I had a great week at our staff conference! I was the “minute-by-minute” producer of the conference which means that I sat on the front row and make sure that everything stays on schedule. Here’s a picture of me at the conference. Next to me is my friend Justin Custer who was the timekeeper and stage manager. There was a team of about 20 of us that help to make the meetings go well. There was a sound and light company that we hired as well as camermen, video guys, and 5 computers. The afternoon before the first meeting, I wanted to have a rehearsal to make sure that we were ready. We needed to practice to make sure that the videos came on when they were supposed to, lighting transitions went smoothly, and tons of other details. The rehearsal went terrible. Just about everything went wrong. We missed every transition and video and there were long pauses while we tried to get things to work. We were all pretty discouraged after it and I figured that having the rehearsal was a big mistake.

I prayed in the next few hours before the meeting that God would make up for our short-comings. It was His conference and without Him we couldn’t get it done. That night went off without a hitch and the rest of the week went very smoothly. In fact, I’m not sure we missed a major transiton the whole week. The biggest problem was when it took a couple of seconds to get someone’s mic turned on. As I look back on it, I think the bad rehearsal was the best thing that could of happened because it showed how much work there was to be done and how without God’s intervention we were in trouble. It was a great time to see God at work!!!

Those of you that are regular readers of my blog (my wife, kids, and my
mom), realize that I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve found that when
life gets busy, the blog is one of the first things to go. Ironically,
I probably have more things to blog about when life gets busy, but
that’s how it goes.

I’ve been preparing for our ministry’s Area Staff Conference that starts
this weekend. As you can imagine, preparing a conference for 1000
people is keeping us busy. I leave tomorrow for the conference which is
going to be at a hotel on the shores of Lake Balaton (the largest lake
in Central europe).

This might mean that there is even less of a chance of a blog entry in
the next couple of weeks.

Valerie & I are totally addicted to the Amazing Race. We can’t get it
over here in Budapest so my dad records it and sends the episodes over.
He just got a DVD recorder for Christmas so now we are watching them on
DVD!!! We just watched the first 6 episodes of the current race and we
were so excited to see that they came to visit Budapest!!! It was fun
to see them show up at the airport and drive Soviet-era car called a
Trabant to a castle about 60 miles from Budapest (There are 2 or 3 of
these cars parked on our street). After watching the last episode that
we have, they were still in Budapest so we can’t wait to receive the
next episode which should have more footage of our beautiful city!!!

I’m about ready to apply for the show along with my good friend, Jerry.
For a long time, I didn’t think that I could get noticed by the show’s
producers, but Jerry pointed out that we would be “Tom & Jerry,
missionaries” I think that would be an interesting group and with all
our experience travelling together here in Eastern Europe, we should
have a shot at winning the thing. What do you think???

Those of you that are regular readers of my blog (my wife, kids, and my mom), realize that I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve found that when life gets busy, the blog is one of the first things to go. Ironically, I probably have more things to blog about when life gets busy, but that’s how it goes.

I’ve been preparing for our ministry’s Area Staff Conference that starts this weekend. As you can imagine, preparing a conference for 1000 people is keeping us busy. I leave tomorrow for the conference which is going to be at a hotel on the shores of Lake Balaton (the largest lake in Central europe).

This might mean that there is even less of a chance of a blog entry in the next couple of weeks.

Valerie & I are totally addicted to the Amazing Race. We can’t get it over here in Budapest so my dad records it and sends the episodes over. He just got a DVD recorder for Christmas so now we are watching them on DVD!!! We just watched the first 6 episodes of the current race and we were so excited to see that they came to visit Budapest!!! It was fun to see them show up at the airport and drive Soviet-era car called a Trabant to a castle about 60 miles from Budapest (There are 2 or 3 of these cars parked on our street). After watching the last episode that we have, they were still in Budapest so we can’t wait to receive the next episode which should have more footage of our beautiful city!!!

I’m about ready to apply for the show along with my good friend, Jerry. For a long time, I didn’t think that I could get noticed by the show’s producers, but Jerry pointed out that we would be “Tom & Jerry, missionaries” I think that would be an interesting group and with all our experience travelling together here in Eastern Europe, we should have a shot at winning the thing. What do you think???