Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Actually, the hype cycle makes sense to me...

This author suggest that HTML5 will be enterprise business ready in two t0 three years, not the 5 to 10 years that Gartner is predicting.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/08/html5-ready-for-prime-time-dont-believe-the-hype-cycle.php

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Beirut - Day 10

Up at 3 AM, bus comes at 4AM to take us to the airport. Flight out at 7 AM for Frankfurt, then Houston, then finally to LA.

Beirut - Day 9

Our last somewhat touristy day. We headed out in the morning for a beach near Sidon. Towards lunchtime we headed up to the local pastor's house in the mountains above there, next to the summer palace for the president. After lunch at the local pastor's house, we took a tour of the summer palace. The president was actually there when we arrived, but left shortly thereafter so we were able to see his offices. After that it was back up to the church in Beirut so we pack and have a late dinner.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Beirut - Day 8

We're back to a regular ministry schedule today. Breakfast at 8, team meeting at 9, then gather in the 'ready room' at 10 before we go out in the street to witness, pray for people, and pass out flyers for the service tonight.

Beirut - Day 7

Another tourist day. Today we visited the Cedars of Lebanon. Then we visited with an extended family that owns an apple orchard in the area and had lunch with them at their harvest house (the house the entire family stays at during harvest season). Pastor Kelly and the rest if the team gave the youth and adults some training in Bible study and prayed for their needs while Katie, Larry, Luis and myself did a Bible study / play time with the kids.

One the way back to the Life Center, a car flagged us down and asked us if we would take 2 American students back to Beirut. They had missed the last bus back, and would have to take a bus to Tripoli and from there take another bus back to Beirut if we couldn't take them back with us. Obviously we took them with us. Both were studying Arabic, one at the American University here in Beirut and the other at a university in Egypt. They were on a mini-vacation, first there at the Cedars (where they hiked to the top of the mountain there, apparently the highest point in the middle east) and then to Istanbul tomorrow. Part of the reason for the trip to Istanbul was to renew the travel visa to Beirut. It's nearly impossible to get a work visa in Beirut, so many Americans (including most of the staff of the English language newspapers) get travel visas and then have to leave the country and reapply for their travel visa every 2 months.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Beirut - Day 6

Today was more of a tourist day in order to give us and our translators a break. Instead of the regular schedule, we met early and headed out by bus. We stopped at a Wooden Bakery for breakfast, and then continued on to the Jeita Grotto.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Beirut - Day 5

Today is Sunday, so the schedule is different. We had breakfast of course and our team meeting. Then we went to the main church service here at the Life Center. There are also a number of other church services that take place here throughout the day, including a Fillipio service and a Kenyan service. Two of our team members (Glenn and James) went to the Fillino service after the main service and shared during the service.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Beirut - Day 4

Started with breakfast and team meeting again. Pastor Kelly is doing a leadership training this morning for the local church. In addition to local church leadership, they've invited members of their church as well as leaders from other local churches to attend.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Beirut - Day 3

As usual, we started the day with breakfast and a team meeting in which we shared our experience from the previous day, our 20/20, and did planning for the current day. The first thing we did is some set up for the Fun Fair. I was primarily set up the booths the games would be run in and hanging up the signs behind them.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Beirut - Day 2

Morning was breakfast and team meeting again. We met with the youth group of the local church which was helping us set up for the Fun Fair. They're doing a medical clinic based theme, in which each game also tests a particular physical characteristic (hearing, sight, etc.) Clinic staff will be at the fair as well, so if kids have problems playing a particular game they can be evaluated to ensure they don't have health problems. After the meeting we started setting up for the fair itself.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Beirut - Day 1 (cont)

Breakfast was a number of cheeses, bread, olives, and cereal. A number of us ran across the street to a local vendor to pick up supplies. Traffic is interesting. Rather a free for all.

We met at about 9:30 for worship and sharing the results of our 20/20. At 10, the pastor of the Life Center gave us a background on Lebanon.