Sweet Music

My daughter played a flute solo and duet last Saturday for the district level Illinois Grade School Music Association competition. She did very well and I am incredibly proud of her. Before the competition we go through the ritual of sitting in the gymnasium and practicing along with every one of the other competitors. The sound is overwhelming, both because of the volume and also because each of the competitors is practicing their own song at the same time. It is both loud and confusing. (If I was competing I would not go in the gym to practice, but find a nice quiet place, maybe in the car, to let it loose).

Anyhow, as I sat there listening to my daughter practice it occurred to me that my Christian walk seems a lot like the gymnasium lately. I am happy that my family is dedicated to serving the Lord, but our family is trying to do so much that many times we are making a lot of noise, but not such beautiful music. We are all going our separate ways, and playing our own music, but it never quite comes together in an orchestrated way. I think my job is to orchestrate what we do, and make direct the effort like a conductor. I think we need to slow down a little bit and make an effort to complement each other instead of compete against each other.

Col 1:9-10:
(9) For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, (10) so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [to Him], bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.

Lord, help us to live out sweet music in our lives.

12 Crackpot Tech Ideas That Could Transform The Enterprise

I ran across a pretty good article on Info World that lists 12 ideas that could be the next big ideas in technology. Here's their list, it looks a little like a wishlist on Amazon.com. I don't want to get into any depth on each item, so to get more information on each item go to the article:

1. Superconducting computing
2. Solid-state drives
3. Autonomic computing
4. DC power
5. Holographic and phase-change storage
6. Artificial intelligence
7. E-books
8. Desktop web applications
9. Project Blackbox
10. Quantum computing and quantum cryptography
11. Semantic Web
12. Total information awareness

A Heart for Nevis

I was asked this last week to lead our church's (FBC O'Fallon) mission trip to the Caribbean island of Nevis. Nevis is about an hour flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and near the island of Montserrat. I am honored to be asked, and although I prayed about it all week, I knew it was what the Lord wanted me to do from the beginning.


At our collegiate ministry (The Gate) at McKendree College we had an opportunity to minister to a talented young man from Nevis attend for a semester. His name is Kurvin. He came to McKendree, not to be a student, but to work on his 100 meter sprint skills in order to be able to represent Nevis in the 2006 Olymics. Kurvin was a very mature young man and he had endured some hardship, having to leave his wife and children behind in Nevis while he worked hard training for the Olympics. Kurvin was a very strong believer and quickly became a solid member of our ministry. Now Kurvin is a Youth Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in his native country of Nevis, and it turns out that he is the one we will be working with on the mission trip.

FBC O'Fallon, The Gate's sponsoring church, sent a team down to Nevis last year and I wanted to be a part of it to be able to work with Kurvin, but the timing didn't work out. So, when the church asked if I could lead the trip this year it was very near to my heart.

I received an E-Mail from Kurvin today and he is pondering having us help him with the following items:

Visiting Youth in their homes
Youth athletic ministry
Hosting a pizza party
Hosting a concert
Leading Praise and Worship Services in church and in the town square
Leading Youth oriented Bible Studies

I believe our ministry is well equipped to help Kurvin out, but we need lots of prayer. Specifically please pray for:

Kurvin
The Youth of Nevis (The church is losing the battle for the souls of the young in Nevis)
That the Lord will help us discern what His direction is
That our students at The Gate, and others, will desire and find ownership of this opportunity
That we can have an enduring affect on Nevis

It is easy to visit a place far away from home and to have a short-term impact. But, many times when you leave the impact fades away. I want us to have a long-term impact. I want to develop community with the Youth of Nevis and be able to make a difference in their lives. So, I am not just committing to a summer mission trip this summer, but to developing relationships with another community of believers and those they minister to.

I have started a Nevis page on The Gate's website. It is located here. Link. Please stop by, browse a little, and pray for us as we go.

God bless each of you. He is an incredible God who does incredible things.

Global Warming: Human Made or Natural?

I read a couple of interesting articles today on state scientists/meteorologists that don't believe global warming is a human made phenomena, but part of a natural cycle. The articles are located here. Link, and here. Link.

I think it is kind of interesting that both articles surfaced at the same time. I have long been skeptical of the current mantra of human kind's responsiblilty for global warming. I don't think there is any hard core evidence that we are responsible, only circumstantial conjecture proposed by those with deep left wing political ties. Science is full of bias, and it just happens that those with a left wing political tie have the most politically correct bias at this time. Their voice happens to be strongest right now. I do believe it is in our best interest to limit all types of polution, and I consider myself to be an environmental activist, but I won't go as far as to blame humanity on global warming.

These two scientists are being persecuted for being "contrarian" and not going along with the crowd. Personally, I believe that not going along with the crowd is what makes for a good scientist. There needs to be a good dose of skepticism in any scientist's tool box. The Governor of Oregon needs to lighten up a little bit.

ORNL scores hit with National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

Thanks to the All Points Blog for directing us to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory News Release titled, ORNL scores hit with National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The news release can be found here. Link. NGA was so enamored with the RFID technology that they plan to implement it at their St Louis facility to maintain 100% accountability of all personnel for emergency response operations and hands off inventory control.