Well, we just got back from the OM "GO!" conference in Mosbach, Germany. This is OM's training and orientation conference for new members as they get ready to actually head out to their fields. There were about 120 people from at least 20 countries, headed for around 20 different places around the world.
It was a great time of teaching, worship and praise, prayer, and a time to get to meet and interact with different people from all kinds of different cultures and backgrounds. There was a wide variety of ages, though the majority of the people were younger. I sort of felt like the "parent" as I was talking to all these young people, but they all made Sue and me feel welcome and appreciated. We made some friendships that I think will last a life time.
The schedule was pretty insane, and not surprisingly, a lot of people were tired and struggling with colds. We managed to keep healthy during the conference itself, but the cold/cough/fever that was going around finally managed to catch up with us on the day we got home. Thankfully, we can take a little time to crash and get some rest!
I'm still "processing" as they called it there -- thinking through and internalizing all the ideas we were exposed to there through the different sessions, so I plan to have more posts here as time allows (and when I'm not suffering from coughing fits! :-/).
Monday, January 26, 2009
Friday, September 19, 2008
Remembering Alex Elyjiw
(Last weekend, one of my best friends from growing up -- Alex Elyjiw -- was killed in an auto accident. I wrote up a little memory piece I'd like to publish here, in his memory.)
Oh yes... Boys growing up. Those pre-teen and adolescent days can be rough times, but it sure helps when you have best friends to spend them with. I had a lot of friends when I was growing up, but Alex was definitely one of the best.
Actually, I remember the entire Elyjiw family as a special part of my growing up. I always liked to come over to your house. Your parents were always fascinating, and I loved the art and craftwork you always had around your house—especially the Easter Eggs. It was a special place of respect for a heritage that you were fighting to maintain and protect.
I remember spending hours and hours together with Alex and George (and even Ken and Peter sometimes), building everything from hot air balloons to model airplanes and rockets. I remember lots of quick-setting “5 minute epoxy” and Popsicle stick patches. I wonder how many rockets we lost on top of the School 46 roof. My brother Ken reminded me of boomerangs (I never was really good with those) and firecrackers. We flew hot air balloons, heated over alcohol burners made out of tin cans... kites... bike races around the little parking lot at the school. We rode our bikes down the water culvert that ran along side of Browncroft Blvd into the Ellison Park valley. I remember playing with toy soldiers in the sandbox and woods next to Andy Smith's garage. ("Bombs Away!") Races down Doorchester. (What IS it about little boys and races?) I remember playing hide-and-seek after dark. Alex was creative, competitive, energetic, friendly, kind, and just a great friend to grow up with!
I think I remember the model airplanes the best. We would build control-line planes (the kind that you hold on to the wires and fly in circles) that were about the same size, and tie long streamers to the tails. Then, we would both start them up, standing at the center of the same circle, and fly them around together, with each one trying to clip the other's streamer with our propeller. It was some CRAZY flying, and we spent a lot of time laughing together as we tried to not get our lines too badly tangled! I think we had more than a few crashes, and we went through many tubes of quick 5-minute epoxy glue to fix them right there in the School 46 field, and then get them back up into the air.
I seem to remember one model plane that Alex (or George?) converted from a stick-and-tissue-paper design to a control line. I think he put too big a motor on it though. He started flying it, and before it had gone around the circle a half dozen times, the body (and gas motor) sheared off from the wing mounts and went spinning off into the air. We were rolling around on the ground and laughing for quite a while after that one.
I still have some of those model airplane parts down in my basement. I haven't touched them in years, but I don't quite have the heart to clean them out because they have so many great memories associated with them.
I remember the rockets too. We started out with kits from Estes, but quickly moved to designing our own rockets. I tried a couple of rocket sleds (strictly against the rules), and had at least one which turned out to be negatively stable. We had big ones and little ones (the “Mosquito”). We had big, important sounding count-downs, and then racing off on the bicycle to try to figure out where the wind had carried the rocket and its parachute, and wondering HOW we were going to get the fool thing out of the tree it had landed in. (Rake handles never seem to be long enough.)
I remember trying to do clay-mation movies with his 8mm camera. I know we spent hours, one frame at a time, slowly moving the clay figures and toy cars. I don't know if we ever saw the end results of that movie, but in a way I guess it didn't matter. It was the process that was important.
One thing I remember about Alex though was that, even though he was really competitive and played his hardest to be the best, in the end it didn't really matter who won or lost. We were just friends having fun together.
It's been a long time since I've seen Alex, and I have often wondered how you guys were doing. Though these are lousy circumstances under which to get back in touch, it's still nice to be able to look back and remember the really great times we had as kids, and to hear from you again. I'm glad to hear that, at least in the good ways, Alex didn't change a lot from back when I knew him.
Oh yes... Boys growing up. Those pre-teen and adolescent days can be rough times, but it sure helps when you have best friends to spend them with. I had a lot of friends when I was growing up, but Alex was definitely one of the best.
Actually, I remember the entire Elyjiw family as a special part of my growing up. I always liked to come over to your house. Your parents were always fascinating, and I loved the art and craftwork you always had around your house—especially the Easter Eggs. It was a special place of respect for a heritage that you were fighting to maintain and protect.
I remember spending hours and hours together with Alex and George (and even Ken and Peter sometimes), building everything from hot air balloons to model airplanes and rockets. I remember lots of quick-setting “5 minute epoxy” and Popsicle stick patches. I wonder how many rockets we lost on top of the School 46 roof. My brother Ken reminded me of boomerangs (I never was really good with those) and firecrackers. We flew hot air balloons, heated over alcohol burners made out of tin cans... kites... bike races around the little parking lot at the school. We rode our bikes down the water culvert that ran along side of Browncroft Blvd into the Ellison Park valley. I remember playing with toy soldiers in the sandbox and woods next to Andy Smith's garage. ("Bombs Away!") Races down Doorchester. (What IS it about little boys and races?) I remember playing hide-and-seek after dark. Alex was creative, competitive, energetic, friendly, kind, and just a great friend to grow up with!
I think I remember the model airplanes the best. We would build control-line planes (the kind that you hold on to the wires and fly in circles) that were about the same size, and tie long streamers to the tails. Then, we would both start them up, standing at the center of the same circle, and fly them around together, with each one trying to clip the other's streamer with our propeller. It was some CRAZY flying, and we spent a lot of time laughing together as we tried to not get our lines too badly tangled! I think we had more than a few crashes, and we went through many tubes of quick 5-minute epoxy glue to fix them right there in the School 46 field, and then get them back up into the air.
I seem to remember one model plane that Alex (or George?) converted from a stick-and-tissue-paper design to a control line. I think he put too big a motor on it though. He started flying it, and before it had gone around the circle a half dozen times, the body (and gas motor) sheared off from the wing mounts and went spinning off into the air. We were rolling around on the ground and laughing for quite a while after that one.
I still have some of those model airplane parts down in my basement. I haven't touched them in years, but I don't quite have the heart to clean them out because they have so many great memories associated with them.
I remember the rockets too. We started out with kits from Estes, but quickly moved to designing our own rockets. I tried a couple of rocket sleds (strictly against the rules), and had at least one which turned out to be negatively stable. We had big ones and little ones (the “Mosquito”). We had big, important sounding count-downs, and then racing off on the bicycle to try to figure out where the wind had carried the rocket and its parachute, and wondering HOW we were going to get the fool thing out of the tree it had landed in. (Rake handles never seem to be long enough.)
I remember trying to do clay-mation movies with his 8mm camera. I know we spent hours, one frame at a time, slowly moving the clay figures and toy cars. I don't know if we ever saw the end results of that movie, but in a way I guess it didn't matter. It was the process that was important.
One thing I remember about Alex though was that, even though he was really competitive and played his hardest to be the best, in the end it didn't really matter who won or lost. We were just friends having fun together.
It's been a long time since I've seen Alex, and I have often wondered how you guys were doing. Though these are lousy circumstances under which to get back in touch, it's still nice to be able to look back and remember the really great times we had as kids, and to hear from you again. I'm glad to hear that, at least in the good ways, Alex didn't change a lot from back when I knew him.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
A Tree Planted ...
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.If you've seen the new business card I just designed, it has a simple drawing of a tree on it. (see my web site for the logo.) For the most part, I simply put a tree there... because I like trees! I didn't have any deep underlying meaning or psychological reasons. I drew a tree, and there it was. My brother (the Graphic Artist and ArtGeek) figured out how to digitize it and make it into a business card.Jeremiah 17:8 (KJV)
As often happens though, on further reflection, I decided that there was something meaningful about the image of a tree. In both Jeremiah 17 and in Psalms 1, the image of a "tree planted by the waters" comes up as a picture of those who put their faith and trust in the Lord. When the hard times come (drought), the deep roots sunk into the ground along the stream continue to refresh the tree, and it does not wither.
I'm not usually a big fan of the KJV, but in this verse, there is one word that really hit me. Many translations use something like, "It will not be anxious during droughts." However, in the KJV and several other translations, it uses the term careful.
What jumped out at me is the picture of someone who, during a time of drought or famine, is very careful about how they live or spend their money, or careful to store up food for hard times, to hide it from others so they don't take it away. To be careful is the opposite of being extravagant, or even generous. You are always calculating, figuring, measuring, thinking about what you won't be able to get in the future.
In contrast is the one who puts his trust in the Lord (or in Psalms, the one whos "delight is in the law (or word) of the Lord"). When the hard times come, and they always do, that man or woman will not lose the green in their leaves. The tree may still be "stressed", but it will continue to bear fruit. In terms of energy, bearing fruit is a very extravagant process in plants, but it is necessary for the continued life and reproduction of the plant. In the bigger scheme of things, bearing fruit is necessary for the survival of the entire ecosystem, just as in the Church, being fruitful is the secret of continued ministry and growth. If we do not bear fruit, we will not grow.
Lord, I want to not be careful in the time of drought!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
OM Trip Report - April 2008
Sometimes it's good to have a reminder of why we're doing all this work to join the team in the OM USA Headquarters. Since it had been over a year since my last trip down to volunteer down at the OM USA Headquarters outside of Atlanta, and since my schedule is a bit more flexible now, Sue and I decided that it was a good time to take another trip there. For about ten years now, I have been taking a week off during the summer to fly to Atlanta and spend a week working with the team in the computer department, usually on short term, high intensity projects upgrading some part of the system there or installing some new piece of software. These are the kinds of things which the team could possibly do themselves, if they had the time, but they are so involved in the day to day activities of just keeping things up and running that they can't take the time to step back and deal with the disruption of “fixing” something. That's where my skills, and the extra time that I can spend come in handy. In addition, Sue and I wanted to get a chance to talk with some of the people in the office regarding our efforts with developing our support base and Partners, and to look at some possible apartments or housing alternatives. As far as the technology, even the behind-the-scenes pieces are vital to the smooth running of the computer systems. - Security: I was able to implement some changes on their network with regard to maintaining passwords and security.
- Network Equipment: There are some issues with older pieces of key equipment on the network (Cisco switches) showing signs of possible failure. We were able to spend time meeting with several computer vendors to evaluate alternatives for upgrading these components before they decide to give up the ghost.
- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: One problem with complicated systems is that people tend to know their little piece, but they don't understand how they fit into the bigger picture. While I was there, we spent considerable time gathering many of these smaller pieces and putting them into one place – a network diagram showing how all the components work together. It's one of those pictures which look deceptively simple once you are done, but can be a huge help to the people tasked with keeping the system running day to day.
Sue was busy too...
While I was gone, Sue took some time to go to a long-arm quilting class. She has wanted to do this for a long time. While she was learning, she finished a baby quilt that she has been working on for over three years! In addition, Sue was able to keep up her work ministering to the residents at the Winton Road Heritage Christian Services home, as well as continuing to work on our Support goals. Overall, the trip was a great encouragement, both to Sue and me, and to the people there in the office. The team there is very anxious for us to get there, as there is much work to be done, especially as the entire OM USA team continues to grow. The need is urgent, and we keep pressing forward to be able to join in the work!Missions Conference
One other note to add here is that we will be speaking at Grace Covenant Church's Annual Missions Conference, which will be from April 23rd to the 27th. Sue and I will be speaking at the meeting on the evening of Friday, April 25th at around 7:30PM. For those of you who are in the Rochester NY area, we would love to see you there! The church is at 224 Chestnut Ridge Road (zip: 14624). There is a dinner at 6:30PM that same evening, though you need to make reservations ahead of time for the dinner. Please call us (585-235-5822) for more information.Please Pray for us:
- continued diligence in raising our support
- speaking at the GCC Missions Conference
- wisdom in looking at options in housing
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)