How to address potentially difficult conversations that come up during the holiday season Continue reading

How to make an informed voting decision using the values in the preamble of the Constitution Continue reading

This article is taken from the Episcopal Diocese of Texas website, which demonstrates the importance of the currency of external relationships as the foundation of any ministries. Mission to Rebuild Based on Community Relationships The roots of this particular mission trip are 20+ years deep. The Rev. Jim Liberatore, rector of St. Andrew’s, Pearland has been planting seeds and tending relationships with people and institutions in the Pearland community for more than two decades and it paid off this summer for Harvey flood victims. Liberatore and his associate, Debbie Allensworth, have ministered together for more than two decades. Three years... Continue reading

Five years ago, First Presbyterian Church, San Bernardino, wanted to invest in the wellness of the students of the High School next door. It was the beginning of engaging the Holy Currency incubation process through which church members build relationships with faculty, staff and students, discovering the truth of what the students needed and how best to connect with them; thus the beginning of Life Skillz Circle. Caring adults from the church would show up every Monday morning at 8 am with breakfast and meet with a group of students for an hour in a class room. Starting at 9th... Continue reading

(Excerpt from an article in the General Board of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church website: https://www.gbhem.org/article/campus-ministry-leaders-focus-creating-sustainable-ministries) A visionary model for rethinking how campus ministries can provide meaning and purpose and yet be sustainable was presented during a training event sponsored by the Office of Collegiate Ministry at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM). As the leadership development agency of the denomination, the Annual Conference Leaders training supports GBHEM’s work to equip the current and future leaders of the church. Collegiate ministry leaders from Annual Conferences and campuses heard Rev. Dr. Eric Law, founder and executive... Continue reading

How do we help people understand that they need a break? Here is the video of the interview on the Currency of Wellness for Lay leaders that I did with Sandra Montes of the Episcopal Church Foundation. #HolyCurrencies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2oX_5zhFMo You can also find the accompanying article at http://www.ecfvp.org/vestry-papers/article/686/wellness Continue reading

Beneficial Event My earliest memory of money came from receiving 利事 (Cantonese pronunciation: Lai Se... Continue reading

I have been working on the same song “Longing” for the last 3 months. It finally came together this week. Perhaps it has to do the glimmer of hope that I and so many of my friends felt this week with the election result from Alabama. So here are the song lyrics. I will share a recording as soon as I finalize the melody. Longing by Eric H. F. Law I am longing for For a day of seeing without tears I am yearning for For a way of living without fears There’s a man With a gadget in his... Continue reading

Dave and I finished our new book, Drawing on Holy Currencies! All the pages have been sent to Chalice Press, our publisher. Thanks to Dave, this whole book is entirely hand-drawn and hand-written. This interactive graphic book should be available early 2018. Here is another drawing from the Currency of Truth part of the book and the accompanying reflection guide. Reflection Guide: Read Luke 6:20-26 Select a community issue of which you would want to learn the truth. Name the powerful people and their perspectives on the issue. Name the powerless people in your community on this issue. Describe how... Continue reading

Drawing On Holy Currencies is a new book, which my nephew, Dave Law, and I are collaborating, writing, and drawing. It’s a graphic interactive book with pictures you can color, spaces for readers to draw and write and activities for readers to do. The book has 52 openings. A reader can interact with one “opening” per week. In a year, at the end of the book, readers would have experienced and developed the 6 holy currencies for their personal lives and for their church and neighborhood communities. I will be sharing some of the drawings in the coming weeks until... Continue reading

Natural disasters, destructive as they are, tend to unify communities and countries. A storm like Hurricane Harvey doesn’t care whether you are a Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, citizen or immigrant, documented or undocumented; a storm just blows wind and pours rains on everyone. A natural disaster brings out the need for compassion and cooperation in order for people in a community to survive together. This is evidenced by a joint statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U. S. Customs and Border Protection in light of Hurricane Harvey which said, “The Department's law enforcement components will... Continue reading

Watching 40 thousand boys being coaxed into booing the first African American President and the first woman presidential candidate of the United States, my heart skipped a beat. Then they applauded when the news media were referred to as fake news. They laughed at a bullying threat disguised as a joke against the Health and Human Services Secretary if Obamacare didn’t get repealed. I was surprised by the fear that came over me. I am not so fearful for Tom Price getting fired, now that the repeal bill didn't pass in the Senate. I am fearful for my beloved country.... Continue reading

With the healthcare bill stuck again, the politicians in Congress of the U.S. are finally talking about the possibility of bipartisan engagement to work toward a bill that actually puts the people’s wellbeing first! But, once again, we are distracted by the Russian-Trump scandal – this time with Donald Trump, Jr.’s emails. And the political parties are busy trying to find their positions in this new storm. The media will spin on this for days. The legal stuff will take its own course. Meanwhile, there is little we, the people, can do but, may I suggest, focus on what really... Continue reading

I must admit that I was distracted for about 5 minutes yesterday when the president of the United States tweeted an offensive (in any standard) message for the world to read. I then realized that there is a pattern here – whenever the U.S. government is dealing something very important such as the healthcare bill which would affect millions of people’s wellbeing, we, the public, and the so-called liberal media, would be served a distraction to take our attention away from what really matters. What really matters is not what the president tweets on social media. What really matters is... Continue reading

I have been silent for awhile because I was not sure what to write that would help my readers find their footing in this uncertain time in the United States. I wasn’t sure because I felt I was losing ground on which I was standing. Almost every day, something gets reported in the news and social media that causes me to feel more paralyzed, because there seems to be very little that I can do to affect the direction that the country is heading. To my surprise, when the results of the special election in Georgia’s 6th District came in... Continue reading

The Kaleidoscope Institute (KI) has developed a ministry incubation process based on our Holy Currencies/Cycle of Blessing model. The following is an article from the website of the Episcopal Health Foundation reporting on the first cohort of churches embarking on this incubation process/journey. KI would love to implement a similar program for more dioceses, conferences, synods, associations and presbyteries. Six Congregations from the Episcopal Diocese of Texas came together this month to dream big about new ministries they are developing in partnership with EHF. Working with the Kaleidoscope Institute (KI)’s Holy Currencies model developed by The Rev. Eric Law, teams... Continue reading

It’s Easter. For Christians, we respond to this happy season by living resurrected lives. We push our “reset” buttons and start anew with new hope and new actions for realizing God’s vision for a gracious and just world. In that effort, the Kaleidoscope Institute are offering a number of continuing education events this Spring and Summer to empower faithful people with skills, knowledge and processes for transformational Easter living. May 15-17, 2017 – Wisconsin Gracious Leadership for Building Bridges Holy Currencies July 17-18, 2017 – Los Angeles Stewardship365 Orientation July 19-20, 2017 – Los Angeles Building Bridges- Dialogue on Race... Continue reading

When darkness overcomes this land And I can hardly see to reach for your hand, I need your light; I need your light. When gloomy shadows shroud our hearts Dividing friends with fears, to tear us apart, I need your light; I need your light. I need your light to shine and burst through the clouds of fears and lies. I need your light to light a rainbow of truth across the skies. I need your light; I need your light. When bullying supplants debate, When patriotic means to advocate hate, I need your light; I need your light. When... Continue reading

All the talks about travel ban, exclusion of refugees from certain countries, extra vetting of refugees, and building the wall, all in the name of protecting U.S. citizens – our safety and our jobs – remind me of the ugly history of Chinese immigration to the U.S. Here is a chronology of what happened, with some of my comments and family’s immigration history in parenthesis: 1882, The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This was the first significant federal law that restricted immigration into the United States of an ethnic... Continue reading

The week after the presidential inauguration, I started the #3MillionTruth “movement.” Here is the reason why: 3 million people were accused of voting illegally by Trump who claimed that this was why he lost the popular vote. I know this is a detraction tactic that he uses so well to polarize us and to divert us from working together to challenge the real destructive things he and his administration was/is doing to our country. The greatest damage he is doing to our country includes chipping away our rights to free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, separation of... Continue reading

Ever since the tragic shootings in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Dallas last year, I have been praying and discerning ways to respond that can be impactful, gracious and long lasting in the midst of our polarized communities. With the election and the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the need for gracious dialogue among people with different perspectives, passions and experiences is even more urgent, not just on race but also other issues such as women’s rights, human rights, health, immigrant, freedom of press, religion, speech and to assembly, and many others. Here is my big idea: Imagine every church and ministry... Continue reading

As the United States moves towards the transition of a new administration this coming week, I thought it would be appropriate to study what previous presidents have done during this transition time. President George Washington left the presidency and the nation's then capital city of Philadelphia in September 1796. He used his departure to publicize a major final statement of his political philosophy which is known as WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. This document has long been recognized as a towering statement of American political purpose and until the 1970s, was read annually in the U.S. Congress as part of the national... Continue reading

There are signs of HOPE all over Texas City and here is how it happened. On Saturday, November 19, 2016, the Rev. Robin Reeves of St. George’s Episcopal Church charged cub and boy scout troops, members and visitors to their Annual Bazaar, to take a couple of Signs of HOPE and put them where there seemed to be HOPELESSNESS in their city. The scout group took it upon themselves to help make her dream of creating a field of 500 signs of HOPE a reality. Along the way they were caught up in the joy of this simple word and... Continue reading

Thanksgiving is next week! After that, we are also facing many more occasions (Christmas, New Year) where we might be talking to friends and relatives who had voted for the other candidate on November 8. When politics come up in conversations, how can we not end up in a yelling match generating more hurt and fear? Here are steps you can take to have a reasonable, civil and even productive conversation with those who voted differently than you: Preparation: Take some time to reflect on your experience on why you voted the way you did (or if you didn’t vote,... Continue reading

When we win, our instinct is to celebrate, to announce the good news to others or even gloat about it. In a political election, like the one that the United States just completed this week, the winners usually received the most votes. With the majority support, the winner and the winning party might be tempted to do whatever they want discounting the needs of the losers – the minorities? Throughout history in the world, the winners of a political battle not only ignored the needs of the losers, they often went further in persecuting the losers in order to suppress... Continue reading