A Lesson From Shirley

I about fell over in amazement the other day.

We are in the process of moving to O'Fallon, Illinois, about 7 miles from where we currently live. Our house is on the real estate market and we purchased a new and wonderful home in O'Fallon. My Mother-In-Law, Shirley, who is a wonderful person that I get along with very well, came out from California to help with the move. And, she has helped out tremendously. But you have to understand my Mother-In-Law, she is very old school. Her family lost everything during the Dust Bowl and moved from Colorado to Los Angeles in the 1930s. She has lived through losing everything and as a result has become very wise in saving and investing her money. Anytime we make a significant financial decision we go to Shirley for advice. She is also a little suspicious of technology. She has a computer and is getting more and more capable on it, but still primarily uses it just to send E-Mail.

Flash back to April 4 when Shirley got off the airplane from California. We get home and she starts playing with one of these. Link. A Garmin Street Pilot Global Positioning System (GPS). I couldn't believe it. She was familiar with the town we have lived in for 11 years now, but didn't want to get lost trying to navigate around O'Fallon. So, God bless her, she bought a GPS to use in the car. We have been in the process of working with Shirley to teach her how to use it, and it turns out to be a great tool.

The Garmin Street Pilot will display a moving map keeping you in the center and will give you verbal directions to get you to your destination. So Shirley can see where she is and hear how to get where she wants to go. Pretty cool tool. I have had several GPSs over the years, but this one is the easiest to use and presents information in a very usable format.

Anyhow, to say the least, I was impressed with Shirley's decision. Working in the Geospatial Information business I would have picked a toy like this, but I didn't know she had it in her.

Way to go Shirley!

The Future of Paper Maps

Thanks go to the All Points Blog for directing us to an interesting article on the future of paper maps. The article is locate here. Link.

To sum it up, the paper maps industry is booming. I thought that with everything going digital that the paper map industry would be struggling, but the opposite is true. As happened to me in college, once I got a taste of maps in my geography courses, I wanted more.

In a short excerpt from the article, Chris Fisk, vice president of JIMAPCO states,

"We are concluding that the products you get on the Internet, such as MapQuest, are helping to educate people about maps," she said. "So people who have never used a map before are inclined to check out something on MapQuest and it appears they are becoming acclimated to maps and going out and buying them."

David Fisk, Chris' husband and president of JIMAPCO states,

"Even dashboard GPS navigation systems wound up making people want maps more, instead of supplanting them."

Pretty amazing that the digital mapping industry has started a boom in the paper map industry.

Australia to Purchase Up To 4 C-17 Globemaster III Aircraft

Thanks to the ASD-Network for publishing this article. The article can be fround here. Link.

The C-17 is replacing the aging fleet of airlift aircraft in the US inventory. It is a very capable aircraft and is very technologically advanced. This is a reward for Australia "hanging in there" with us during the Gulf War, but it also helps us. Now the Aussies won't be dependent on US heavy airlift to get them to the fight. This is a win/win situation, not to mention the $2 Billion revenue in foreign military sales.

I disagree with one of the comments in the article. The comment, "Australia is one of our most important allies in the Western Pacific" is only partly ture. I personally believe that Australia is our most important ally period. They are strategically located where they can impact a part of the world that desperately needs stability, they have a history similar in many ways to the US, and Australia and New Zealand have been our good friends since the ANZUS Treaty during WWII.

This is a good deal for both countries.

Obese Man Crosses U.S. to Shed Pounds

Yahoo News has a link to this story of an obese man who began walking across the US in order to lose weight. The link is here. Link.

This is a very interesting story. Mr Vaught walked through our town a few months back without much fanfare. I think the only TV news that carried his story is the local Fox affiliate. I admired him then and I am happy to see he is continuing on to New York.

How many of us are fed up with sipritual obesiety? How many of us would benefit from stepping out in faith and as Nike says, Just Do It!? I know I am spiritually obese and need to shed a few pounds of spiritual fat. I just pray that we have the courage to step out and start conforming our lives to God's Will. As Mr Vaught says,

It is amazing how hard it is to find good, healthy food while on the road,

As Christians we should be feeding from God's table and using the energy to spread His good news to the lost, not feasting on the fast food provided by the world and then sitting back and watching the world pass us by because we are lazy.

Lord give us the nourishment and courage to choose to follow Your will.

A Powerful Eye In The Sky

There's a good post on the All Points Blog about uncovering insurance fraud after Hurricane Katrina. They link out to a Times-Picayune article located here. Link. But I particularly like the All Points Blog's analysis. The Blog's post is located here. Link.

The Quest for the Right Map

Thanks to the All Points Blog for pointing us in the direction of a great article on how TeleAtlas keeps their street and highway database information rapidly updated on web-based maps. The article is located here. Link. Sounds like a pretty sweet job driving a high-tech van like Comi's all over the country. TeleAtlas is hiring interns for the summer! If I was in college I'd apply.

The Spirit of "Emerging Baptists"

There is a great article posted by Joel Rainey on The Spirit of "Emerging Baptists" and how the Southern Baptist denomination is a natural fit for the emerging generations. It is located here. Link.

This Week at The Gate: March 20

Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome back from Spring Break! Congratulations, there are only 7 more weeks of school left before the end of the year. Paul talks about "running the good race" and I want to encourage you to keep working hard until the very end.

Here's what we have planned this week:

Monday March 20:
Women's Bible Study at 8:30 at The Gate
Men's Bible Study at 9:00 at The Gate
Prayer Meeting at 11:00 at The Gate

Thursday March 23:
Thursday Night Alive! Worship Service with Mike Cariker from FBC O'Fallon. Mike is the Minister to Students for FBC O'Fallon's Jr High, High School, and Collegiate Ministries. He has his hands full with student ministry. He is a great guy and a true servant of the Lord. I know the Lord has put something on his heart to share with us that we can all apply in our daily lives. And, if you feel you aren't being used to your fullest potential Mike has many places at FBC O'Fallon where you can mentor and minister to youth.


Down the road a while:

April 6: Pastor Doug Munton from FBC O'Fallon

April 7/8: IBSA's Spring Leadership Training Conference. The state-wide BCM Leadership Training Conference (LTC) will be held in Charleston, IL on the campus of Eastern Illinois University, April 7-8. Cost for the conference is $25. The worship sessions will be led by Jonathan Peters (Bible Study) and Mark Warnock (music), both from Columbia Baptist Church. Breakout session will deal with issues such as Worship, Fellowship, Prayer and Fasting, Evangelism, and Stewardship. For more information contact Serena Butller at serenabutler@ibsa.org. Registrations should be in by March 31.

As always you can check us out at our blogsite located at:

http://opengate.blogspot.com

Take care and God bless you all.

No Thursday Night Alive! Movie Night Tonight

Brothers and Sisters,

I know most of you have already heard that due to McKendree's Spring Break starting tomorrow we decided to cancel the Thursday Night Alive! Movie Night planned for tonight. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows.

We will not have any services next week also due to Spring Break. Our next events will be Men's and Women's Bible study on March 20 and Thursday Night Alive! with Mike Cariker from FBC O'Fallon on March 23.

Have a great break and I look forward to seeing you when we all get back together on March 20th.

Your brother in the Lord,

Rick Marshall

Something New...

I started my new job today with the Environmental Systems Research Institute, also known as ESRI. I am a Defense and Intelligence Account Representative for the St Louis region (Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa). So far it seems like a great place to work. I would be worried if I didn't feel this way after my first day! I work within the St Louis Office, but work for a Supervisor in Washington DC. There will be lots of strange chain of command relationships to navigate through, but it feels like it will be an interesting ride.

The office is in St Charles, Missouri, and although it is an hour drive from my home in Illinois, it is located in a beautiful old historic town and is right across the street from the Katy Trail. I can walk out the back door of the office and ride my bike on the trail all the way across Missouri to Kansas City. Hopefully I will have enough time to take advantage of the good bike riding and running possibilities.