Si tuvieras fe como un grano de mostaza

What did you do for Thanksgiving this year?

We decided as a family that we wanted to give because we have been so blessed already. We spent the week of Thanksgiving with a team of 45 people from Rock Creek Church on a mission with IFM to help the people of Juarez, Mexico (more pictures from the trip can be viewed here).

It is disturbing and amazing to see the living conditions of the people there.Many of them live in "pallet homes" made from shipping pallets, cardboard boxes, and any other material they can find. Water is delivered once a day for 10 pesos, and is stored in a plastic barrel at the corner of their property. Sometimes they have to sleep in their cars because the wind blows so hard, or because of the cold. Of course, you can also expect to see a fair amount of lice because of the unclean conditions. They were also heavily impacted by the extreme flooding earlier this summer.

Our schedule on the trip was very full: Saturday: travel by bus to the House of Cornelius base in Fabens, TX.

Sunday: indoor and outdoor mercados in Juarez, Mexico

Monday: food and ministry to the people of La Colonia Granjas del Desierto

Tuesday: food, medical, health fair and ministry to the people of La Colonia Granjas del Desierto

Wednesday: Brother Ray's Feeding Center in Juarez, Mexico (pictured is Jenny, Ray's widow)

Thursday: Thanksgiving and day of rest at House of Cornelius

Friday: ministry, puppets, tea party and Christmas gifts at an Orfanatorio (orphanage) near Colonia Granjas de Desierto

Saturday: leave for home

The scary part, is that they were relying on my Spanish to get us across the border for 4 of the days! (Yo hablo un poquito español!) We made it across each of the days, though.

Elvia, translated for us on two of the days. She is such a neat lady.

We made a great friend, Eric, who also works at the Feeding Center.

He taught us a great song:

Si tuvieras fe como un grano de mostaza, Eso lo dice El Señor

Si tuvieras fe como un grano de mostaza, Eso lo dice El Señor

Tú le dirías, a la montaña “muévete”, “muévete” Tú le dirías, a la montaña “muévete”, “muévete”

Y esa montaña se moverá, se moverá, se moverá Y esa montaña se moverá, se moverá, se moverá Y esa montaña se moverá, se moverá, se moverá Y esa montaña se moverá, se moverá, se moverá

Translated, it means "If you have faith like a grain of mustard, this says the Lord: If you say to the mountain, "Move", the mountain will move"

For me, this trip has been very moving indeed.

Categories: General

You're going to have to get up pretty early...

If you want to hear me play French Horn! I'm playing for the Easter Sunrise service for Rock Creeek Church this Sunday.Selections will be traditional hymns:
"Christ the Lord is Risen Today", "Christ Arose (Up from the Grave He Arose)", and "A Mighty Fortress".

If you are in the Boulder area and are looking for a place to attend Easter services, you are invited to attend!
Directions are located here. We will be holding Good Friday service at 7pm, Easter Sunrise at 6am w/breakfast, and our regular service at 10am at Monarch High School. Hope to see you there!

Categories: God, Jesus, Christianity, church

What's your life metaphor?

I've recently started reading "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. In chapter 5, he asks the question: What's your view of life [your life metaphor]?

He goes on to say that some people describe their life as a carousel, circus, minefield, roller coaster, puzzle, card game (you have to play the hand you are dealt), etc.

It's your description of how life works and what you expect from it. ... It determines your expectations, your values, your relationships, your goals, and your priorities.

I'd have to say my life metaphor is a Rocket. I think life, specifically my life but also applies to others, is a very complex piece of machinery that requires the expertise and advisement of specialists from many different people.

I think my soul is the astronaut sitting in the capsule at the top of that rocket, and the rocket itself is all of my life experiences. Some of those experiences are from the specialists from a variety of disciplines that become a part of the rocket. In rocketry, those disciplines would include electrical, mechanical, propulsion, guidance, etc. In life, I'd say those disciplines would be work, home, friends, church, etc.

I have confidence because I believe God is over at Mission Control for my particular mission. For others, they may have transferred that Mission Control over to someone or something else. I also believe that because I'm in such good hands, my journey to the Heavens, as I slip the surly bonds of this Earth, will be a complete success.

Now, as with real rocketry, each component must go through very stringent tests during design, manufacture, assembly and launch preparation before the countdown can go down to T minus 0 and go for launch. Many times there are built in Holds during the countdown for final checks. Life can also be a series of tests, but they are all meant for a reason -- a successful mission.

Even though tests can be difficult, it is always better to endure. I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up as a fireball on the pad or in flight!

So what's your life metaphor? Are you on a sound path? These are questions I think everyone should ask themselves. Let me know what your metaphor is! I'm sure it will be an interesting read, as I hope mine has been.

Categories: General, Space, values, God

Welcome to the Blogosphere, Dearest!

After much prompting, my wife has entered the blogosphere!

She's been thinking about writing a book for a while, and I've been encouraging her to start with a blog, and see how it goes first. We've taken and taught Growing Kids God's Way classes together, which she's taken a few ideas from.

She's also come up with a lot of her own great ideas on raising children. A lot of the techniques are tried and tested, on our kids as well as the Little Lambs (preschool) class at our church. The techniques are extremely effective, with the goal of raising children to be a blessing to everyone around them.

When we read Seth's advice for authors, she decided to take the plunge.

So, make way and please visit Shining Examples!

See also: General

Who is Scotty?

To describe the image: I love Lego, Boba Fett, was married in a kilt, and have always wanted to be an astronaut. They didn't have an image of a tornado on reasonablyclever.com, or I'd have added that too. Sure, it's weird, but I'm reasonably complex. :-)

I've lived in Colorado all my life. Some on a ranch in southeastern Colorado, some in Fort Collins (while at CSU), but most of it in Colorado Springs, and now Boulder/Denver.

In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my wife and 3 kids, church, and storm chasing!

I've worked at Sun for almost 9 years now, in a variety of roles.

If you want the specifics in my Curriculum Vitae, check out my profile on LinkedIn.

Basically, I started out as a technical writer and document conversion specialist for SunSoft at the Rocky Mountain Technology Center in Colorado Springs, CO using a SUN4/50 SparcStation IPX. I worked on various products including Solstice Backup, Solstice Job Scheduler, Solstice AdminSuite, and the Solaris 2.4 and 2.5 Administration Guides.

After the Broomfield, CO campus was built, the folks at RMTC were relocated and the site shut down. Some moved to the Bay area, some to Burlington, MA, and some lucky folks rigged it so they could stay in the Springs.

I got a job as the webmaster for Sun Educational Services, which relocated to the new Broomfield, CO campus. I worked in that group for 3 years, with only 1 manager (my most stable position at Sun). My desktop was an Ultra 2, and was one of the easiest boxes to swap out hardware for. Our webserver was hosted on an E450, also a beautiful machine.

Looking for new opportunities, I moved over to SunSolve.Sun.COM to work on the next-generation features of the site. We tried to move the site to be XML-based, until the net bubble burst.I got upgraded to an Ultra 60 for my desktop, which I used until June 2004.

I've worked on various XML-based projects since, in a variety of sub-organizations in Sun Services, including content management, metadata management, and knowledge management. I'm also proud to work on the OASIS DocBook Technical Committee, along with Steve Cogorno and the great Norm Walsh (both from Sun). I also greatly respect the other members of the DocBook TC, who are very active in the DocBook and technical writing community.

My favorite project to date at Sun, has been working on the Sun System Handbook. It's got the best information on supporting Sun hardware, and a great team of folks to work on it.

Now I'm on a SunRay with remote access to a dedicated blade on a SunFire B1600 in a lab. This setup is working pretty well, so far.

I'm not sure what the future holds, but I hope it continues to be bright here at Sun!

See also: General

[*] Jumpgate opens...

I've just taken my first foray into the blogosphere. Feels pretty good.

I've been surfing blogs for quite a while, mostly Norm Walsh's excellent blog, Slashdot, XML.COM, and more recently Wil Wheaton Dot Net.

My professional interests lie primarily in DocBook, XML, XSLT and Storm Chasing , though not necessarily in that order.

My wife always comments that I have too many hobbies, which include: weather photography, aircraft modeling, HO-gauge railroading, 25mm miniature painting, French Horn, Bass guitar, Playstation2, Star Wars Lego.

This in addition to time with my kids, wife and Church.

I'll be categorizing a lot of my posts based on the professional interests, but will throw in some hobby posts from time to time.

Categories: General