Misc

Cyber Monday

I've seen several posts about specials for Cyber Monday and thought I would get into the act... so here goes...

CYBER MONDAY SPECIAL
SAVE $5 PER COPY when you buy Fearful To Fearless
using discount code SSTKEKNC

The discount code is only good at  https://www.createspace.com/3486664

Slow Down And Smell The Kielbasa

Picked up this seasons order of kielbasa from Beekist Meat in Johnstown.  I was raised in Toledo where my Polish ancestors settled during the early  20th century. It sounds kind of funny saying that, 20th century that is, it makes it sound so long ago, anyway kielbasa and the holidays just seem to go together.

Dziękuję Beekist!!!

The Alternative Center

Yesterday I began work on a new website for The Alternative Center, it's an adult education group that supports people with disabilities and their families. 

I've been fortunate to meet a few of the students and they are some of the most fun loving, honest & generous people I've met... we should take a lesson from them.

I'm looking at some of the photos I've received to select from and can't believe some of the cool and fun places and things these guys do!

Experiencing God And Getting Out Of The Boat at 35,000 Feet

What do free software, experiencing god, getting out of the boat while on a plane all have in common?

Well lets start by talking about the free software first. "Why do you give that church management software away for free?", I get that a lot. Well I can tell you that was not my original intent. It all started when Pastor Mike from church was talking about using spreadsheets to manage all of the contact information for everyone attending church. Basic information like name & address, contact details, etc.  He also wanted to be able to determine which classes they took, events they signed up for, volunteering, children, etc. He was attempting to come up with some way of determining just how connected people were. I think that was back in 2000 or so.

Coming from a technology background I thought that we (the church) can't be unique in wanting to have that sort of information accessible, there must be lots of other churches that could use software to track that type of information. I offered to help, I offered to write a piece of software customized for what he was trying to do. All I asked in return was for the "rights" to the software so that I could market it to other churches when we had it working how he envisioned. I called the program "ChurchDB".

During the development and testing phase I started Thunder Software, created a website (nothing flashy), and began looking into how to go about automating the installation process and marketing.

I still had my day job at a large corporation and was involved in a project that required traveling back and forth from Columbus, OH to Dallas TX. Somewhere around the time I had everything set to begin marketing ChurchDB our life group (small group, bible study group, cell group... however you refer to yours) was going thru a study of the book "Experiencing God". At the time I wasn't really too thrilled with the book, but God has this twisted way of changing my mind, especially when it comes to bible studies that I don't particularly care for. As it turns out it was probably one of the better studies I've done, but that's another story.

So on a return flight from Dallas I'm reading the book and I'm prompted to place the book down in the empty seat next to me. Now when I say prompted I mean I heard this voice in my head say "put the book in the seat next to you". So I did, but then the voice spoke again and said, "no I want the book to face out so somebody could actually see the book instead of having to try to read it upside-down". So I did, then I figured I'd ask that voice what to do next... and it replied, it said "wait".

So I waited, pretty soon the flight attendants brought the cart down the aisle and one of them, I think her name was Carol, or was it Susan... or Barbara, I'm not sure anymore but I'll call her Carol, anyway she leaned over and asked whether that was a good book? I kindly replied back that it was or something like that, and the attendants continued down the aisle after handing me a glass of water. It wasn't that long after they passed that I heard that voice again, it said "you know that flight attendant that asked about the book?", I said "sure what about it?". Well the answer came as a surprise, It said "the next time you see her I want you to ask her how you can pray for her". I retorted back "are you kidding? I don't remember which one she was!" (after all there were three flight attendants on board). The voice also said that I should remove the book from the seat and put the tray table up because she was going to sit down after I asked her.

Well, seeing as how I have never really had this kind of conversation going on in my head like this before I figured I had better follow through with this prompting. After all, here I was reading this Experiencing God book right? But I was stubborn and refused to move the book and put the tray table up, I thought that was pushing it just a bit too far, I didn't want to give God a chance to be wrong just in case I heard Him incorrectly.

So the next time I saw her coming down the aisle, after wiping the sweat from my brow, I asked her how I could pray for her. Considering there was no place to sit she decided that she would take a seat on the arm of the chair next to me (my mind is going berserk now because I didn't clear off the seat before hand, but God made sure He confirmed His voice to me didn't He...in spite of myself). She explained how she was going to be going on a bible archaeology expedition in Canada soon, something she was very passionate about and had longed for. She was also beginning a bible study for the high school ballet group in Fort Worth whom she taught, thats why she had asked about the book. I shared a little about the book but I really didn't feel that the high schoolers were ready for it. I had just recently finished reading one of John Ortbergs books (he is one of my all-time favorite writers), If You Want To Walk On Water You've Got To Get Out Of The Boat, and said this is one of the best and easiest books I've ever read. I said it would be perfect for them. She thanked me and stood up (remember she sat down on the arm of the chair) to return to the rear of the plane.

Well after asking God to forgive me for not listening to Him about making room in the seat He said this, "you know that software you're writing? now you know my voice... give it away!" I was stunned, all that development work, all that effort and He says "give it away!"

Well after having the experience I just went through it would have been tough to say no. When I returned home and shared my experience with Chris she immediately said something like "oh c'mon!, you can't be serious! after all that hard work?". There was no arguing, the software was going to be made available to churches for free! When others hear that God said give it away many ask whether God said for how long? I just smile.

That wasn't quite the end of the airline story, you see as the flight was on its final approach (and I had cleaned up the area), Carol came and sat in the seat next to me with a catalog from christianbook.com. I couldn't help but smile, God didn't let me miss out on that (sitting) part of the experience. She wanted to confirm that this was in fact the book I was referring to. I said that it was and she returned to the rear of the plane again. 

A couple months later there was a full page story in the Columbus Dispatch about bible archeology, it reminded me about her and so I prayed for her and her family again, and hoped that she hadn't gotten hurt on her expedition. A few months after that there was another full page story all about ballet... again I was reminded of her and prayed, I prayed that her bible study was going well.

And then came September 11th, Carol worked for American Airlines. In everything else that was going through my head that morning, she came to mind again. I prayed that she wasn't on any of the flights, and prayed for her family if she was. I don't really know whether she was or not. Sometimes I wonder whether she pursued bible archeology or ballet more, whether my book suggestion made an impression on any of the high school dancers, or whether she decided to even use the book in her study at all. But I do know that God is a good God and able to use all things for His good! And lets just say that I have been blessed so many times over for giving the software away, over 2000 copies have been downloaded and I've heard "thank you's" from pastors from every corner of the globe. I've even been invited to stop by and visit a certain pastor the next time I'm in Qatar!

History Of OYBO

A lot of people often ask how OYBO was started. First let me just say for those that don't know, OYBO is short for oneyearbibleonline.com.

I guess it was around the year 2000, I picked up a copy of The One Year Bible from Tyndale Publishing to read through the bible that year. As is often the case many folks fall behind for one reason or another.  I thought if there was an online resource I could access from the office I could catch up while eating lunch at my desk.

I searched all over and kept coming up empty. So I figured that I was the one that was supposed to build it, I began construction of a site that linked to each days readings based upon the same reading plan as the book. I couldn't be the only one who would like to have that resource available, and if anyone happened upon the site then they could utilize it as well. After a short time I saw that there were indeed people that had located the site and were frequenting it regularly, it was a good impetus for me to continue.  I tried to stay at least a few weeks ahead of the scheduled reading during the construction of the site so that any followers could stay on track with me. I think that first year there may have been around 50 people that had discovered the site.

When the next January rolled around I remember being quite surprised at the traffic bump. I would receive thank you emails from visitors as well as corrections that were needed. I noticed that come around March though traffic would begin to level off. Even with the online resource people would still fall behind in their scheduled reading. Now let me just say that if you are reading The One Year Bible and fall behind, don't beat yourself up for falling behind, just jump back in at the current date. It's more important to be in God's word than it is to be on schedule.

Each subsequent year I've witnessed the surge in traffic, even with other companion sites that have been created by others for the same purpose. I've even discovered numerous sites that have literally just lifted my code for their own purposes... shame on you people.

Over time I've heard from visitors suggesting additional features to add to the site. One in particular I really liked was to be able to define the day of the year you started. That person wanted to be able to take his school class through the bible, but beginning in September. It was at first a bit tricky to code for that and had to rethink how the back end would work. Leap years also come into play too! Though I'm not convinced I have that part down the way I'd like to see it work, but since it only comes around once every four years I'm not going to worry too much about it. Oh, and for you folks who email me asking what they should read on February 29th, just go ahead and read some of your favorite passages or use the day to catch up or read ahead.

Other features that have been added are RSS feeds, a daily/weekly e-mail newsletter and a Google gadget that anyone can use to add the readings to their own website. The gadget displays the current days readings as well as 3 days prior and the next 3 days of readings. There is a version for mobile devices, a Facebook version of the site as well as a Twitter feed. After several years I also decided to add the reading links to The One Year Chronological Bible.