Archive for October, 2006
Sunday, October 29th, 2006
Photoshopped Family
Hertzlers at Cocoa Beach?
This picture never happened. Last week after church I tried getting us together for a family picture, figuring it was the best shot at getting us in decent clothes and in the same place. Our friend, Dave, helped us out with his camera. After about 15 pictures we didn’t have one that worked. So today I made one. I cut a smile from another shot of Andrew and his eyes from a third picture. I pasted a face on Cathy from a fourth picture, and I took Audrey out of a fifth. Then I put us all on Cocoa Beach. So really, this is more like a painting than a photograph. It was my mindless amusement for the day.
4 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
Rooting For The Cards
St. Louis Cardinals in World Series
Lately it’s been fun watching our home team, the Cardinals, playing in their new stadium in the World Series! And beating the Tigers, too, (as of this post).
The day before the series started I read an article on ESPN.com explaining how no one gave the Cardinals any chance of winning – except if the Tigers choked. It was then I knew the Cardinals had a great shot at winning. My hunch has been accurate so far, only the Tigers haven’t choked. The Cardinals have just pitched two amazing games.
Tonight’s game is rain delayed, so we’re sitting around waiting for the rain to stop.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
I Can Hear the Collective Groan Now
QuickPod
My friend, Dave, pointed me to this one; a handheld tripod for taking self portraits. Cathy and the kids are inured to my constant self portraits (which include them, of course), as is Tom and anyone else I’ve been with when the situation called for it. While I’m tempted on this one, I’ll probably spare my family and friends the embarrassment. Probably.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
Not Going to Kiev
Tomorrow morning I am not going to Kiev. Instead I’m meeting my compatriots via Skype. (Which reminds me, I need to get the web cam set up.) For the last six months I’ve been planning to go to Kiev to meet with our ministry leaders there about www.MirStudentov.com. Only this trip just won’t fit into my life right now. I have neither the time for travel nor the energy. So instead we’ll have a series of video conferences over the Internet. This is a big answer to prayer, as I didn’t know how the rest of my life was going to work if I had to make this trip.
No Comments » - Posted in Ministry by Jerry
Thursday, October 19th, 2006
Chat with Jerry
I’m checking out some live chat services we might add to EveryStudent.com. I signed up for a free 15-day trial on LivePerson.com. Below is the link you can click to chat with me if I’m logged in and ready to go. If I’m not available, the link below will say that chat is closed, but you can click the button and send me email.
[Update (27 Oct) - my trial ended. This product was not the winner.]
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| Live chat by LivePerson |
There is was also a link in the sidebar to the right which uses LiveHelper software. Click on my mug to chat on that one.
1 Comment » - Posted in General by Jerry
Friday, October 13th, 2006
We finally made it to the ocean!
Hertzlers at Cocoa Beach
Today was part of Andrew and Audrey’s fall break from school, so I took a vacation day, and we headed to the ocean. In the four months we have been back in Florida, this was our first trip there. We went with friends from church and had a great time. (We missed you Seelys!)
Cathy remembered what we did on this fall break three years ago; we went to Slovenia. Only the weather and conditions were quite different; snow and mountains. We went with friends and originally planned to camp until we heard about all the snow. It turned into one of our all-time best family trips.
Hertzlers in Slovenia, Oct. 2003
2 Comments » - Posted in Orlando by Jerry
Thursday, October 12th, 2006
1 Million Visits Each Month
EveryStudent.com sees about 300,000 visits per month. Some months are less, some more. This is exciting, but what is even more exciting is that visitors respond in faith to Jesus when they are on the site. About 1% of the visitors to EveryStudent.com indicate a decision to trust Jesus while reading the site.
“What would it take to get 1 million visits a month?” has been CCCI leadership’s most recent question to our team.
Getting 1 million visits a month is very possible if we advertise extensively on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. In one of our recent advertising campaigns we saw 500,000 visits in one month. It would not be extremely difficult to simply increase our advertising spending and increase the number of visitors to the site. (God is always working in peoples’ hearts. The more of them we can invite to our site when God is stirring their hearts, the better we can serve them with the message they need to hear!)
Only it’s not quite that simple. Our goal is not to reach just anyone with this message. We want to specifically connect with students. Our email volunteers have committed their lives to connecting with students, all of our communication is geared toward students, and our passion rests in seeing God work in the lives of students. So we don’t just want 1 million visits from the general English speaking population, we want 1 million student visits each month.
That is a much more challenging goal.
This is where social networking sites, like Facebook, come into play. We hope to enlist the help of CCCI’s volunteer student network, along with our university campus staff members, to run ads on Facebook pointing to EveryStudent.com. Given that almost every university student has their own Facebook page, we think running ads there will help us connect with students.
We’ll keep you posted on how this goes.
In the mean time, would you consider creating a link to EveryStudent.com on your blog or website?
3 Comments » - Posted in Ministry by Jerry
Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
History of Middle East Empires
Sister Beth pointed me to this interesting 90-second history of Middle East empires.
Posting this also indicates the amount of creative thought I’ve experienced lately; not much.
1 Comment » - Posted in General by Jerry
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
AWANA Visit
AWANA kids
This is the group of AWANA kids who heard me tell them about EveryStudent.com tonight. About thirty years ago (!) I started going to AWANA myself, so returning brings back memories. My parents helped lead the AWANA group when it started back then, and they are still helping lead it today.
