Tech Team at Annual Conference
Greater Europe Mission has an annual conference every year for all of its missionaries. One distinctive of Greater Europe Mission is that we are all pretty much on one continent (we do go into North Africa and in some of Asia as well – that’s the “Greater” part). At this conference, I got the privilege of having a team of technical people come and work on missionary laptops. You see, even though we are all on one continent, it is extremely difficult to support the over 300 missionaries that we have out in the field. With everyone coming together to one place, it gives us the opportunity to help them in ways we can’t always do that through out the year. We have been doing it for several years now and the missionaries came with their laptops (and other equipment) in hand ready to be helped.
The team (most of whom are shown above with our GEM IT Director, Kirk in the middle) did a wonderful job not only fixing laptops but spending time with the missionaries helping them understand how they can do preventive maintenance and use the computers. They worked long hours (sometimes leaving at 2 or 3 AM in the morning only to return at 6 or 7 AM) but they had servant hearts. We also had one lady with them that gave one on one software training helping missionaries use their computers to their fullest.
On a personal note, these men really spoke to me as in early June, our original team told me that they couldn’t make it this year. I sent out a panicked email and within a week these men responded with “We’re coming – now where are we going and what are we doing?” They were willing to be servants of our Lord and it was appreciated.
Check out their blog of the trip at http://thehungaryproject.blogspot.com/ and photos from their trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehungaryproject/
Quick stop in Vienna
On my way home from some travels, I had a layover in Vienna for about 5 hours. Having not really seen Vienna (but flying through their airport all the time), I decided to take the quick 16 minute train ride into downtown Vienna (also known as Wien). I didn’t spend much time and it was a Sunday afternoon so nothing was really open. The only thing I knew to do was visit their Dom (another name for really old church). So I made my way over to it and took a few pictures with my small camera (not my good one, sorry.) I also went through the park and watched everyone relax in the sun before heading back to the airport to catch my flight home.
Check out the Photos in the Photo Album.
Alex Camera Download
Gina, my sister, gave Alex a camera before we left the states. It’s a digital camera made for young people so it has two eye pieces and is rubber coated. Its really nice and Alex picks it up every once in a while and does a series of pictures (most of which we can’t figure out what they are). Anyways, Alex brought it in to me today and told me it was time to let the world see his photos and for me to post them up on the website. Well, I didn’t post all of them (especially the ones of me where all you see is my stomach – without a shirt – yuck!) but I did make an album of some of the better ones that I thought were cute.
Check the Photos out in the Photo Album.
More pics of the Kyle Dillard Band
Well, I uploaded my photos about our time in Poland in the Photo Album. Be sure to check them out.
Also, Durand with GEM’s CreativeWorks ministry also did some blogging about our concerts and has his photos (and a video) on his blog here.
Guys, can’t wait to do it again! (Just next time, I don’t want to get sick, OK?)
Alex & Suds
I know I haven’t blogged since getting back from Ukraine and tomorrow I start traveling again. I am working hard on all the different blogs that came out of my time in Ukraine but just haven’t gotten the time to write them down. But I will.
Anyway, just wanted to share with you some fun time we had the other night when Alex was taking his bath. I think he used too much soap. He called Krista and I in and you couldn’t even see him and then he just popped up. Check out the photos in the Photo Ablum.
Favorite Photos
Our photo album has almost 3000 photos in it now. Wow, that’s a lot!! So I took some time and went through them and made a photo set of my favorites. These are my favorites either because of the subject or maybe an artistic expression or just because. I hope you enjoy them. So check out the photo album for my Favorites set. Or click here to see my Favorites as a slide show.
Having Fun with Family
We’ve been having a lot of fun with Krista’s family here. Sorry, we haven’t posted but I did upload a lot of photos from several of our day trips:
Opening Presents on Christmas Eve
More photos like this can be found here in the Photo Album
Mom on our trip to Colmar, France for the Weihnachtmarket
More photos like this can be found here in the Photo Album
One of our favorite trips is to Haut Koenigsbourg in France
More photos like this can be found here in the Photo Album
Krista and her sister in front of the largest waterfall in Germany (Triberg in the Black Forest)
More photos like this can be found here in the Photo Album
Hope ya’ll have a wonderful New Year’s Eve. We’ve got our fireworks and we’re ready to go. Tschuess.