Starbucks' New Ads...

I saw these new Starbucks ads (over HERE) and this one made me laugh.

I love my Starbucks... Just about everyone I know knows that about me.

Just thought I'd share.

The second picture is actually a picture of my desk. I got ready to post this blog, turned around planning to go make a cup of coffee and was struck by this image in relation to what I was blogging...



So I thought I'd share more...


Jim

P.S.: And yes, I am a Starbucks Coffee junkie... :-)

Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent

You've probably seen this video... but in case you haven't, what a powerful illustration of gifts coming in unusual packages.

Jim

Check it out HERE.

Simply Junior High catalog online... SWEET!!

I have to say, THIS is pretty sweet. It's Simply Junior High's latest catalog, viewable totally online...

I saw this on Josh's little blog HERE and I had to check it out. My first thought was, "This is sweet... I should spread the word." So that's what I'm doing. Go and check it out.

Now, I'm going to check it out...

Jim

Miss California... Carrie Prejean

So you may have heard some of the flack over Miss California, Carrie Prejean and her run in with Perez Hilton.

Thinking along some of these lines, I read a blog post by a buddy of mine... Nick Carnes... and man: does he nail it in my opinion. (READ HIS POST HERE)

I was thinking about posting on the topic. But I decided why to waste keystrokes when Nick nailed it. So, go read his article.


Way to go Nick... Keep it rolling!

Jim

Apple "Get a Mac" ad: Time Traveler

Several new Mac vs. PC commercials are out...

Here they all are on Apple.com.

Enjoy

Jim

Watch it HERE.

D.R. Trip Updates... Day 3: Monday

Sorry that these updates are coming a little slower than I had hoped. This weekend I was at Believe with our middle school students... but I'm committed to getting these up... and I will.

Monday came quickly and we got down to work.

And we had no idea how hard the work was about to be. In the first picture, Paige is helping bring in tools and supplies for the day. Monday was the first day that we saw the school, the "Fly" where we would be working, the total poverty that characterizes the area and the cistern that we would begin to work on.









One of the first things that we had to do was take all of the water out of the 5 x 5 x 5 cistern that existed and put it into anything that would hold water. There is no sense in wasting the water. So we filled up drums, water jugs and the tank on the roof. Jackie's job was catching the buckets that Isaias tossed back from the roof... and she was so good, Randy Moss would be jealous.





Several members of the group had the opportunity to feed the children who were going to school at the site where we were working. Here Kathryn is serving them lunch.

Shortly after their eating lunch, we ate lunch.

After lunch, the work really began. That's when the sledgehammers, shovels, pick-axs and buckets came out. We destroyed the roof of the cistern and began the next 3 days of long, hard digging.











The brighter side of Monday for me was that it was my birthday. I turned 32 (and yeah... you probably forgot to send your present... :-) ). That night, we were invited over to the Gabriel's for dinner. While we were there we heard stories from Gabriel, ate some incredible dinner and I was surprised by a birthday cake (which was awesome!!!)

But maybe the best part of the whole day was that I got my suitcase for my birthday!!!! 3 days late!!! Shortly after returning from the worksite that afternoon, my suitcase arrived. Opening that was like opening Christmas presents. I was so happy to see it.

All in all... it was an excellent way to spend a birthday!!


Jim

10 years ago today... Columbine

Ten years ago today, Columbine High School and two high school students, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, became the center of attention and forever changed the way that schools operate.

I was talking yesterday with a former student who works with me on the weekends (who consequently has a little blog now (HERE)) about Columbine. I have been working with students full time for about 9 years... and so I have never worked with students outside of the shadow of that terrible tragedy. This tragedy forever changed the way that schools operate and how they view their students. There had been tragedies before... but none seem to carry the weight that Columbine did.

Today... I took just a moment and thought about that tragic day... those students who lost their lives... those students who took life... and the teacher who lost his life as well. In some respects, 10 years doesn't seem that long ago. But in other ways, it's hard to imagine our world before Columbine.

Jim

Dominican Republic video 2009

Here is the video... the sound is messed up. But you can enjoy the pictures none the less.

Believe!!!

The group is ready for the morning of Believe!!! It's gonna be
awesome!!!

Books for sale... Word Biblical Commentary Series

Hey all...

I'm doing a little shelf cleaning in my office. For a while now, I've got tons of commentaries that sit on my bookshelf for the most part unused. So I've decided to sell some of them off and replace them with Logos/Libronix resources. (If you're into Bible Study at all... I mean even a little bit... this is well worth the investment).

If you are interested in commentaries that are all in good shape, feel free to comment away and maybe we can work something out. But notice that I'm not giving them away... I'm selling them.

I have volumes from the Word Biblical Commentary Series (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Genesis, Romans, Ephesians, and Philippians... several of which are multivolume sets) for sale currently. Tomorrow I will have volumes from the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series and the Bible Speaks Series.

If you are interested, comment and we'll go from there.

Jim

Thomas Campbell in Guernsey County... Success!!!

Well...

I had an interesting day. I started off in Zanesville looking for a piece of land. I had a deed that showed a piece of ground being transferred between a Garrett McCain and Thomas Campbell. I spent time tracking it down.

BUT... it turned out to be a bust.

I found the ground. But I'm pretty confident that it was a different Thomas Campbell than the one that I was looking for.



So...

I went back to Cambridge and back to square one. And by the end of the day, I found success. According to what I found in Cambridge today, Thomas Campbell and his family living in a house that sat on this corner in downtown Cambridge, on the corner of Wheeling and 7th street. Obviously this isn't the building, but it once stood here and the school that he started was here.

I have enough documentation to make a presentation (I think). Tomorrow I will visit the Guernsey County Maps Dept and see if I can find an old Cambridge map that will show me the original lay of the land.

After that I'm planning to head over to Quaker City. According to the material that I have, Guernsey County's oldest Restoration movement church is here... Central Christian Church (Central Christian Church).

Fun fun... and now more fun that I've found what I'm looking for...

Jim

Goose chase... Thomas Campbell in Cambridge

I'm currently in Ohio for a couple of days.

Here's what I'm doing.

According to Robert Richardson (personal friend and biographer for Alexander Campbell), Thomas Campbell, father of Alexander Campbell and one of the four founding members of the Restoration Movement of which Fox Valley Christian Church (Church of Christ, Christian Churches and Disciples of Christ), spent 3 years living in and around Cambridge, Ohio. Cambridge is 15 minutes north of where I grew up.

There isn't much information on Thomas' time in Cambridge. But we know (according to Richardson and A. Campbell) that he owned land, started a school and church.

So I'm here to see if I can track that information down. I want to see if I can find the land that he owned and see if there is anything remaining of it. Maybe the school became something... Maybe the church still exists... Maybe the house is still there as part of another house... Maybe nothing is remaining...

Those are the questions that I'm hoping to answer. Plus... It's for credit.

Wish me luck and here's hoping that I find something...

Jim

D.R. Trip Updates... Day 2: Sunday (March 29)

Sunday morning arrived...

The team decided to join several members of the G.O. Ministries team at the first ever 10K run/walk in Santiago.

Brittany and Kathryn decided to run. The rest of us decided to walk. Brittany made the entire 10K... which we found out later was actually 11K. Kathryn made a valiant effort, but only completed 5K.



The rest of us enjoyed a nice walk (5K) around Santiago.











Here is the whole group after the run walk. We all got medals for completing the run/walk in less than an hour. We also got T-shirts (mine however didn't fit... only a "L").









Following the run/walk, we returned back to the Casa. Instead of joining some from the ministry to play softball, we decided to watch some of the locals play bottlecap baseball (it actually has a name... but I can't remember it0. It was pretty interesting.









Following the bottlecap baseball, we visited the new site for the Gabriel's church. We also joined Gabriel as he baptized a member of his church.

Following that and dinner, we joined the church for church. It was a fun experience. We recognized some of the songs... sung a few with them... and listened to the message. (We didn't understand much about the message... but we know it was about Zacchaeus.)

Sunday was a fun and relaxing day. Monday wouldn't be.

And if you're keeping score... I, still as of Sunday, do not have a suitcase...

Jim

D.R. Trip Updates... Day 1: Saturday (March 28)

Well....

We are officially back from the D.R. If you are following my Twitterfeed on this page or in general, you know that.

We got back on Saturday night... April 4. Since I had very little access to the Internet while in the D.R., I didn't get a chance to blog any pictures or any experiences from the week. So I will blog from hindsight... post some pictures and a blog for each day.

You know our difficulties in getting out of Chicago on Friday. If not, click HERE.


Saturday morning, we arrived at the Atlanta airport to a zoo... literally. There were at least 150 people waiting to leave Atlanta through the International gates. And with a similar thunderstorm on the horizon as had canceled flights on Friday looming, everyone was looking to get out quickly.

We got rechecked in, through security and to our gate. We had vouchers left over from the previous day, which we used at the airport for breakfast, coffee (one last Starbucks for me before leaving) and other assorted items.

Only to find our flight delayed.

We ended up being delayed for about 2 hours. There was a problem with the plane that we were supposed to take. So they off-loaded all of our luggage, in the pouring rain, and replaced our plane with another. So we arrived in Santiago 2 hours later than we expected.

One nice thing about the flight to Santiago was that it wasn't crowded at all. So there was plenty of room to spread out.

After arriving in Santiago, getting through immigration, customs, and other assorted lines, we discovered that my luggage hadn't arrived with the rest of the groups. (BUMMER!!!) All that I had in my backpack was a pair of shorts, a pair of underwear and another T-shirt.

More on that later...

After filling out the necessary form, we piled in the bus to head to Casa de Gabriel. On the way to the Casa, John informed us that we would be doing the VBS that we had been planning to do immediately after getting off the bus. This was a little stressful to say the least, considering that we had not done any assigning of roles or much specific preparation.

We managed to pull off the VBS. It didn't go as well as we would have hoped, but it worked. Following the VBS, we got settled, ate dinner and then headed out for some ice cream.

It was a very busy day. The three above pictures are from the VBS. The last photo is the team photo after we arrived.

Jim