Wayfaring Stranger

Christmas Letter 2011 and Mission Trip gallery

2011-12-21T16:28:00.007-06:00

Hope you all had a wonderful year! Here is my Christmas letter for 2011. Merry Christmas one and all!

I haven't had a chance to make one of my photo galleries for my mission trip like years gone past. But it is up online.

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-14T20:21:00.008-06:00

Hope you all had a wonderful 2010! Here is my Christmas letter for 2010. Merry Christmas one and all!

The "readers digest" version is on my mission trip I got to go to Siberia Russia (bookended by a couple of days in New York City). Followed by a couple of quick (cheap non-rev/interline) scuba trips to Roatan and the Florida Keys. :)

My Siberia Russia mission trip

2010-11-22T16:43:00.002-06:00

I'm just getting this gallery up ... so many photos! What a trip! Let me know what you think :) You should see the hundreds of photos I left out so this wouldn't get overwhelming ... if it isn't already. We went a lot of places and talk to hundreds, no thousands of people.

Prison 42

2010-07-26T11:22:00.002-05:00

Oleg, one of our Russian Christian helpers said this about our trip to prison 42 (the maximum security prison for violent criminals) : "For us Prison 42 was like a fortress with no doors, until you came and now it is wide opened!"

That's so awesome! Thank you to all who prayed for us and supported us so God could "crack this nut" for the local Christians to start ministering to these men.

I just noticed that my blog email wasn't turned on when I posted from Russia and New York, so there are 3 older posts on my blog that you might want to read too.

Home Again, Home Again!

2010-07-25T17:04:00.003-05:00

Hello Dallas :)

I got in late last night. I non-rev-ed into and out of NYC to help keep my trip costs down; Global Aid only arranged airfare into and out of NYC since team members lived all across the US. Our team got back into NYC on Thursday the 22nd, and I stayed in NYC until Saturday to take in some sights. When I left on Saturday I flew from La Guardia to Chicago and then (supposedly) onto Dallas. Little did I know that Chicago had a monsoon on Friday which flooded the city, swamped the interstates, and closed the airport! :(( So on Saturday all the stranded passengers, crew-members, and I was trying to get out of Chicago (note: revenue customers and crew-members out rank me on standby priority). It was quite a travel day, but I made it a little later than planned being diverted all over the place ... although my bags flew straight on without the same difficulty that I had! So at least my luggage was waiting for me in Dallas once I arrived.

Each of the orphanages and schools we visited had a concert planned for us. Wow, I felt like a visiting dignitary or somebody important. The kids were so cute and talented, one was designed around Russian fairy tales, another a puppet show, some with music (one included kids playing the spoons!:); and one school had an auction of crafts, dolls, and toys that the kids and local people had made. One girl hula-hooped like I have never seen before. Once their concert was over we would sing, dance, and do a gospel drama for them. It was a fun trip.

At the summer camp the "kids" challenged us to a soccer match. I say "kids" b/c these guys were ringers or something; they were huge and obviously good soccer players. They massacred us at 5 to 1 ... at least it wasn't a shutout! :)

One village we visited was a village of the SHOWSI (sp?) people group. There are only 7000 people of their kind and that number is shrinking every time a census is taken. Their school was a little larger than the Little House on the Prairie-style school, it had a few classrooms off the big "main" room; but it looked and felt like it most every other way.

Later after the SHOWSI village was when we visited the maximum security prison. These prisoners were serving 30+ years to life ... this was a tight-lock-down kind of place. I have never been to a prison like this in the US, much less in Russia. The prisoners have time, lot's and lot's of time. So they read and think and read and think and talk. Philosophy is very much a Russian pass time ... always has been. So when we talked to the prisoners some were quoting out of Hebrews chapters 4-6 and asking if it meant you could loose your salvation, and other hard questions!

Two of the team-members from Wisconsin have been in prison ministry with Campus Crusade for the past 33 years. They are the ones who gave the seminar the 1 Saturday we were in Siberia. Corporal Marina is over the whole Novokuznetsk region of prisons and she was with us at some of the prisons and she attended the seminar with much interest. I think there is a great work going on there and that a prison ministry is about to explode all over Russia. Please pray for Russia and its prison ministry.

The Russian government just created a chaplain position in its prison system and invited the Orthodox church to fill it; which they agreed to. But once they found out it was not a paid position they withdrew their support, so now it is open to literally anyone who volunteers to be chaplain. So the church is trying to fill the role, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to serve the prisoners and spread the gospel!

The church has a vision to reach every single village and people group in Russia and Siberia and all the churches have been challenged to take a year and send people out to their surrounding villages. Please pray that their message will be received and accepted. One of the churches we visited stars at 10am and finishes at 6pm! They have 2 hours of worship, then lunch, then evangelism training, then visitation/evangelism in the village and surrounding countryside. Boy, doesn't that convict you when you are sitting in a pew looking at your watch wondering if your favorite restaurant will have a long line because the preacher is running late!?!

There is still so much more I could tell you, but words are not enough. Maybe next year you could go too and experience the stories first hand?! :)) I will try and get pictures up a soon as I can.

God bless

NYC

2010-07-23T07:25:00.003-05:00

Hello USA!

We flew in from Moscow yesterday on a 10.5 hour flight (or 9.5 maybe?). And EVERYONE is glad to be back. I scheduled a stop in NYC to take in some sights and I walked around all day yesterday. I was worn out, but maybe that'll help beat jetlag.(?)

Here's a God story from our trip; we all packed a lot of gifts and aid materials to take to Siberia with us. So we all had 2 checked bags, 1 personal bag with clothes and gifts to give out and 1 bag from Global Aid with more stuff to give out. You can check 2 bags on an international flight, so going from NYC to Moscow was fine. But when we checked in for Moscow to Novokuznetsk, that is a domestic flight and they wanted to charge us for all the extra bags and extra weight ... it was going to be 2 thousand bucks! Charles started talking to them telling it was aid for orphans and prisoners and the rest of us prayed. They wanted proof of what we were doing so we pulled out our trip books and showed them our itinerary and they waved the entire fee! Slava Bogo (Praise God)! He is good and takes care of his own.

Ok, here's one fun story. The Russian alphabet has a lot of latin characters in it but they are pronounced like the Greek letters, so you can almost never sound out any words you see (e.g. a "P" is the Greek letter "roe" and makes a "r" sound). So a "nameless" friend asks how to pronounce "pectopah" in Russian. Me: "resturan", her: no in Russian, Me: "resturan", her: no in RUSSIAN, Me: "resturan", her (turns to Laura a Russian speaker): how do you pronounce that in Russian?, Laura: "resturan", her: Oh, ok. :)

God bless you all, and more stories to come.

Priveyet from Siberia

2010-07-18T08:35:00.004-05:00

Hello from Siberia Russia!

We have been really busy. We have been visiting at least 2 sites a day, including 3 prisons and 1 summer camp. Some days we were up at 5:30am and in bed after 11pm. Some days it was a 4 hour ride out to the sites and one day was 5 hour ride. But it's really been a great time. We visited a men's rehab center and met a lot of great guys and heard some convicting testimonies. This is the first internet opportunity I've had yet.

Today we went to Russian churches and talked about our project and we got to eat lunch with a family from the church. Our team split up and went to 4 churches. At our host home we sang songs, ate some good Russian food, played games, told jokes, etc... Fun time were had by all!

The time in the prisons has opened doors and established relationships for the local believers to do more ministry once we leave. Dan and Rene gave a seminar in a near by town on prison ministry yesterday (they have been in prison ministry for 33 years). People came in from as far away as the Urals and Moldavia to attend. It is something that has been needed, and has been prayed for, here for years. God is getting ready to do a great work in the prisons here in Siberia and in all of Russia. Pray for access to the prisons and for open hearts of the prisoners.

The kids at the summer camp were sooooo cute that I want to stay and just be at camp all summer! :) If you don't see me back by next Monday, you'll know where to look.

There are so many stories to tell, but I have to go so that will have to wait till I get back I guess.

From Russia with Love

P.S. ok one last story. I am sitting at an internet cafe with my roommate's laptop b/c I am LOCKED out of my room! :-(( The lock just jammed and won't open, thank goodness for the diversion and the chance to update you all. They have called a carpenter to drill the lock, but he is out in his dacha which is about 2 hours outside the city. So we'll see how that goes. Keep PRAYING for us! And God bless you. :)

Southwest proudly presents our 2009 Flickr Photos of the Year

2010-01-04T09:34:00.002-06:00

There's some really great Southwest Airline photos in this blog post.

Christmas Letter 2009

2009-12-17T21:49:00.005-06:00

Hope you all had a wonderful 2008! Here is my Christmas letter for 2009. Merry Christmas one and all!

Vacation to Italy and Croatia -- photo gallery

2009-10-07T17:29:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone, I am finally getting my photos online from my trip to Europe.

NEW! poll feature ... please give feedback on the photos. Do you like it, vote it Good. Don't like it? Vote it bad. Let me know what kind of photog I am! :)

Christmas Letter 2008

2008-12-23T16:37:00.003-06:00

Hope you all had a wonderful 2008! Here is my Christmas letter. Merry Christmas one and all!

Russia pics

2008-10-26T18:11:00.004-05:00

My Russia '08 pics are now online! Click here : photo gallery to view my album.

Final Stretch

2008-10-17T00:41:00.003-05:00

Hey, we're on the final stretch of the '08 English classes! We've all had great students! Most of our (Jerry, Tracy, and Rodney's) students stayed with the classes for both weeks and a lot of them came to McPeaks after class to hang out and chat. We also had a lot of fun with the students during the day; going sightseeing, bowling, etc...

Tonight (Friday night) about 17 of us will go to the Ekaterinburg Opera house to see Swan Lake. This will be my first time in the opera house and my first time to see a ballet live. :))

Many of our students signed up to go to the Forrest Fun Party, so I am really looking forward to that. The return trip is going to be kind of rough, but it is well worth it. We will leave the party to return to the hotel for a quick shower and to pick up our bags and then leave for the airport for the long journey back to the good 'ole U.S. of A.

Please pray for us! Please pray that many students will come to our Forrest Fun Party, that they would have fun and connect with the Kompass ministry, that they would listen and be open to the good news of Jesus, and for our endurance of the flight back home.

Thank you and God bless! ... Rodney.

Start of Week #2

2008-10-12T01:56:00.004-05:00

This year we have three English classes of about 30 students; so 90 students have been exposed to 4 stories about Jesus. Next week we will tell 4 more stories about Jesus; then on Saturday we will take the students to the "Forrest Fun Party" retreat. It will be a weekend of fun and games. After the retreat, the students will be asked to join Bible studies from the book of John.

Today the guys and Chris (Kompas staff) went to a Russian banya. We had a great time, talked about future ministry opportunities here and Ekat and in Russia in general. A banya is such a great way to start the second week; you feel clean, invigorated, and energy enough to tackle the second week. :))

Prayer Requests:

That God would bless the second week of the English classes.
That God would greatly use the retreat next Saturday to draw students nearer to Jesus Christ.
That many students would join one of the Bible studies.
We have to leave at 3am Sunday morning for the airport; but we won't leave the retreat until midnight (it's over an hour back to the hotel). So we will probably will not sleep at all before starting the long trip back! Please pray for our strength on the return trip.

Click here: English Class Students in 2008, to see a class photo.

Back at the Iset

2008-10-09T04:04:00.002-05:00

We're back at the Iset hotel. So I have access to the internet again. I've been offline since we moved to the flats 3 days ago. But I've been so busy, I probably would not have posted anyway. :p

The "Talk the Talk" classes are going great! We have 3 classes instead of the anticipated 4, but that actually works better for us and makes each of the classes a little bit larger. We all have a great group of kids and I have really enjoyed hanging out with them. We have been signing students up for "excursion" appointments during the day. And we hang out at a local cafe after class to talk, eat, learn about each other, and (of course) laugh a lot! :)) I enjoy teaching them slang and they like returning the favor.

Oh, let me tell you about our new digs. When we got in on Sunday we found that the hotel had mixed up our reservation. Faithfully, God provided us 2 flats to stay in for 3 nights till the Iset could accomdate us again. So this morning we get our bags packed and loaded into "taxis" (def: taxi == just 1 guy and his car) and get checked into the Iset hotel. I stuff my bags into the lift and go up to my room; I open the door and I find we are staying in a delux suite! Sweet! I guess since the mixup was their fault and they are a reputable hotel, and since we stay here every year; they decided to give us the "delux apartment in the sky" for the price of a normal room. Kruta! I think the rooms we got were well worth the 3 days of inconvenience. Maybe this was in God's greater plan?

Please pray for continued strengh, for 2 of our team members who are leaving for the US on Sunday morning, and for our students to continue with the classes and attend the "Forrest Fun Party".

See you soon .... Paka, Rodney.

P.S. I am getting some good photos, I will upload them when I get back ... stay tuned.

Home away from home ....

2008-10-05T03:29:00.002-05:00

Well, 27 hours of traveling and we are back in Ekat! We had an 11 hour layover in Frankfort Germany. So we put our bags in luggage storage and headed out to see the sights. It was a great way to spend the layover and break up the traveling.

So, we leave Frankfort and head out to Ekat. We get here and Irina met us at the airport and had a taxi waiting to take us to our hotel, the Iset. We we check in, NO reservation was on the books. Daring came in last month and met with them face to face and gave a written list of rooms and his contact numbers. But for some reason they expected Darin to call back in and re-state that he wanted those rooms. So guess what? We're not staying at the Iset. At least not for a couple of days. And the city is completely booked, no (ahem) room at the inns!

Luckily there are a couple of flats that we can rent by the day and we will be there for 3 or 4 days and then the Iset can accommodate us for the remainder of the 2 weeks. God is faithful to supply all our needs!

Please pray for those who need sleep, for our students to show up and continue to come, for us having to change housing twice more, the God would be glorified above all!

Thanks! Rodney

Finally ready! ... almost

2008-10-02T22:02:00.003-05:00

When I packed my 4th shirt tonight, I thought to myself "Am I over packing?!". I guess when you have traveled to Russia 5 times you get used to packing for international trips. Just so you know, if I have 4 shirts; I will probably have more "outfits" than most of my students. Life there is very active, but very simple ... very uncomplicated.

Uncomplicated, simple, genuine. Yes, Russia here I come!

Hidalgo VBS '08

2008-08-17T13:37:00.004-05:00

Monday the 11th we started Backyard Bible Club at Hidalgo. Click here to see the photos.

I'm off to Russia again!

2008-07-07T09:08:00.003-05:00

I just sent out my Russia support letter, you can see it online. The remainder of this post is the text from that letter, if you want to see the pretty pictures you'll need to click the link:).

Dear Friends and Family,

Northwest Bible Church is once again partnering with Darin McFarland and Compass by teaching the English class “Talk the Talk” in Ekaterinburg, Russia. I told several of you that I had a desire to go on our India trip this year, but I feel that God is calling me back to Russia. He isn’t through with me there, and I am happy to go back and be a part of what He is doing there! We will be leaving on October 3rd and returning on the 19th.

I want to tell you a little more about Compass in Ekaterinburg and why I have been going back each year. The follow-up after we leave is awesome! The Compass team sets up Bible studies, sporting events, social events, they celebrate holidays, etc… They have multiple contacts with each student every week! And they do this year after year with the existing students and the additional ones Talk the Talk bring in. Here is an email from a student that describes his experience (this was written to Darin):

“Praise the Lord for everything He is doing there. And for everything you all do. Actually I've been meaning to tell you you this for quite some time - I'm so very grateful that because of your ministry I became a believer. I know God used you to reach out to me, and I am so glad that He did. Thank you for not giving up on me through my many months of doubts and resistance. Life with the Lord is something absolutely amazing, and I don't know how long I would have been going in the darkness if it hasn't been for your ministry. Well, I guess that's it.. I'm doing OK. God has been kind and good to me - I feel rather safe and secure (more or less), and very peaceful too.. Love you with all my heart and miss you a lot. In Christ, Alexey”

Here are some of the students (photo is in the pdf link) you have helped us reach. Not every single one of these believers and seekers came to Compass by Talk the Talk, but most of them did. And some came because they were invited by the English students. So I thank you very much for your support, and I ask you to support me again this year. I need to raise 3,500 dollars to go on the trip. Our team also needs your prayers very much. Please pray for our preparations, that we would be kind and loving to our students, that God’s love will shine, and that our faith would be stretched!

If you decide to support me financially, just leave a comment to this post and I will give you the details (the details are also in the pdf).

Thank you and God bless.

Hidalgo Bible Club "End of School!!" beach party!

2008-06-04T08:36:00.002-05:00

At Hidalgo Bible Club, we had a beach teamed party for our "End of School!!" party. It was mad chaos, and mad fun :)!! We played parachute games, relays, cake walk, built sand castles, and ate hot dogs and HOT cheetos. Here are the photos:

BDay and Mom's Day '08 photos

2008-05-12T13:50:00.003-05:00

You can see the photo album here.

Merry Tossmas

2007-12-10T22:26:00.001-06:00

Merry Tossmas and Feliz Navi-Toss! If you'd like to celebrate Tossmas or just learn more, then click here.

It's not a boycott or plea to mail your congressmen. Just a suggestion to make you think ... and with a bit of humor to boot.

Happy non-specified Holiday!
What are you buying your kids for Thanksgiving this year?
Can't find that right *Christmas* card? Or *Christmas* gift? Or *Christmas* decorations? Then why look in a *Holiday* catalog?

This and more in the video ... :-)

Chloe and Jury Duty

2007-11-27T13:09:00.000-06:00

No, they haven't gotten around to summoning babies yet. Following is an update on Chloe and following that is a note about my jury duty on Monday.

Chloe (from my brother-in-law)

It isn't over until the paperwork is done. The discharge paperwork has begun this morning! We will be headed home exactly three weeks to the day of admission. We are so grateful for the quick recovery. There are many families that have been waiting for weeks and months to bring their little ones home. Our hearts go out to those families in CVICU, remember to pray for them as they wait to be discharged. We feel tremendously blessed by everyone's support through this stressful time. God is good, all the time.

Jury Duty

I got summoned but didn't get picked somehow. I have been on 2 felony trials and was foreman for 1 of them. My "neighbor" (juror #29) got picked, but me (juror #30) did not. I like "Cops" and those type shows and kinda enjoyed (don't let it get out) my other jury experiences. But this one was an agravated sexual assualt case ... boy did I NOT want to hear that case. Luckily I didn't get picked for this one.

During vordire the DA was making a point about witnessing in cases like this. The DA picked a woman juror and told us we were going to do an experiment. She asked the lady to take the stand and tell us, in detail, about the last time she was "with" her husband. Including everything that was said, everything that was done, and how she felt. Obviously she said all this for effect and to kind of put us in the shoes of anyone having to give witness in this case .... BUT THE LADY STOOD UP! She actually started to head to the witness box! The DA stopped her, the judge about fell over, and I think I fell out of my seat. Too funny. Boy was she relieved when she was told she didn't have to actually go through with it. Do I need to tell you that she got picked as a juror? .... Nah didn't think so. :-))

Bachman picnic

2007-11-24T17:43:00.001-06:00

To view a day out at Bachman lake with the Hidalgo kids, click the image above or click here. Enjoy. :-)

Chloe's a fighter

2007-11-16T22:23:00.000-06:00

I went to work this morning to check on a few things and to start an on-call week. Then I hopped on a Southwest flight to Little Rock to be with my family. Chloe went into surgery at ~11:30 am, they started her on anaesthesia and heart bypass. They closed off a valve that only babies still have, yours and mine closed off naturally long ago. And started to disconnect the greater arteries (Chloe has 'Transposition of the Great Arteries').

There was a nurse who came in every hour to give us updates on Chloe and every report was encouraging. The surgery ran ahead of schedule. Up until the time of suturing the atreries that is. Once the suturing was complete, they brought her off the bypass. Her heart started beating, which gets us past the first big risk of bypass. But there was bleeding and it took over an hour to get the bleeding to stop. This was the lowest point in the waiting process.

The nurse finally came back in ~ 6:15pm and said they got the bleeding stopped and were disconnecting her. Just in time too ... because I had to jump on a return flight to Dallas. :-)

They elected to leave Chloe's chest open, I guess that was because of the bleeding and to make re-entering as easy as possible. I didn't get to vist her in ICU. She will be in ICU for about a week and in a room for about a week after that. The normal recovery period is 2-3 weeks.

Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes. It helps a lot and we appreciate it!

Chloe's surgery

2007-11-15T12:31:00.000-06:00

I got a call from my Dad and Chloe's surgery is scheduled for Friday (tomorrow) morning! She has been off her ventilator for about a week and she hasn't lost any of her birth weight. I guess the doctor's decided she was ready. So the moment we have been waiting for, as well as not looking forward to, is here.

Say a prayer for Chloe today and tomorrow morning!

Chloe update and pics

2007-11-13T08:29:00.000-06:00

Chloe's surgery was postponed again. Something about her being on antibiotics. Please keep praying for her and us. Here are some pictures of her. Click on the thumbnail to see the fullsize photo.

Chloe update

2007-11-07T15:50:00.000-06:00

Here is some more forwarded information:

As of today, Chloe is scheduled to have surgery this Friday providing no health issues arise that would change plans. Currently Chloe is stable and doing well. Her blood pressure had dropped (which I believe is not uncommon given the procedure/medication done yesterday), however, she was given medication for that and did respond to it.

Please say special prayers for Chloe, her surgeon(s), and of course, all her family.

Chloe update

2007-11-06T14:33:00.000-06:00

This is some information sent to me from my sister Roxie (not the mom in question):

We just spoke with Heath. Chloe has been diagnosed with "transposition of the great arteries". The functions of her aorta and pulmonary arteries are switched. Oxygenated blood is going to her lungs and not being pumped through her body.

Heath says that a "septostomy" is being performed this afternoon. The septostomy is an atrial balloon that is being inserted into Chloe's groin. It will mix the blood properly for her.

Heath says that Arkansas Children's Hospital wants to stabilize Chloe for one week, then do open heart surgery. They will be in Little Rock at least two weeks.

Heath says that they are checking into the Ronald McDonald house this afternoon and will let us know if they need any housing assistance.

Heath and Renae have been told that this problem is common and correctable via surgery. We don't believe Chloe's life is in immediate danger although surgery is needed asap.

Good news and not so good news ...

2007-11-06T09:45:00.000-06:00

My youngest sister delivered her first baby girl Chloe! That's the good news (duh!). The bad news it that the hospital was having a hard time keeping her oxygen levels up and they airlifted her to Little Rock.

Please pray for my sister Renae and for Chloe ... I will keep you updated.

My Russia 2007 gallery

2007-10-18T23:12:00.001-05:00

I think I have put the finishing touches on my Russia 2007 gallery ... 438 pictures posted! I weed out some though, I started with over 500 pictures! :)

I hope you like it. Click here to view it. Let me know what you think.

It's wierd

2007-10-17T14:20:00.000-05:00

When I got back from Russia, there are habits you form there that you have to break. For instance, the tap water over there does NOT go in your mouth. Yes you bathe in it, but that's all. You brush your teeth from a cup of bottled water. One of the wierdest things was to force myself to put my toothbrush under running tap water. It just didn't feel natural ... much less rinsing with tap water. I don't remember feeling that in years gone bye.

And we ate soooo much at breakfast, but we'd walk from 3-6 hours that day. When I ate my usual bowl of cereal or oatmeal, I was famished by 9:30am! I guess you get your metabolism ramped up with all that walking and it doesn't know that you're planning on sitting in front of a computer for the next 8+ hours. I wish Dallas was built so that walking WAS an alternative. But walking 20-30 minutes will get you nowhere in Dallas, but in Ekat it can get you to almost anything you might need.

Maybe I'm just part European trapped in an Amerikanets body? Excuse me while I go sit on a stationary bike. :-/

Russia 2007

2007-10-13T00:56:00.000-05:00

It's been a great two weeks in Russia again ... trip number 5! It has been a typical two weeks and it has been anything but typical for two weeks. It was the best of times .... ooops, I digress. :-)

It has been interesting only having 2 people on the team for the first week. But that in itself was good. It was good to have Chris and Holly join us for the second week. They communicate with their students a lot better than I do after we get back to the states. That is challenging to me to see that since I am not a great communicator by nature.

Forest Fun Party here we come! I hope Jerry doesn't mind me sharing this .... when announcements were made for the "Forest Fun Party", he took it as "Forced Fun Party". :-)) You WILL have fun and you WILL enjoy yourself ... or ELSE!

No, not Forced ... Forest. What we do is load all the students that can go onto 2 or 3 busses and go out of the city to a retreat center. Darin and the stinters have games and activities for us. It is a non-stop 24 hour fun fest. Sadly we have to leave the party at midnight to get back to the hotel for some sleep and to get to the airport in time for our flights out. I would like to be there for the whole thing, but it isn't realistic with our departure schedule. Every year the students tell me what fun they had. I even have some students coming with us from 2 years ago. So it definately leaves an impression.

Please pray that the students would have a fun time and realize that a life following God isn't all hard work and sorrow. Please pray that the students will come to the Bible discussions that the Compas students and stinters will have. These discussions will be in Russian so that they can better understand the topic (whether they are good English speakers or poor English speakers).

Thanks and see you soon ... Rod

Robbie's pathology

2007-10-09T03:28:00.000-05:00

This is some information I am forwarding from my sister:

Robbie's left kidney and right adrenal both tested as renal cell (kidney) cancer. The specific type of renal cell is called Clear cell renal cell carcinoma. There are 5 types of renal cell cancer with clear cell accounting for about 80% of cases.

Kidney cancer is given a type(above), a grade, and then a stage. Robbie's grade is 4 on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the most aggressive. The stage of this cancer is called the TNM Staging System with the letter T describing the tumors size- 0-3 describes size, N followed by 0-2 indicates whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, and M followed by 0 or 1 indicates whether or not the cancer has metastasized (spread). Robbies stage is T2,M1,N0. That is a little complicated but its the info from his pathology report if you want to research anything.

The doctor is hopeful that he got all the cancer as it was contained in the kidney and the adrenal but due to the spread to the right adrenal there could be other cells that traveled thru the bloodstream. So, he advised that Robbie take Sutent - an oral chemo as a preventative measure. We will be seeing an oncologist in Harrison who will give us more info this follow up treatment. Then Robbie will be tested with upper and lower CT scans every 3 months.

We were told that if this cancer returns that we would be talking treatment but not cure so please pray with us that all the cancer is gone if that is the Lords will!!!! Robbie is doing great after surgery - got his 31 staples out today and his Doctor said he wished he would have brought his camera for another picture as he is very proud of his work! The doctor said his mentor from MD Anderson was coming to visit in 2 weeks and he was editing the video of Robbie's surgery to show him! Robbie will be selling copies! ha!!

Thanks for all your prayers and support - they have really sustained us!!!

Rhonda, Robbie and family

Robbie update from Ekat

2007-10-05T00:31:00.001-05:00

First, I posted an update on our Talk the Talk classes on our missions blog: Ekat Friday Update

I know I posted a lot of news in one blog last time, I hope you could take it all in. Here are some more details that I did not know. Thanks to Roxie for being our family's "Great Communicator". 8^)

Robbie & Rhonda have been led to believe that if the pathology reports show cancer that has metastasized insurance will pay for chemotherapy treatment. If the pathology reports show that there is no metastasized cancer, the insurance will state that the cancer was completely removed via surgery and no chemotherapy is needed. If Robbie is approved for a clinical trial, the chemo treatment would be free. This is an issue that we ask you to pray about.

Robbie & Rhonda have been told that "renal cell cancer" does not respond to chemotherapy; however, the clinical trial is for a new type of drug that inhibits the cancer cells from being able to attach to other cells and metastasize (spread). At this point, Robbie & Rhonda would like to pursue this treatment.

The surgeon said that leaving the left adrenal in Robbie was a judgment call that he had to make during surgery. He felt the health benefits and improved quality of life for Robbie were important enough to leave the adrenal. We have been told that you can live with one adrenal just as you can live with one kidney. Since Robbie has an adrenal gland, he will not be required to be on medication for the rest of his life. We are overjoyed with that outcome!

Rhonda was still a little nervous about leaving any tissue that had even remotely touched the cancer tumor or kidney. Melissa Chu, a friend and doctor from Harrison, called to follow up on Robbie this afternoon. Melissa shared that the kidney is encased in a thick protective cover and it is really possible that the cancer was contained in that cover and did not infect the left adrenal. Rhonda had more peace about the situation after visiting with Melissa. Even if the left adrenal has been exposed to renal cell cancer cells, we are praying that the chemo treatment will resolve that issue.

Thanks for all your prayers about Robbie and about the Ekat trip!

Commrade Rodney

Ekat and Robbie update

2007-09-30T06:22:00.000-05:00

I just got to Yekaterinburg Sunday morning at 1am ... and all is going well. We even got all four of our checked bags!! What a praise that is. We had a brief scare when the ATM at the airport refused Jerry's card (he is my only NBC teammate until Chris and Holly get here). But when we got up Sunday morning after breakfast we went across the street to a bank ATM and we got some rubbles. So God is answering prayers already .... just like He does every year we come to Ekat.

We will be posting Ekat news on our NBC 2 Ekat. Click this for more Ekat Talk the Talk updates.

This is the first time I've been on the internet and I went straight to my email to check on Robbie's surgery status. I am forwarding the details to you all, please keep praying.

Surgery (email from my Dad):

Just a short update on Robbie's surgery. I left home this morning at 3 am so that I could spend some time with Rhonda and Robbie before the surgery. We had a tearful prayer time together before surgery, but what precious moments these are as we just bare our hearts and souls before God. Robbie was taken to surgery at 7:15 am, but the actual surgery did not begin until 8:45 am and lasted until about 2:45 pm. The surgery went very well with minimal lose of blood, no complications, and they took the left kidney along with the right adrenal gland. This was a great surprise to us as they had said that they would take both the right and left adrenal glands as they assured us that there would be cancer cells in both glands.

The surgeon was quite sure that the right gland looked to be cancerous, but the left gland which had been hidden in the scans by the tumor looked good and they were able to peal it (ed. the right gland) off and keep it (ed. the left gland). That will certainly simplify having to regulate his blood pressure and hormones by medicine. They will now have to wait for one week to get the results of the pathology reports, and then Robbie goes back to the surgeon in two weeks.

Following that visit he will be referred to an oncologist who will make the determination as to whether he will have to take an experimental chemo regimine to try to lower the chances of a re-occurance.

Please continue to pray for Robbie that he will have a speedy recovery, and the miracle of no cancer re-occurance. By the way there is a possibility that Robbie will be able to come home tomorrow evening, and he is more than ready to get out of the hospital as soon as possible.

Post Surgery Update:

Robbie is home!!!! He just came home this evening (Sat.) as the surgeon said that it would be easier traveling today than it would tomorrow. He said that he would be in alot more pain by tomorrow. His bowels have not started working as yet so he is on a liquid diet, and it to avoid any protein for several more days. He will go back in two weeks to find out the results of the pathology tests. The surgeon said because he was in such great shape everything went much easier for him. So when he said that I told him that I thought they should get a discount for him not having to cut through all those layers of fat! He just kind of smiled and looked at me like I was some kind of hick from the sticks, with a sick sense of humor.... What is that saying, Better to keep you mouth shut and be thought a hick(fool), than to open it and remove all doubt (ed. this is my Dad talking ... not me :-). We are still praying for a miracle in all of this as they say that this cancer is bad for re-occurance in three to six months, but we are praying that God will give a miracle and that there will be no re-occurance.

It is so good to see him home and moving around like he is because when we took the kids back about supper time, and by the way when we got there Robbie was standing on the front porch. The Doctor told him that he should be up walking alot as that would help with the soreness, but when he got home it was less than 24 hours after major surgery. To me he is doing incredibly well, but he is in really good shape physically. Plus alot of people are praying as well.

Please pray for Robbie

2007-09-27T22:38:00.000-05:00

My brother-in-law Robbie is scheduled to undergo surgery on Sept. 28th ... that is the very day I leave for Ekaterinburg Russia. This is an involved surgery that lasts about 7 hours.

Robbie has been diagnosed with kidney cancer and it has spread to his adrenals. The doctors will be removing the infected kidney and the infected adrenal gland(s).

What little good news we have is that his second kidney is clear and his lungs, bones, and brain are also clear! Praise GOD!

Our family covets your prayers very much.

Robbie update (RE: Urgent Prayer)

2007-09-05T13:18:00.000-05:00

I got an update on Robbie's tests from this morning. Good news, his lungs are clear. I don't know when his surgery will be, but I'm sure it will be ASAP.

Urgent Prayer Needed

2007-09-04T22:15:00.000-05:00

I know not everyone who reads my blog is a Believer, but please pray for or "lift up" this request in anyway you know how!

My brother-in-law Robbie got some bad news this weekend. He was passing so much blood that the doctors said it had to be kidney cancer related and they needed to run tests. They were hoping it was contained in just the one kidney.

Well I just got word that it is cancer and has at least spread into the adrenal glands. Plus there is a "spot" on the other kidney. They will be running tests on his lungs, the next logical place the cancer invades.

Surgery is imminent, there is no way around it. Right now the best possible outcome is the removal of one kidney and not a lung. Although I do not know what they will do about the cancer in the adrenals. I understand this cancer cannot be treated via chemo. So surgery is about the only recourse.

Robbie has four beautiful children with one on the way. Friday he was a healthy man and today ... Today he is a man with a future with one kidney. I won't contemplate anything less. Please remember him in your prayers.

Return to Russia ... Year 5!

2007-09-03T19:01:00.000-05:00

I emailed this to some of my blog readers already, so this may be a duplicate.

I wanted to share some information about the Russia Talk the Talk classes this year. The minister of foreign missions got a me a few other people together last Sunday to talk about this year's trip. We are going to go to Russia on September 28th. He said that the trip planning was so late because his family had "a hard summer". He didn't elaborate, so I didn't ask for any details.

But the good news is we are going! So I need you to mark September 28th-October 14th in your calendars to pray for our team. I would have liked to send out my normal support letter with the cute little pre-stamped envelopes, but there just isn't time. Due to the late start, there isn't any deadlines for financial support. So if you wish to support me in that way, you can do so whenever you have means in the upcoming months.

I thought it would be appropriate to share some of my thoughts about this year's trip. I know God is a light unto our paths, but He rarely illuminates more than one step in front of us. The fact that this year's trip is happening at all is proof of that! But I do feel Him leading me away from Russia. I have been to Russia four times starting when the English classes were in their "infancy". Some of my first year students are graduating this year, and going back next year w/o seeing them would be hard. These trips have not been about seeing old friends, that has just been God blessing His work and workers. But what I am sensing is that I have been there for "a season" and that the graduation of my first year students is a kind of closure on that season. I cannot be certain that my work there is complete, just thinking of not going back pulls at my heart strings. I guess I really have fallen in love with Russia.

Not returning on the Talk the Talk trip does not mean that I won't be going somewhere. One of my best friends at church is moving to Kazakhstan fulltime to run a Celebrate Recovery (a God centered AA) program. Since that ministry will be in its "infancy" too, that may be an opportunity. I work with pre-schoolers at church and our India mission works with kids as does our Guatemala mission. There's too much to be done to be idle. So please say a prayer for me that God will shove me in the right direction. :))

Thank you and God bless.

Is This a Kissing Book?

2007-05-25T13:35:00.000-05:00

What happens when "The Princess Bride" meets "Lord of the Rings"? Go here to find out.

Be sure you are belted into your seat, because you are likely to fallout of it laughing! A MUST read for any PB/LOTR fans!

One of my favorite cross overs is: GOLLUM: Good night, hobbitses. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.

And Jesus wept ...

2007-04-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

Hello again, Today I feel compelled to post about a 20/20 show I just watched. The show was about "transgender" children. I was moved enough to go to the abc news site and enter a comment.

This subject is obviously a "lightening rod" for religious comments. Unfortunately there were a lot of "bullhorn guys" leaving comments. What did I think? Stay tuned for my ABCNEWS post. But for you, my readers, I will expand. The scientific part of my brain thinks of DNA and (for the boy transgender) I see the dominant moms in the show. I also see the dominant fathers for the transgender girls. But what I (scientifically) think doesn't matter. See my ABCNEWS post now ....

I am a born again Christian AND IF you are still reading you expect a lot of hate coming, but NOT SO! These are beautiful children and this story made me want to cry. (Actually I did, but as a man I can't admit that in public ;-)

PLEASE EXCUSE any other "religious" negative posts you will see. God loves these children MORE than their parents do. God bless the parents who continue to love these children and be involved in their lives.

God DOES NOT WANT these children to be depressed or attempt suicide or use illegal drugs. I, unfortunately, do not know why this happens but I DO know that God loves them and wants them to love Him and themselves.

Why do Christians (I am one, so I can say this) need to condemn at the drop of a hat? Jesus was ready to LOVE at the drop of a hat. THAT is the message of the Bible, not hate, not condemnation, not "you're a freek".

Note to the "bullhorn guy", take your message of doom elsewhere. These families do NOT need it. Note to those Christians who "get the message of the Bible", please love on these families and offer the same Grace that you received.

Afterthought: there were "bullhorn guys" in the ABC blogs. There were replies that showed more Biblical insight by the transgender community than by the bullhorn community. Christians were complacent for long enough to let abortion, removal of prayer in school, removal of the 10 commandments, etc... to pass into law. But MUST WE SHOOT abortion doctors and innocent kids? I am not saying that "all paths lead to God", but I AM saying that we MUST demonstrate Jesus in our everyday walk. We are the savor of "life unto life" and not "death unto death".

One last thing, a song lyric that comes to mind:

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

CSS Reboot ... well not quite

2007-03-07T22:35:00.000-06:00

I have spent a few hours off and on (over a few nights) trying to adapt a new template to my blog. The template was created for "another blog site" (aka. wordpress). The "other" template I am copying is "peaceful rush". I thought the "garden path" image at the top would fit my "Wayfaring Stranger" moniker quite nicely.

As for my blog name, I never blogged the change from my old moniker. But since most of my postings were before/during/after my Russia trips, I changed the old title to something more apropos. I.e. something to more closely reflect the missions focus of this blog. After all, when I created this site I knew nothing about what I wanted to talk about. And, as it turns out, missions has been my focus.

So, for those of you who do not know what "Wayfaring Stranger" means; it is from a song. If the lyrics do not help, post a comment and I'll explain more. Lyrics:

I am a poor wayfaring stranger
Travelling through this world alone
There is no sickness, toil or danger
In that fair land to which I go

I'm going home
To see my mother
I'm going home
No more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home

I know dark clouds will hover on me,
I know my pathway is rough and steep
Beauteous fields lie right before me
Where weary eyes no more will weep
I'm going home to see my father
I'm going home no more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home

I'll soon be free from every trial
This form will rest beneath the sun
I'll drop the cross of self-denial
Come back home with God
I'm going home to see my savior
I'm going home no more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home

I guess the lines I like best are "I'm going home to see my father / I'm going home no more to roam". That's it in a nutshell for me. This life is great. This life is sweet. But this life is nothing in comparison to where I am going .... wanna come!!??

The King vs. The Slow Hand

2007-03-01T21:48:00.000-06:00

What does the title mean? Well, let's just say I had the opportunity to see the following two artists:

For those of you who don't know, that's B. B. King (King of the Blues!) and Eric (Slow Hand) Clapton, respectively. I saw BB at the end of January at Bass Hall in Fort Worth and I saw Eric at the end of February at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

BB was WONDERFUL! We ticket holders had quite a scare, B. B. was hospitalized a few days before the concert: On January 26, 2007, while on tour, King was hospitalized in Galveston, Texas due to a low grade (100.4) fever after a recent bout with influenza. He was released on January 27, after an overnight stay. He was scheduled to resume his tour, with his next performance on January 30. [wikipedia.org] Jan 30 was the night that I HAD TICKETS! I feel really lucky that even though BB missed/rescheduled 2 or 3 concerts, he choose MY NIGHT to get back to the tour! It was a spectacular night. The crowd was a little "slow" (i.e. didn't chime in on songs when they should have) but they got there on time and sat down and enjoyed the show. Though described as "slow", they really did recognize BB's songs, clap when they should have, and even called out to the band between songs. I only wish I'd had tickets for a show in Mississippi or New Orleans; I'm sure the crowd dynamic would have been much sharper.

Eric was "Wonderful Tonight" as well. The show was delayed for 30-45 minutes due to a false fire alarm (sirens and trucks and firemen, oh my!). Unfortunately that shortened Robert Cray's opening set. But Eric and band was in top form. They performed some new material before ripping into the tried and true classics. But don't get me started on the crowd. During Cray, I can understand people arriving late and talking and moving around. After all, some people don't like the opening acts or need to eat dinner or get stuck in traffic, not to mention the fire department delay. So I ignored all that and enjoyed the opening act anyway. But when people were chating, arriving late, coming in, going out, or eating during Eric's set; that irked me a little.

Crowd aside (it's their loss), it was a GREAT night! Among the classics Eric did was "Running on Faith" and "Wonderful Tonight", two of my favorites. And they did "Layla" and others, which may not be in my top two, but they were awesome songs with lots of technical musical talent. It was fun to watch the crowd and, as in BB's concert, I thought it might be a better experience somewhere other than Dallas. But with BB the obvious choices were Mississippi or N.O. But with Eric, where are the obvious choices? Back in England perhaps? I don't know.

Robert Cray was not only the opening act but closed with Eric in the encore! Eric and band played the first song and the lights dimmed and came back up with Eric and Robert side by side for "Crossroads". It was a wonderful ending for a wonderful tonight. :-)

What I do know is: (A) I have been a fan of both BB and Eric for a long time and I will always remember both concerts and (2) I got to have a fun evening out with fabulous company.

More info:

Reviews at GuideLive:: B. B. King; Eric Clapton
Background information:: B. B. King; Eric Clapton; Robert Cray

Christmas/Russia 2006 letter ... again

2006-12-19T23:35:00.001-06:00

Oops, posted the title image again ... meant to post like this:

I sent out my Christmas letter quite late ... you can see it here (pdf, opens in new window).

Russia was great. They have a lot of students that are hanging out w/ the stint-ers and staff. And our 2 stint-ers (1+ years international trip) from NBC are helping plant the new church in Ekat. You can see pics of the infant church at Darin's site and Ashley's (1 of the 2 NBC stint-ers) site below.

Darin (opens in new window)
Ashley (opens in new window)

My letter:

Christmas/Russia 2006 letter

2006-12-19T23:13:00.001-06:00

resent here

Christmas 2006

2006-12-16T22:07:00.002-06:00

My 2006 Christmas gallery. This is a combination of my Community Group (LLCG) party, family Christmas party, and recreational activities while at home. check it out.

P.S. there are 4 short movies herein, find em! :*))

Thanksgiving 2006

2006-11-23T21:56:00.001-06:00

My 2006 Thanksgiving gallery. This is my family's 2006 Thanksgiving party. Katye's bday is in December so we usually celebrate at Thanksgiving when everyone is home. check it out.

Halloween 2006

2006-10-27T21:40:00.001-05:00

Just a note to let you know that I finally got a new gallery online. Click here to visit my 2006 Halloween gallery.

Russia 2006 -- Talk the Talk English classes

2006-10-17T18:20:00.001-05:00

Here is my Russia 2006 "Talk the Talk" gallery (click here or on the image below):

Enjoy ...

P.S. there are 11 (that's right eleven!) movies in here ... can u spot em? :*))

Hi ya ... from London, England

2006-10-08T09:21:00.000-05:00

Hey, just a quick note. We left Ekat at 1pm and arrived in London at 1:35pm. Just a 35 minute flight!!!! Ok, not so much but it is weird flying for ~ 16 hours (total trip back home) and landing the same day. Especially when we left Friday and arrived on Sunday on the outbound trip.

We are in Heathrow waiting for our Chicago connection. I hope the weather is more hospitable this time around!

:-D

An ironic note: Mark and Meredith got delayed on their return from week one and wound up spending the night in Chicago ... ugggghhhhh. Pray that does not happen to us.

Miss y'all and see ya soon ... Rod

Ouch!

2006-10-05T01:00:00.000-05:00

We were babysitting for Darin on Saturday night so he and Susan could go out. Me and his boys were playing soccer in our socks. Let me tell you, soccer in your socks is not a good idea. Me and Alex connected in a pretty hard kick. My foot swelled up big time and I have been hobbling since. The swelling is mostly gone now and I am getting to where I can walk with less of a limp.

Other than that, things have been going fantastic this week. We were still missing one bag (Chris Melton's) until Tuesday of this week. But it arrived and Chris is very glad for that. The classes are great, my class still runs at or above 30 students; which is phenominal (sp?)!

We have 1 class session left (I wish we had another week of classes!). And this weekend is the "Forrset Fun Party". Most of my class has signed up to go. I have also had the opportunity to meet with some of my students from last year and some my be at the weekend retreat.

Please pray that many students would come to the retreat, that each one would hear the gospel clearly, and for our safe and undelayed return.

Yahoo!

2006-09-28T23:39:00.000-05:00

No, not the search engine. We got our bags on Wednesday!! .... Well almost all of us got our bags. Chris M. still (as of Friday morning) does not have his bag. Twelve of the Fourteen bags came in and Chris lost the "luggage lotto". :-(

Who knew there would be so much excitement over clean (umm...) "undies"?

:-D

The classes are going great. We have lost fewer students than most of the years before. So that is a HUGE blessing. We are also seeing a lot of interest in discussing spiritual matters. This year maybe a water shed year. We see a stepped up attack on the young minds and hearts. Please keep praying for us and the infant church that Darin and NBC is trying to plant.

I can't wait to get back and post some of my pictures and videos. Love you all (say it back Andy) ....

WOW!

2006-09-24T23:42:00.000-05:00

Sorry I couldn't come up with a better subject than "WOW!", but that just about says it all.

We started our trip on Friday. Our plane was supposed to leave at 2:00pm, but it was delayed for an hour and a half. We only had about a 3 hour layover in Chicago, so things are getting tight. We taxi out to our runway and I hear the engines shutdown! The pilot comes on the PA and says Chicago has institued a "ground stoppage". Meaning it is under severe weather and can't land planes so no one is allowed to take off if they are headed there. And "we will be getting an update in an hour and fifty minutes! There goes our London connection :-( When we get our update, we get good news ... the ground stoppage is lifted and we get to take off first!!! ... in an hour and fifty minutes. After taking off, we were delayed by five and a half hours total. And we probably have to get a hotel in Chicago or maybe London.

The flight goes pretty well and we get to Chicago at 9:25pm. Luckily the last flight to London is still at Chicago and is scheduled to leave at 10pm. So we run to the gate and the queue is WAY backed up. We finally get to the head of the line and find a sympathetic ear in the form of Robert O. gate agent extrodinaire. He frantically types for the next half hour and manages to get all 7 of us on the flight to London. No hotel in Chicago!!! Wooopeee! But we don't get off the ground till about 11pm.

The flight to London takes about 7 hours and 11 minutes and we land (after much turbulence) and unbelievably the Ekat flight has not taken off (I guess the 5:30 hour delay was less than the total layovers we had scheduled) but it is going to leave in 20 minutes. We were in Heathrow and it would take probably 50+ to make that trek (terminal change, security checkpoint, etc...) so they told us "too bad so sad".

What to do next? The next British Airways flight would be in a day or two and the English classes would already be underway.

We went to the AA counter and found another brilliant agent with a sympathetic ear ... What's that you said. "Two helpful AA employees??!??" Yes, I guess God really was looking out for us because BOTH of the helpful AA employees were sent our way :-D This time we got diverted onto a Lufhthansa flight from London to Frankfurt to Ekat.

So the only flight on our itinerary that we actually flew was Dallas to Chicago. Everything else was reaccomodations. And all of the reaccoms happened very quickly. We ran from gate to gate and terminal to terminal. Not surprising, our bags could not run as fast as we did :-D So we show up in Ekat and have no bags. We expected this, but were happy to finally step off onto Terra Firma and not have to make any more mad dashes to make connections.

So, "What's it like to be in Ekat without bags?" you say. Well, not everyone had emergency clothes in their bags. Some packed their coats. All the lesson material are in our bags. All our candy and gifts are in those bags. All toilitries are in those bags (no gels and liquids in carry ons). We are pretty much living "with the shirts on our backs". BTW, it may be Wednesday or later for bag ETA.

But that doesn't dampen our enthusiasm. We know even more than before that God is working here in Ekat. We have seen spiritual warfare here in years gone by and it has ratched up a notch this year. We have seen attachs on Bear being in school, people dropping off the team, challenges getting support raised, and the latest attack -- trying to keep us from getting here at all. Well, guess what? It didn't work. We are here and we are excited to get to teach the English classes which will help launch the ministry for the next year and help to launch the church plant.

Please PRAY! Pray for rest and unity. The trip was really hard and we are still catching up on rest. And tired people can sometimes do or say things or hear things wrong. Pray that does not happen. Pray for transperancy and integrity, because we want the students to see God and not us. Good news, Darin had more students turn out than they could take! So we have the best of the best in our classes. Pray that they come back and don't get scared off in the first few days.

Oh yeah ...

2006-09-15T23:41:00.000-05:00

Don't forget to check out my Russia galleries (to the sidebar at the right):

Zdrastvotye Roccia!

2006-09-15T22:54:00.000-05:00

Hello Russia!

I know it's been a while since I posted on this blog ... but I set this up mainly for my Russia trips. Well guess what? I'm headed back there in 1 week! Friday September 22nd to be exact ... wow, I need to get to the candy, dollar general, and travel stores! :-D

We have a somewhat small group this year. But at the same time, we have 2 NBC ladies headed to Ekat for a 1+ year stint (Short Term International Trip). So we should be good to engage the usual 5 classes of English lessions.

For those praying for us ... please pray

students would turn out for the English class testing
close connections for those who come
that the students would like to spend time w/ us
that the Holy Spirit would give us the words to say and that the students would see His Love and we would not get into the way
that Darin's downs syndrome son Bear would be accepted in Russian's schools
for culture shock for the new peeps going to Ekat
for the new church being estabolished and the stinters living there for the next year
and (of course) for openness to the Gospel and to Jesus as their saviour!!

Hopefully I will be able to update you all from Russia. I have yet to stay in a hotel for more than 1 year. Our hotel last year had an internet connection and the year before we found an internet hotspot. I will try to keep this blog current during my trip. Thanks so much for reading and praying!! ... Paka (see ya ...)!

Update on Wright is Wrong (thanks Al)

2006-02-09T14:03:00.000-06:00

07:28 AM CST on Thursday, February 9, 2006
By ROBERT DODGE / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn are quietly urging airline and government leaders in North Texas to come up with a compromise on allowing long-haul flights at Dallas Love Field.

The Texas Republicans have delivered a clear and sober warning: Figure out a solution that is acceptable to the region, or Congress might overturn the Wright amendment in a fashion that could be distasteful to almost everyone.

"It is time for the local people who are affected to come together where we are driving this rather than being surprised every year," Ms. Hutchison said.

The senators pointed to last year's surprise – the addition of Missouri as the eighth state that can be served with interstate commercial flights from Love – as evidence that Congress is ready and willing to act.

And both lawmakers predicted that more senators would try to add their states this year.

"We are outnumbered," Mr. Cornyn said.

So far, there does not appear to be any organized process to produce a regional compromise. Local negotiations have been proposed before, though not since the landscape shifted with the Missouri move.

An effort last year to create a community consensus by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, fell flat. (Ms. Johnson later said she wanted to retain Wright and would support shutting Love to commercial traffic if the law were repealed.)

Dallas Mayor Laura Miller's proposals for some kind of compromise similarly fell on deaf ears, as did offers last summer from Mr. Cornyn that he would serve as a mediator.

Indeed, reaching any kind of deal would be difficult because the concerned parties appear to be clinging to hardened positions.

American Airlines maintains that the 1979 Wright amendment is the compromise and that Southwest Airlines should compete at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

"You need to look at the history of this issue ... and you need to talk about all the options including closing Love Field as was originally intended," said Tim Wagner, a spokesman for the Fort Worth-based carrier.

Southwest said it was willing to negotiate but had no one to talk to.

"Unfortunately, no one other than Southwest has been willing to come to the table," said Ed Stewart, a spokesman for the discounter, which wants to serve its nationwide network from Love Field, its home airport.

Fort Worth Mayor Michael Moncrief declined to comment on any effort by the Texas senators for a compromise. The city of Fort Worth has held that any expansion of Love flights is unacceptable.

In Dallas, Ms. Miller declined to discuss the Wright amendment but wrote in an e-mail message, "I've said for the past year that a local solution needs to be found on Wright, and I still believe that."

Kevin Cox, D/FW Airport's chief operating officer, said the airport "is really not in a position to discuss this matter at this time."

Flights to Missouri became permissible after Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., used his position as chairman of a Senate subcommittee to add a provision to a transportation spending bill.

The provision opened interstate flights to Missouri, adding it to a short list consisting of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., made a similar but unsuccessful attempt to add his state shortly before Congress adjourned for the holidays.

Eager to join parade

With American and Southwest now competing for passengers for flights between North Texas and Missouri, lawmakers and industry lobbyists think other senators will be eager to add their states.

Southwest launched new flights from Love Field to Kansas City and St. Louis in December, with one-way fares as low as $49. American announced it also would start flying from Love on March 2 to both cities, and it is adding regional jet service from the city airport to San Antonio and Austin.

Although fares have crept up slightly since Southwest's launch, they still represent a bargain compared with the $300 to $599 one-way fares American previously charged from D/FW.

"There is going to be some serious Missouri envy," Southwest's Mr. Stewart said.

Mr. Cornyn urged the chief executives of American and Southwest to reach a compromise last year. Asked about American's continued unwillingness to negotiate, he said: " I do not think that is realistic."

Industry officials familiar with the discussions said Ms. Hutchison has made it clear she is frustrated with the issue and wants it resolved. And while Congress is just getting its legislative year under way, the two senators believe there is limited time before forces on Capitol Hill move to expand flights at Love on their own terms. "She wants to get it settled," an airline lobbyist said on condition of anonymity.

For now, Ms. Hutchison appears to have taken the lead on the issue, industry officials said. And so far, no one based in the region has emerged as a leader to bring together the disparate parties.

"There is not that person," Ms. Hutchison said.

Ms. Hutchison said she had been warning local leaders since the Missouri provision was enacted, but she would not detail recent discussions.

She did allow that she had discussed the issue with the mayors of both cities and the senior executives at the two airlines.

Mr. Cornyn said he discussed the issue with Ms. Miller as recently as Friday in Dallas.

Mr. Cornyn said he wanted to co-author a letter with Ms. Hutchison asking fellow members of Congress to back off Wright proposals. The idea is to give leaders in North Texas time to craft a compromise.

A little progress first

Ms. Hutchison said she wanted to make more progress in getting substantive talks under way before seeking a legislative moratorium.

"I am trying to get the local people to a point where I know there will be a chance that something will happen," she said.

Lobbyists and lawmakers speculate that a compromise could provide for a phased repeal of Wright, gradually adding states over time. A compromise also might allow airlines to sell tickets from Love to make connections in the states where flights are now permissible.

So far, key House members have not been included in discussions.

Republican Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas and Sam Johnson of Plano, who are co-sponsoring a bill that would repeal Wright, have not heard from either senator. And Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, who has led opposition to expanding Love flights, also has not been included.

"Mr. Barton feels that any change in the current legal standing has no chance if relevant members of the House are not included in preliminary discussions," spokeswoman Karen Modlin said.

Letting Congress decide would be odious to all, Hutchison, Cornyn say

Merry Christmas

2005-12-18T20:44:00.001-06:00

I just got my Christmas letter out this weekend ... you can see it here in HTML, or here in PDF.

Note: the HTML version is smaller for viewing online, the PDF is larger for printing.

Prayer Request -- Jet slides off runway, boy killed

2005-12-09T00:05:00.000-06:00

Including the Burbank, CA incident ... at first glance this is Southwest's first fatality. And right now I feel really sick. Not only for the boy, which is tragic ... but for the pilot and crew as well. I can't image what the parents and the crew will have to live through.

Please keep them all in your prayers.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A Southwest Airlines Co. jet attempting to land at Chicago Midway Airport in heavy snow Thursday night slid off a runway and crashed through a fence into a busy street, hitting two vehicles and killing a 6-year-old boy, according to media reports.

Two of the 98 passengers on the Southwest flight suffered minor injuries, and as many as eight other people in the vehicles were taken to local hospitals, according to media reports.

The flight originated in Baltimore and was bound for Las Vegas after stopping in Chicago.

The airport was closed indefinitely after the accident, which occurred about 7:15 p.m. Central in heavy snow.

Midway, Chicago's second-largest after O-Hare International, had reported 7 inches of snow Thursday, but airport officials said runways were open and conditions acceptable at the time of the accident, according to media reports.

The Southwest Boeing 737 slid through the northwest corner of the airport, through the boundary fence and into a road bordering the airport, the Associated Press reported, citing the Federal Aviation Administration's regional office in Chicago.

At least two vehicles were damaged, and one was pinned under the plane, the AP said.

National Transportation Safety Board and FAA officials from Washington were on their way to Chicago to investigate.

Microsoft's mythical man-years

2005-12-07T20:55:00.000-06:00

I admit it (without shame), I am a techie. There, I said it. And this article is for techies ... and anybody with an opinion on Microsoft, anybody getting the blue screen of death, anybody supporting their Grandma and trying to deinfest her PC from all the viruses and spyware she got from opening an email from "Donald" (she knew a Donald once ya know ... forgetting she never gave Donald her email address).

Oh, and open source folk might like to read this too.

Note: this article is not *new* per say, but it was new and interesting to me. The following are a few selected quotes from the article. They are very anti-Mircosoft selected ... but then the article wasn't exactly complementary :-)

But apparently Microsoft was unable to convince other companies to adopt it as a trusted middleman. "After nine months of intense effort," the Times' John Markoff reports, "the company was unable to find any partner willing to commit itself to the program" -- an extraordinary rebuff. With no third-party services on tap to offer users of Persona/Hailstorm (ed. HA!), Microsoft decided to abandon the project -- though its underlying .Net technology remains the heart of the company's push to build a new generation of Internet services.

Trust is hard to win and easy to squander. Though Microsoft remains the software industry's 800-pound gorilla, it cannot achieve its goals alone. And on several different fronts today, Microsoft has lost valuable credibility.

Fielding says that Lipner's "more man-years" claim is "absolute crap. They probably spent more money on it, but he is misdirecting the public based on the theory that there are fewer open source developers per project than there are people per project within Microsoft ... "

The open-source model, in other words, allows for a kind of global stress-testing, peer review and transparent repair that Microsoft can never guarantee. Since its code is proprietary, you can only take Microsoft's word that it has fixed bugs and plugged security holes. And the next time a rogue virus takes down your company's e-mail server, all you can do is curse -- and wait for the company to issue a fix.

With its vast resources, Microsoft can afford more "man-years" than anyone else on earth. But can it rewrite principles of the software business first identified nearly 30 years ago?

The answer will become plain as the results of the "trustworthy computing" project emerge. If the torrent of security gaffes in Microsoft products vanishes, we can applaud Redmond's intrepid troops. But if we're still battling the spawn of the NIMDA and Code Red worms in a year or two, it's time to stop trusting Bill Gates for good.

Despite the tone, I do not hate Microsoft. In fact I sometimes pity them. When turning from an upstart, small, fast thinking company who can take advantage of current trends; they have become a company that has to support years of legacy crap, ensure that all the old crap runs, ensure that the new crap runs, and try and think up new ways to dig themselves out of that old bog. While opensource thinks up new ways of doing new things without the crap monkey on their back. I think Microsoft has become too big, too slow, and too laden with old bad decisions and will implode like dot com and Ma Bell.

Microsoft's mythical man-years

The State vs. Behrouz Nahidmobarekeh

2005-10-27T17:39:00.000-05:00

From the "no smoking gun, only stinky hands" department:

You probably have heard of this case, it was nationally covered. The judge called the case "raunchy, repugnant, repulsive, vile, and vulgar". And "you can't put lipstick on this pig". And the most bizarre case he has tried in 17 years. He judges a lot of felonies and deals with media, but he was not used to national coverage.

What you don't know is that you are reading a statement from the foreman on the case. You can see the courts notes in text form here (or in the original pdf).

Defendant spreading material on bread:
On donuts:
On cookies (note the ridiculous cut-offs, one leg is 6 inches longer than the other):
Defendant's confession:

It may on the surface look to be a slam dunk case. Did the defendant "tamper" with comsumer products? Absolutely. BUT, to _legally_ qualify for a tampering charge the outcome must include a PROBABILITY of serious bodily injury (SBI). Which means that it must "probably" cause 1) death; 2) risk of death; 3) disfigurement; or 4) long term loss of use of a bodily member or organ.

The defense was brilliant. It argued that from the testing results, there was no e.coli, salmonella, listeria, or other disease causing agents except gram positive cocchi. The prosecution called a chief epidemiologist and the defense got him to write on paper a statement : "Consuption of non-toxin e.coli is possibly able to cause serious injury, but is not probable".

None was found and this hurt the prosecution.

The prosecution called the arresting patrol officer to the stand. The officer is the one who chooses the charge. Not only does he write the charge, but he has to do so that day before incarcerating the individual. When the officer testified, he was unsure of what it meant legally to "tamper" with a consumer product. Including the SBI clause. The charge is rare indeed. And when showed the criminal code by the defense, he pointed to clause C. But clause C covers _threats_ of tampering. Kind of like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. This was not applicable. The defense, in light of the testing evidence, said that his client was more likely to be charged with criminal misconduct including the lesser "bodily injury" instead of the felony "serious bodily injury".

This hurt the prosecution.

The state rested and the defense called a professor of pathology.

He testified that the drying of the fecal matter reduces the live bacteria. In his opinion it is "highly unlikely" that the substance on the bakery items would cause "serious bodily injury".

This also hurt the prosecution. Later the prosecuting attorneys said they were "sweating bullets" during deliberations.

Deliberations : we took an initial vote of guilt. Only about 4 jurors raised their hands. This does not mean that 8 jurors thought the defendant was innocent, but that more deliberations were needed. Some of the jury members had personal knowledge of 1) homes for the elderly and handicapped in the immediate vicinity of the store; and 2) stores that had been responded to by the health department because of failed water supply and employee food handlers could not wash their hands. Which was not a contamination issue, but a *threat* of contamination.

We found that the state, through testing, had not supplied evidence of e.coli, salmonella, or listeria. BUT the sequence of events had only supplied opportunity to test a small sample from 1 of the 2 occurances (the July 24th incident and not the July 13th incident) and that the state HAD proved the substance was fecal matter (by the defendant's own confession). And also, if the state COULD have tested 100% of the substance that remained in the store, it could NOT have tested the substance that was on baked goods that were actually purchased or consumed. And it could not have tested anything from the first (July 13th) contamination.

Therefore we found it sufficient that the state proved that the material was fecal matter and was probable to cause SBI. We did not decide guilt on a "gross out" factor. We also found that _despite_ the lack of e.coli, salmonella, or listeria; 2 expert witnesses testified that they could only test for the higher profile contaminates and that those tests only "SCRATCHED THE SURFACE" of possible harmful bacteria.

Guilty verdict rendered.

The state could now show evidence outside the boundaries of this case. It called a patrol officer who stopped the defendant in a known drug area after running their patrol car off the road, running a stop sign, and almost hitting an oncoming car. The defendant was found to be carrying a 12" knife with a 7" blade. He claimed to have been carring it for protection. He later admitted that on several occasions he would pull into a gas station at night and not like the "look" of the people there. So he took the knife and hid it in his sleeve while filling up.

The defendant then took the stand after warnings by his attorney not to do so. Although a defendant cannot "address" a jury and can only speak in a QA forum, the defendant often overspoke his attorney and the state attorneys. It was clear that he was arrogant and thought he could talk his way out of jail time. He made many damming statements. He also showed that he lacked a clear view of reality. Here is a short list of some of the things he said:

He considered himself to be an "educated" man, despite flunking out of a community college. He was initially here on a student visa. He is not enlightened nor educated.
He said that even while on drugs he would never hurt anyone. And now that he was clean he would not hurt anyone. He has clearly forgotten the incident where he ran the police off the road and almost hit an oncoming car.
He was the oldest cabby and not getting many "trips". Everyone else was earning more than him. He saw other people with big houses and big mortgages that he could not afford. He seemed resentful about that. Yet he was spending every bit of his earnings on drugs, living "hand to mouth" as it were.
He thought people were laughing at him, insulting him, and leaving him out of things. He also heard voices. Paranoia is a common in this type of drug user. He was so paranoid that we doubted wether the "insult" event at the store was real or imagined. Even if it was real, he would have been high, drunk, or both; and probably belligerent.
When his cab was in the garage, he could not drive to make drug money and would experience withdrawals. One of the symptoms of withdrawl is diarrhea. He did not have a bathroom close to his room and would defecate on newspapers. During one withdrawl bout after the "insult" at the store, he looked at the feces on the paper and hatched his plan. From the pictures of his room, his bed roll (or maybe sleeping bag) was only inches away from his "bathroom" newspapers.
He did this to "scare them good", "get even", "get back at them", "teach them a lesson", and "to insult them".
He repeatedly tried to justify his actions, which was obviously his goal on the stand. He admitted to accidently eating his own feces and it "was not that bad". One night he had been doing drugs and drinking and urinating into bottles (remember no bathroom). He got mixed up and drank from the wrong bottle. Therefore he didn't think it would be "harmful" to anyone.
He said, "if I wanted to harm, I am a cabby with access to back of airport ...". At which time the defense quickly and smartly stopped his testimony.
The defendant experimented with but did not prefer marijuana. It did not let him "concentrate while driving" like heroine, coke, and crack did. So he could do drugs and drive at the same time. The state pressed him on this point, "So you did drugs while driving?". Defendant: "Yes".
The state asked him to demonstrate how he grated the feces. He took 2 evidence bags, one with the feces and one with the grater. He pantomimed the action, said he would dump the grated feces in his hand, cup it, and say to himself "now let me go get even with them". The only time he smiled or smirked on the stand was during this demonstration.

The defendant was very calculating. It took days to think out the plan. The states words where "after 4 days his blood was boiling". By the defendant's own words, he had to "act natural" when entering the store. After his arrest for the knife he switched to a bat sized club because, if an incident ever occured, he did not want a "big event". He calculated the effects of marijuana vs. the other drugs. To quote the judge, he was "raunchy, repugnant, repulsive, vile, and vulgar". And "you can't put lipstick on this pig".

Despite his arrogance and damming testimony, this man was sane and fit for trial. Just ignorant, insipid, stupid, and clueless.

I am making this statement because the defendant intends to appeal. IF this ever makes it back to trial, and in retrospect, we should have put community supervision on the first charge and 10 years on the second charge. The news said "the jury made a mistake". That is not entirely true. We asked the court if the sentence would be concurrent or consecutive. We got the stock answer, "You have all the law in front of you that you need. Please continue to deliberate". We later asked the state attorneys to in the future indicate how the sentences will be served so that jurys can _know_ that what they intend will be carried out.

However, I do not think the resulting concurrent 5 year sentence is a bad one. The range of punishment is 2-20 years. In cases where victims could be produced, that would lend to the 20 year side. The cases where lethal toxins could be proved would lend to the 10 year side. So 5 years is not bad. PLUS, this man only had a couple of misdemeanors and now he is a felon. His main source of income was driving a cab. I would guess that a felon cannot get a commercial drivers license. If the inmates in his prison find out his crime, he will be defending himself for the next 5 years.

I mentioned a couple of times that his defense was either smart or brilliant. In the appeal process, if it is found that the defendant did not receive adequate representation or a fair trial, the decision would be overturned. We meet with all the attorneys including the defense. The defense attorney was very nice and a good friend of the court. He did not want the case, but once assigned as the public defence, he did a bang up job. Everybody is entitled to a fair trial and the defendant GOT a fair trial.

Bottom line, our system works. Mr. Nahidmobarekeh, accept your sentence and be thankful that the system even allows for "concurrent" sentences. Let it go.

Russia Gallery for 2005

2005-10-19T23:00:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately I dropped my camera and exposed some of the second week photos. But here is most of my Russia 2005 "Talk the Talk" gallery (click here or on the image below):

Enjoy ...

Who'd have thought?

2005-10-05T15:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks John for this reference:

2 kings 2:23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead! [24] So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

:-P

Home again!

2005-10-03T16:39:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all,

I tried to post last night but my internet connection was down and refused to come up. Called SBC tech support today and they said there was "no problems", but my connection "coincidently" started working a couple of hours later. Hmmmmm. Only this isn't the first such "conincidence".

Anywho, we are back safe and sound. We left the hotel ~ 9am Ekat.RU time and I got home ~ 2am CDT.US time. That's 10pm CDT Saturday thru 2am CDT Monday; or 28 hours of traveling! And I know that others got home later than I did. The trip was pretty standard, including a 1-1.5 hour delay in Chicago b/c of bad weather. Our baggage carrousel was C-31, but AA was nice enough to reroute our baggage to C-4. So after a bit of scrambling around we were all set. BTW, thanks Bob and Julie for the ride!!

I'll post some additional thoughts and a photo album later. Just wanted you to know we all made it back safe and sound!

Packing up is hard to do ...

2005-10-01T02:43:00.000-05:00

Ohhh, sorry for the bad pun. But packing day is always the worst day for me on these trips. We get to go to the weekend retreat (aka "Forrest Fun Party"); which is a first for us. It will be a great time to meet with the students, but also the last time (this year) that we get to meet with the students. :-{

It really is hard to make such great friendships and then in 1 or 2 weeks leave them. Even though many students will keep in touch by email, it isn't the same as being here.

Please pray that all the students would come to the retreat and that each one would continue the friendships with a stint member and with Kompas.

Can't wait to put up a photo album for this year ... see you soon.

Prayer Request

2005-09-29T01:13:00.000-05:00

Before we arrived, the Orthodox priests were making a fuss with Darin and the Kompas classes. They handed out fliers saying Kompas (Campus Crusade for Christ) was a sect and students should not attend the English classes. Darin talked to them and they seemed OK with the classes. They even said they'd write an article for their newspaper (or some publication ... details are sketchy what they intended). But everything was fine.

Last night a student in one of the classes was real nervous and getting a lot of calls on her "mobile". It was her parents saying she should not be in the class. Apparently there is a rumor and maybe some radio ads saying Kompas is a sect and anyone involved with them will be kicked out of the university and lose their flat.

The threats don't seem like they could be carried out, but the terrorist tactics may work regardless. So please pray that students would not give into fear and doubt but that they will be steadfast and continue with the classes and will attend the weekend retreat. Please also pray that the seed being sown will fall on good soil and that those with thorny or rocky soil will allow the Spirit to work in them and remove the barriers to eternal life.

Also, please pray for the retreat; aka. Forrest Fun Party. Pray that all the students will come and have a good time and get connected with Kompas and with a Stint-er who will follow up with them in the coming year.

I have been with these same students for 2 weeks now and the relationships and changes are awesome. At first there is a "formal" relationship that progresses with time into a real friendship. When we invited students to dinner at the beginning, they would resist or only order a drink or insist on paying their own bill. But yesterday we (Lindsay and Rodney) took our group to Morretti's and the students were picking out pizzas, drinks, everything. They freely accepted our offer to treat them. This shows me that they accept us as friends and we are past the formalities! I can't wait to see what this next year brings in their lives, God is certainly doing a good work here in Ekat.

Thank you to everyone that came and to everyone that gave so that we could be here!

http://nbc2ekat.blogspot.com/
http://iwanttokeepanon.blogspot.com/

Our Week

2005-09-25T01:16:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

Our week has been really different this year. Instead of visiting different universities every day, we have "free time" each day. HA!!!! Free time, yeah right. The free time is setup so that we can invite students to hang out and build relationships.

Well, some of our students have morning classes and some have afternoon classes. So Julie and I were "tag teamed" all last week. Some of the students met us in the morning and some in the afternoon. I bet we walked the city a dozen times. But the relationships this year are better than ever.

And, as a "coincidence", Darin just got a team of 6 stint-ers (1 year short term missions). And their main mission for this next year will be to personally follow up with the students from the English "Talk the Talk" classes. So I am really excited about what the coming year has in store for Ekaterinburg.

Unfortunately all the running has kept me from emailing y'all, but fortunately we have made great friends. When I get home, I'll put up my photos and tell you about the students.

But now, I gotta run. I need to break in the new teaching team. :-D

An Introduction to the Russian Soul

2005-09-25T01:02:00.000-05:00

I was reading this booklet this morning and thought I'd share a couple of quotes from it:

Relating successfully to people in a culture riddled with the effects of shame means that trustworthy relationships are absolutely vital. Trust is built slowly. Russians will feel free to share their personal truth with us as they sense, over a period of time, that we genuinely care about them. And that we respect them. For many Russians, personal interactions are potentially very risky.

The great Russian write, Dostoyevsky, describes this tension. One of his characters says, And when he had poured out his heart, he felt ashamed of having shown me his inmost soul like that. So he began to hate me. He is saying that if a person reveals too much, too quickly, or if we pull his protective mask from him, he will feel exposed and perhaps even violated. In the Russian culture, relationships built in an atmosphere of trust are crucial.

...

Finally, remember that genuine expressions of kindness, respect, and love are what Russians have experienced so little of through the years, and it is what they long for now. St. Francis of Assisi's words apply here. He said, Preach Jesus ... and only when necessary use words. Russians need to see models of Christlikeness. They need to feel the love of Christ through your words and actions toward them -- through your life.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth ... love one another deeply, from the heart. (1 Peter 1:22)

Ways to pray:

Pray that the new teachers will be able to connect with the students from day 1
Pray for Amy and Rodney ... they have been here 1 week and have 1 more to go ... pray for ENERGY! and that relationships will continue to grow
Pray that ALL the students will attend the retreat (aka. Forest Fun Party!)
Some students are inviting friends and they will be coming into a group that has already begun to "gel". Pray that they will feel welcome and will begin to develop relationships too.
Oleg and Sana are Kompas staffers and need to raise more support, please pray they will raise what they need (and please prayerfully consider supporting them)

We made it ok!!!

2005-09-19T04:31:00.000-05:00

Zdrastvooyte America! We finally made it in on Sunday @ 2AM! We had about 14 1/2 hours in the air and about 6 hours in layovers for a total of 20 1/2 hours! Some are jet lagged more than others, but we are all doing well. God has already answered a lot of prayers and I am sure He has a lot more planned before these 2 weeks are over.

The first day, Sunday, the weather was in the high 70s ... boy I didn't pack for weather like that! I was afraid I'd be hot all week. Only packed long sleeves and sweaters. But today and the rest of the time is only supposed to be in the 50s and low 60s, now that's the Russia I remember. No snow this time, too bad.

On Saturday during the student testing for the classes, Darin had several Orthodox priest show up and make a big scene. They handed out leaflets that said they (Darin) was a sect / cult. Once Darin got them settled down and explained who they were (Kompas) and that he personally was Baptist affiliated; the head priest said "Oh, we like Baptist" and left. But the damage may already have been done since there were ~ 20 students present.

For peace as our new team members meet their English class for the FIRST time!
As always, for health and beating jet lag
That the students who saw the "show" on Saturday will show up and give the classes and the message a fair chance
And most importantly, that we will be able to make relationships with our students and that they will smell the aroma of Christ ( and not Dallas :-D )

My sister Renae is in the hospital ... (update)

2005-09-15T20:27:00.000-05:00

My sister gave birth @ 9:59pm last night to my new nephew Brayden Levi Kirkpatrick. Mom and new son are doing well. Don't have any pics just yet, but will try and get some sent to me so you can see them.

"On the Russian front", we need more students to sign up for the English classes. So pray that they will have a HUGE turn out for the Saturday testing. College classes don't start till the 19th, so hopefully there will be more students in town by this weekend.

From Russia (well actually Dallas just now), with LUV.

P.S. our Ekat team has started a blog. You can check that out while we are in Russia

My sister Renae is in the hospital ...

2005-09-15T00:07:00.000-05:00

... but that is actually good news! It means my 11th niece/nephew is on the way! BTW, we know it is a boy. Pray for them, 4 boys to raise!

On the "Russian front" (couldn't resist!), I leave Friday the 16th for 2 weeks in Ekaterinburg Russia! Please pray that enough college students sign up for the English classes.

Ready to go!

2005-09-12T23:25:00.000-05:00

Ok, so not COMPLETELY ready ... but getting there. I have a few more items to pick up and I still yet have to pack. But I AM getting pumped.

We have a great team this year (am I hope to post a lot of photos when I get back)! The team is larger than the past 2 years. It is large enough for the Russian Kompas team to create 6 classes (instead of 5)! This is the most English class offerings yet.

Not only are there 6 classes, but they are all in the same building. Which is a blessing because it makes the travel arrangements soooo much easier. I am sure this is a load off Darin's mind (the Kompass director).

Ways to pray:

That more students than ever will hear the gospel and respond!
Enough students enroll to fill the 6 classes
That the classrooms will remain available for both weeks (sometimes managers get scared or intimidated)
Students continue with the classes (some always drop out)
Several team members have had personal and family crisises, pray for health and peace for them
Travel safety and all connections are made
God can do "exceeding abundantly beyond what we ask or think"; so pray that we think BIG and ask BIG!

A great big thank you to all who have given to and prayed for this trip already! Keep it up!!!!

FoxTrot

2005-09-06T08:51:00.000-05:00

Click on picture to see it full size.

:-)

Re-done 2003 Russia photo album ... with comments

2005-08-24T23:23:00.001-05:00

I was never quite happy with my 2003 gallery. No comments and other stuff anoyed me. So I just redid it in light of the up coming trip. And I added in the comments I had in ofoto! Take a look.

My Russia 2003 gallery.
And don't forget my Russia 2004 gallery.

If you viewed my recent Russia presentation, then you'll recognize a lot of the comments that went into that. But hey, I never claimed to be original!!

Russia presentation

2005-08-24T20:36:00.000-05:00

I am going to be giving a presentation at my Dad's church this weekend and I thought it would be cool to let you see it.

First, let me note a couple of things:

I dont usually create webpages with a "best viewed in resolution x*y", but since this is a fullscreen presentation ... this page is best viewed in at least 1024x768 resolution
This is a fullscreen webpage, so press F11 after you click on the link below
You can move around the slides with Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End (these should do what you think they would do)
If you are using IE and move your mouse to the lower right corner, you should see a forward, back, and page menu
What you wont see is my witty commentary :-p

Ok, so now the legalities are out of the way, here is my Russia slideshow presentation. Hope you like it.

A link of interest inside the presentation is to my 2005 prayer and support letter.

If you would like to see the blog posts I made from Russia last year, click here.

Enjoy!

Praise! Praise!

2005-08-24T20:14:00.000-05:00

Latest on my Dad. He had his first 2 month checkup (about 1.5 weeks ago ... I'm a bad blogger). The doctor really down played the "swolen lymph node" xray. He said the technician made too much out of it, probably a shadow or something. So they are planning on surgery to remove the chemo port. So why is surgery good news??? Because they can leave the port in for up to 3 years as a contingency plan ... but they dont think that is necessary!

They wont say the "R" word (remission) until 4 years has passed, but you cant have 4 years unless you at least pass 6 months. Or at least that's the way I figure it :-)

I'm going to Arkansas this weekend to see the fam and it's my Dad's bday ... wooohooo what a present that is!

Keep up the prayers, it means a lot

Zzzzzz....

2005-07-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Veerle for her guest post:

"There are times one sees without seeing and then there will be those precious moments one sees and beholds a thing, instantly grabbing the humour of it. My brother, Jeroen Meeuwsen (jazzgitarist and photographer) was innocently boating on the IJssel, a Dutch river, when he came across this scene and took a picture of it. One sees, one gets it, one smiles and one clicks his camera. All in a matter of seconds, because the boat floats on. Still, there you have it, a still-live of sleeping sheep. The picture has proven to be of help to anyone suffering from insomnia..."

Everybody's Free

2005-07-11T16:53:00.000-05:00

Everybody's Free (good advice and a tip for the Summer)

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

*From Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich's column on June 1, 1997 and adapted into a song "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen) by Baz Luhrmann on his album "Presents Something for Everybody"

The results are in ...

2005-06-17T08:29:00.000-05:00

and my Dad is cancer free! ... but (there's always a but) one of the lymph nodes in his neck is swollen. That could be caused by a lot of things. He will be back in for testing on it in 2 months. So please pray that the swelling will go down and that it isn't cancerous.

Big thanks to all who have been praying for my Dad. I'll post an update on his 2 month checkup.

Dad's got testing on the 15th

2005-06-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

My Dad has tests on the 15th. He has taken about 5 chemo treatments and they are going to evaluate his progress and see if they need to give more. They think the 1 botched up treatment may count for 2 regular rounds of chemo. He has been very active this whole time and actually put on muscle mass; which amazed the doctors.

Please keep him in your prayers as we get closer to the 15th! Thx ....

Seat 29E Complaint

2005-06-10T16:27:00.000-05:00

The following is an email I received recently (thanks G.A. and M.B.). It is a complaint letter written by a passenger on Continental Airlines. Below the links to the original scan, I typed the letter out. But you gotta read the passengers writing yourself, plus there's 2 illustrations not in the transcript. Click on "Page 1", it should popup the letter. When you finish close the letter and click on the next page. There's a couple of words I wouldnt choose to put in my blog, but I made an exception b/c this is very hilarious.

Here is the letter in text form ...

12-21-04
Flt#888/500 -> Houston
Seat #29E (RECEIVED APR 13 2005 Customer Care)

Dear Continental Airlines,

I am disgusted as I write
this note to you about the
miserable experience I am
having sitting in seat _29E_ on
one of your aircrafts.
As you may know, this
seat is situated directly
across from the lavatory,
so close that I can reach
out my left arm and
touch the door.

All my senses are being
tortured simultaneously.
Its difficult to say what
the worst part about
sitting in 29E really is?
Is it the stentch of the
sanitation fluid that's blown
all over my body every
60 seconds when the door
opens? Is it the woosh
of the constant flushing?
Or is it the passengers
asses that seem to fit
into my personal spase like
a p0rn0graphic jig-saw
puzzel?

I constucted a stink-
shield by shoving one end
of a blanket into the
overhead compartment -
while effective in blocking
at least some of the
smell, and offering a small
bit of privacy, the ass-on-
my-body factor has increased,
as without my evil glare,
passengers feel free to
lean up against what they
think is some kind of
blanketed wall.  The next
ass that touches my shoulder
will be the last!

I am picturing a board
room full of executives
giving props to the young
promising engineer that
figured out how to squeeze
an additional row of seats
onto this plane by putting
them next to the LAV.

   (illustration here)

I would like to flush his head
in the toilet that I am
close enough to touch from
my seat.             ^ ,and taste,

Putting a seat here was
a very bad idea.  I just
heard a man GROAN in
there!  This sucks!

   (illustration here)
     Depiction of mans butt in my
       face.

Worse yet, is I've paid over
$400.00 for the honor of
sitting in this seat!

Does your company give
refunds?  I'd like to go
back where I came from
and start over.  Seat 29E
could only be worse if it
was located inside the bathroom.

I wonder if my clothing
will retain the sanitizing
odor .... hat about my hair!
I feel like I'm bathing in
a toilet bowl of blue liquid,
and there is no man in a
little boat to save me.
I am filled with a deep
hatred for you plane designer.
And a general dis-ease that
may last for hours.

We are finally decending,
and soon I will be able
to tear down the stink-
shield, but the scars will
remain.

I suggest that you
initiate immediate removal
of this seat from all of
your crafts.  Just remove
it, and leave the smouldering
brown hole empty, a
place for sturdy/non-
absorbing luggage maybe,
but not human cargo.

I like his sig

2005-05-12T21:33:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, signature lines in posts and emails are fun ... I "overheard" this one that I really like:

The early bird gets the worm - but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese.

:-p

How Lightsabers work

2005-05-06T15:45:00.000-05:00

Follow the link in the title to a very helpful "how stuff works" site. It is full of great tips on how to use and care for your lightsaber. Among the helpful tips are :

Important Safety Information

A lightsaber is not a toy! Keep it out of reach of children at all times. Lightsaber locks are required in most states.

There are two ends to any lightsaber -- one end has the belt ring, while the other end houses the blade arc tip and blade emitter. NEVER point the blade emitter of a lightsaber toward your own body. NEVER look down the "barrel" of a lightsaber, even if you are "sure" it is in safe mode. If you accidentally activate the lightsaber, serious injury could result.

IMO, very wise words.

Repeal the Wright Amendment, Set Love Free

2005-05-05T09:13:00.000-05:00

If you've ever flown Southwest out of Dallas, you know what a pain the Wright Amendment can be. Why should a local dispute have an admendment in a federal bill anyway?

Repeal the Wright Amendment

Set Love Free!

Team Wedgies

2005-05-02T16:25:00.000-05:00

Since when is giving wedgies a team sport?!?

No flames from rugby fan plz :-p

YAPQ (yet another personallity quiz)

2005-04-28T20:10:00.000-05:00

Which Polyhedral Are You?

You are a four-sided die, a d4. Otherwise known as a tetrahedron, a "Caltrop", or (to a lesser degree) "Ol' Pointy". This crap bores you, so I'll get to the point. Others tend to see you as petty, conniving, manipulative, argumentative, defensive, greedy, and needlessly antagonistic. You see yourself as focused, effective, efficient, influencing, shrewd, tactical, and direct. Both points of view are in fact correct. You always know the best way to get things done, a fact that never wins sympathy with others. Whenever you manage to gain control of a situation, your solutions are swift and brutal. Unfortunately everyone else is convinced that granting you such power is, "a bad thing" and often conspire to keep it out of your hands. Such short-sighted fools!

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Thanks to bun-girl for a heads up on this quiz.

A 3 blog night (ur umm, i mean jury duty)

2005-04-11T23:07:00.000-05:00

I have jury duty tomorrow (Apr 12th). This about the 4th time in 2 years that I've been called up. That WAY exceeds the total number summons that I've had up til now (total til now = 0). But since the city, local, and state summons are counted seperately; I guess it is legal. I wonder how they'll like my appearance? See my "appearance" in the final pic in this post (I'm on the right in the last image).

BTW, for those of you who didnt get the "A 3 blog night" reference ... Playing small California clubs, the ensemble still had no permanent name, until one night, Danny's girlfriend, June Fairchild, came up with a suggestion. She had read a magazine article about the Australian aborigines, who on cold nights, would sleep beside their dogs for warmth. The very coldest weather was called a "three dog night".

Update........the latest!

2005-04-11T21:03:00.000-05:00

This is the reason I took down my poll. The day we were messing around at work my dad was headed to Tulsa for his next treatment ... which didnt go so well (see quoted email below). So the kidding around didnt seem so funny that night when he called me. I may put it back up soon; I may not?

The reason this is such big news, other than the fact that the doctors and nurses totally screwed up, is that in ministry the summer is a very big time and my dad was doing the crash course in chemo (treatments all at once every 3 weeks vs. in stages at 4+ weeks btwn treatments) so that he could get ready for VBS, teen/youth camp, etc... But now he will likely be in treatment well into the summer.

Here is an email from my dad explaining more on what happened:

I want to share an update on my cancer treatment so that you all may know how things are going. On March 15 I went back for my third treatment of the six that I was told would be necessary. When I went to the infusion lab I noticed that they had different chemo than what I had taken before, and I questioned that fact. They pulled the Drs. orders and sure enough they had the right medicine according to that order, so it was administered. I had done fine through my first treatments, but following that one I crashed, and was sick for almost two weeks. The Dr. here in Harrison wanted to put me in the hospital, but I refused so they sent me home with meds to take. When we went back to Tulsa last Tues. I asked the Dr. why my chemo was changed, and he assured me it had not been changed. I assured him that I was given different chemo than my first two, and after further checking they did discover that I had been in fact given the wrong chemo. I was given chemo that is given for leukemia and advanced prostrate cancer, and not the chemo that I was taking for my lymphoma. That is the reason that I got so sick, and my white cell count still has not come back up so I have not been able continue my treatments. I will not be able to start treatments again until the first of May. They will be doing a Muga Scan and a complete CT Scan to determine if there was any heart damage and other results of the wrong treatment. The bill by the way for the wrong treatment was over $62,000, with the one bag of chemo being $39,445.05. I contacted the insurance company and informed them of the mistake so that they would not have to pay for that, and I also am in contact with the hospital about what they are going to do to make sure that I receive proper treatment. I am not and never have been one to run to the Dr. for drug treatment, now I am forced to do that and with this mistake it sure does shake my confidence in them. The Dr. called last night with appologies and said that the drug I was given was five times more powerful than what I had been taking. So he said that is why I got so sick, but he said that it also could have a beneficial effect on my cancer treatment in hitting the cancer harder than we planned. Hope he is right??????? And I have not forgotten that God is in control -- even when man makes mistakes!!!!!!!!!

Ways to pray for our family:

Pray that my Dad's white blood cell count rebounds in time for his next treatment
that the doctors and nurses dont screw up again
that my Dad wont have to retake the third treatment (that he can start back up at #4, where he should have been last week, and not at #3)
that we can be confident in his treatment given the circumstances

As I posted in my last update ... I have a google group setup for this blog, so if you'd like to get an email when I post; just leave a comment to this post w/ your email address and I'll add you to the group. Since most people are uncomfortable posting their email addresses, I will add you to my list and replace your comment/email address with an add confirmation. I did this once before (see http://iwanttokeepanon.blogspot.com/2005/03/spring-do_21.html#comments). Or send me an email directly and I will add you that way ... like you I am security conscience and dont want my personal addr listed :-).

Web Page Analyzer

2005-04-11T19:41:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting site to run your blog thru. My blog only fares well on this test, but I suspect that some of the limits they chose favors buying their book. And assumptions such as all CSS files must be loaded before the page starts to render is inaccurate. And table-less layouts begin rendering much earlier than table based layouts, which really cant be measured. And being a blogger site mandates certain CSS/image inclusions, which also changes the outcome.

Regardless of the above, this site is now in my bookmark list and I will be running my sites thru the free analyzer.

Web Page Analyzer - Free web page analysis tool calculates page size, composition, and download time. Gives speed recommendations based on best practices for usability, HCI, and website optimization.

New Poll - Pick a look for Rodney

2005-04-05T15:42:00.000-05:00

Sorry, due to recent events this post has been removed. Stay tuned for more info...

Answers In Genesis

2005-03-30T11:52:00.000-06:00

Funny pic from Answers In Genesis:

The Spring 'Do'

2005-03-21T10:36:00.000-06:00

My Dad has been loosing his hair cuz of the chemo, so ... take a look for yourself:

My brother-in-law Robbie wasn't there when this last pic was taken, but he is in the bald headed club too.

My Dad's white blood cell count took a dive again this last round of chemo. But he was told that was necessary and it shows that the chemo is working. If the count didn't drop, then something would be wrong. So please pray for my Dad's health and that he wouldn't catch anything during his weak times, and that the cell count would rebound as quick as possible.

P.S. I have a google group setup for this blog, so if you'd like to get an email when I post; just leave a comment to this post w/ your email address and I'll add you to the group.

Blog Skins

2005-03-15T22:40:00.000-06:00

Note: I have seen a few visitors coming to this post ... Welcome! BTW, when I changed to "Peaceful Rush" theme, I seem to have confused my server that offers the different skins. Please bear with me ... check back in a couple of weeks and I should have things fixed. Thx (5/18/2007)

I've been working on these skins and scripts for a while and I think I am finally comfortable with showing them off (being a perfectionist has its disadvantages :-). I have been using this skinning effort as a learning experience to get better w/ XML and XSLT. It has been fun and I hope you like a couple of the skins. Without further ado, the following is a list of the skins available for my blog:

Minima default (hosted on blogspot.com): This is the default because it is the default site used by blogger.com and should always be available.
Minima (mimic): Douglas Bowman's Mimina theme copied onto my home server for use by my skins. 'Mimicked' because I slightly modified the original CSS to work with my HTML. Even tho my HTML differs quite a bit, the look and feel is quite close.
LOTR: "Lord of the Rings -- The Shire" theme.
Ocean: No images are used in this theme (like mimia), it is a skin using colors only. It will be faster than LOTR (above) and Paradise (below) b/c there is no image download time.
Ocean (2): This skin is like Ocean above, but shows off CSS muscle by swapping the columns. Same HTML, just a different look .... ohhhhhh.
PDA: Ok, I havent really looked at this skin with a PDA; but the layout is narrow and displays fewer colors (which should be suitable on a PDA, internet capable cell phone, blackberry, etc...); should the need arise.
Paradise: "Paradise Blue" theme.
Paradise (2): This skin is like Paradise above, but with "naked" panels. Not *too* usable, but shows off the cool background better.

The first skin (Minima) is my default "iwanttokeepanon.blogspot.com" theme. Since this site should always be available (a google affiliate I think), it is a safe bet for bookmarking. The rest of the skins are "fun" and may not be always available (subject to TXU-Energy and SWB outages, neither of which are "always on" as they claim).

The rest of the skins (2-8) are hosted on my home Gentoo Linux server; which is "almost always on" :-).

Q: So you can show off some HTML/CSS stuff; but why provide multiple skins?

A: Glad you asked (as if you did)!

First, I point my skinned pages to an external stylesheet; vs an inline stylesheet (which is what blogger does). If youve ever viewed a blogger theme before, you know what I'm talking about.
Second, I serve the main blog entry column before the sidebar column; which moves the real content "up" in the HTML. Some Blogger themes serve the sidebar column before the main blog entry column.
Both of the above decrease the time from "server request" to "client display" (aka. makes it look faster), and increases keyword density (good for google rankings).

A: because this is an XSLT / XML learning experience. Each of the skins (2-8) are generated via an XML stylesheet (called 'atom2theme.xsl') which "reads" my blog's atom feed (stock blogger publishing stuff) and transforms it into HTML. Each theme is then "beautified" via CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Is your head spinning from the geek-speak? What that really means is that your browser will read /exactly/ the same HTML for each skin. And then change that HTML to look pretty in your browser via a stylesheet. So ... your browser can cache the HTML and it can cache the CSS; which should make it pretty fast for you.

A: because it gives you a choice ... what can be better than that?!?

Q: What are the disadvantages of hosting your own blog skins?

A: Glad you asked again!

My server may be down due to TXUE or SWB outages. But I estimate a 90%+ uptime. If it isnt raining or lightning, I maybe up for more than a month.
My DSL connection may be slower than the blogspot.com website.
Blogger only serves _blog entries_ via the 'atom.xml' feed. So I download my _sidebar_ (links, sci/fi character, blogdom of God, etc...) once a day max. So the non-blog content isnt always real time acurate; but I dont change my sidebar that much.
During a sidebar *sync*, if an external website is offline (namely the blogdom of God), your browser my sit waiting for a timeout on the other server. (note: this could be solved by forcing a sync once per day so that no visitor causes the sidebar sync)

Q: I am an internet scripting guru and I desperately want your code. Can you give it to me or host some of my skins on your server?

A: ummmm, well; I would be glad to give out my XSLT and perl code, thats no problem. But increasing my PCs load isnt one of my personal goals right now. In fact, I offloaded all my skin images to Photobucket to decrease the hits to my server.

Note that the main blog entries column (the column youre reading right now) is generated from blogger's atom.xml feed, but the sidebar is ripped from the usual HTML stuff that everybody sees. Since the HTML sidebar is read by XML/XSLT tools, you would need to either meet my XSLT script assumptions or change it. Aka. your sidebar needs to follow blogger sidebar rules (H2 followed by a UL list) and needs to be HTML 4.01 valid (no unclosed tags and such). If you are serious, just leave a comment to this blog entry w/ a way to contact you.

L8r,
-- 
Rodney

Big Brother is watching ...

2005-03-14T10:48:00.000-06:00

...
Orlando International Airport announced plans for a "Known Traveler" program recently, and that could mean just about anyone willing to undergo a background check will get access to priority lines now reserved for frequent fliers and business-class travelers.

Combine Orlando with the government's "Registered Traveler" program, and airlines' own efforts to please valued customers with priority lanes, and the question is: Who will be left waiting in the regular line?
...
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority is now seeking proposals from companies to develop a biometric system to identify travelers who've undergone background checks, said spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell.

"Registered Traveler", biometrics, yikes!! 3 things come to mind:

Revelations. You know ... end of the world, mark of the beast, that kind of thing. Register your finger print or you dont fly, or shop, or eatout, or etc...
Communism. In Russia, everybody still needs to register when traveling (Russians as well as tourists). A Communism hold over.
Terminator. How long till these biometrics take over and decide to exterminate humans?

Ok, not so much #3; but I find this trend very disturbing. Americans are more and more "pliable" about giving up freedoms and personal information. I can see this setting the stage for a lot of what is in Revelations. Big Brother is watching ...

My Dad's Progress

2005-03-03T10:13:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Bun-girl, Milton Stanley, and The Bird for their prayers after reading my previous post. And thanks to all my friends at work for praying for my Dad, it means a lot to my Dad and me.

My Dad just got his second treatment last week. The first treatment went pretty well, no major illness but a lot of aches and pains. He was feeling great and doing all of his usual work when he found out his white blood count was 1.something (should be 4-11). So he had to be careful not to get sick, avoid shaking hands, people who are sick, use hand sanitizer, etc... But in 1 weeks time he rebounded to a healthy 6.something! We'll see how this round goes.

When he went in for the second treatment, they ran all the usual tests and said there was significant shrinkage in the mass. That's good news! And the doctor said the lymphoma is gone ... but how can the lymphoma be gone when there is still a mass? Nonetheless, the doctor said "gone", that's my new favorite word "gone" :-))

So here is how you can pray for our family:

That my Dad's white blood cell count stays high
That my Mom would have strength and peace thru all this
That the lymphoma will really be gone and stay gone
That the mass will continue to shrink and be gone too

I will be in Arkansas this weekend and I might have more info next week. Please keep up the praying!

This is a pic from my grandma Eileen's wedding:

-- 
Rodney

Prayer Request

2005-02-03T16:25:00.000-06:00

I know that I've been slacking on my blog friends ... sorry. There's been a lot going on at work, but I'll post on that later.

I need your prayers for my Dad. He has been diagnosed w/ stage 3 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He consulted w/ doctors in Harrison, Little Rock, and Tulsa. He was even considering treatment in Mexico before he went to Tulsa, where he was really impressed w/ the setup. They have nutritionists, psychologists, pastors, massage therapists, homeopathy, etc ... In other words they treat the whole person and not just the cancer. It is a top-notch faith based research facility.

My Dad checked in on Monday 1/31 to start the chemo process and is supposed to be getting his first treatment today. The biggest dread he has is the damage to his heart and to his health once this is all over.

Please pray for Rodney Sr. that the chemo wont make him sick and that it wont damage his health and for the cancer to be destroyed. Please pray for my mom Ruth that she would be able to handle the stress of this.

The doctors at Tulsa give chewable CoQ10 3 times a day during chemo to minimize heart damage. They also use a new drug rituxan during each treatment (6 in all). Other doctors he saw only wanted to use it the first and last treatments. Only tumors with certain "receptors" benefit from rituxan and Daddy has those receptors, so I think it is smart to hit the cancer with all you've got while you can.

I love you Daddy and I know you're going to beat this !

Here's a pic of my Mom and Dad at our "40/80 party". It was their 40th anniversary and my Grandma's 80th birthday :

Pics from Russia

2005-02-03T16:23:00.000-06:00

Alex, Slava, Oleg and Pasha. Alex and Pasha were students of mine 2 years ago and were helpers last year. Slava was a helper both years and Oleg is on Compas staff.

Merry Christmas Russia

2004-12-16T21:14:00.002-06:00

Dear Friends and Family,

The English classes were a great success! Thanks to everyone that supported me in prayer and financially. We had 2 students trust in Jesus during the classes! Last year we had to wait for the first fruits to come later during Compas' (sic) follow up Bible studies (Compas is the name of the Russian branch of Campus Crusade for Christ).

We arrived in Russia after about 20 hours of traveling. It was very tiring but I was also excited to see our Compas friends and to see the students who professed faith in Jesus over the past year. Three of the four students in my class who became believers were student language helpers in the English classes this year!

This year, just like last, we saw God provide again and again. Just one week before we were to arrive and start the classes, only 40 students had signed up. That's disappointing since we needed at least 150 students to fill the 5 classes. Darin (the Compas director for Ekaterinburg) sent out a prayer letter requesting urgent prayer for the classes. And on the Wednesday before we were to arrive, 130 additional students signed up ... that's 170 total students and more than enough for the English classes! Seeing God provide day after day is one of the things that drew me back to Russia this year. Each morning and afternoon the team from Northwest Bible Church would have a prayer time. Praying for each other and for our classes. And we saw God answer prayer over and over ... what a blessing those times were.

Several times while in Russia I was able to get to an internet connection and put some of what was going on and some of my thoughts into my onine diary (aka weblog, aka blog) ... this blog. Some of the relevant posts are:

Since the classes ended, I have received news that 11 students have trusted in Jesus! ... 11!

Also, I have finally loaded and commented my 2004 Russia gallery, you can see it here : Russia 2004.

Note: this is hosted on my home PC w/ a DSL connection ... I hope it isnt too slow. Please leave feedback whenever you feel "inspired" to.

Also note: You just got your Christmas card from me ... if you need to, print off a pic, put it in an envelope, drop it in the mailbox, get it from the mailbox, open it, exclaim "We just got a Christmas card from Rodney!" (grin).

Merry Christmas!

Calvin and Hobbes

2004-12-07T08:28:00.000-06:00

Sounds like me :-))

(right click and "open image" for full size)

Visa ... confused

2004-11-22T21:54:00.000-06:00

I saw a Visa commercial on MNF. A guy gets a promo/spam letter from Visa saying you can win a refund for all your 2004 Visa purchases. Guy says to wife (that's an assumption) "Too bad you didn't buy that much stuff this year". Flashback to all her purchases and her squirreling/hiding them away (aka. violation of marriage commitment).

Then the "fine print" speak says "no purchase necessary" ... Arrrugh? Wait a minute, no purchase necessary to get a refund on purchases?

I know that companies cannot require a purchase for promos, else it becomes a lottery and/or gambling and that is not permitted in some states. So "no purchase necessary" is a legal disclaimer. But if the promo is to get refunds for "purchases" and there is a no "purchase" necessary disclaimer; does that not exclude people w/o "purchases"? Which really means you must have "purchases" to qualify? Which means this is a lottery/gambling? Which is illegal?

Does anybody else find this confusing (or as we say in Texas "kornfusing")? It ranks up there with "send in your box tops to enter (no purchase necessary)"!!

Is anybody else feed up with all the "run of the mill" commercial cr@p we are supposed to swallow? Does anybody else watch TV w/ their brain engaged? I could cite a million examples ... but I won't.

Next time you watch a commercial (especially from car manufacturers), count the number of "shots". I.e. you see a car, you see a guy, you see a family, you see them driving on the road, etc... Any angle shift (right side, left side, close up, full shot, etc...); count it! If the number is over ~8, you are being spammed w/o knowing it! And most commercials go WAY over 8. A rush of images is a way to overload you and make you "swallow" the pitch. There are many other techniques, but this one is easy to spot. Maybe I should do a post on marketing techniques ... maybe I will, but it will take a lot of time.

I've counted over 20 shots in a 30 second commercial ... you figure out the average shot duration.

Another easy spotting technique is to mute the TV and see if a familiar commercial is half as interesting as before ... most likely it is not. Try it.

You may think, ease up fella. Maybe I should. But all commercials have 1 goal, make you dissatisfied with what you have and so create a "need" for the "product". And the advertising firm doesn't really care what the "product" is, they only care about creating a "need" in you. Because more than likely you already have something that fulfills the need just fine, but to sell you something you must need their product MORE ... that's when they get paid.

Sorry for the rant, but keep your eyes, ears, and brains turned ON.