiscing, with my back towards the finishing line.

– Gunaseelan

 

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. ” - Philippians 3:13,14

 

 

 

Standing on the crutches of the past by
Gunaseelan Krishnamoorthy is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Facade by
Gunaseelan Krishnamoorthy is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Vista application switcher tips and tricks

Here’s some stuff I’ve discovered with Windows Vista’s application switchers (the good ol’ Alt-Tab and the new 3D application switcher). Nothing revolutionary, but just in case you dint know, here it is.

When I got my Vista (Home Premium), I had known that it had the (almost) uber-cool application switcher (the real uber-cool one is still mac OS X’s expose), so I was keen to try it out. So the first thing I did was open a few windows and hit Alt-Tab. I was disappointed, it was the good ol’ 2D app switcher. It looked better, but not as cool as the new one.

The 3D application switcher was only available on the QuickLaunch toolbar. What’s so great about that? Don’t expect me to move my mouse all thousands of pixels to hit a tiny button to switch apps, especially when the boss is walking towards my desk, every millisecond counts!

Well anyway, i finally figured out the shortcut key to the 3D app switcher, its not AltTab, its Windows-Tab (Windows = the key with the Windows logo on it. If your keyboard doesn’t have one, its time to get a new one!)I also discovered some tricks, i call them tricks coz i don’t read manuals (except MSDN and SQL Server BOL) with both the AltTab and Windows-Tab.

AltTab

• Use the mouse. After click Alt-Tab, why keep Tab-ing to the app you want? Just move your mouse to the app you want to activate.
• The switcher normally disappears when you release the Alt key, if you need to keep the switcher open, don’t use Alt-Tab, use Ctrl-Alt-Tab and it’ll stay open even when you release the Alt key and closes when you hit Esc or click the app you want to keep open. That’s how i managed to grap this screen dump…

Windows-Tab

• Use your mouse. The normal Windows-Tab action is to activate the frontmost window in the stack, if you don’t want to keep Tab-ing, just use your mouse to click the app you want to activate.
• Use the scroller on your mouse. After launcher the switcher, use the scroller to scroll between apps.
• Again, to keep the switcher open, launch it using Ctrl-Windows-Tab and it’ll stay open. You can use the mouse scroller, Tab, or mouseclick the app you want to activate. I used it to get this screen dump…