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One problem was I didn't have my Sam's card with me. I figured they would be able to look me up in the system, and the lady at the front door said that was okay. She pointed me to the membership desk, but I thought I would just ask the cashier to look me up (mistake). When I got to the checkout, I was informed that I should have gone to the membership desk and received a temporary ID card. The cashier had to call over someone from membership, who took my drivers license away to a desk and was gone for 2-3 minutes. I mentioned that the cashier was friendly, but the guy in line behind me wasn't. I apologized at first, and after they had to take my drivers license away, stepped aside and told the cashier she could go ahead and let him go through. But his mood didn't improve. Next time I'll bring my card!
The reason I went to Sam's was to purchase a couple of Hot & Cold insulated bags. My mom has one and they seem to work very well. I actually got a couple for Dan too, we both plan to use them for grocery shopping by bicycle. Dan also mentioned that he could use one to pick up a pizza on his bike on the way home, which made me hungry for pizza!
Anyway, the trip was 4 miles roundtrip, and was pretty tolerable on a warm afternoon in my work clothes. I don't yet have rear baskets, so I had to fold up the bags newspaper style to bring them back to the office. I felt like a paper boy with the bags sticking out:
An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. - Prov 31:10
Today Amy and I celebrate 10 years of marriage. Looking back on pictures of our honeymoon, I am overcome with that dual sense of the past--it seems like yesterday and like worlds ago at the same time. I am reminded of how our friendship first grew over months and even years, how we led music together before we were even dating, and how many times I played (and replayed) one particular answering machine message from her.
These 10 years have been a great adventure of life together and life as a family. Although it is not always easy, Amy is committed to honoring God and being the kind of wife and mother that He desires. God has used her in my life so many times--both in the joy of ministry together, and also to point out my weaknesses and sin to help me grow. Any experience that I have is made better when I can share it with her. Neither of us is perfect, but I pray we can keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and that he will continue to draw us closer to him and closer to each other as we move toward the years ahead.
Amy, I'm so blessed to have you as my companion on this journey. I love you.
]]>Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den.]]>-John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad
So Mark and I had just over a week of brother time. I got to see first-hand what life is like with 8 hours of electricity a day. What 120 degrees feels like, and what an amazing refreshing treat a glass of cool water can be. Men and women who live today almost exactly as they have for hundreds of years, and for whom the concept of the future has no meaning, only survival for another day. Children that will instantly melt your heart, and whose smiles almost make you forget the harsh realities of disease and need that they face daily, with over half the population age 15 or younger.
And in the midst of it all, God doing amazing things. Answered prayers. Meeting Isa, the first ever adult Songhai believer in the village of Ayorou. Seeing Mark communicate in French and Zarma/Songhai and share the love and truth of Christ with so many people, and how they respect him. And, as Parker put it, feeling like I left a piece of myself in Africa.
I rode on the donkey cart with these boys to get water from the river. I had no ability to speak to them, and no idea at that point where we were going. Quite an experience!
A shack, literally on the side of the road, where we had breakfast one morning. Mark brought this man some eggs from the city, and worked it out that we got a breakfast of omelettes and a yummy hot chocolatey drink as payment.
I could go on forever (and probably already have for too long). As you can probably tell, I'm very glad I made this trip. Mark and I had a great time together, my eyes were opened, and I fell in love with Ayorou and the people there.
For more: here's my complete photo set and also a blog post that Parker wrote about my visit.
]]>“You should love God. You will need to know how to take out the trash. If you ever have a baby, you will need to know how to shop for baby stuff, and for regular stuff. You will have to know how to take care of your wife when she gets sick. If you ever have children, you will need to know how to tell them about Jesus."]]>
Unfortunately, good trail runs are a little hard to find in Evansville. Add to that the fact that we had an unusually wet winter, and I was stuck doing most of my training on flat roads. By the time of the race, the longest trail run I had done was just short of 5 miles, and my longest road training run was 12 miles. But I felt like I was better prepared for this run than the Evansville Half Marathon, and about a week before the LBL run, the weather forecast was looking good--dry with temps in the upper 40s, nearly perfect for running.
That all changed about 2-3 days before the race. Suddenly, there was a weather advisory that mentioned a possibility of accumulating snow on Thursday or Friday, then there was a winter storm watch, then a winter storm warning that covered Evansville and all of Western KY. There would definitely be significant snow--the question was just how much would fall and what areas would be the heaviest. On Thursday and Friday leading up to the race, I was checking multiple forecasts hourly, trying to gauge if I would even be able to get to the starting line safely. I knew there was the possibility of having to turn around, or getting snowed in down there, but it seemed like the NWS forecasters were backing off on the snowfall amounts, and also pushing the heavier accumulation forecast more Southeast of where I was headed, so I thought it was worth a try. In the end, we decided that only I would go down (Amy and the kids had planned to go), and simply take it slow and cautious.
Some of those CDs are ripped to a digital archive, some are not. Of the ones that are ripped, I have used different encoding bitrates over the years, anywhere from 128 (yikes) to 256kbps. Most of the ripped music exists on a network share drive, but there are a few CDs that might be only on one particular computer where I ripped it for convenience. Also, among my digital music are a few albums for which I no longer have a physical copy (the CD was lost or damaged, etc). Also, I have a moderate collection of DRM music that I've purchased from the iTunes store (sorry Jamie).
Every time I look at this mess, I realize that I should do something to clean it up. Also, I find CDs that I'd like to be listening to but get forgotten in the pile and haven't yet been ripped. The state of my current digital archive is so bad I probably need to just start over.
This seems like a common problem, so I'm going to blog about the task. I want to be able to play the audio on iTunes and un-hacked iPods, but I don't want Apple lock-in (yes, I know I bought Apple DRM locked-in music, but please allow me to be inconsistent here). I also want to be able to access the music from multiple computers, and not only while connected to my home network. This presents a bit of a challenge as the music collection will only grow over time and my laptop hard drive space is always a premium.
Right now, I'm thinking about ripping the CDs to FLAC format for my "archive" copy, and then converting to a medium-bitrate mp3 for day-to-day playback (160kbps stereo?). That way, I can have a pristine digital copy, but still fit large amounts of music on portable devices and laptops. The only problem is that this becomes a multi-step process for adding new music to the system.
I would also love to hear advice from you guys out there. How have you done it? What do you like or dislike about your system? Please share any thoughts in the comments!
]]>With each point, he argued it from scripture, and then described some common distortions or denials of that point. I love listening to Piper, but it takes about 110% of my brain to fully absorb the richness of what he's saying. The other thing I like about his ministry is that they strive to put as many resources online as possible--and all of their online materials are FREE. His complete sermon notes are here, including material he wasn't able to cover in the time allowed at the conference. You can also watch or listen to the message.
The other cool feature about the event was that during his talk you could text message your questions. Anyone listening live or on the Internet could do it. Then, about 5 minutes after his talk, they had a panel Q&A session to answer them. That panel was a lot of fun--it was Mark Driscoll, John Piper and Matt Chandler. But I had to bail before it was over because it was getting late (the conference was on the West Coast).
The complete audio and video of the conference will be available on the Resurgence website soon--check it out for some great teaching!
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