It involves lots of time.  The band practices Wednesday and Thursday after school till 5 pm.  And of course, Friday means performing at the football games.  

Nathan is finding good friendships in the band.  We had asked prayer as he entered High School, and being part of the band has really helped in his adjustments.

A couple months ago, NTM switched over to blogging, and all our website posts followed us.  But I have struggled with the very first step – getting onto the new blogging site.  I’ve pretty much memorized the training video for how to access the blog.  With all the helps built into the switch over, you’d think I would have gotten it immediately.  But not me.  Mental block – user error.   

Praise the Lord – with persistence, prayers, and help from David, we finally are there.  This is my first post.  Now that I’m no longer pulling my hair out trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I’m excited about this new way of communicating.  Pray that I’ll learn quickly how to navigate the blog and that it will be a blessing to me and to you.

In order to evaluate what is available in solid state drives, Dave ordered 7 brands.  He made up a check-list, and soon came up with an objective recommendation on brand.

He ordered 8 Dell drives, knowing that he could easily sell that many and more.  Our NTM missionaries are very excited to have these high-quality drives that aren’t going to fail with a simple bump. 

Dave really enjoys the process of evaluation, and it always encourages him when he can help someone by making well-researched recommendations.

• Pray that Dave will have wisdom to work through the hype and enthusiasm to find what really works best for the missionaries’ needs, considering the environments where they work.

Tonight, I finished my final look through the Power Points for teaching Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ.

Thanks so much for praying for my co-worker, Don, and me as we have worked on these teaching aids over the last month.  Numerous setbacks and technical problems hindered the process.  

Praise the Lord, I finished within my deadline, which is  tomorrow morning!  Had to work into the night, but I didn’t care.  It feels so good for the Power Points to be on the DVD to return to Don.  And the pillow will feel even better in just a few minutes!

Don still has some work to do to compile the DVD, so continue to pray for him.

Dave had just begun to evaluate solid state drives for laptop computers when the space shuttle Discovery blasted off in March.

Dave and Nathan watched that launch from their kayaks. They had rowed out to an island in the Indian River, just 10 miles from the launch site, and had a great view.  (See our photo page for more of the launch story.)

So how does the shuttle relate to the solid state drives for the computer?

The G-forces and particularly the vibration in a shuttle launch would destry all standard drives.  But solid state drives will withstand that, and even more.

Most locations where NTM missionaries work are environmentally challenged. Between the heat and rough conditions, computers are being operated outside the standard specifications. 

Standard drives have these specs:

• 30 – 35 degrees Celsius (85-95 Fahrenheit)
• 10,000 feet elevation
• Shock rating is 2G
• Vibration is minimal

The solid state drives have these specs:

• 70 degrees Celsius (160 Fahrenheit)
• 0 gravity environment
• 1,500 G’s shock
• 20 G’s vibration  (The shuttle experiences 10 to 15 G’s vibration.)

A four-inch drop will destroy an average laptop drive. Bumps in normal use can make a standard drive unusable, and cause serious data loss.

But a test of a solid state drive showed it dropping from a 3-story building onto concrete, with no damage to the drive. 

With a solid state drive, the missionary doesn’t have to worry about any of the environmental issues.  Data integrity is extremely good. 

Dave evalutated 7 brands of solid state drives.

• Pray as he makes recommendations for NTM missionaries about these drives.

Dave snapped this shot today.  Retirees and volunteers are working on assembling  the student notebook for Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ.  Maps and a biblical time line are being inserted into each notebook. 

The two ladies on the left are Bev and Bonnie.  When I was single, they were my neighbors.  Bonnie and her husband lived across the hall from me, and Bev and her husband lived down the hall.  They are both widowed, and retired, but they still give of their time and energy to help out on special projects like this.  Cool!

Continue praying as work continues on the FFCC project.  It is getting closer to being ready for distribution every day. 

About the Power Points….  Don and I have reached the half way point, and went a little beyond that today.  Between a hard drive crash, and then changes in the email system, we lost about a week of work. But the decision we made a couple weeks ago was very positive.  The process is going quickly again now. 

The FIrm Foundations: Creation to Christ books have printed.  Praise the Lord!

18 pallets of books have arrived.  My excitement is high!

The books will be housed in a slip-cover box, like the one in this picture.  Those should arrive sometime in the next 2 weeks.

• Praise the Lord that the books are printed.
• Pray that the remaining item for the package will arrive soon.

The Power Points are the last thing to be done on Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ. My co-worker, Don, and I have been working diligently, but it seemed like the harder we worked, the more there was to do.

Today, we made a decision that will make the Power Points better for the teacher and the students. 

Plus… it will speed up the checking process for me. 

I had felt like I was drowning in Power Points because I was only able to check one or two per day, and had many yet to work on. The decision today was like a life line. 

I’m really excited about the Power Points again.  

Continue to pray.  We are not done, and have to go back over what we have already done and make some changes.

• Pray that both Don and I will be consistent – him in development and me in checking.
• Pray that the Power Points can be finished quickly and effeciently.

A couple of weeks ago, Nathan graduated from Lake Monore Christian Academy.  He misses his classmates already, but keeps in touch on-line.

He’ll be starting at Seminole High School, Academy of Health Careers, in the Fall.  He is excited, yet a little nervous to be attending such a large school.

Nathan and Dave have gone to a couple meetings about band, and Nathan tried out to play saxophone in the marching band. He received a warm welcome from the band director.  He’s already gone to one summer practice. 

These contacts at the high school are easing him into being in high school, and allowing him to become familiar with the campus.  And band will give him the opportunity to be in a smaller and close-knit group (around 180 kids). 

Thanks for praying as he and his class went to Washington, DC, for their 8th grade trip. They had a fantastic time.

One of the resources we are making available for the Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ packet is a PowerPoint.  My co-worker, Don, is creating the teaching slides in Keynote and PowerPoint.  He wrote me an email yesterday:  

"I have checked on the timing, and it looks like we have 2 weeks at most to finish off the PPTs and have them ready to go to the duplicator in order not to delay the release."

So he is focusing on developing the slides, and I am heavily involved with checking each one.

• Pray that Don will be able to put time in on this project. He is the head of our Department, and has many other urgent responsibilities.
• Pray that I will notice any errors as I check the Power Point slides, both in the content and in the way the slides transition.