My Blog

Let me see. There has been a lot of things happening at camp, but it’s been so long since I’ve blogged it would take to much time to go over everything. I’ve got all my ducks in a row for Paraguay, so I’ll be leaving the 14th of May and getting back June 1st. That will be an interesting way to start the summer.

That paragraph wasn’t completely random.

Moving on to a work update.  It has become apparent in recent weeks that my staff has forgotten/misunderstood/or has never received any training on our computer/phone systems. So I’ve been tasked with going over how all of that works. I had forgotten how pathetic my documentation is. Any who I’ve been trying to pull all the information together, sort it, and then figure out how to present it clearly. I suspect a large majority of the current confusion is a result of my poor communication skills. Hopefully this refresher course will remedy that.

Ezekiel 24:16-18 Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even, my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.

Every time I read this I am blown away.  I cannot fathom this kind of submission.  I want to learn how to do this, but I’m scared of the cost.  His wife was killed as an object lesson, and the lesson wasn’t even directed at him.  I can’t wrap my mind around it.

So it’s been a while since Christmas.  You would think that a month would give me lots to report, but not really.  Four and a half months of work finally paid off, and I got our new authentication system up and running (OpenLDAP if any one is interested).  I’ve also worked on the intranets for Arrowhead and BMCR.  Last weekend I was host for a guest group.  Other than that I haven’t been doing much of any thing.  Well, I have been watching a lot of NCIS (my sister got me seasons one through eight for Christmas).  I sent in my passport stuff, only to have them return it because they didn’t like my picture (insert joke here).  I went into town yesterday to get the picture redone and the application back in the mail.  I get my shots next Tuesday (that should be loads of fun).  Yup that’s about it.

I’m really not sure where to start.  A lot has happened since my last post.  The big news is I’ll be going to Paraguay this coming May.  It was really weird.  My uncle mentioned he and his wife were going down.  I told him to get me some dates because I might like to come along.  The next day God provided $3000 for the trip (along with the dates May 7th-24th).  I didn’t even have the chance to ask any one.  I was completely blown away.  I mean, what do you do with that (other than go on the trip obviously)?  That was cool.  Cool is of course a complete understatement, but it’s what I came up with.

Christmas has been wonderful.  Christmas eve was spent with my dads family and as usual it was a blast.  I don’t tell them very well, but I am always glad to see all of them.  I have a great family.  Christmas day was with my family, and then mom’s family (and some friends) came over in the afternoon.  I got everything I asked for this year, and some stuff I wasn’t expecting.  Again I was amazed at God’s provision.  I didn’t need any of this stuff, but He gave it to me any ways.  Let’s just say this Christmas feels more like a Thanksgiving.

Psalm 32:5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. 

What can I say?  I enjoy breaks.

As I suspected it has gotten very quite here at camp and I can’t say I like it much.  The weather has been nice.  My Samba/LDAP project is finally coming along.  On a side note: did you know Windows clients cannot join a Samba domain unless there is a WINS server available?  Further more if you don’t tell your DHCP server to tell it’s clients where the WINS server is you have to manually tell each client.  Both these things I discovered today after about two hours of frustration.  I spent my morning helping Tom sand and stain the trim for his office, so I had a rather well rounded day.

Psalm 28:1-3 Unto thee will I cry, O Lord by rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.

Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my hear trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.

Jeremiah 36:3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

God treats us like we have a choice. He must know if Judah is going to turn, yet he speaks to Jeremiah as if Judah has a choice. I know free will doesn’t seem to be spelled out in the Bible but it is everywhere inferred.

Well, it was really good.  I was again at the Stevenson’s.  I read two and a half books, watched some movies, and made the mistake of participating in the annual Black Friday shopping trip.  Once was enough.  I don’t plan on doing that again.

For work I’m trying to figure out how to make our Samba domain controller authenticate off an LDAP server, without totally disrupting every ones work.  This could take some time.  The up side is I’m going to have a lot of that this winter.  Hansen’s and Bree are leaving this Thursday, so things are going to get even quieter here at camp (if you don’t know who these people are that’s ok).  Since I can’t think of anything else to say I’ll stop.

John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

So I seem to be spacing these posts out. I suppose that’s because not much new has been happening. A quick update on me. I’m doing well. I’ve been keeping busy at work. Last week I set up my own DHCP/DNS server (I’ve been using the one built into IPCop). That was cool. I’ve got the DHCP server dynamically updating the DNS server so that all my names and IP’s stay synced.  Other than that not much is new.

Oh, I did slide off the road and into the ditch today.  As accidents go it was really quite nice.  I was in the ditch and then out again in about 10 minutes.  I slid in, got stuck, and this guy showed up with his truck and a tow strap.  Like I said, in and out.  No one got hurt, my car is fine, and my ego is slowing recovering.
John 18:8-9 Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he; if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.

I always assumed when I read that Jesus was referring to salvation. This makes it look more like he was referring to their physical well being.

John 18:11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

Again and again I am blown away at Christ’s complete and utter submission.

Wow, it’s been a while.  Quick update.  Life here is good, though very quite without any Arrowhead students.  We’ve been keeping very busy.  I did get my email project working, so I’ll get that howto posted in the next couple of days.

Moving on to the topic at hand.
I had a thought hit me Sunday night. I was thinking about love, and it dawned on me that to love someone does not mean to ignore, or be ok with their flaws/sin. One of the reasons I struggle so much with love is I have this idea that if I love someone I’m ok with them, with what they do. I realized this is simply not true. In love, someones faults can and should be recognized. It’s not my job to do anything about those faults, but it is silly to pretend that they don’t exist. It seems so basic, but for some reason had never really sunk in before. I was getting so frustrated because peoples flaws annoyed me, and I thought to love them I couldn’t be annoyed with them. I finally understand annoyance and love are not mutually exclusive. If only I could be less comfortable with my sin and more annoyed by it.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying it’s ok to sit around and chew people out (either in your head, or to their face).  I am saying, you can love some one with out accepting them or more specifically without accepting their sin (or what you think is their sin).  Maybe that doesn’t make sense.

Any ways that is something of what has being going on in my head the past couple of days.  As I reread this I realize this is not a fully formed image of what love is (I Corinthians 13 lays that out) nor is it supposed to be.  As with everything I write, if there is truth in it keep that, and chuck the rest.

John 12:25-26 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man server me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

This week I’ve been working on mirroring camps email.  Our mail is hosted through Google Apps.  Our problem is that because of our satellite Internet connection we have bandwidth restrictions.  Once you hit your limit, you can no longer check email.  What I’ve been trying to do is copy what we’ve got on Google here at camp so that even if you can’t get on-line, you can still access your e-mail locally.  I am happy to report that today I succeeded.  It’s been sad how excited I’ve been over it.  Any who, assuming I get the go ahead to actually set up a real one (I’ve only done it with my email and a test one so far) I’ll post a howto/walk through on here.

John 20:16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

If Jesus called my name would I know His voice?

Jeremiah 10:24 O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

Another quick update (and then I’m off to bed).  The trip to Kansas was fun.  We drove the whole way in one day going there (about 18 hours), but split the trip into two days coming back.  We stayed with Andy and Ambers family (who were great), and went to Caleb and Marti’s wedding (which was short and sweet).  We also visited an ex summer staffer on the way back.  My family visited this week, and I can’t say how good it was to see them.  They are all doing well, and should be back in MN by now.

Psalm 143:8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

It’s been a while since I last did an update.  Summer is done.  In case I haven’t mentioned it, Arrowhead has been cancelled this year due to low numbers, so we’re looking a long winter.  I went camping last weekend with some friends and it was a blast.  We hiked up to Phantom lake.  We fished, swam, took naps, went on hikes, and ate like kings.  We packed in so much food, it was kind of ridiculous.  It was very worth it though.  This coming weekend I’ll be in Kansas for a wedding, and then next week my whole family is going to be visiting.  I’m excited.

I was going to redo the Arrowhead intra-net the other day, and discovered (quite by accident) that DNS is actually installed and working on our router (who knew?).  Any who that got me really excited so I’m going to try and tweak that a bit this week.  Other news, a bunch of us staff guys have started doing P90X and I have to admit it sucks.  We’ve done three days so far, and I’m in pain and feel like a complete wimp.

Well, that is the short (and not very coherent) version of what has been happening in my life.  I’m going to try and get a photo gallery going on my website, so I can post pictures of the Phantom trip.

John 10:4-5 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

Father make me ever more sensitive to Your voice and less to the others.