tonyandkirsten.org

“There was a greek who had some thoughts and Plato was his name-o
P-L-A-T-O, P-L-A-T-O, P-L-A-T-O, and Plato was his name-o”

And…

“There was a car filled up with gas and Volvo was its name-o
V-O-L-V-O, V-O-L-V-O, V-O-L-V-O, and Volvo was its name-o”

It’s amazing the lengths one will go to when there is a tired, cranky, restless toddler in the back seat.

(I’ll take credit for the second variation…credit for the first one, which I think is much more clever, goes to Tony.)

It’s been close to one year since I started my project to convert a large portion of Stonebrook’s vast tape library to digital format.  I’m not nearly as far as I expected I would be at this time when I first began, but things are going better than ever at this point.

I calculated today that I have close to 20% of the tape library accounted for (nearly 600 tapes) — in other words, tapes I have either converted to digital format or have decided to set aside and not add to the digital archive for various reasons. I have some where around 375-400 actual MP3 files of messages. That sounds good in one sense — but maybe not so much when you consider that it would take me four more years to finish at that rate.  Not what I was hoping for.

However, things seem a little more optimistic when you consider that out of the past 11.5 months, I was only actually actively working to digitize tapes for less than three months of that! If I could have kept up that rate the whole year (and if I chose to digitize the same percentage of tapes, which may not completely be the case) — I would have been mostly finished by now!

So what happened? After getting off to a quick start last summer, I took a break for close to a month while the Rock’s ministry kicked off for the fall and I did an issue of Daylights.  Then I got started again and only a few weeks later, had a terrible hard drive crash.  It was very discouraging and I had to take a few weeks off while we figured out what I lost and got a new hard drive (luckily, I had only lost a few dozen of my permanent lossless archive files, and none of the MP3s…so I can set aside all the ones that I need to re-do in the permanent archive format at the end after I have done everything else).

Needless to say, I learned my lesson about backing up frequently, and we purchased a DVD burner also to back-up the lossless archive files onto many DVDs.  I making quick progress again for a few weeks, when we came up with what seemed like a great idea — why not move the digitizing set-up into our bedroom on the main floor so I don’t have run up and down the stairs with Madeline all the time to check on the tapes? Great idea!

That idea took a little longer than expected to impliment. Tony and Gary built a special wooden rack to stand in the corner of the room, got a different computer all set-up to be dedicated to the tape tape digitizing process, modified slightly the cases of both tape decks so they could both be mounted in the rack to be used simultaneously, and got this whole thing put together (It’s affectionately known as “tape monster”).

I think it was sometime in late winter before it was all up and running (February maybe?). But, by that point I was so imersed in other things (busy with helping Mike and Jackie with their wedding plans, busy planning the Rock parents event, busy with Madeline, etc)…that I didn’t have the motivation and drive to figure out where I had left off and put it back into my routine.

I just got started again a couple weeks ago. The computer part of tape monster has still been having some issues.  I can’t use both tape decks at once yet, reliably. I am also not sure that I can multitask quite well enough to keep up with two tape decks, especially when only one of them automatically switches sides and relays to the second tape. I’ve also still been having problems with the computer crashing. Upgrading versions of audacity (the free software I use for the digitzing process) and exiting the program between each one or two tapes and then re-entering before continuing seems to help a lot. It isn’t as reliable as when we used “blackbox” (our fast main desktop computer) for the conversion process, but it is so much more convenient overall having it upstairs that I think it is worth it.

I guess we’ll see what the next year brings.  If this set-up continues to work well and we have no major life or technology issues that get in the way, I might actually be close to finishing by a year from now. I can actually convert 8-10 or more tapes per day without much problem (depending on tape and message length, and if I can pay close attention to when a message stops or not), and of course I am only actually digitizing half to two-thirds of the archives.
Meanwhile, if you want MP3 files of the tapes I have already converted, feel free to let me know — all of what I have done up to this point fits on two DVDs, and with the low price of blank discs these days, if you give me a couple bucks that is completely adequate to cover the cost.  (It’s better to email me if you are interested — kirsten SPLAT rockisu dot com — take out the SLPAT and put in “@”).

We went to the ISU Surplus Sale today. If you haven’t had the pleasure of attending this sale yourself, picture it as sort of a weekly geek garage sale. This is where the university sells off old computer systems, old lab equipment, old furniture, and sometimes even old foodservice dishes and equipment.

They also sell off “lost and found” type items that are never claimed. You could get yourself a new (well, slightly used) winter coat for only $5! (So yes, there are defiitely non-geek items at this sale too).

Today, I saw one of these (tagged at a price of 25 cents, if I recall correctly):

Well, it wasn’t exactly that model, but pretty much the same concept. It was probably at least 25 years old and very possibly older.  Haven’t a clue what it is? Imagine putting a phone headset onto those cups and using it to send data from your computer!
This is what passed as a modem in the late 60s and 70s, until the Hayes modem was popularized starting around 1981 (that was a more “modern” modem you could actually plug into a phone line). These accoustic coupler modems went at the rip-roaring speed of 300 baud. That’s 300 compared to 56k (56,000) with the fastest dial-up modems today, which again are slow compared to broadband internet services.

I think part of what I found so amusing in seeing this at the surplus sale (other than wondering where this has been sitting for the past 20 to 25 years that it hadn’t been sold off already) was the tag on the item.  It didn’t say “modem” or even “old modem” or “antique modem.”  It said “Old School Modem.”

You can learn more (just as I did) about old school modems at Wikipedia.  (And yes, computer history is one of my many geeky interests. It’s fascinating!)

Tonight at the EPIC teaching, Pat Sokoll gave a great message that could probably be summed up by saying, “God is in charge, you are not. So do what He wants you to do, not the things you think you want to do.” Okay, so that is a great oversimplification. He touched on a variety of subjects including dying to yourself, being a servant and truly being engaged in community (rather than being an American, individualistic Christian). I probably even missed some (or many) points while I was trying to keep Madeline from making too much noise. If you missed it, you should definitely listen to it once it is posted on the EPIC blog. Or listen again even if you heard it once since it was so profound.

So, on to my original reason for writing this post…One subject that Pat touched on was the differences between a technological versus a traditional society. As you might expect, we live in a technological society, while the Bible was written in a traditional society. The technological soceity evolved during and after the industrial revolution, but a lot of the really big changes to society have occured in the past 30-50 years. Sounds like a no-brainer in one sense, but when you look at some of the deeper implications of this, it can be very profound. When I first ran across this concept, it really helped me understand some of what the Bible says about Women’s roles in a way that other ways of explaining things did not.

In his message, Pat mentioned a “19 page booklet” (or something like that) on this topic. I’m not sure what exactly that is, but I can point you in the direction of a great free resource on the subject. The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has made available on their website a book called “Man and Woman in Christ” by Stephen B. Clark. This book is out of print, so hard copies are only availabe from used book sellers online. This is in html format, so you’ll have to get creative if you want to do anything other than just read it in your web browser.

While the focus of this book is a variety of issues regarding men’s and women’s roles, one of the primary foundations for some of Clark’s points on the subject come from this concept of a technological vs. traditional society. If you want to read just his chapter-long explanation of this, read chapter 18, which is about 35 pages long. The whole book (I think I have read almost the whole thing, if not all of it) is amazing reading — if you do read it, keep in mind that Clark comes from a Catholic background, so some of his thoughts make more sense in that light. But overall, he is right on in what he says about Biblical manhood and womanhood.

I hurried through my “Believing God” Bible study workbook assignments this week to get to #5 — the section dealing with what happens when God does not come through with a miracle we ask Him for. (This week’s lessons are related to the theme of “God can do what He says He can do” — and the author’s primary focus is miracles.)

I had been looking forward with great anticipation with this section, but as it turns out it didn’t really answer the questions that often plague me related to this. Her examples seemed to deal mostly with sickness and death — types of miracles that people ask for and they either happen or they don’t happen. They are also usually things that we as people have very little control over. There is nothing we can literally “do” about a sick friend or relative. It really is prayer, and prayer only.

My struggles and doubts in this area are honestly related to ministry — more specifically, to the faith goals or requests we put before God. And, at least in my mind, it seems so much more complicated. These faith-goal miracles we ask God for range from, on a small scale, believing God to see a certain Lifegroup grow in size…to on a larger level believing God for a certain attendance level at the Rock or for a certain number of people to get saved or attend a conference.

These type of miracles (or maybe just “requests of God” would be a better term for this category) feel a lot different to me because they are not finite in the number of ways they can be answered. They are not necessarily “yes or no” questions. And we do play an active part in seeing these goals realized. For example. if we were to ask God to see 200 people attend the Rock on a certain Friday night and 175 show up, God still worked — some people did show up, and maybe even a few more than usual. But our “faith goal” was not realized.

I honestly find myself terribly disappointed and even hurt (emotionally) in these situations on a regular basis. We are constantly asking God for very amazing things, and somehow it often (maybe even usually) seems like God does only a small part of the amazing thing we ask for. I find myself wondering if we did our part correctly or if we even asked for the right thing in the first place.

Sometimes in the past I have let my disappointment and doubt turn to cynicism and small faith and mistrust of the people who suggested the goal if it wasn’t one I was a part of creating. Lots of un-achieved faith-goals over the years put forth by various people at all levels left me feeling very tired by the whole process. In recent months I have tried to turn the corner on that and allow myself to have fresh faith again, even if it means facing this internal pain and disappointment time and time again.

Now, I know that we are not supposed to put our hope in things like ministry success, or in whether or not our requests to God have been answered in the way we expected. Our hope is to be in the glory that awaits us in heaven. Our hope is to be in the Lord! Yet for me it is still really hard to put my all into asking over and over again, only to have God rarely answer by meeting or exceeding the faith goal that was set out.

What am I missing? How does a person on one hand, consistently ask God to do great things in a ministry context (not limiting the size or scope of miracle or results He may want to accomplish through a given ministry or church body or team or Lifegroup)…while yet being absolutely content if God often answers that He would rather do only small things through you or your church or your group at the moment. And besides, how would you know if it was partly your fault (because you asked for the wrong thing or did the wrong thing or were too lazy or whatever) that God didn’t choose to come through on the request you made of Him?

Please let me know if you have any great insights on this.

I have finally caught up on putting the last six months of pictures in our photo gallery. We had some problems with the uploading on our gallery, but we have something better in place now, so hopefully I will be able to stay caught up in the coming months.

I present, for your viewing enjoyment…

• Christmas 2005 Pics
• Madeline, January thru April 2006
• Madeline in May, 2006 (Includes birthday pictures!)
• The “We Love Mike and Jackie” Album (Pics of engagement day, bridal shower, etc.)
• Some random pictures of us

I’m still in the process of labeling and properly rotating the pictures, so you may find them not facing the right way.

This summer’s message series at Stonebrook is about Psalms, so I have been reading it a bit the past few days.  I was looking at Psalm 7 (in NIV), and enjoyed this verbal imagery:

14 He who is pregnant with evil
and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment.
15 He who digs a hole and scoops it out
falls into the pit he has made.
16 The trouble he causes recoils on himself;
his violence comes down on his own head.

Then I read it in The Message, and it reads as follows:

14 Look at that guy!
He had sex with sin,
he’s pregnant with evil.
Oh, look! He’s having
the baby — a Lie-Baby!
15-16 See that man shoveling day after day,
digging, then concealing, his man-trap
down that lonely stretch of road?
Go back and look again — you’ll see him in it headfirst,
legs waving in the breeze.
That’s what happens:
mischief backfires;
violence boomerangs.

You can’t get much clearer than that on the consequences of wicked, sinful behavior!

As a part of the “Believing God” study that many Rock/Stonebrook women are doing this summer, participants are asked to read Romans chapter 4 twenty times before the study concludes. While introducing the study on Wednesday night last week, Elaine happened to mention that when she did the study the first time she read Romans 4 in “just about every translation out there” in order to keep it fresh and not get too bored with it.

Always liking a good challenge, I thought to myself, I bet I could find at least 20 different translations to read it in, and hence read it in a different one every time! I actually found links online to 32 different translations (all but one is from either biblegateway.org or bible.crosswalk.com). So, I guess I will be reading Romans 4 at least 32 times…since I don’t want to leave any out!

If you would like to do the same, or at least get some more variety in your reading of the passage twenty times, here is a linked list. Please comment if you know of any other translations that can be read on the web, and I will update the list:

1. NIV
2. NAS
3. The Message
4. Amplified
5. NLT
6. King James
7. ESV (English Standard Version)
8. Contemporary English Version
9. New King James
10. 21st Century King James Version
11. American Standard Version
12. Young’s Literal Translation
13. Darby Translation
14. New Life Version
15. Holman Christian Standard
16. New International Readers Version
17. Wycliffe New Testament
18. Worldwide English
19. Third Millenium Bible
20. New Revised Standard
21. Revised Standard
22. Good News Bible
23. Douay-Rheims Bible
24. The Complete Jewish Bible
25. New Century Version
26. God’s Word Translation
27. World English Bible
28. The Bible in Basic English
29. The Webster Bible
30. Weymouth New Testament
31. Today’s New International Version
32. New English Translation

Happy Reading!

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