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Whitler World Tour, 2011 - Going Home

2012-05-14T22:35:00+00:00

This is the last in the series of videos that Joshua made from our family trip there and back again in May of 2011 (a whole year ago!). You can see all the posts here on our blog of the National Parks (HERE), New Orleans (HERE), Our time in the car (HERE) and our trip through the North (HERE). Enjoy!

Get on your bikes and ride!

2012-05-10T14:30:00+00:00

This past week, because of a last minute cancellation, I was asked to put together a band for our local gospel mission's motorbike rally/fundraiser in the Sierra Nevada foothills. We thought this a fitting song for them to arrive to...

Cosmos

2012-05-05T23:07:00+00:00

This video will remain on Amie's dance page but I thought I'd share it here on account of tonight's giant moon event. Did you know that tonight the moon will be huge! It will appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter. And it looks like we get a front row seat here on the west coast. It also looks like the west is due for an annular solar eclipse later this month. So in honor of all that, here is Amie's award winning entry in our local college's choreographer's showcase - Cosmos. Amie says it was inspired by our family's love of laying on blankets and watching the stars...

How Will You Respond When Things Go Wrong?

2012-04-30T16:43:42+00:00

This weekend I was listening to the Bobblehead Dad Podcast because I have a real desire to be, well, a better dad. (I also secretly want to have my own Dad podcast, but that is a long way off as I’m not even managing the YWAM Podcast very well at the moment.) Bobblehead Dad is a great podcast, with some good thoughts from the host, Jim Higley, and some great interviews.

I’ve been trying to catch up on past episodes of the podcast and listened to an interview that Jim Higley did with author Jim Moorhead. I found the content of the interview to be quite intriguing and thought provoking (you can listen to it here).

Jim Moorheads book is entitled The Instant Survivor – Right Ways to Respond When Things Go Wrong. In the book it goes through a 4-step system for “conquering professional and personal crises”. The description of the book at Amazon is:

This is a crisis-management handbook that shows readers the four steps to going from head-in-the sand denial to head-held-high success. Jim Moorhead reveals the methods top companies use to tackle crises. In an energetic, upbeat style – laced with compassion and practicality – he explains how executives audit their businesses and fix problems before they mushroom into messes. When crises do occur, a crisis management team talks through the company’s business and legal goals, analyzes the people and resources to deploy and the allies and experts to call upon, and debates the options before agreeing on a strategy. Whether the problem is downsizing, divorce, disability, or debt, Jim Moorhead, a seasoned trial attorney and crisis adviser,outlines four action steps to help any individual prevent and tackle life’s hard and soft crises in an organization:

STAY FROSTY: Remain calm and focused when a crisis begins

SECURE SUPPORT: Tap into your network of personal and professional contacts

STAND TALL: Take full charge of your response

SAVE YOUR FUTURE: Prepare for post-crisis success

As he explains his steps to overcoming disasters and predicaments, Moorhead selects from firsthand accounts and anecdotes amassed during thirty years of experience in law, politics, and consultancy to inspire and encourage readers. These intriguing stories – of people overcoming everything from disease, debt, and job loss to car bombings and wrongful imprisonment – engage readers as they illustrate the author’s key points.

On Jim Moorhead’s Instant Survivor web-site you can subscribe to his mailing list and receive The Instant Survivor Handbook for free. I’ve gone ahead and done that and received the book. It is a 7-page handbook with step by step instructions for surviving a “current” crisis. It looks interesting and could be a very useful tool for someone when things are going wrong.

I would recommend listening to the Bobblehead Dad podcast to start with, then if it sounds like something that interests you or could serve you, then sign up to Jim Moorhead’s mailing list to get the free handbook (you can always unsubscribe after you get the free ebook). After that, if you still want to know more, go ahead and buy The Instant Survivor Book.

The Whitler World Tour, 2011: The North

2012-04-28T19:00:00+00:00

What is Your Blog Plan?

2012-04-25T05:30:19+00:00

I have written before about how I feel it is important to tell our story as missionaries and Christians. One of the easiest ways to tell your story is through a blog.

Although it is relatively easy to start a blog, one of the areas that you need to focus on, but that can easily be neglected, is to have a plan for your blog.

Courtney Chowning over at Biblical Blogging has created a few great tools to help you create a Bible based blog. They include a workbook on creating a plan for your blog and also some blog planning pages.

Tomorrow I am planning to spend the day at the Alberta Children’s Hospital as my eldest son is due to go in for surgery to replace his Cecostomy tube. I’ve downloaded both of these free workbooks to my iPod and plan to go through them for the projects I am currently developing.

Although the worksheets are written for blogs, they will also translate well for podcasting. The projects that I am currently developing are podcast related, so this should help me wrap my head around them and get a good plan in place…

Behind the Scenes With Amie!

2012-04-20T14:58:00+00:00

A l'il video of Amie behind the scenes at MJC's Choreographer's Showcase. Her piece this year placed 3rd in the Celebration of the Humanities competition. If you're local and want to see it, it's being performed one more time tonight at 7:30pm at MJC Cabaret West ($10 general/$8 students)

2012-04-08T07:39:44+00:00

This letter is a little different from previous ones, in that it is a meditation on Easter. I would encourage you to take some time to meditate on each stage of the journey from the last supper to the cross. It’s a journey perhaps that you have taken often but during this Easter, allow God [...]

Christians Should Always be Happy!

2012-03-28T04:02:56+00:00

Didn’t you know that as Christians we have to be happy all the time?

No, really, all the time, otherwise “the Devil scores points” …

As Christians things are not “hard”, they are “challenging”.

When you are asked how you are doing things should always we great, blessed, fantastic, good, or at the very worst, fine …

So how about you, when you get asked how you are doing do you give the real answer, or the “right” answer?

More about Accordance vs. Logos

2012-01-08T09:40:27+00:00

Following on from my blog the other day I found a review written by Kevin Purcell about Bible software for the Mac. I figure Kevin is probably one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes the Bible software industry. The others would be John Fidel and Ruben Gomez. Sadly John doesn’t blog any more, but Ruben runs a wonderful website called Bible Software Review.

Anyhow, interesting enough after referring briefly to Logos, Wordsearch and a few others, Kevin singles out Accordance Bible Software as the best of the lot for the Mac. I agree with Kevin’s sentiments… if “Wordsearch and Bibleworks got together and designed a Bible program” you would in effect get Accordance. In some ways, Accordance also reminds me of PC Study Bible of years ago, but much more powerful in the original languages. So the link to highly the acclaimed Bibleworks for Windows is not too far off.

Kevin does highlight the challenge that new Mac users face who have just switched from Windows. In many cases, these users have already made some sizable investments in resource libraries in Windows products. This makes it hard, if not financially prohibitive to consider Accordance. In this regard, Kevin suggests these kinds of users go ahead and try Wordsearch and Logos out.

This is not an ideal situation and does not create a level playing field when it comes to evaluation, but it’s unavoidable. For example years ago I bought Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) and in order to use it on Accordance I will have to repurchase it. It took me years to save up for it in the first place, so switching can be a huge financial mountain to climb again. WBC is one of about five major resources that I own and can continue to use in their original formats, but in effect means that I will probably never use Accordance exclusively. I have decided that even though I may have to live with this, Accordance is so good it is worth it.

Accordance does run a crossgrade program. It is the only one that I am aware of in the industry. Unfortunately this program is limited. This is no fault of Accordance because these deals are often highly dependent on the licensing agreements with publishers. It would be nice if there was an industry wide agreement with publishers to discount their products to allow for Bible software companies to cover for their production costs for tagging, but give concessions to users who have already paid for the resource. From what I understand, this was the original idea behind the STEP format of years ago that Quickverse and Wordsearch used.

Below is the review in its entirety. It is well written and points out many of the strengths of Accordance. I commend Kevin for a great review. Accordance Bible Software is a clear leader and for years now has delivered the goods when it comes to quality Mac Bible software.

The size of Africa

2012-01-04T21:48:52+00:00

Africa is HUGE… someone sent me this graphic to illustrate it.

Post-Sprint Review

2010-06-16T14:46:37+00:00

Dear All, I am back in Brussels and the Sprint is over. We had a blast and we missed you all! In the end Pitpat, Arnoud and myself spent a very hot few days hunched over computers, pizzas and gummy bears working on the KB in Berlin. It was a lot of fun and it [...]

April Video Update

2009-04-30T05:12:50+00:00

This is the first report back from the new new ministry team that I have formed within YWAM. Our first trip together was to Chemnitz, earlier in April. Enjoy!

February Video Update

2009-02-24T15:02:58+00:00