Now blogging at ValpoRev.com
Hi, all! I started this blog to keep in touch with folks back home while away on various trips. But I proved to be pretty lousy at keeping up with it once I got home, didn’t I? 
So… I’m putting this blog on pause, perhaps indefinitely. I’ve started connecting with friends old and new over on Facebook and updating people on Twitter, too. And for things that are too public for Facebook and too long for Twitter, I’ve started blogging over at ValpoRev.com.
So don’t bother to watch this space anymore! But feel free to visit me over at ValpoRev.com!
Derik’s gone… but he’ll be back… then gone again…
I took Derik to the South Shore train station in Chesterton this week, where he hopped a train to Chicago, and from there to Philadelphia… It’s a long trip! I dropped him off just before 3:00 pm on Thursday, and he was scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia at 8:00 pm… on Friday! That’s 29 hours on trains. I don’t know how he does it!
Derik will be gone from Living Hope for 3 Sundays, while he travels around visiting family and friends, but he’ll be back on Sunday, December 14. That’s also the day he graduates from Valparaiso University’s masters program in Chinese studies. He’ll be moving back to the Seattle area a few days later, so the 14th is our last chance to worship with him before he’s outta here.
Congratulations, Derik, on completing your degree (soon)! And thank you for serving us at Living Hope by leading us in worship for the past year! We’ll miss you!
Anyone wanting to keep up with Derik should visit (and subscribe to) his blog: brond.blogspot.com. He does a much better job of updating his than I do mine!
Did you know…? I design websites.
I’ve been using computers since I was a kid. (First computer: Commodore 64.) I’ve been using the internet since before the web… way back in the days of 2400 bps modems and BBS’s… even before AOL!
Still, even though I’ve been using the internet forever, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I began designing and creating websites. When we started Living Hope, we created a website for it… but it wasn’t very good. Then Bill Klein designed a new one for us, and it was much better. And then I discovered WordPress. WordPress is free, open-source software that started out as blogging software and morphed into a platform for building just about any kind of website. I love it, because there are hundreds of free themes and plugins available, and it’s easy to update the website from anywhere. In fact, I hesitate to say that I “design” websites, because I always start with someone else’s design and make modifications from there (with permission).
So anyway, here are a few of the websites that I created and that are currently hosted by our church at Dreamhost.com. (By the way, if you’re looking for a webhosting company and are considering Dreamhost, use promo code LIVINGHOPE to receive $50 off your order… and we’ll get a referral bonus to help us with our hosting costs.)
- www.livinghope.info - for Living Hope Community Church, the church that we started and I pastor
- www.valpochurches.org - for the Valparaiso Christian Ministerial Association
- www.sharefestpc.org - for ShareFest Porter County, an annual service event for all the churches in our county
- www.indianachurchplanting.com - for people considering starting a new church in partnership with the Northwest Indiana District of the Church of the Nazarene
- www.wvlp.org - for WVLP-LP 98.3 FM, Valparaiso’s low-power community radio station, where I volunteer on the morning show Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 7:00 to 8:00 am
And then there are a couple of blogs, this one that you’re reading and one for our church’s youth ministry, neither of which are updated very frequently. I’ve done other websites, too, that are no longer in use, and I’m in the process of developing others, but these are the only ones that are currently available online.
Some of these need some serious updating, like the first two in that list up there. I know. I’m working on ‘em.
I mention these here for a couple of reasons: (1) to let you know a little more about me, and (2) to invite comments and feedback. I love getting feedback. Sometimes I miss a typo or don’t realize that something that looks great in my browser looks like garbage in someone else’s. So feel free to share any thoughts, comments, or ideas with me. I’m open.
Labor Day at Wisconsin Dells
Stacey and I are spending our Labor Day in the Wisconsin Dells, where her parents live. It’s a great place to get away and relax. Thanks, John & Judy, for a wonderful time!
We’re home!
We made it! No flight delays, no traffic snarls, and we’d probably be asleep already, if Stacey weren’t so insistent on getting unpacked first!
Guatemala was great, but six weeks is a long time to be away from home! We’re glad to be back!
(That’s our bed with a bunch of suitcase stuff on it, in case you don’t know.)
