Ministry Tech class complete!!!! Yeah!

I just finished teaching Ministry Technology class here at Bear Valley and it went very well. More and more students are hooking in to what these technological tools can do for them and I am very excited about that.

New Ministry starting in the Northwest

One student, Mike Green is heading for the Northwest U.S. after he graduates this week to do church planting work. He has started a blog at nwevangelist.blogspot.com and plans to make it a regular part of his ministry. He has already started posting some good material that I think everyone will find interesting. Check it out.

The power of subscribing...
Blogging as a tools for preachers and evangelists provides some really unique opportunities to teach. One of the greatest advantages of using blogs is the ability that readers have to "subscribe" (don't worry - it is FREE) to your blog and stay up to date on what you post very easily. Check out online tools like Bloglines. This tool allows you to subscribe to to blogs you want to read regularly. Once you subscribe, Bloglines goes and looks for new posts on these sites every time you launch it. That means you can have the information come to you rather than you trying to remember to visit umpteen blog sites to see what is new. I currently have 55 blogs on various topics (Logos, ministry, photography, missions) that I check everyday with one simple click of my mouse. Check this out...it will change the way you think about blogging.

Technology reaches out even from Africa....

A good friend of mine, Jimmy Gee, is currently serving as Academic Dean at the Andrew Connally School of Preaching in Arusha, Tanzania. I have had the pleasure of teaching in that school and have spent a good deal of time with Jimmy and his large family there. The Gees are a great example of the mission work being done in the church today. Jimmy and his wife Trina and there numerous children are doing a great work and we all need to be praying for them. So what does this have to do with technology? Well, Jimmy has started his own blog to help us all stay up to date with the happenings in that part of the world. You can check it out at jandtgee.wordpress.com. Stop by his new blog and send him a note of encouragement.

Making typing in Greek and Hebrew easier

Trying to learn to type in Greek and Hebrew can be difficult. Remembering strange keyboard layouts like where they hid the rough breathing mark and what happened to the terminal sigma when you don't do it all the time is a strain on my brain. Quite honestly, I try to avoid it as often as possible. Well, once again our friends at Logos Bible Software have come to the rescue. They have developed a FREE tool that makes the task of typing in these languages much, much easier! Check out this post from the Logos blog on Shibboleth - it will really help while you are learning.

You can visit www.logos.com/shibboleth to download and install this free tool. I am running it under XP on my MacBook Pro using Fusion and it is running great!

Making posting blog entries easier....

As I mentioned before I do most of my work from a MAC these days. I am very happy to be back on the MAC platform and find myself more productive here. One tool (available for the MAC only) that is making my life easier is MarsEdit 2. MarsEdit 2 is a blog publishing tool that allows you to create, edit, and post blog entries from your desktop. I have always felt that the online blog editors for Blogger and other platforms was a bit clunky. MarsEdit is easy to use and is very flexible. I can create posts even when I am not online and post them when I get to a connection. It really makes things easy. I know that there are similar products available for the Windows world, but if you are on a MAC you really need to give this a try. You will love it.

New blog about our work...

Pat McIntosh, Assistant Director of our Extension Program here at the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver, has started a new blog about the Extension work. You can find it at mcintoshmissionreport.blogspot.com Check it out and learn more about what we are doing all over the world.

Everyone needs a hobby...

Everyone needs a hobby and mine happens to be photography. With a background as a Graphic Designer, photography keeps me into something creative. Living in Colorado certainly gives me plenty of subject matter. Just for fun I post some photos from time to time just because...I hope you enjoy them.



Elephant shot at Lake Manyara, Tanzania. He is actually standing on two feet! Looks like he is dancing.

Class website and video access

As many of you may know I teach a class at the Bear Valley Bible Institute entitled Ministry Technologies. This year I have posted the class syllabus and assignments on a website for the students to access (http://web.mac.com/ministrytech). Why is that important to you you may be asking? There is a link on the site to view streaming video of this class! Now you can watch over 20 hours of Logos software training on your computer and learn hands-on. Just follow the link and enjoy the class. Be sure to let me know what you think.