Let's agree to respect each other's views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

I worked for a bit at Addie and Hayes' house today. They were both very helpful. Addie brought me things I needed and Hayes helped me close my toolbox.
If the people are the best part, the children are the best of the best.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the finch sock Pam hung from our patio cover. Then she added the hummingbird feeder that doesn't attract hummingbirds but does provide regular drinks for at least two woodpeckers. (Did you know that woodpeckers have a barbed tongue?)
We read in our bird book that finches are social birds, and we now have a large community of three types of finches that visit the sock all throughout the day. The woodpeckers are at their watering hole often enough that we see them often. And lately the quail have figured out that the patio and flower bed underneath the sock are a rich source of fallen seed. Interesting birds.
We have a regular aviary just outside our slider.

I met this morning with Mike and Attila (yes, that's his real name; he's Hungarian). They work for Redline Edition, the division of Arrowhead Advertising that runs Pathway's website. In the next day or two some significant changes will show up. They're installing a more user-friendly player for listening to the Sunday messages posted each Monday. It will allow visitors to the site to either download the message and listen on their own device, or play it right from the site in a separate window (that's the new part) so they can continue working on the internet while they listen.
They will also be installing a new "blog" page. That's why we met this morning. They gave me a quick lesson on how I post to that page. I'll be able to put up news items, pictures, prayer requests, announcements, devotionals...all kinds of things.
I scribbled furiously as they talked, taking notes on the steps to access and post to that page. We'll soon see if I have the procedures correct. Keep an eye on our site, look for the new page (the link will be right next to the "Listen & Download" link), and feel free to send feedback!

The other major new brain strain (besides learning the ins and outs of web posting) is my foray into electronic publishing. In each of my churches I have taught a two-year course to Jr. & Sr. High students who signed up for it. The course runs concurrently with the school year, meets for one hour per week, and is at least as rigorous as any class they have at school. The first year is an OT survey and the second is a NT survey followed by 6 weeks on major Christian doctrines. (Any former students of mine reading this can think BL101 and BL202, full blown.) Each year's curriculum includes weekly homework, quizzes, unit exams and a comprehensive final. The final at the end of the second year covers everything from both years and comes in the form of an oral exam before the congregation. I call the students up one at a time and ask them a series of questions on anything I want from either year. And they have no idea what I'll ask them!

I cannot tell you how impressive it is on that Sunday to see teenagers with a mastery of the Bible that rivals - probably surpasses - any adult in the congregation. Names, dates, places, the content of any of the 66 books, the chronology of Paul's travels, the geneology of the Patriarchs, the monarchy of Israel.... Never underestimate the ability of a young person to learn the Bible!

I had been encouraged to put this course into written form so other churches could use it with their young people. So, over the last couple of years I've been working on that project. The first year's curriculum is going through the final edit and should be done in a matter of a few weeks. The second year's student handouts are done (they will go through several edits) and the Teacher's Guide is in draft form.

In addition to working on that final edit (with some very valuable help from a friend!) I'm on a steep learning curve about electronic publishing. The plan is to have the Teacher's Guide and all the teaching resources (maps, Power Point presentations, Excel grading sheets, etc.) on one CD and the Student Handouts on another CD. (The Teacher's Guide will also include a file with those handouts). Churches - and individuals if they're interested (home schoolers?) - will purchase one Teacher's CD and as many Student CD's as they have signed up for the class. Then the students can print out their own handouts each week off the CD and have the CD as a future reference.

Getting from my hard drive to multiple copies of CD's in cases (the Blockbuster DVD type) with attractive covers and with a menu screen similar to what you see at the beginning of a movie DVD, then marketed, involves a lot of steps, each of those steps involves decisions, and all of those decisions require a knowledge base I'm racing to acquire. I'd like to have everything ready for sale by summer. Can I make it???

Whew! Just thinking about it has my head spinning again. I need some Diet Coke!