tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14501895906599847292012-02-03T07:34:22.701+02:00Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.comBlogger1401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-8766491922261872212010-10-23T22:50:00.003+03:002010-10-23T23:00:50.429+03:00

Here are some pictures from today. the first ones are some of the 15 kids from the one orphanage house. I really felt tall today. I was able to touch the top of the doorway. This guys was so happy to have his teeth fixed.Dr. Fred working on a patient.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-92212460254978320402010-10-23T22:49:00.000+03:002010-10-23T22:50:19.675+03:00

Although we had 36 people come through today and more then half were kids, here is only one story from today. This is Stephanie she is 4 years old . She is smaller than most her age. When I first saw her I thought she was only around 1 years old. Her mother was only 15 when she was born. And then last year her mother after having another child decided that she couldn’t handle any of the kids any

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-58904102625054769902010-10-23T10:25:00.002+03:002010-10-23T10:31:52.783+03:00

I'm having some problems with my blogger account so I don't have much time now to download pictures. I'll try again tonight (Saturday) when we get back from the orphanage where we are going today. We will have about 50 people to see with pulling teeth and filling cavities.Yesterday (Friday) we went to a half-way house for girls that were taken off the streets here in Oradea. They are in a house

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-58599791606192040832010-10-21T18:44:00.004+03:002010-10-21T19:27:46.412+03:00

Starting from the first picture:one of the gypsy families home in Nusfalu. it has one room, and everything is in that one room except for the outhouse.the next three pictures are giving out the shoes. They measured each kids feet by taking a stick and then cutting it off. You can see the name of one of the children on a stick. They would call the child's name and then they would come up and take

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-21501339121287897012010-10-19T22:15:00.001+03:002010-10-19T22:38:00.750+03:00

Here is a Romanian woman getting her teeth worked on.We started off today going to a Holocaust museum in the town here.Here is a picture of an Hungarian man who was a soldier in WWII. he was told to shoot some Jews in his village. it was at that point that he deserted the army, because his family was hiding some Jews at the time. He later lead them to safety.here is a picture of a gypsy child.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-41877941153415859402010-10-18T22:23:00.003+03:002010-10-18T22:36:04.558+03:00

Since it's working so well tonight (10:35) i'll try and update you as to what has been happening.This is the group of worship leaders that Roger and I taught on Friday night and Saturday afternoon-nightHere is Julie, Annie, Fred and Danielle. Annie is a Romanian who came to the Lord in her teens and went on to become a Doctor. She will be helping out most of the weekDanielle is putting fluoride

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-22551252662343625072010-10-18T22:20:00.003+03:002010-10-18T22:23:23.535+03:00

I’ll try and put a picture up tonight. It’s of a woman who is only 57 years old. You would not believe it by looking at her though; she looks like she’s around 65 or so. She came up for some teeth work, but when they took her blood pressure it was 260 over 140. no one could believe it! All the nurses were saying that she should be dead by now. We sent her home without doing anything. Tonight at

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-70245842589541772792010-06-19T11:51:00.002+03:002010-06-19T11:55:06.467+03:00

Well, Pam and I are at the Vienna airport waiting for our flight to DC and then home. I went up to the desk to see if it was a full flight and if they needed any volunteers to be bumped. No such luck. Last time we fly Austrian, I asked and before we knew it we were flying 1st class from Vienna to DC ... very NICE.This time it's coach. At least Pam has an aisle and I have a window.Well they are

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-27464493479662825402010-06-17T11:13:00.003+03:002010-06-17T11:42:14.931+03:00

The cooks are preparing lunches that the students will take with them on their way home today.We had 62 students, so that's a lot of bags with sandwiches in them.Gwen. Such a dear sweet lady. But I almost gave her a heart attack the other day. Our room has a balcony above a setting area. There are some tables with umbrellas and under the balcony there are some benches. It was after dinner and

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-64779037257371533642010-06-16T11:17:00.003+03:002010-06-16T13:00:15.584+03:00

We had our bonfire last night. It was a time for singing, and roasting marshmallows. A lot of the eastern European students have never had marshmallows before. It was a new treat for them.This is Ion giving his testimony and Violeta translating for him. Ion's testimony is actually a continuance from last year. It's kind of like the sequel. Last year he told us that the Orthodox priest was after

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-6210940079991175712010-06-14T14:58:00.010+03:002010-06-14T15:47:23.052+03:00

Rehearsal. We had Americans, Belarussians and Bulgarians on our worship team.Lean who designed and put all the decorations in the room for that 'sacred place' for us to hold our communion worship service.JesusScripture reading in three different languages. English, Albanian and Russian.All the songs we sang we encouraged the people to sing them in their own language if they knew them. We had

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-43374263323586802112010-06-11T12:34:00.004+03:002010-06-11T12:37:55.239+03:00

Most of the students and the STW’s went to Vienna today. It’s our first and really only day off in the two weeks we are here. We will have class again tomorrow. And even though there are no classes on Sunday we will have a worship service in the morning and then a big lunch. Sunday afternoon we do get a little break and take anyone who wants to go up to Baden. It’s about 18 KM (11 miles) up the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-59167402089306977962010-06-10T21:34:00.001+03:002010-06-10T21:35:57.556+03:00

Well I finally had some time to talk with him again. I guess the best answers I can give are that they are not as black and white as I thought they might be. I was asking the wrong questions. It isn’t so much about being a Christian and trying to stay Muslim, it’s letting the love of Christ change you from the inside out. He gave me an example of this. A woman became a Christian awhile ago and

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-72532185060773648312010-06-09T22:06:00.009+03:002010-06-10T09:36:58.497+03:00

The photos in order:Oleg my one and only student from Russia. Everyone else is from Belarus.MishaVioleta my translatorIrena and AndreiDzmity and SvyatlanaAnnaSiarhei and AlenaClass Siarhei and LiudmilaKatsiaynaI'm missing Oleg. I'll see if I can get a picture of him tomorrow.This morning over breakfast I had a conversation with a student from Tehran, Iran. This is his second class here. From our

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-91753172729474824772010-06-08T22:49:00.005+03:002010-06-08T23:03:32.265+03:00

David and Ania. David is a student in Pam's class and both of them were in my class when I taught it in Poland in 2006.Two students that decided to take a dip in the pool. I have to tell you, it's the beginning of June in Weinerwald (in the mountains), that water is COLD!!!!!Sorry this will be short, but after a full day of teaching, I'm a little tired.I'll try and take more pictures tomorrow.If

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-81728296226620757072010-06-07T23:10:00.002+03:002010-06-07T23:45:21.115+03:00

Well all day today the students started arriving. Some by train, some drove here, and several took a plane. We have students from Moldova, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Iran.We had a meeting of everyone with the students sitting down and the STW's. the LTW's, permanent staff and the professors all around them. After the introductions of

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-43175119916955819652010-06-06T21:39:00.003+03:002010-06-06T21:52:02.369+03:00

Pam and I had a wonderful day at the Haus in Weinerwald. We ended it with a communion service with the short term workers, long term workers, the professors and the permanent staff. Tomorrow the students start arriving and Tuesday we start teaching. A word of explanation: Short Term Workers (STW's) are people who come over from the states and work here for two weeks while the students are here.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-49137281114910667512010-06-06T09:34:00.003+03:002010-06-06T21:39:14.565+03:00

While I was at the airport waiting to catch my plane to Vienna, a group of US Army personnel came onto the concourse. There were probably around 200 of them, all wandering around. Some of them went to a pay phone to try and call home. I went up to three of them and just handed them my phone and asked if they wanted to call home. It was a great experience to watch them call and say hello to loved

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-26838705906381066202010-06-05T22:44:00.003+03:002010-06-05T22:59:28.924+03:00

There were several American here working with Project Ruth. This morning we went to an historic site where they placed houses from all over Romania from different eras. Here I was reminded of Anatevka. I kept looking for Tevye and the fiddler on the roof.Inside one of the houses. this was a one room house.another house with a thatched roof.This Roma man was there for 30 minutes trying to rip

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-39243682890297378212010-06-03T16:20:00.002+03:002010-06-03T16:21:43.384+03:00

Long day of class. Right now I have 5 preachers from 3 different church backgrounds (Brethren, Baptist and Pentecostal) trying to put together one worship service. HA. This is fun to watch and listen to even if I don't understand Romanian!

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-90355366183251327052010-06-02T21:23:00.006+03:002010-06-03T08:26:08.647+03:00

This photo came from 2006 notice the tar paper roof.This is from yesterday. Notice that not only is there a new tin roof, but they also building some extra rooms on to the house. No building codes that's for sure and yet the church sits around 10 minutes away from the center of Bucharest.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-15704483194268686052010-06-02T20:58:00.007+03:002010-06-03T08:32:23.178+03:00

Oti took Sorin and me out for dinner tonight to a Romanian restaurant in Bucharest. While we were there, several people in traditional Romanian costumes started to dance. Enjoy the music and the dancing.This is the inside of the restaurant. Very European.We had a wonderful experience in class today. Iosif mentioned that this was his last class and was going to be able to graduate now. And that in

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-9409992614106453142010-06-02T11:35:00.003+03:002010-06-02T11:46:27.538+03:00

I found out yesterday that Nicolae had to take 5 different buses to get here because there was a transit strike going on. only the buses were working. The trolley and the subway systems were shut down. We start at 8:00 AM with breakfast and then go until around 6 PM after dinner. That means he has to leave at 6 in the morning and doesn't get home until 8 at night. What a commitment on his part. I

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-69591365457643559672010-06-01T18:23:00.003+03:002010-06-01T18:42:47.320+03:00

Here is what I had for breakfast. make sure you take a really good look at all the items on the table. Maybe tomorrow i'll explain more about it.My class. See I am teaching. Well I'm there anyway.Here is everyone in the class.Left to right.Nicolae, Alexandru, Ion (sitting), Iosif, Petrica, Sammy (sitting), Sorin my translator/interpretor.Notice the water pipe that she is drawing water from. Also

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-51223175451879787542010-05-31T16:38:00.004+03:002010-05-31T16:45:45.995+03:00

Sunday May 30, 2010, I left Haus Edelweiss at 5 this morning to get to the airport. I made it to my gate with plenty of time to spare. My seat was 7B, in the middle. I went up to the counter to see if I could possible move my seat assignment and also asked if it was a full flight, the answer was “Yes” to both questions. But they took my ticket and said that they would see if they could do

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-29861592611889047512010-05-29T10:46:00.006+03:002010-05-29T11:33:51.164+03:00

The inlaid wood shown on the back of the last pew in the church at the Stift.I did have two pieces of dessert, Pam made sure that the last piece was finished for me. A house with a thatched roof. Some of the views in WeinerWald.Our apartment. Nice and cozy.Yesterday turned out to be a very interesting day. The morning was taken up with trying to get Easy Worship (I believe that

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-72669057692051652602010-05-27T18:52:00.003+03:002010-05-27T19:18:06.177+03:00

Well Pam and I made it to Austria without any problems. We got to the main campus (Haus Edelweiss) around 10 in the morning. In the afternoon we both took a nap. Cathy Kissling took us to the Happy Chinese for dinner since we had no food in our apartment. I had the Happy duck, and i know I was very happy. Can't say the same for the duck though.When we finally went to bed it was around 10 last

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-53811929623938104402009-07-25T15:23:00.003+03:002009-07-25T15:43:50.144+03:00

Our first break from class is on Friday of the first week. We get to go to Vienna for the day.A Catholic church in Vienna.We ate at a Wurstel stand. We both had Kabops. Think Gyro's but with out the lamb and the cucumber sauce. disappointing.If you enlarge this you can see..... yes, that's corn on the pizza. Remember my pizza in Ukraine? Pam and I went to The House of Music. It's an

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-47982754435001934752009-07-23T15:30:00.004+03:002009-07-23T15:59:36.058+03:00

Here are some pictures of what happens during and after the meal. We eat family style and there are 'Hosts" for each table. The hosts help with the serving and getting drinks for everyone at their table. When the meal is over, we all help in the clean up. After the dishes and silverware get to the washing room they come out and several students and professors help in drying them.This is what

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-21633373161642381882009-07-22T11:07:00.003+03:002009-07-22T11:19:56.591+03:00

My class in Austria. I have all Polish students. so far it's been a great class, and I expect that it will stay this way for the rest of the two weeks together. After every meal some students and professors gather around the 'drying table' and talk. And sometimes we even dry some dishes. It's a time for the students to get to know the professors better and for the professors to understand a

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-58153470064408815132009-07-15T15:16:00.005+03:002009-07-15T15:52:20.346+03:00

Bela (I found that you pronounce it Bay-la) is a preacher, Jozsef is a preacher, Gregory works for a religious publishing house, Attila is a preacher who drove from Hungary (2 hours) ever day for the class. David and Gabor are both students right now, Agnes is the wife of Jozsef, Endy (Andy) was an audit student and is working with physical handicapped people, and Adina teaches Kindergarten

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-12593157638226292302009-07-07T19:05:00.010+03:002009-07-07T19:51:29.858+03:00

We had a great day of classes and because my interpreter is good and the class is quick, we ended one class session early. One of the girls in the class Adina suggested that we go for a short walk to a high point where you can see most of Oradea. they told me it's about a 10 minute walk. I jumped at the chance especially to get out into the city to see the sights a little.So we started walking.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-57629831175413747662009-07-06T21:25:00.002+03:002009-07-06T22:02:59.810+03:00

Well, I finally made it to Oradea, Romania. I took a train from Baden, switched in Wien Meidling, got off in Budapest, Hungary and transferred to another train from Budapest to Oradea. It took around 9 hours. Going from Austria to Hungary there was no passport control, so we just rolled right into Budapest. Every time I write that word, I still can't believe it is really Budapest. I was here

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-74237106825862839052009-07-03T20:00:00.005+03:002009-07-03T20:14:25.242+03:00

Central Baptist Church in L'viv. There was a choral concert on Thursday night. A choir from Minnesota is touring throughout Ukraine. After the concert several of went out to eat. We had Pizza. Well we had Ukrainian Pizza. That's what they all called it. Tyana is in my class the Sergei is my translator the other two girls go to the seminary there and Vasili is the dean of the seminary.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-72558614435241525832009-06-30T20:59:00.006+03:002009-06-30T21:32:24.335+03:00

For all those who remember Ed Dooley from LCC. I found his twin or at least his brother. I realize that this is interesting to only a very small number of people, but it's amazing how close he looks like Ed. He laughs like Ed. They had to be brothers separated while they were really young.Here's another picture of the class during dinner, and there is Ed, err.... I mean Igor in the bottom left

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-53033728691766345242009-06-29T20:12:00.013+03:002009-06-29T20:42:22.372+03:00

The Ukrainan Baptist Theological Seminary.Class with Sergie my interpertor standing in the back.left to right: Igor, Sasha (Oleksandr), Sergie, Roman, Tetyana, Vitaliy, Martha,Sergiy, SvetlanaClass with me standing (yes I'm standing) in the back.Greek Catholic ChurchMaryJesusA saint of the Greek Catholic Church without it's headI'd say it was an icon, but the Catholic Church doesn't believe in

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-88343970559578534022009-06-28T20:55:00.002+03:002009-06-28T21:23:38.833+03:00

First of all I have to say, I'm sorry by no photos in this blog. After i got here things started happening so fast i didn't even have time to think about getting camera.Our plane we delayed 1 hour and 20 minutes. Seem like it was a computer malfunction. we actually disembark one plane and got on another about 20 minutes later. Some type of plane but different equipment. (why do they use the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-13144958512054993892009-06-25T15:33:00.027+03:002009-06-25T16:20:41.069+03:00

The peaceful, serene Sattelbach which runs right by the horse barn on the main campus. Another view. Please notice all the greenery on either side of the stream, err.. excuse me, the brook (Bach). Compare these to the first two pictures. Further down stream it had to be moving close to 30-40 K. Our little abode for the next several weeks.If you look real hard you

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-36952265203303446192009-06-22T14:46:00.002+03:002009-06-22T14:54:25.130+03:00

I never thought much about the holidays I grew up being just American holidays. Take Fathers day for instance. It just happened this past Sunday. I have two daughters. I’m sure they were thinking of me on Sunday. Now I'm guessing other countries may have similar holidays, but I'm really not too sure how many do. I do know England does celebrate Mothers day. It's in a different month, March

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-21399160277314173412009-06-20T11:37:00.029+03:002009-06-22T16:13:57.705+03:00

The Stift from the air. ____ The church from the court yard.The altar. _______________ The Schubertorgan Inlaid wood patterns. It took _________ The 'Fraterie' also two brothers 20 years to_____________know as the 'workcomplete all the woodwork.___________room.The Rose window._______________The 'Funeral Chapel' ____________________________The monks are still laid____________________________out

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-57905192045578518102009-06-18T16:06:00.005+03:002009-06-18T16:27:31.748+03:00

Well, we finally made it here. The last two weeks have been a whirl wind for us. I headed out to Springfield MO. with Pam for the ACL conference. What you've never heard of the Association of Christian Librarians conference? We also managed to visit with friends we haven't seen in a long, long time. While Pam was at the conference, I was tooling around with Burt. Burt's wife was also there for

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-84919770593130102512009-05-14T23:43:00.003+03:002009-05-14T23:45:38.574+03:00

See I was teaching. ClassEvery time I have ever left a job for a new position I’ve always had an exit interview. I’ve been thinking about that and asking myself what kind of questions would I ask me about the worship seminar that I just finished in Belarus.What were the highlights about this seminar?I was excited to see about 20 people there. It was a mix of younger Christians and older ones. It

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-78990308393669563932009-05-13T10:16:00.003+03:002009-05-13T10:29:06.343+03:00

Here are a couple of pictures of the Seminary (and Light of the Gospel church) where I was.The worship seminar is over. We had some great discussions about worship, and how it is more then just the singing on Sunday morning; about how it should be ingrained with in our very fiber; about how living a life of worship every day leads to a heart of praise on Sunday morning.We talked about adding

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-46375932200525609412009-05-11T22:07:00.006+03:002009-05-11T22:46:30.928+03:00

The class. Me being a tourist. Orthodox churchI did get into Minsk this morning for a little. I had the time today. Class didn't start until 6:00 to night. I really thought it was supposed to start at 4:00. I guess I get my times mixed up.Here are some pictures of inside the big Orthodox church in Minsk. While I was there, there was a small service going on so I couldn't walk around and take a

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-24207226884545901482009-05-11T12:25:00.004+03:002009-05-11T12:42:16.027+03:00

Brother Nikolay.Sunday May 10, 2009 BelarusYesterday when I got here they were celebrating “Victory Day”. It was a celebration of the end of WWII and their participation in it. About 10:00 at night the city had a fireworks display. The hotel I stayed in last night was right across the street where they were shooting them off. Since I was on the 11th floor I had a great view. The only problem was

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-37499487326297971852009-05-08T02:10:00.002+03:002009-05-08T02:22:18.614+03:00

It's that time of year again, and I better dust off the old blog site.Actually it's a little early for the TCMI teaching to begin, but tomorrow I leave for Belarus. I'll be in Minsk again at the Baptist Seminar there. I'll be with church leaders and worship leaders, talking about worship. The nice thing is that I will be in the seminary there. they have a room right in the same building where

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-1115677205505316122009-03-19T18:40:00.005+02:002009-03-19T18:56:50.287+02:00

This blog has been inactive a long time, but in the next several months I'm going to be posting again. I got my plane tickets and my visa back from the Belarus Embassy, so I'm ready to go. I'm going to Minsk to conduct a worship seminar in May. I'll start teaching Sunday afternoon around 3:00 and then teach until around 9:00. I'll be teaching on Monday and Tuesday nights also.This time it is not

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-56260528942006314052008-12-06T19:54:00.004+02:002008-12-06T20:16:20.812+02:00

Wow, I'd say it's been awhile since I last posted something. August is 4 months back to many. I'm not sure there is enough space for all of that time. So this will be a summary.We've been busy though. With getting four services ready every Sunday in two different venues. I guess that's what makes it a bit hard. We have to plan one themed service that can work in two different venues. And

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-62867278333850193532008-08-14T23:46:00.004+03:002008-08-15T00:12:41.993+03:00

Wow, do I ever feel bad. As you can tell, I had one more blog about my class in CZ and I just did not get around posting it until this afternoon.I left Brno on Friday afternoon to Vienna. In order to catch the train to Baden where someone was going to pick me up, I had to run from one train on one platform to the Baden train on another platform. I even forgot my cap on the fist train. I got on

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-5438115735742510452008-08-14T23:36:00.003+03:002008-08-14T23:45:54.172+03:00

A mural of the war against the Sweds 1645. Just the day before it was half covered with Ivy. Our Thursday night worship experience. Anna gave her Life Story.I feel so terrible about this. I had one more whole blog written while I was in Brno, CZ but I forgot to post it. I'll give an explantion as to the why in my next blog. In the mean time please read this blog, my last for my last class for

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-75653877412214067722008-07-09T21:07:00.004+03:002008-07-09T21:38:26.821+03:00

The Crucifix on the Catholic Church; some buildings near the church. A building across from the church; Brno city square City square; I not sure how much the building weighs, but it looks like these guys can handle it. Notice the middle spire. Story below. And yes it is an alligator, but the legend goes that it is really the Brno DRAGON. Story below. The classEvery Wednesday I've been

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-7963488903902225772008-07-08T20:28:00.004+03:002008-07-08T22:58:14.820+03:00

The entrance to the church where the class is; Rola, Pavel and me having a discussion. Rola is 70 years old and he is thinking about taking more classes with TCMI. This is my pigs heart and dumplings; the class at lunch.The pigs heart was very tasty.Well, it was another day of class and another day of wonderful discussions and learning for all of us. Here in the Czech Republic they have several

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-26210180648856363852008-07-07T21:40:00.003+03:002008-07-07T21:58:56.117+03:00

Julia and Anna; The stained glass cross in front of the sanctuary here. The sanctuary; Signs throughout the church buildingA room dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.I arrived by train Sunday afternoon and Pavel was waiting for me. He came to the church here in Brno three years ago. We took the tram to the Pension. Brno is a very nice clean city. The pension is very nice. One word,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-45720299962072109022008-07-07T20:46:00.007+03:002008-07-07T21:40:54.421+03:00

Communion meditation International praise team, Bulgarian, Russian, and AmericanL.D. Campbell and Russian translatorHere are some pictures of worship last Sunday morning at TCMI. The students put together the service. This service was led by students from Bulgaria and students from Russian and Moldova helped out. It's always a great time of worship. Hearing familiar songs sung in different

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-16471950731750029852008-07-04T20:56:00.003+03:002008-07-04T21:08:47.324+03:00

A bank building; Yes that's right +36 that's 96.8 and this is at 7:25 in the evening!! Old ruine; Vlad the Impaler ruled from 1456-1462 Romanina Othodox church. I went in this church 2 years ago while a service was going on.A women praying and touching the icon. Later she got up and traced her fingers along the outline of the face.Everyone passed.... Yeah!!!Here are some pictures of

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-5790722855602492662008-07-04T14:37:00.004+03:002008-07-04T14:55:23.438+03:00

It’s the last day of class notes (Thursday) and (Friday) the day of reckoning, the final exam.We finally read through all the students’ papers today. Lidia’s was the last one we read. She typed out her Christian Discipline report in English, so I was able to read it without having to go through an interpreter. She chose compassion and journaling. Who would have ever guessed that, a missionary

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-47872467446986747492008-07-02T19:48:00.005+03:002008-07-03T19:07:56.633+03:00

Finally a break! Even then Soterius is studying. I smell an 'A' for someone!Wow, today is Wednesday July 2 already!! What happened to June?It rained a little last night just enough to cool things off for the morning. It’s still a bit sticky, but so far it doesn't seem to be as hot. Of course it’s only 7:47 in the morning right now.It’s always interesting to talk with the students over the whole

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-12192640089711291452008-07-01T21:01:00.007+03:002008-07-02T19:58:15.430+03:00

The mandolin orchestra; The pizza guy pulled up as church was ending. I just had to take this picture. Seems like my son-in-law has a part time job in Romania! These are my students; This is with my translator AurelSunday - TuesdayIt’s Sunday night and I’m at the Bucharest Baptist Seminary. Usually the TCMI classes are help at the Provident Baptist Church, but this week there are several

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-17307327974804674622008-06-26T17:57:00.003+03:002008-06-26T18:24:29.479+03:00

Debbie, Jim, Paul, Cathy; Dimi, Yulia, Sunny, Robert Cathy, Jim, Dottie, Justin; Pam, Tom, Nancy, Dick, Ruth, DimiDottie, Justin, Mike, Pattie, Pam. You can see my empty chair next to Pam.I was going to start off by saying that these are the people that make it happen over here. These are the people that make a Class Session happen. But you know what. It's not really these people. Sure

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-89868281049291332382008-06-25T12:01:00.002+03:002008-06-25T12:21:21.843+03:00

Wow, it’s been a few days since I’ve blogged, sorry about that.After getting back from Moldova I kind of just vegged out there. Teaching two weeks in a row was great, but after working 14 straight days with two travel days in the middle, it was kind of nice just to sleep in and not have to do anything for awhile. Although I have to say that by the third day I was starting to get a bit restless.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-17971597776116241462008-06-22T11:19:00.002+03:002008-06-22T11:21:47.619+03:00

Right now I’m in the airport with a couple of hours to kill. I’m watching a Jackie Chan movie dubbed in English which has a Russian translation going on the same time you can hear the English, AND there are Romanian sub-titles going on at the same time. So that means if I listen real closely I can enjoy it, the Russian speaking Moldovans can enjoy it, the Romanian readers can enjoy it, about

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-52977145826836745582008-06-21T11:06:00.009+03:002008-06-22T22:47:20.066+03:00

To continue the story a little bit more. The other student (I'll call him Peter) comes from the same city as Zauri. This morning he told me that last night the police drove by the pastor’s house again. Peter is one of the preaching ministers there. Because of this, he is not sure when he will go home now. He does not need a visa to go between Moldova and Azerbaijan, but he can only stay here for

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-17866211406283270352008-06-20T21:33:00.009+03:002008-06-21T05:54:15.435+03:00

Worship Planning sessionsPlanning meeting; The finale test Vidjai, Nick, Zauri; Nick, me ZauriAnd what about Nick and Nicolae and Nick who spells his name with a И, and Tania and Lena, Liliana and Lily and Ludmila and Viorell, Serge and Valerii, and Romeo, Mehman. Of course then there’s Vlad, really Vladislav and Vlad who is really Vladimir, Yurii, Vadim and Vadim, Igor and Vidjai, Zauri, Elenia,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-43386940779121639412008-06-18T14:07:00.005+03:002008-06-20T21:31:15.813+03:00

Nick and Igor What do the Orthodox Church, Gypsy’s and Christian Music have in common?How’s that for a blog title. Just come to one of my classes and there’s no telling what discussion of interesting combinations of ideas and topics we will get into. Here are just a few for today.Several of my students are from a church/group called the Lord’s Army. This is a church, well it’s not really a

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-13010067764275597822008-06-17T13:29:00.005+03:002008-06-17T13:49:05.144+03:00

High rise building; Orthodox ChurchA well right outside the orthodox church offering free waterChildren from families that come from central asia who go to the college here. Some of the students hard at work - HA. See I do work; the building where the class is held. It also houses the library. the buliding is in two parts split down the middle long ways. On this side is the chapel and on the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-17925966466459678002008-06-16T14:32:00.004+03:002008-06-16T14:46:11.409+03:00

I hope you don't try and read all the comments from this last blog. I had about 14 of the 16 all sent to be by automatic response from someone trying to sell something. It's not the first, but it certainly has been the most.I rode to the airport with J.K. Jones who was going to Tallinn, Estonia for the week. It was great to sit and talk with him for while. Even at the airport we had some time

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-52764703954007156042008-06-14T21:40:00.004+03:002008-06-14T22:06:58.505+03:00

Water falls in park; back of the Church, the Educational wing, and the Seminary fishing; Housing units with hundreds of people who are longing to hear the GospelIt’s Saturday morning and I’m just cleaning the room and getting all my papers organized and ready to leave this afternoon.I took a walk down by the river this morning and took some pictures. Some men were fishing. They were using long

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-49832910398870287012008-06-13T21:20:00.004+03:002008-06-13T21:38:15.523+03:00

Front of Church; Housing units Enjoying the park; Enjoying the parkAt first there was just one, now several more friends joined in.Well it’s the end of Friday so that means the end of the class. All the students handed in their pre-class written assignments by Tuesday morning and Irina and I read and graded them all by Wednesday night so all that was left for the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-5473179868900210482008-06-13T17:25:00.005+03:002008-06-13T17:51:22.274+03:00

Trying to count to 10,000BYR; The river behind the Seminary The back of the church ; Catholic church downtown Minsk Russian Orthodox church; A Memorial site for the fallen in the Iraq war The center of Belarus in downtown Minsk; Moscow is 700 KM east Former KGB building still used for police; Yeap, he's still around Class picture; At the concert singing

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-83837751452070258862008-06-11T07:28:00.006+03:002008-06-11T07:53:59.375+03:00

ClassI have got to get rid of the pen! I didn't have a stroke.ClassIrinaClassClassMykolaMinsk 2008I was my first day of class in Minsk and I have a great group of students. I have 10 in the class and 7 of them are going for a degree so Irena I have 7 students papers to read. With each student having to have written 5 papers each being several pages in length, that’s a lot of reading and

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-62667673971708457502008-06-10T18:44:00.002+03:002008-06-10T18:53:19.815+03:00

Last Sunday on Austrian TV I was watching a mass held at St. Augustine church in Vienna. But this wasn’t just church TV, it was actually a documentary on the use of classical music within the structure of a Sunday mass. The priest would chant his part and then the orchestra and choir would sing a classical piece based upon what was chanted. The music was always a part of a religious piece from

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-89798241670545688122008-06-06T15:30:00.005+03:002008-06-06T16:34:35.080+03:00

It felt like I was back home for awhile. The staff here had a cookout yesterday afternoon. Games and grilling. One of the guys made the target boards for Corn Hole. Now I'm from New York - alright LonGisland and if it wasn't for my two sons-in-law, one from Ohio and the other from Kentucky, I wouldn't have any idea what it was. But thanks to both of them who made their own boards I now know and

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-67629233380696527512008-06-06T10:57:00.002+03:002008-06-06T11:05:49.313+03:00

I hang my head and say, "Yeah, that's what I meant to say. What Alex just said!" Actually what he said, kind of backs up my point though. Not a lot of books were written, because you were either 'born' into the faith. Or you just went to meetings with some one. That's how my grandfather John E. Sarno became a Christian. He went to a Billy Sunday meeting back in the early 1900's. Started

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-37993283951500337912008-06-03T20:08:00.002+03:002008-06-03T20:29:10.152+03:00

I've been working with Pam in the Library here. Since Pam and I have been coming over in 2001 the library has tripled in size physically, and just over doubled in size in the amount of books we now have. Ever since TCMI wanted to get its accreditation from HLC (the Higher Learning Commission, the academic arm of North Central Accrediting Association) they have had to put more books in the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-75397713014495440422008-05-31T17:46:00.005+03:002008-05-31T18:43:56.689+03:00

I had my worship seminar today with CIG church in Vienna. I have been having an on going email exchange with Mary Prokop who is working with the worship team people there at the church. Mary is the wife of Rob Prokop the lead pastor. When they are in the states they sometimes attend Mountain. And when Pam and I are in Austria Pam we attend CIG (which stands for Christian International Fellowship)

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-33584582486998861892008-05-29T14:22:00.006+03:002008-05-29T14:45:47.793+03:00

Monday - ThursdayMonday May 26, well actually it’s Thursday now. We arrived on Tuesday, safely and about 15 minutes late. Not bad for an 8 hour trip that started 40 minutes late. Gail Oliver took us to the airport leaving her family behind, on Memorial Day no less. What a servant’s heart she has.The plane ride was very uneventful and even quiet. Pam likes the aisle and I like a window, so we had

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-23298134288031325392008-03-27T19:40:00.003+02:002008-03-27T20:13:12.661+02:00

It happens. No matter how much we practice sometimes we make mistakes. It's not like we are professional musicians. I mean, they write their own songs, they arrange their own songs, they record their own songs, they sing their own songs, and then they go out and tour with the songs, they've written, arranged, and recorded. Mistakes? Probably not. But we continue to play and sing different

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-67225897297839664872008-03-25T17:11:00.004+02:002008-03-25T17:37:34.237+02:00

I'll start with the weekend and work backwards.We just had 8 worship services over 6 different time slots. We started on Saturday and went 3, 5, and 7. Yes, it was just a bit early for Easter, but I think somewhere in the world it was already Easter morning. Then on Sunday we had another 3 services. The two we always have, 9 and 11 and then added another service at 1 PM. At the 9 and 11 we

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-55820590919539010872008-03-18T21:30:00.002+02:002008-03-18T21:31:11.077+02:00

i just read an article in the magizine christian musician, by keith mohr. it was entitled 'the danger of mediocrity'. he started off by mentioning the gallo wine tag line from several years back, "we will sell no wine before it's time." technology has helped people with just a little talent produce a CD's. and they sound pretty much, well, mediocre. they believe they have enough talent that they

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-13418033735843543672008-03-06T22:29:00.005+02:002008-03-06T23:21:36.646+02:00

Last Sunday, the North Shore christian church in Riverhead, Long Island, NY moved into their new facilities about 4 miles from where they were meeting in a school. They were using a cafe-a-gym-atorium. The new building was built as part of an industrial park. They have a lease on one section of it now. 144 people showed up for there for their opening service. And as near as I can tell only my

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-2574267681064992722008-02-02T16:46:00.000+02:002008-02-02T16:54:21.419+02:00

Last past Sunday was the third sermon in a series we called Κ Δ Π. The subtitle of the series was God’s Frat Party. You could really go overboard with a title like that. K or Kappa was for Koinonia, fellowship. Δ. Delta was Doulos the idea of being a slave. This past week was Π, Pi for Proskuneo or worship. The word actually means more like bending low, or bowing the knee or even to kiss in

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-72088848301846058612008-01-31T23:46:00.000+02:002008-02-01T00:21:03.497+02:00

Today our worship arts ministry team met with Rob our executive pastor. He went over some ideas and thoughts on how to help us within our ministry. With two venues and several of our lead volunteers stepping down recently we found ourselves in a bit of a mess. We found ourselves doing more to fill in the gaps. That may be okay for a short time, but it won't work for the long haul. And that's

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-18857757059970312322008-01-22T22:54:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:25:41.462+02:00

You have to understand, Marylanders don't do snow well. I came from Long Island and we have a good snow there (a couple of feet) most winters. Ben our preacher comes from Minnesota and he says unless there's three feet of snow, it's not really snow, it's just flurries.Anyway we got a snow storm this past Thursday. It started in the early afternoon and by 5:00 there was about 3 good inches on

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-12872525518452465942007-12-20T17:07:00.000+02:002007-12-20T17:11:42.321+02:00

I know I haven’t mentioned this before, but this past Saturday I turned 60. A pretty big number. Pam surprised me with a party and a lot of people showed up. I guess they wanted to see if I was going to fall apart and keel over since I hit the big 60.Funny, I don’t feel 60. If you’re close to my age think back for a second. Do you remember when your grandparents hit 60? They were old. Maybe it

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-10044738453083653552007-12-17T17:59:00.000+02:002007-12-17T18:03:35.554+02:00

The choir lead worship yesterday. I also picked several people to sing with me on mic’s. Kristie, soprano, Christine, alto, and Don, tenor. At Thursday’s rehearsal Don was coming down with something and couldn’t sing, but was there for our rehearsal thinking that he would be better by Sunday morning. Pat our lead guitar didn’t make it. He had called me last week and said that he couldn’t

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-12761590854528924492007-12-16T16:32:00.000+02:002007-12-17T00:20:12.108+02:00

Finally I have up loaded the video (with a lot of help my Dan and Kristie Kenny!!! Thanks guys, I owe you big time.) that I have been wanting to put on this blog for months now. Anyway, there are several things that you need to know about this video.I'm from Mountain Christian Church.The Kherson Christian Church.The song, Change My Heart. I talked about the composer and this song in my

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-29955026745096579122007-11-20T22:51:00.000+02:002007-11-21T00:21:05.148+02:00

Thanks for sticking with me until I got this posting up.Josh, I hear you man. I understand what you're saying about the cheerleader stuff. But here's another angle on that. Thinking that you have to be a cheerleader when you're leading worship is wrong. Thinking that you have to get the people all hyped up is not what worship is all about. There's nothing wrong with being energetic and

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-86913006201759279052007-11-15T16:13:00.000+02:002007-11-15T16:17:15.677+02:00

I have to apologize. Josh, I had a response to your comment, and you too, Ethan. I was writing it in Word and then Iwas going to send it off in this posting. I saved it to my desk top. I just cleaned my desk top of all items that were not short-cuts to programs. It's gone. I will be going back and rereading your comments and then send a new posting out. I wanted to get this out to you

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-7532525731621980022007-11-01T21:30:00.000+02:002007-11-01T21:32:45.266+02:00

Wow, it's been over a month, sorry 'bout that.I do apologize for that. I have been trying to get a video to work for you all to see. But that never did happen. I spent weeks with it! Also for the past several weeks we have had some very severe server problems. It’s been up and down (mostly down) to the dismay of our IT person. With the transition of going from one location to two worship

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-76238319931377969862007-09-26T20:24:00.000+03:002007-09-26T20:32:40.996+03:00

This past Sunday I lead worship in the NLC. Well, I really didn’t lead worship this Sunday, the Lord lead and I just kind of helped the people connect with our God. And then it wasn’t even ‘me’ out front doing what we have coined ‘leading worship’. This past Sunday our choir lead with me. Or maybe I should say I lead with them. Talk about a ‘worship leading choir’… Wow, they were really

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-17348355168276739052007-09-20T21:31:00.000+03:002007-09-20T22:09:45.555+03:00

I was so busy getting ready to lead worship in the new venue I forgot to bring my camera on Sunday. I was going to have someone take some pictures from the floor this time to show you what it was like.It was a great experience. We had three vocalists, Ronnie (alto), George(tenor) and me(lead). And for our instrumentalists we had a bass guitar, Joe, 2 acoustic guitars, Bill and Phil and I played

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-58745434993697076972007-09-13T15:50:00.000+03:002007-09-13T16:38:15.273+03:00

Here are a couple of pictures in Cook auditorium during our first Sunday of venues .This one was taken from the balcony where all the tech equipment is operated. The center picture of Ben is the one of him on the FOH screen that everyone is looking at. The other two are of him on monitors in the balcony. The bottom one is of our Easy Worship screen.This one is of the congregation and the worship

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-68310712173947399612007-09-11T22:56:00.000+03:002007-09-11T23:31:00.827+03:00

Well, this past week we finally did it. We had our new venue kick off. Eric was up in Cook auditorium leading worship while I was leading worship in the NLC. It was very exciting to know that while we were singing songs of praise in the NLC, Eric was in cook leading the same songs with another group of worshippers and we were all on the Mountain campus. I really haven’t lead worship here at

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-35152644399910213022007-09-03T23:53:00.000+03:002007-09-04T00:04:30.955+03:00

This is it. Next Sunday starts our venues. We will have two worship services at 9 and two at 11. One will be in the NLC where we have church now and the other will be in Cook Auditorium where we had worship when Pam and I first came to Mountain 8 years ago.For the first Sunday Eric will be in Cook and I will be leading in the NLC then we will switch. Sunday's aren't the big problem for me,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-38611067704520678012007-08-28T17:38:00.000+03:002007-08-28T18:00:17.485+03:00

New York PIZZA!!! Chloe's B-day PartyGreat Grandma (Evelyn the Great) and Poppy,or Grandma and Poppy and also Mom and DadIt was also Lucy's B-day partyJen and Kristen The grand kids!! Grandma and the B-day girls The family table Poppy and LucySarah and Olivia!Here are some pictures of our family's time together in Mattituck.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-53163238398708910962007-08-22T22:55:00.000+03:002007-08-22T23:23:56.864+03:00

It's been a while since my last post and at this point I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this or not. Pam and I made it back home to Maryland on August 6th. After being picked up and driven home by one of my wonderful choir members Diana Bobo, we unpacked a little and tried to stay up passed 9:00 PM. That didn't happen. We went to bed around 8:30. We got up the next morning and packed

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-18863097670884915162007-08-05T10:18:00.000+03:002007-08-05T10:55:58.159+03:00

This Friday and Saturday we had our bi-annual faculty meeting at the Haus. Most of the permanent faculty were here for it. So i thought I would take some pictures of who was here.From the right to the left, Cathy Kissling who is our registrar. Mike Crull, European VP and also teaches Discipleship. Then Laszlo Gerzsenyi from Hungry who is the National Director and teaches Biblical Studies, New

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-80076771072606082332007-08-02T16:12:00.000+03:002007-08-02T17:15:16.715+03:00

This is one of my last days in the office here with TCMI. Tomorrow we start a couple of days of faculty meetings and then the STW and professors from the states arrive. There is another session starting this Monday. It looks like there will be a full crowd here also. In the 90's so that's a pretty full house for a 2 week session.I found some more photo's that I thought you might like to see.The

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-83545608485539386422007-07-31T10:02:00.000+03:002007-07-31T10:28:54.448+03:00

Well, I made it back to Austria without problems. On the train every time we crossed the Austrian - Hungarian boarder we had both sets of boarder guards check our passports. I did notice that this time that both sets of guards got off at the same stop, but that both groups kept to themselves. I was a little surprised at this. I would have thought that most of the guards that traveled this line

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450189590659984729.post-77609413574621369912007-07-29T15:21:00.000+03:002007-07-29T16:03:06.218+03:00

Here are some pictures of my time in Hungary.The first is of the building where I taught for the week. It's the Baptist Theological Seminary there in Budapest. The next two are the students and the students and Laszlo my interpreter.Here are a couple of shots of the students working together planning a worship service for a class assignment. Just so you know that's Betty on the left and Mariam

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16223574094377519262noreply@blogger.com0