We've moved!

please visit www.tntblr.wordpress.com! This is our new blog!

tnt pictures...

i'll be putting up the general elevate pics and others on this link...

http://theafricancall.blogspot.com/search/label/tNt%20pics%20n%20vids

TNT BOOT CAMP 2007 Pictures!!!!

Hey peoples... the pictures to the TNT Boot Camp are listed on my blog... please follow this link...

http://theafricancall.blogspot.com/search/label/tNt%20BOOT%20CAMP%202007%20pics%20and%20vids

just testing out some html stuff...

Pimp-My-Profile.com - Build a Slideshow

Helelllooo peoples.. i really think we should sit down and discuss about what happening with ths blog... doesn seem like anything is..im not blamin anyone i myself am clueless.. so was just wondering what we can do.. anyone can pitch in ideas.... firstly... savio, anup anyone who knows html and all.. if u can just sit down and redesign the whole blog with some tnt backdrop or somethin, thatd be really cool.. then we can put in some html stuff that will make sense... wat say ??

i'm on board TOOO!!!

:D

12 days of the indian christmas!

this is a must-watch, people!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owK5tHjL0aE
enjoy!

lukewarm

Sitting at my computer for the last 6 hours.......
sipping on a cup of coffee gone cold....
.......yuck.......now i know how God feels.

Another year!!...random reflections...and stuff i've learnt!

Wow! It's been another short one!! 2007 is around the corner!!
I spent most of today at the comp! Just browsing, chatting, reading people's blogs, blah blah. I'm enjoying my li'l break from core, but I'm missing it like crazy! I can't remember the last time I came for core! Was it one and a half(?) two (?) months ago???? Wow...I don't think I've ever been away from core this long. I've been thinking about it a lot though...We've hit SO many milestones this year, its INCREDIBLE!God's been super good to us, as a church, as a youth ministry, as leaders, in more ways than we can ever imagine.

If you're wondering where I've been, well, I initially got busy with choir stuff...I thin we had a our best season yet, as a choir...! [and yes, the best is still yet to come] I absolutely LOVED every minute of it. I got opportunities to do two things I really love doing, but I don't do much- singing and photoshop!!hehe. (I helped make some posters for our concert). I'm missing choir SO much now!! ...And now my extended family is here for Christmas! WOO HOO!! :-) My aunt and ungle are here from Bosnia. Arun is here!!! :-) woo hoo! With lotttttts chocolates and brownies and nice smelling shampoos n all hehehehe!!! Joey will be here in the first week of January! House full here, and I'm loving it!

I was reviewing my big hairy audacious goals for the year. (When I say reviewing, I don't mean with a pencil and paper in my hand goin "....done..done..done..."..I mean, I open my cupboard door and there it is...stuck in my cupboard...staring at me...and i'm staring at it..thinking...hmmm....hmmm...thats it! sorry for sounding like Savio!) By way of numbers, i'm nowhere. Somewhere in our BHAG i rememmber seeing something about Neethikutti starting her home group by June/July and having a ten memeber home group by December! I also remeber seeing something about Neethikutti raising 3 leaders by the end of the year; and i ALSO remember something about connecting with 25 peoople......this is where grace really kicks in.

I feel like we did our SWOT just yesterday!!! (Is that because we took 6 weeks to do it???!hehe) and you know what i'm most kicked about? That we managed to address our single largest threat by the end of the year! i LOVE the way things took a turn in those 2 weeks that we decided to focus on parents. God really did something! And i'm absolutley going to love this transition to being a more family friendly youth ministry! I think it's one of the best decissions we've made all year! Kudos, guys!!

I absolutely LOVED the two sermons on Grace. Wow! It's changed my thinking around 180 degrees! Incredible! [It also made me wonder why my parents named me filthy rags! Apparently 'Neethi' means 'righteousness' in telugu...hehe] When tanya summed this sermon up for me a few days before Ajit preached it, i rememeber her telling me about faith and works and healing! That nothing you ever do could make God want to heal you..not your fasting...not your praying...nothing! JUST BELIEVE! That was it...from that day on, i did nothing more! ... i Just believed. And there's been so much freedom in doing that!! SO much freedom! It's been amazing.

Another thing that had greatly impacted my thinking was our Youth Cell Leaders Training session. Short and sweet, but powerful! Bert said something that really hit me hard when we talked about keeping ourselves motivated as leaders. He said "act yourself into feeling"!!! There have been SO SO SO many times when i just haven't "FELT LIKE" doing stuff. I wake up in the morning, i don't "FEEL LIKE" having God time, i don't "FEEL LKE" praying in tongues, i don't "FEEL LIKE" spending time in worship, i dont "FEEL LIKE" going to college, i don't "FEEL LIKE" attending class, i don't "FEEL LIKE" finishing my assignments, i don't "FEEL LIKE" taking this call, i don't "FEEL LIKE" sorting out an issue i have with someone, i don't "FEEL LIKE" having cell, i just don't "FEEL LIKE"!!!!!! I've learned to ACT myself into feeling now. I don't feel like attending class, so i'll attend it! I don't feel like having GOd time, so i have it. I don't feel like praying in tongues, so i start praying in tongues! I don't feel like spending time in personal worship, so i do!..I don't feel like standing or raising my hands during corporate worship, so i do!...and there's a release, right there- in making the choice to do something your body is holding you back from doing. Thats it! Freedom! SOmewhere along the way, you'll feel like doing it. And you'll never want to stop.
What's amazing is this goes against a theory in Psychology that says you can never do anything to make you feel a certain way. It says, if you just smile, you won't feel happy. And if you just frown, you won't feel angry. Your actions can't determine the way you feel. The way you feel has to detemine your actions. Rubbish. Psychologists think they have human beings all sorted out. They aren't even close.

I began my degree with a passion for Psychology. I topped my Pre University with a mind blowing 95% in Psychology, which God was gracious enough to give me. My love for psychology began to grow when i started helping one of my cousins study psychology in PU. Her college had horrible teachers who taught the students trash. SO! 2 weeks before our board exams, we started from scratch..and she did really well in her boards! ......Somewhere between then and my 2nd year of degree, my passion for psych slowly died down. Mum and dad were quite surprised, because they both knew i loved the subject! The day before my exam, i went to mum, weary as ever and said "mama, i just don't feel like studying this subject anymore"...and i remember what mum told me....she said "...how can you say that????? this is like studying a dimension of God and his creation"
...silence...
she didn't say anything more...neither did i.
She managed to rekindle my passion for Psychology in 5 seconds...or less!
I just about managed a distinction in my psychology practicals, again! God's been awe-some. :-)
[I feel like the word 'awesome' takes a whole new meaning when you break it in two. it's used so casually, nowadays...even i tend to use it very very casually...there's incredible depth in it. it's a God word]

I love my mentor. She's INCREDIBLE! I've learnt SO SO much from her over the year. She's been so patient, so kind, so good to me. She treats me like a daughter and i absolutely love her for that. I miss meeting Sheila every tuesday, at Javagreen, our adda! :-) I owe her, big time! She's been so so so supportive, with everything i've done. Allowing myself to be mentored is probably on of the best things i've done my whole life. It's shaped my thinking and impacted my life to such a great extent!c [If any of you on core are still on hold int his area, i'd say get off your backsides ASAP, because this is something that will change your life. I'm NOT kidding]

ALLLLLLL this stuff apart, our core team turned a year old this year. On the 28th of July. If i'm not wrong, i rememebr meeting Akshay sometime early July, and then things kicked off a little later. SO it's been almost one and a half years for us as a core team, and we've grown and shrunk and grown and shrunk and grown and shrunk in SIZE. But as human beings we've grown incredibly!! And we've each personally grown in our walk with God. Which is fantastic.

A month later, in August, Elevate celebrated it's first birthday. August 27th. :-)
I think we have SOOOOOOO much to be grateful to God for. His grace is just overwhelming. When i look back on this year, and everything we as a team have done and achieved, it's not by our strength, or wisdom or any of that!!!!!! We're just KIDS!!! It's HIS GRACE!! It's been God ALLLLLL the way!!!!!!! :-) We have soooooomuch to celebrate!

I'm really looking forward to next year. This year has been AMAZING! and i can't wait to see where God is going to take us...and what He's gonna do with in us and through us. I just can't wait!!!!!! As always, THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
[Quoting Phil Dooley "....the best songs haven't been written yet, the greatest youth ministries haven'e been built...."]
Here's to an amazing year ahead!!!!!!

Cheers!!!!!!And see you machas in Jan! :-) GROUP HUG!!!! Love you alllll!

WatsHappenin To The Bloggg... ??

hello people..wats happening to our blog ? all dead and all... come on..

A Murder or a Suicide...???

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS
President Dr Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
complications of a bizarre death.

Here is the Case: On March 23, 1994 the medic al examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus
and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.

Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to
commit suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency
.As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun
blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.

Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had
been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some
building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to
complete his suicide the way he had planned.

"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "A person, who sets out to commit
suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be
what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Opus
was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been
successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to
feel that he had a homicide on his hands.

In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was
occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously
and he was threatening her with a shotgun.

The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely
missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mr.
Opus. When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the
attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B".

When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were
both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was u nloaded.
The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with
the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.

Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is,
if the gun had been accidentally loaded. The co ntinuing investigation
turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son load ing the shotgun
about six weeks prior to the fatal accident.

It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support
and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun
threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would
shoot his mother.Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was
guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death
of Ronald Opus.

Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed hat the
son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent
over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This
led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be
killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The
s on had actually Murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the
case as a suicide

The Dude....

Rocking snap ma.... good camerawork too... aint i look hot.. for those of you wondering ya this was taken durng our company's first anniversary where we had a fashion show and we guys also performed some Hill-Songs... hehhe.. twas fun.... i know i know,.... im model material and all u dont have to tell me.. ;)

The Difference Between Focusing on Problems and Focusing on Solutions

Case 1

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

And what did the Russians do...?? They used a pencil.

Case 2

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported the entire package! D boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem.

Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral

Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems

Kingdom Builders!

Hey All...!
Lets all keep prayin for the Kingdom Builders Conf. happenin in Hubli this week..! =) Keep the whole team in ur prayers...!
And lets all not forget the BIG picture... we're KINGDOM builders...not APC builders or Church builders!!!!! Lets not lose sight of that!!
Have off a great week! ;-)

values are us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The values are done--finally--wow!!! its gonna be AMAZING living these out and i am SO excited! From now, this is who we are! we are PASSIONATE, COMMITED and EXTRAORDINARY!!!! this is fantastic!!
ppl, lets start living these values wholeheartedly!...Let the words PASSIONATE, COMMITED and EXTRAORDINARY become a part of our everyday lingo now. Lets not forget, they are not core team values-they are APC youth/ TNT values...only the guidelines are core guidelines...the values apply to all...so lets get everyone living it!!!!!
Ajitsu--great job on being extraordinary!!!!