Author Archive
Saturday, September 29th, 2007
Almaty Was Nice
Four days in Central Asia went very well. We hope to launch www.StudentStan.com this fall based on the plans we made. Rich, my traveling colleague and friend, did a great job leading the group in planning. For most of this trip I was busy configuring and reconfiguring some spiffy USB flash drives. These drives run a secure communication system for our website volunteers to use when they respond to visitors on this site. I also trained everyone how to use this new communication system.
Our new friends gave us these gifts on the last day.
This weekend I’m enjoying Budapest. Had dinner at the Adler last night and a day of good meetings yesterday.
3 Comments » - Posted in Ministry by Jerry
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Celebrating 19
Sunrise Over Daytona Beach
September 3rd is our anniversary, but we usually end up celebrating it one or two weekends after the actual date. Maybe that’s a result of being last-minute planners. After 19 years we’re still not sure why, but we sure had a good time this weekend in Daytona! We had absolutely no agenda, and we stuck to it diligently. Our good friends took care of our children and animals in our absence. Thanks!
No Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Monday, September 3rd, 2007
Stuck On Big Thunder Mountain
Stuck On Coaster
One of the benefits of living in Orlando is Florida resident Disney passes. They let you spend a few hours at the park and still have fun. We went yesterday afternoon and rode a few rides then came home.
Our ride on the Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster was the best. In the middle of one of the chain-pull uphill sections we suddenly stopped. The PA initially said there was congestion ahead, but after ten minutes of waiting we figured it was something more than that. The next PA announcement said they had some difficulties, and they were shutting down the ride. So a few minutes later one of the ride operators came out to where our coaster was stuck and helped us all off onto the walkway. We walked back through some hidden doors and hallways and finally exited out the now-empty loading area.
As compensation they gave us passes to jump on to another ride without waiting, so we went and did Space Mountain. Only it ran like usual and was far less interesting.
1 Comment » - Posted in General by Jerry
Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
I Get To Go!
Last week a trip I had abandoned became a reality again, and I’m really happy about it. Since January coworker, Rich, and I have been planning a trip to Central Asia to help our ministry leaders there get a version of EveryStudent.com going. About two months ago I concluded Rich could do the trip by himself and that I needed to focus the majority of my attention on fund raising. But last week I realized that I really did need to go and that my technical background will be necessary to navigate some of the issues related to what we are trying to do there.
Best of all, I was able to schedule a detour to Budapest over the weekend after our meetings! Woo hoo! The only bad part of this is that I can’t take Cathy and the kids. They’re green with envy.
So later this month I’ll be in Muslim, Russian speaking Central Asia for the first time.
One of the cooler things we plan to do is give our staff members and volunteers USB flash drives with computer programs pre-loaded that will allow them to respond to website visitors securely, without compromising their identity or location.
1 Comment » - Posted in Ministry by Jerry
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
I Want A Spiderman Suit
Maybe Someday This Will Be Me
Winner of the ‘Cool Thing Of The Day Award’, a Spiderman suit. According to the BBC, such a thing may be possible in the near future. If so, I’d like one. Researchers looked at geckos and discovered how they stuck to walls. With developing technology they may be able to reproduce the same effect in a suit that humans can wear.
A “Spider-man” suit that enables its wearer to scale vertical walls like the comic and movie superhero could one day be a reality. . .
The article ends with this profound and insightful observation.
But human muscles are very different to those of geckos, so people would probably suffer from muscle fatigue if they tried to stick to a wall for many hours.
No Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
Soularium
Soularium Site
One of the most unique and interesting things I’ve seen Campus Crusade produce lately has been Soularium. It’s a great way to connect with another person in a whole new way.
An interviewer takes a group of 50 photos and asks the interviewee which represents their life, which reflects their view of God, which expresses what they would like their life to be like, and so forth.
You can see results of surveys done so far at MySoularium.com.
You can order your own set of Soularium photos here.
1 Comment » - Posted in Ministry by Jerry
Monday, August 20th, 2007
First Day Back
First Day Back at School
Today was Andrew and Audrey’s first day back at school. They’re really too old now to make a big deal about the first day of school, but this is more for the record.
Andrew brought back homework on his first sophomore day and a heavy class load. Four Advanced Placement classes, French II (difficult), and a computer graphics class, his only easy one. He’s not excited about school to begin with, so we’ll see how long this schedule lasts.
Audrey starts her last year at Trace Academy, 8th grade. She would have started high school this year if it were possible.
The picture above is Photoshopped.
This is how it really looked. Andrew left in the dark before Audrey was awake (and before he was fully awake), and by the time I got home I didn’t have the heart to make Audrey get her school clothes back on for a picture together.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Saturday, August 18th, 2007
How To Save $50 And Enjoy It
Entertainment Coupon Book ‘08
Shop at Publix? You can save $20. Eat at restaurants in your area? You can save $15 going out for dinner.
Sound like a commercial? It is.
Audrey is selling Entertainment Books to raise money for her school. You can help her and save money, too. Need an easy wedding gift or Christmas gift? This is your solution. And there are editions for most major cities in the U.S.
If you live in Orlando, we can deliver one to your door for $25 ($5 off regular price). Just contact me. Or you can order one online.
For almost any other city you can buy a book online, too. Just supply Audrey’s code, 110306, on this page, and she will get credit for your purchase. Half the cost of each book sold goes toward our school, so buy some for all your friends!
You can also leave a comment below with your email address, and I can have Entertainment, Inc. send you a special email with a link to purchase coupon books that credit toward Audrey’s school.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
Blog Birthday #3
Earlier this month I passed the three year mark for writing this blog. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I really only had about two years’ of interesting things to write about. When I started it was just an experiment, but I found it was therapeutic to process life that way. So now three years later I’m still wasting your time but generally enjoying it.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
Buck Stops Here
Buck in our Backyard
Sorry about the cheesy headline and the grainy photo. For all you know this could have been Bigfoot or Sasquatch. But it was really a buck, and he has stopped by our backyard twice in the last two weeks.
No Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
Audrey’s Red Hair
New Red Hair
She’s no longer a blond, at least for the next 30 days until it washes out.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Monday, August 13th, 2007
Craig’s List Carpet
Carpet from Craig’s List
Living with pets requires living with messes. I don’t like that, but the cost of the pet is worth the benefit for the rest of the family. The most recent casualty is that our family room carpet has become pretty - well, tired from being messed on. After living on a wood floor for three years in Budapest we came to love wood, and we’d like to put wood down and be done with it, but that’s not an option right now. Nor is new carpet. Nor is the current carpet. We even considered treating the concrete floor and adding area rugs. We were desperate for a solution, so we prayed.
The next day God provided.
Cathy started looking on Craig’s List and found enough nearly-new carpet to cover our family room and then some - for $50. We think the carpet is an exact match to what we have, too. The previous owners of the carpet had purchased a new-construction home and then removed this “builder carpet” after a couple months. It’s very likely they had the same builder we did or that their builder used the same supplier. It’s the same carpet, either way.
Now we just need to find a pad and figure out how to install it.
1 Comment » - Posted in General by Jerry
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007
New Host Blue Host
I switched to a new web hosting service, BlueHost. My old web hosting service provider, LunarPages.com, lacked a security feature I really wanted, and the experience I’ve had (or not had, as it were) with their customer support department over the last three days convinced me that now was the time to move. (The person I finally was able to talk to at Customer Support was very helpful, and he restored things back to where they were before, but the days of silence from them was a problem.)
So after a few (hopefully) minor cleanup items this site should be humming along from a new place in the world.
No Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Monday, August 6th, 2007
Compromised Today
LunarPages.com told me this morning they had moved my web site to one of their quarantined servers because of my apparent abuse of their shared web server. “If you can’t play fair, we’ll put you in time out” was essentially the message.
This was news to me, as I have not made any changes lately. So I figured my site has been compromised; hacked.
I called their tech support and got an amazing amount of NO INFORMATION OR HELP. Rather, I got instructions on how to open a new Help Desk ticket to let them know when I have my site cleaned up. Cleaning up my site is a bit of a challenge, given that their move of my site rendered my login to the control panel invalid. Without that it’s hard to see what is going on with my site.
So I updated WordPress, and I’ll pull down my old photo gallery software (requiring a lot of work re-posting previously published photos). I have no idea if this will solve the problem or not since I have little idea what the problem was in the first place.
I had been thinking of changing web hosting providers lately, and this pushed me over the edge. Now I just need to find the time to do it.
1 Comment » - Posted in General by Jerry
Saturday, August 4th, 2007
Change of Scenery
It was time for a new background for the blog photo, so I took this
and made this
and got this
That was my reward for working hard all day today.
1 Comment » - Posted in General by Jerry
Friday, July 27th, 2007
Orlando Now
Going Through Denver Aiport
Back home again today, reunited with Audrey and Annie, we’re catching up on bills, mail, and unpacking. Our CCC U.S. Staff Conference was a great experience, and we have a lot to think about. Even though the rest of my coworkers were also at the conference, the pace of getting things done didn’t slow down much. All of us were having meetings and arranging more work since it was a chance to be with the people who are using EveryStudent.com in their ministries.
Best of all was seeing friends from the last 18 years of our time with Campus Crusade for Christ. Many of our friends from Budapest were there, too.
No Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
Switchfoot Unplugged and Others
Tonight three members of Switchfoot gave us an unplugged concert. It was a privilege not lost on us. Even Andrew liked it.
For the last nine days we have heard from others, too. This has been good, but it has been exhausting. After the first two mornings we had enough to think about for a week or two, but there has been a stream of other talks since then delivering just as much emotional, mental, and spiritual cargo as the first two. Lots to process.
Here’s two minutes someone captured of the concert.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Thursday, July 19th, 2007
12,000′
Cathy at 12,000′
A trip to Fort Collins, Colorado requires a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park and along Trail Ridge Road to the park’s visitor center just above 12,000′. The change of scenery is so refreshing!
The park wasn’t too crowded today, and the animals didn’t seem to mind the tourists who were there. The elk, rams, and coyotes we saw all ignored the cameras pointing at them. We tried hiking an easy trail, but Andrew and his friend were more interested in climbing rocks and making their own trail, so Cathy and I just enjoyed being outside in the mountains.
Andrew grabbed my camera a few times and took some really good photos. You can see them here. The first four are his.
No Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
Back to Dorm Life
CSU Dorm
When I walked into the dorm building at Colorado State University (CSU) to register for our Campus Crusade staff conference, the smell inside took me back to 1989 when Cathy and I first came to CSU for our new staff member training. The dorm buildings still smell the same as they did back then. They are good memories, and they remind us of what we were thinking back then and why we joined Campus Crusade.
The messages we are hearing now also remind us why we joined Campus Crusade. Dying to ourselves and our desires in life and surrendering to the work of the gospel still speaks to us. We still believe the eternal value of letting God use our work to advance his kingdom is greater than pursuing our own agenda. This commitment might not always have us at Campus Crusade, but for now we think this is where God wants us.
So anyway, living in a dorm again is nice. The cafeteria is downstairs, and the only challenge is getting there when it’s open and not eating too much. Still, I have not managed to reduce my daily number of chocolate ice cream cones to less than two.
2 Comments » - Posted in Ministry by Jerry
Saturday, July 14th, 2007
On Our Way
It has been six years since our last Campus Crusade for Christ U.S. Staff Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. We are on our way to this year’s event, hanging out, waiting at the Orlando airport due to a weather delay.
This time Audrey stayed home to go to camp, and she will float around at various friends’ houses after camp until we return. We will probably see as much of Andrew, who is with us, as we will of Audrey. He will be part of CCC’s high school program during our conference. Cathy and I are expecting a renewed sense of vision and energy as a result of our time, too.
And a trip to the mountains is on the docket.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Monday, July 9th, 2007
Home Again
I’m back home now and happy to be so. I loved being in Korea and eating Korean food, but I’m ready to return to my normal diet again. I have lots of photos, several new friends, and many good memories.
As far as EveryStudent.com goes, the trip was a home run success. It provided the opportunity to build relationships with many of the leaders of CCCI in Asia who now plan to begin using a translation of our site to reach students in their country. This made the trip worth it alone, not to mention the thousands of other students who now know how they can personally use our site. CCCI’s president, Steve Douglass, helped boost interest as well when he mentioned EveryStudent.com in his address to the students. The trip was a lot of work but well worth the effort.
1 Comment » - Posted in Ministry by Jerry
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
Being a Tourist in Seoul
Our Mountain Inn
This is the bed and breakfast we stayed at in the hills outside of Seoul. My brother’s friend’s father built it just a year ago, and it doesn’t look very Asian to me. Nothing in Korea looks very Asian to me, except for the language.
Today we visited a church in the town nearby, and we ran into a group of students from the CM2007 Conference doing an outreach there. A few were Americans (who grew up in Korean homes and knew the language), so we could talk with them.
Here are a few pictures from around Seoul.
Here is my whole pile of pictures from around Seoul.
My brother’s friend and his wife were our guides this weekend. They shared a common language with my brother, but they spoke little English, so I did more listening than talking. They gave us the most generous Korean hospitality you could imagine.
No Comments » - Posted in General, Photos by Jerry
Friday, July 6th, 2007
Missionary Graveyard
Korean Missionary Cemetery
We took the bullet train from Busan to Seoul and topped 300 km/hr (186 mph) along the way. It was a good way to see Korea in a short amount of time. Korea reminds me a lot of Austria; green, mountainous and clean.
In Seoul our first stop was a missionary cemetery. 100 years ago there were no Christians in Korea. Today 25% of the population identifies with Jesus Christ, and Korea is the second largest missionary sending nation itself. This cemetery is a record of those who had pioneered the way to Christ for Korea.
2 Comments » - Posted in General by Jerry
Thursday, July 5th, 2007
Feeding 16,000
Lunch at CM2007
Lunch and dinner at the CM2007 Conference is amazing. They get about 16,000 people fed in less than two hours. Twice we have had McDonald’s Big Macs for lunch. That many Big Macs ready at the same time and same location strikes me as quite an accomplishment. I had to miss both those lunches, but I didn’t mind, as my seaweed, fish, and rice breakfasts have been carrying me through until dinner.
July 12 Update: Originally I had written that there were 20,000 attendees at this conference, but today I learned the official number was 15,994. 10,800 of those were Koreans, and the rest were from 121 different countries.
1 Comment » - Posted in Ministry by Jerry
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007
Happy 4th of July from Busan
4th of July in Busan
This was the only celebration of the 4th of July I saw today here in Busan. Enjoy the fireworks back home!
