The Last Three Weeks!

Just in case anybody thinks I fell off the planet, I thought I'd add a new post today to bring interested readers up to date. But...where to start??

Part 1:

My most time consuming project, since completing my doctoral dissertation has been updating our web site. The tech support people at Network Solutions suggested I get rid of the "frames" on our pages. So, I had to go through and update 135 pages one by one. That felt like it took forever! Then one of the tech support people suggested I use CSS instead of simply HTML. That would enable me to make one change on one style sheet that would affect every page on my web site. Instead of having to manually change each page. He made it sound easy!

So, I began hunting for information about CSS (Cascading Syle Sheets). I found a "template" for a three column web site using CSS at Matthew James Taylor's web site. Wow! That was overwhelming! I laid it back down several times, thinking it was just beyond my ability. I emailed him and he wrote back and told me I needed to use "PHP includes" for what I wanted to do. Now I had to try to learn PHP as well as CSS. Surprisingly, learning about PHP includes was not very hard. But now I needed to go back to the three column CSS layout. I just couldn't seem to put it all together.

But then I stumbled on a tutorial that explained HTML, CSS, and PHP simply enough for me to understand at Tizag.com. You have to know, I'm not a computer programmer, I'm a minister. I look at my web site as my pulpit. I look at the interaction I have with people through it as a very significant part of my ministry. My heart's desire is to lift up Jesus Christ and help people come to know Him personally. And, to help people who know Him, grow in their relationship with Him. So, that's why I invest all of this time in learning to develop the best web site I can, so that people who visit our site will have the best experience I can provide.

Anyway, it all finally "clicked" for me! I learned it, and now I'm involved with redesigning our pages using these new languages. It's actually becoming fun now as I see what these languages can do.

Part 2:

Three weeks ago, on Sunday morning, Yvonne and I visited Azalea Gardens Church in Virginia Beach (the church is affiliated with the Church of God - Cleveland, TN). The worship service really blessed us! The water baptism of one individual, and a whole family was scheduled as part of the service. But, as the baptismal service went on, more and more people came forward to be baptized! There must have been about 15 people who were baptized before it was over. Many of them were children. That was really neat to see.

Sunday night we attended Churchland Assembly of God to worship, and reconnect with some friends we hadn't seen in a long time. That was good. Afterwards, several of us went to IHOP for food and fellowship.

That night I got really sick! I woke up with a 102.6F fever that lasted for three days. I was in bed the whole time. Finally, I went to the doctor and he gave me some antibiotics that worked. Thank you Jesus!

During the week Marian Maye, the pastor's wife of Azalea Gardens Church called, she also sent us an invitation in the mail to come back the following week and attend their "Guests Luncheon" after the worship service. We thought that was really nice! So, we decided to attend again. We brought Josue Torres (one of our sailors) with us. We all enjoyed the worship, and the food afterward was really good. During the worship service, the Lord used Yvonne to give a prophecy. After the service, a man from the worship team came up to us and said the Lord had given him almost the exact same message the week before, but there was no place to give it. He said the Lord obviously meant it to be given this week. What a powerful confirmation!

When we came back to the house we had a Bible study about why we lift our hands and clap in the church during worship. Josue challenges me every time I tell him something, to show him where it is in the Bible (an excellent practice). He's a new believer and is really hungry to learn and grow in his new faith!

This past Sunday Josue, Yvonne and I all went to Azalea Gardens Church again. There was a prophecy and two messages in tongues with the accompanying interpretation of tongues given during the service. You could really feel the presence of the Lord!

Pastor Aubrey Maye preached a powerful sermon from Nehemiah Chapter 1 about getting a vision from the Lord that's bigger than we are. His message really spoke to me. I felt like the Lord renewed my vision to reach young, single, servicemen and women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five for Jesus Christ, and helping those who already know Him to grow in their relationship with Him.

My heart cries out to the Lord for the multitudes of young men and women around us who don't know Him; for those who don't have any desire to grow in their relationship with Him; and for those who are seriously backslidden. I spent yesterday fasting and praying for the young military people in this area.

So, I guess that's the update for the past three weeks. God bless.