Peter's hamburgers ...

Picture 83983, originally uploaded by John Foong.

... apparently the best in Canada! They only have one store, but the drive thru queue for it goes forever ...!

Here is my mate Damon with an inset of a burger. They always give an extra half burger free. Always ...

... I thought it was pretty nice. Though, as usual, far too small for my tastes ... :)

Calgary = cold

Picture 84128, originally uploaded by John Foong.

... Just got back from a weekend in Calgary. It was fantastic - great ministry opportunities, freezing weather that eventually became warm, and a chance to hang out with old friends and new ...

... here's a photo of Calgary city from the sky - note the beaut Bow River, and the Banff mountains (part of the Rockies) surrounding the city! :)

Night of Steak

Picture 83756, originally uploaded by John Foong.

To celebrate my first full day back in the USA, we hosted a "night of steak" dinner at our place. 6 steaks, 6 people.

What would I do without steak? I'm not exactly sure ... probably eat more chicken I guess.

Apart from that, still getting back into the swing of classes - lots of "shopping" (visiting different classes during this week to figure out which ones I should focus on!) ...

The best sushi I've ever had

Picture 81722, originally uploaded by John Foong.

I'm usually not a huge fan of sushi. apart from the high carb nature of it (yes, I'm definitely a protein guy), I never really saw much appeal ...

... and I guess I still don't. But this great place in Menlo Park, Kaigetsu, was just amazing. The sushi tasted great - they had warm sushi, cold sushi, umm ... yeah, lots!

Boy, am I hungry again.

A GREAT weekend in the snow!

Picture 81583, originally uploaded by John Foong.

So, at this camp, I had the priviliege of giving a few talks and bible studies: one on guidance, one on the book of John, and one on "introduction to business cases" for this group of leaders.

We had a great time! Apart from some great sessions (Chad Johnson, the chaplain to the Arizona Cardinals Football team, was the other speaker), we had lots of fun - heaps of junk food - and - the best bit - they had this greated heated pool and outfoor hot tub which was a FANTASTIC way to spend Saturday night under the stars in the snow!

This included the best game of "Marco Polo" I've ever played ... whoever thought that walking around in a pool shouting "polo!" would be so much fun! (It wasn't as much fun having to say "marco" ... oh well ...!)

I had a real blessed time and it was so good to see a great stock of leaders in Calgary.

The Canadian Rockies ...

Picture 81547, originally uploaded by John Foong.

... are beautiful.

For this 2-day retreat, we had the privilege of staying in Canmore/Banff, about an hour or so away from Calgary, and home to these huge, gorgeous mountains (which form part of the Rockies - which is this endless mountain range from northern Canada to Chile ... longer (but not taller) than the Himalayas). Whoa.

There were about 50 of us, all staying at these cute little chalets, surrounded by mountains. And to make things even better, the weather was a "balmy" 5-10 degrees Celcius (significantly warmer than the -15 that had been forecast?!!!) ...

Leading a case study at the Centre Street Church

Picture 81523 - leading case study at center street church, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Part of this leadership training program I was helping with involves a 3 hour meeting every month with 50 leaders in each program. This is now being rolled out in two churches in Calgary - Centre Street Church (one of the largest churches in Calgary - it's huge!) and Rock Pointe Church.

In the 3 hour meeting, 45 minutes is dedicated to looking at a Business School case study - the idea being that there are some (not all!) principles from business and entrepreneurship that are helpful for thinking about growing a church or ministry. I was here to lead one, on a maker of board games (quite a lot of parallels!).

It was great fun! I really enjoyed leading the case study (I kind of felt like a professor, yet ... cooler!) :) ... and I think they got a lot out of it! Well, that's what they said ... :)

Welcome to Calgary!

Picture 81474, originally uploaded by John Foong.

So I'm here for the weekend in beautiful Calgary to give a whole lot of leadership talks as part of "The Joshua Project" - to lead 50 young leaders in a Business Case Study, and then relate it to ministry ... and then to give some bible teachings with another group of 50 leaders-in-training at a 2 day retreat in Canmore/Banff (about an hour ish out of Calgary, in the Rockies).

So, given that all the action was happening Friday night/Saturday/Sunday, I flew up on the Thursday so I could have Friday to sightsee, with my friend Darren, who I met in the O.C. ...

... we had an awesome time. Firstly, we ate steak (the famous Alberta Beef), then shopped for souvenirs for a bit, then went up Calgary Tower and got a great view of the snowy city, then went ice skating on this frozen lake near Darren's house (pictured), where we(tried to) rollerskate and play ice hockey.

Um, I didn't get very far - but luckily for me, photos can be deceiving! :)

Ouch!

Picture 81469 - d'oh, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Not ice skating for 8 years then having your friend give you an "encouraging push" - it actually wasn't too bad, until I realised I didn't know how to stop, an reached a menacing 5 k.p.h. - leading me to panic, and then "take a dive" ...

Ah, it's all fun (in retrospect) :)

Retreat ...

Picture 81119, originally uploaded by John Foong.

A photo of all of us (except that I'm taking the photo!) at the ski lodge. It was a great weekend ... great snow, lots of time to relax and muck around, lots of food - there was a 24 hour supermarket store just up the road! Too perfect. :)

We had a great time of sharing, playing stupid games, and singing praise songs together too. And, of course, staying up really late at night talking about, well, stuff ... :)

Aggressive Alpine Skiing

Picture 80936, originally uploaded by John Foong.

So, this weekend we had the Business School Christian Fellowship Retreat ... in the snow at Squaw Valley (where they had the winter olympics in 1960). Of course, when you're a hopeless snowboarding beginner like myself, that doesn't really matter - I just kind of stay on the beginner slopes. And even that didn't prevent me from slightly hurting myself ... enough to convince myself to stay home on Sunday and watch movies / sleep in instead ...

This shot is taken from 8,700 feet! Which is almost 3 kilometres above sea level. I'm king of the world! Geographically. And briefly. :)

Btw if you're bored / missing the snow, head to http://www.mausland.de/swf/228 ... it's this silly little flash game when you have to ski ... agressively. See if you can beat my top score of around 4,000 ...

A night at the shooting range

Picture 80619, originally uploaded by John Foong.

For our next house outing, we decided to head to the local firing range for some shooting (we had to test out our new Texas shirts - see photo). After testing us to see if we could load a semi-automatic gun (We all failed the test!) ... they decided to train us to show us how to load and unload it .... then it was off to the range! An indoor one.

It was LOTS of fun. I'm pictured here with a big gun (which I wasn't allowed to use ... I had to use this puny small one). I wasn't very good, but at least I was kind of on target ...!

We had a blast! (oh dear)

Jason's man shower

Picture 80502, originally uploaded by John Foong.

One of my friends from business school, is about to have his first baby (via his wife Emily, of course!). Emily and her girlfriends had a baby shower ... which led us to think, why not Jason?

So we threw him a man-shower, complete with pancake breakfast, ping pong ... and some stupid baby shower games. In this one, we each had to take shot glasses of different kinds of baby food, and guess the ingredients ... i was VERY bad at it; though i really enjoyed eating the fruity ones!

We finished with a good time of prayer. Fatherhood ... how exciting! :)

White Party! For Charity ...

Picture 80232, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Every year, Stanford Grad School of Business takes part in the "Challenge for Charity" - where we try and raise money and do volunteer work to (i) beat other business schools but more importantly (ii) raise money for charity. One of the key events is a huge charity auction, where everyone dresses up in white and bids on items donated by other classmates (see separate post on something we donated).

The white party is LOTS of fun. Based on P.Diddy's white party in NYC. I was lucky enough that my friend (who is exactly the same size as me?) passed-down his white suit which he got tailored in China. See what you think! (pictured here with a fellow classmate, Jess!)

It's all-white, huh?
(Geddit? All "right" ...?!) :)

Spicy Asian Boyz! For charity ...

So I decided to try and auction off a whole lot of different charity items this year in an attempt to raise money for this "Challenge for Charity" auction. Once the final results are released, I'll let ou know how much they went for ...

... the marquee item was 8 of us Asian men (Chinese / Korean / Japanese / Indo / etc) in the 2nd year decided to get together and offer an unforgettable Asian experience at our local Chinatown (a suburb called Cupertino):

Join 8* of the Bay Area’s hottest Asian bachelors on a smorgasbord of food and culture. Prize includes an escorted ride to Cupertino in our Japanese/Korean-made cars as we, you and 7 friends pig out on authentic Chinese noodles, great sushi and the like; wash it all down with a serving of Asian “beer” (aka bubble fruit tea), and then work it all off with an intense session of competitive karaoke. Optional guided excursion to the nearest Chinese discount store is also included at no additional charge.

Who are these sizzling hot Asian men? Steve Chung, Andrew Chung, Naoto Saito, Pandu Sjahrir, Phat Quach, Min Fang, John Foong, and Micah Rowland. Bid now and spice up your life!

*note: 8 in Chinese means ‘lucky’!

Go to www.getsomespice.info to see our full photo shoot and profiles (seriously, that is not a joke!).

Return to the kitchen

Picture 79977, originally uploaded by John Foong.

After inheriting a large kitchen in my house, and having cooked a lot in my tiny "dorm" kitchen last year, one might expect to be cooking every 2nd day.

Not so. In my 15 weeks (yikes! it's been that long) living in this mansion, I haven't cooked a full meal once.

That all changed a few days ago when I finally I had to come good on one of the prizes I auctioned off for charity last year, "Dinner for 3 at John's house". I dusted off (literally) the wok and cutlery and, with my mate Micah, cooked up a storm - San Choy Bow, and Foong Soup; and Lasanga and Salad (Micah's contribution). Not to mention the dessert - double layered Kansas chocolate cake covered with blueberries (truly the best fruit ever)! Pictured here with our guests. (it turned out to be a "dinner for 6")

It was nice to cook again. :)
(though cleaning up still isn't much fun)

When a silver medal is as good as victory!

Picture 79796 - receiving the check, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Well, after 20 hours of hectic preparation, and a further hour of practicing the presentation (We pbly should've spent more time doing that, but hey) we finished SECOND - to the tune of $3000!

We were ecstatic! I was PARTICULARLY ecstatic - the main reason being that I though we underperformed substantially. Problem structuring - supposed to be my ex-consulting specialty - was an issue, as at 90 minutes to go we realised as a group we weren't clear on the actual problem/object (oh dear). Worse still was that our implementation and recommendations were all thought of, in a very haphazard and incoherent manner, in that final 90 minutes, as I struggled to type everything up on animated powerpoint and tried to stop panic at the same time. Oh dear!

But somehow, we pulled through, improvsed answers to questions, and smiled at the same time ...

... It was a great buzz to carry that check (along with a box of Texan donuts I was bringing back for my housemates) through airport security! And now, to work ...!

Rajni - one of the team members - trying to get the check back home!

Picture 79827 - getting the cheque through security, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Lakewood Church - The biggest church in the USA

Picture 79772, originally uploaded by John Foong.

We presented today at 8:30am, giving us a 4 hour break after presentation and before the awards ceremony. I was lucky ... I got a chance to fit a work out in and head to Lakewood Church - the biggest church in the USA, in a huge ex-basketball stadium (where the Houston Rockets NBA team used to play).

You can see, this thing is BIG - one of just 5 services! It was an interesting service - great praise and worship, welcoming admosphere, the message wasn't that "biblically intense" but hey, they're up front about that!

I've had a very fortunate month. For a variety of random reasons I got to visit the 3 largest churches in the USA - Willow Creek (Chicago), Saddleback (O.C.) and now Lakewood Church (Houston). Whoa! :)

Welcome to oil country: Houston, Texas!

Picture 79667, originally uploaded by John Foong.

So we flew in this afternoon to Houston, the largest city in Texas. We're here to compete in a Marketing Case Competition - against the other Top 10 US Business Schools - prizemoney of $5,000 for the winning team!

To get our energy, I insisted that we visit these famous Texan BBQ places. 2 pounds of beef brisket, 2 pounds of ribs, and a pound of chicken and sausage later, we were stuffed! Only to find that the organisers had planned the same thing for us to eat at dinner 4 hours later ... (here's our team before we'd eaten anything!)

... it's now 4am Texas time. We got the case 6 hours ago and we're deep into analysis and problem structuring. 14 hours left to prepare! :)

Another month, another huge church: Saddleback

Picture 79570, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Last month, I had the priviilege of working in and attending Willow Creek Community Church. Today, it was off to Saddleback; one of the largest churches in the states.

If Willow has the history and the size (their auditorium is 7,400 - and Saddleback's is about half as large), Saddleback makes up in terms of effective needs segmentation. The campus (pictured here) feels like acollege campus, with places for kids to play, water features, sand and cafes scattered all around in a gorgeous open format. In addition to their main service, they have a number of different giant tents with the same sermon, but different worship styles - including gospel, rock n roll, Hawaiian (!), old style, meditative ... as well as the gamate of youth services ...

... it's as if an MBA had designed their product offering! :)

Southern California - Palm trees everywhere!

Picture 79449, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Southern California is a pretty amazing place. Even warmer than the Bay Area (where I'm living) there are HEAPS of Palm Trees everywhere, lining the streets. The picture here is of a shopping centre! (one of the literally hundreds of huge "Strip malls" filled with large department stores, fast food outlets and discounts ...

Laguna Beach

Picture 79426, originally uploaded by John Foong.

It's pretty nice, huh? Beach volleyball courts ... multi million dollar homes ... I could get used to this! :)

Spent a good day brainstorming with Damon and Darren about this ministry in Calgary, complimented by frequent meals! :)

Welcome to the O.C.

Picture 79338, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Well, a new day, a new adventure ... arrived late last night in Orange County (the airport's name is "John Wayne Airport" .... interesting). The weather here is awesome (compared to San Francisco, and especially compared to Chicago!) .... and we spent today brainstorming about how to help this church in Chicago where Damon is working.

Damon Dunn (pictured in the middle of the photo) is a friend of a one of my mates from Stanford. He's an ex-NFL player who now spends his time in real estate and church planting - and he asked me to come down and help with some church strategy - my specialty!

This is us hanging out at some classy Mexican establishment at nearby Laguna Beach. Yes, we ARE cool ...

My first world record!

GuinnessCert, originally uploaded by John Foong.

See my efforts of May last year at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfoong/sets/72157594430108197/show/ ... this just came in today! :)

Goodbye Vegas, land of the cheap buffet

Picture 79287, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Well, another trip to Vegas. 3 days, 3 big buffets … prawns galore (They even peel them for you here so you can pop them straight into your mouth! Yummmm), roasted meats, crazy desserts, all the diet coke you can drink …I’m easily pleased. Well, kind of. :)

It was great to hang out with my housemates again. I feel so thankful for them – a group of people where we are all safe with each other, transparent with our feelings, opinions and emotions, sharing the journey of business school together. We even played poker together (in our hotel room with some chips we had brought with us … it’s much cheaper!) … and I won! Ah, mental mathematics … :)

And now … it’s time to head back to “reality”, to business school … to the hustle and bustle of 6 subjects – my busiest quarter yet in terms of classwork. Heading back to helping run the student association and the Christian Fellowship, to coaching 3 first years, to trying to stay in shape, but playing the never ending battle of trying to catch up with and get to know more and more people (and emails!). It’s going to be a busy week. :)

In Vegas, every man is a star

Picture 79270, originally uploaded by John Foong.

There’s something incredible about Las Vegas. It truly is a city that never sleeps (New York usually shuts down around 2 or 3am last time I checked), it continues to gather economic momentum as more gets built, drawing more people, cash and capital … and, truly, many are allured by its status as “Sin City” – a place where many come to gamble, party, and engage in all sorts (truly all sorts!) of unwholesome behavior should they wish.

But, even for those who have no desire to follow that kind of stuff, there are many who come to Vegas for something different: that feeling, as my mate Micah puts it, of being a star. There’s no place like this where you dress up in a striped shirt and leather jacket (or, often, something much more extravagant or outrageous), parading around indoors and out with sunglasses and slicked hair (such as the picture above!). Where everybody who visits – rich or poor, anywhere from the world – feels like a king, feels special. Without a doubt, it is a place filled with temptation … and things (except buffets!) are expensive … but, equally no doubt, it is a magic place.

That being said, I am kind of getting sick of Vegas! This was my 4th trip in 12 months (!) and we’re returning in about 2 months for Vegas FOAM 2007. Oh dear! :)

Musicals, musicals ...

Picture 79164, originally uploaded by John Foong.

One of the things I love about New York and London are the shows. Musicals, musicals, musicals (and TV shows I guess ... just kidding).

Vegas actually has a HUGE selection of shows. OK, so many of them are dodgy - but just stay away from those! They have a large selection of interesting magicians, variety shows, and now a number of shows imported/adapted from Broadway ...

... we went to see one on Saturday, the Blue Man Group (we're pictured here with one of the actors ... he's the odd man out) which was OK, I actually found it kind of tacky. On Sunday, though, we went to see Phantom (shortened version with extra special FX) which was fantastic ... I spent the rest of the time "Entertaining" my housemates by humming "All I Ask of You' ... oh dear :)

Welcome to Vegas!

Picture 79013, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Well we're here. The six of us ... in Vegas. Again. Ready for a weekend of ... well, probably not doing too much, except eating, seeing shows, and the like ...

Here's a sign from the airport ... and I thought I was Australia's hottest export?! :)

Back in the groove of things again ...

Picture 78912 color, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Well, I'm BACK. It's kind of strange to be back. Good to see everyone again, but everything's still a bit rushed, hurried ... that all you get a chance to do is have a similar kind of conversation with most people:

1: Hey! / Happy New Year!
2: Hey. / Happy New Year.
1: Good to see you again!
2: You too. How was your break?
1: Awesome! How about yours?
2. Yeah, it was fantastic.
1: Cool.
2: Well, I gotta run!
1: Good to see you!
2: Good to see you.

Which feels kind of tiresome after a while, even though we all have good intentions to show we care. Yeah - tiresome is definitely the feeling.

Apart from that, it has been good to see many of my close friends again - such as my housemates (though I spent the week before last with most of them anyway!), and my bible study group (pictured here with some "chicago" hats I bought them - we had dinner and Cheesecake last night. It's been good to start classes again - will report more on that once I get into the swing of things ...

Blessings,
john

Goodbye, Chi-town!

Picture 78895, originally uploaded by John Foong.

(photo from Willow Creek, Chicago City Campus; held in this lovely theatre auditorium thingy)

So I bid fare thee well to Chicago, my home for the past three weeks. It's been a great time - and the weather (By Chicago standards) has been AWESOME!

Perhaps most importantly, I've been able to add a lot of value on this project with Willow Creek - helping them think through some strategy stuff - and had some good time and conversations reflecting on my own future, and how I fit in with working in the church.

The short of it? Working at a church - even one as excellent and professional as Willow Creek - is NOT like working at McKinsey or Google - surprise, surprise. People are less career-minded, ambitious ... just as committed to the cause, perhaps more so, but they express it in different ways. There are those like, um, me - people who like deadlines and accountability and all that stuff - but this is the minority.

What does that mean for me? I still very much feel called to be a pastor, and being a senior pastor greatly appeals to me at a high level. On the ground level, there are more questions I am asking: how well will I work in an environment where most people are not like me? Will I be frustrated? Or will that round me out, help me adapt?!

Am heading down to Orange County (yes, the OC) in 10 days' time to help out another church and visit Saddleback. More data ... :)

Chicago Blues --- oh yeah!

Picture 78932, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Chicago is famous for many things, but it is (according to this club we went to, anyway) the geographic top of "Blues Country" --- the home of the Blues in the US. We went to this awesome blues club in the inner city with two stages, and ribs which were a "rib off"!

We had this blues singer (pictured) who was AWESOME - and wrote all of his material. Which would've been good, except (i) they all had a very similar rhythm and chord progression (I guess it is blues - what was I expecting?) and (ii) all of his songs were about, um, females ...

... I spent half the time blushing! What a great atmosphere though.

The streets of Chicago - by day!

Picture 78799, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Spent today walking around the large park in the middle in Chicago by the lake - Lincoln Park (yes not to be confused with the band). It was pretty nice - lots of little squirrels to chase around (see photo), and, for some reason, a zoo - yes, my second zoo visit in as many weeks! It also had this weird big greenhouse thing with multiple micro-climates - hot, humid, cool, etc - with I thought 'd find cool but I actually found pretty boring ...

... spent the rest of the day eating, in preparation for my return to Stanford tomorrow. The honey moon is over! :)

My Willow Project

Picture 78761, originally uploaded by John Foong.

(picture = the Willow Creek Community Church Campus - well, some of it!)

Today is my second last day working at Willow Creek, this huge church in South Barrington, a suburb in Chicago. I've been working on a really exciting project around management metrics - how do you measure the success of the work you're trying to do at church? Unfortunately, the only easy things to measure are how many people show up and how much money they give, which isn't the best measure of how much God has worked in their lives! So, enter the consultant :)

It's been fascinating to work at a church that is renowned as being one of the most professional and innovative in the country - even BusinessWeek wrote an article about them! (See http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934001_mz001.htm, and http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934005_mz001.htm profiles some of the people I've gotten to work and have lunch with) ... I mean, I've only had one BusinessWeek article about me* :)

Really, Willow Creek is a big happy family. It doesn't feel like a corporation - which was honestly what I was expecting; it feels very much like a church, like my church back at home in Sydney (albeit a bigger version). Sure, it's situated on a huge campus (Even the parking lot is over 40 acres!) and does some incredible innovative work and massive conferences - but it still feels like a church - with all the benefits of friendliness and family and all the costs (for me anyway, being, um, somewhat fast paced) of a non-profit organisation ...

... I'm really grateful for my time here and glad that I was (hopefully!) able to add some value. It's made me think a LOT more about the kinds of roles I could do long term ... and the challenge it will be finding a church role that really fits! :)

*see http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/apr2006/bs20060414_7725.htm, though you won't see too much of me there! :)

Happy New Year! From the huge St Louis Dome ...

Picture 78711, originally uploaded by John Foong.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2006 was an incredible year - certainly one of the best all-round years of my life (not quite sure what KPIs drive that assessment, but it feels right!). Am looking forward to the changes and challenges of 2007 - and, from Day One, there's quite a few!

We closed out 2006 in the Edward Jones Dome - where the St Louis Rams NFL team plays. It's got a capacity of 66,000 - completely indoor (!) - and we were using 22,000 of that (the entire floor and most of the first "raft" of seats). And when we had praise and worship music for the conference, that staium came alive (As you can see in the picture) - it was a great atmosphere.

For New Year's Eve, we had some closing messages, lots of singing, and the typical Happy New Years hugs! It was a great way to close the conference ... though we stayed up until 4:30am anyway! Which didn't make the 7am wake up much fun :)

Staying up to 3am in the morning talk about life, business and God ... this is Urbana!

Picture 78592, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Urbana has been an excellent time to learn. I've been a track called "Business as Missions" - which looks at how being involved in being a businessperson is just a strong and meaningful calling as someone who is involved in full time ministry, as a pastor. Some of this I've heard before, but the battery of incredible and accomplished speakers, and some interesting content, has been a good challenge for me.

What I've enjoyed even more is the hanging out. Three of my housemates from business school and I are crammed into a hotel room - leading to numerous late night conversations that have been finishing around 3am each morning! The picture above is of us and a bunch of random people we met - at about 2:30am one rainy St Louis morning - staying up in a bar and chatting about - well - I think it's confidential ...! :)

Great times.

Be where the llama spits - St Louis Zoo

Picture 78445, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Thought I'd take the afternoon off on Friday to go and visit the St Louis Zoo, the #1 zoo in the USA (According to the signs - given that the zoo is free, it's definitely the #1 zoo based on value!) :)

... it was fun to get to the zoo, and good break from the conference to thin about life, 2006, and the impending 2007 ... not to mention lots of great animals! Including kangaroos and emus ... go Australia!