'Twas the Night Before Leaving

This first paragraph appears on the old Yahoo 360 site for those late adopters. You, however, clearly live on the cutting edge, a leader and a trend setter.

Yeah, but all the really cool stuff is over at http://CraigMacDonald.blogspot.com.
Still a few holdouts, but I'm confident we'll get everybody over to that site. Hey, pretty soon you're at risk of being left behind. And you don't want to miss out on all the clever wit and up-to-the-second news found only on Vagabond Thoughts, now, do you?

We went to church this morning and then met the kids for lunch at Wendy's. I spent the afternoon doing some bookwork, some packing, some football and some zonking. Then we drove up to Rock Springs to meet Rog & Sandy Geurink, who had driven down from Sedona where they're vacationing for the week. We had dinner at the restaurant in Rock Springs. In fact, that's all there is in Rock Springs; the restaurant is the sum total of the "town". It's a cool place that dates back 95 years. Started as a stage stop and motel. They're famous for their pies but the food is pretty good too.
Have you ever been to a restaurant where the wait staff is all rude, but it's part of their shtick? At this place they're just rude by nature. But we had a good time with Rog and Sandy, and enjoyed meeting their friends from MI vacationing with them.

As we drove north for dinner we climbed from our elevation, 1,000 feet, to a little over 2,000 feet. It's a pretty drive up through the huge rock outcroppings and mesas. We've had some weather passing through all weekend. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, too. But for our drive the sun was shining through from the west while the skies overhead were dark with rain clouds. Off to the east was 1/2 of a rainbow.
I should have paid more attention in science class. I understand about the sunlight getting refracted through the water droplets, but why are rainbows bows? Why do they have an arc? Why can't they be straight like the light through a prism? And what decides whether the arc goes to the right or to the left?

I have another question you may be able to help me with. I'm working on this curriculum, which will eventually be published in digital format. The student handouts and teacher's guide will be Word documents on a CD Rom, or maybe a DVD. I want to include some images in digital format, including maps.
What are the rules here? Can I do a Google image search, find a map of the Fertile Crescent that works for my purposes and download it for use in my curriculum? The curriculum will eventually be sold, so copyrighted images are out of bounds. But in the vast majority of cases the images on the web, including maps, include no copyright information. Are they public domain? How does one know?
If downloading is not permissible (is there a published standard somewhere?), is there a collection of digital Bible maps approved for distribution? Or printed maps that could be legally scanned?

Tomorrow we'll head out the door about 5:00 a.m. to be at the airport by 6:00 to catch an 8:00 flight. Besides the work on their cabin and some writing, I plan to spend lots of time thinking, praying and planning for those first services - specifically the educational hour - of what may become a church, Deo Volente. I've already started, but there's lots more thinking to be done. Beginnings are critical, getting off on the right foot essential.
The question isn't only "What should we do?" but "Why are we doing it"? In fact, the Why needs to precede the what. Doing things, especially church, for the wrong reasons will eventually ruin the What, even if the What is spot on. We need to be clear and in agreement on our motivations, our core values, our reasons for beginning a new church in an area where start-up churches are everywhere. If we don't do that first, the ministries will become actions isolated from a unifying principle, an underlying base that keeps them on the true.
It's not like I have to figure it out; I worked through these issues for myself a long time ago. But I need to be able to articulate the Why in a way that makes it clear, and infuses those values in the earliest attenders. Most Christians never think about this stuff, and that's understandable. Life has more than enough issues to figure out. But a group of people who gather together to start a church have to be clear and united on these most basic issues.
Wanna come join us? Just let me know that you plan to be there on the 6th so we can have enough donuts!

I may miss a post or two over the next week because I'll have to travel to a wifi spot to get internet access. But check back, because I'm going to do my best. Hey, this is the only way I have to get the voices out of my head. And working alone in a cabin for the better part of a week is sure to bring out all those voices!