I'm thankful for those who keep the lights on.

Some major lines required some work for these to be touched. Here a worker is closing the circuits that was disconnected. All of the workers had their eyes glued to the guy holding the pole. Looks very dangerous. Several years ago a WOI worker was killed extending a tv remote van antenna into these same lines.

Boys night out at MDs. The girls went to the Olive Garden for BDay party.

Happy Birthday Connie!
We also got two $1 movies at Blockbuster.

One step closer to Texas

For the past two days my wife and I experienced the challenge of selling our home to an interested buyer. A wide range of emotions was evidenced: excitement, fear, disappointment, frustration, relief and peace. It is a significant decision. It is a real testing of faith.

We're thankful our home has sold and look forward to our remaining days in Des Moines.

This week we'll continue to take small steps that will ultimately lead us to Texas.

When God Calls

Today in our weekly church newspaper I wrote the following note to begin informing everyone of some changes in my life and our family. In the coming weeks I'll share more here about the story behind all things changes.

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:6 (NLT)
God has taught, equipped, matured, and developed me significantly here at FFC since 1980. After 13 years of serving on staff it has now become clear that God is calling me to serve Him beyond the walls of FFC and fi nish my formal education. Accepting this call was not easy for our family, but we know it is always best to follow God’s will. Starting in January our family will begin serving along with pastor Roger Poupart and Don Reece at Wayside Chapel in San Antonio, TX.
I am extremely thankful for the Federated family. It was here that I found and married my wife and shared the joy of a growing family. We have a lifetime of memories to cherish.
If you have any questions or would like to talk then feel free to email me@johncstark.com. Our family will be around through the holidays.

Keeping Things Simple

When setting up a personal website, there are a lot of choices and decisions to make. Each decision will lead you down a path which will impact the time and energy you will invest in the future to maintain things.

My initial drive towards owning my own domain name was the result of several ISP changes I encountered in a short period of time. With each new ISP came a new email address that my family and friends would need to know in order to contact me. I wanted to have an email address that could follow me for the rest of my life. An email address that wasn't dependant on any ISP or company to provide. This doesn't mean I don't use other email addresses; however, I take advantage of every opportunity to make my primary address the one I use the most.

Once I obtained my domain name and set-up my email address, I then started to consider what type of website I'd want to create. Will it be about my family? My work? My interests? My passions? Or, some kind of mix? Since I was new to the world of blogging I decided just to start writing and then see where things took me.

Needless to say, I finally stopped blogging. It took me months to figure out which blogging tool to use, how to install it, and then find the time to write. The time and effort was not wasted for I learned a great deal; however, obtaining this knowledge kept me from taking time each day to actually post content. At this point, I figure I've spent more time upgrading and maintaining the blogging software than actually creating content. I need to keep it simple. I can do simple.

With the huge outbreak of social networking sites, it is now far easier to keep in touch with family and friends. I no longer need the blog to do this anymore.

So, my website/blog is experiencing a change. I'm not sure how it will end up, but I have a few ideas.

God has gifted me with a wide variety of talents and wired me with an extreme curiosity about a wide range of topics and issues. I love to figure things out and see how things interact with one another. So, a website that brings my life together in one spot would be interesting (at least to me!).  A site that shows my twitter feed, a blog, and other views into my daily life through other widgets and rss feeds might be what I'm looking for.

Regardless of where I end up I want whatever I end up doing to be kept simple. I don't want to spend my time keeping my website maintained. I want to spend it making a contribution.

I don't have all the answers, but I look forward to the journey of discovering a few of them.

Great message for fathers wrestling with priorities.

http://www.johnmaxwell.com/uploads/general/Choosing_to_Cheat.pdf

Giant Impact Article by John Maxwell

Survived my first Sunday without Derek's help. I'm going to miss him this fall when he goes away to school.

Heading to my 20th Johnston High School reunion. My first reunion...

Just helped my wife, @jayneastark, put a profile photo on Twitter. She is awesome!

We got a lot accomplished today at FFC. Props to Derek, Heidi, & Eric for a job well done!

Reinstalling XP on my 2nd computer this week from scratch. Takes FOREVER! They will be cloned.

Voddie Baucham wraps up the 17th annual Network of Iowa Home Educators conference.

Steve Deace speaks at NICHE. Why the Deace Family Homeschools.

Steve is a talk show host on WHO Radio in Iowa.

Parental rights are at risk from our courts and international law. HJR 42 amends the Constitution to protect these rights.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hjres42

I wonder if @dtholt350 knows where his ipod is?

Hint: It is at First Federated Church.

In the background is Voddie Bauchman.

Voddie Baucham to speak tonight, 7:30, at FFC about Homeschooling: Why & How. Tonight is free and open to the public.

www.voddiebaucham.org 
Pretty sharp speaker. 
Voddie was a guest on the Steve Deace show last Monday.

Voddie is here in Des Moines for the Network of Iowa Home Educators Conference (NICHE). http://www.the-niche.org/

I'm wondering how quick I can grab lunch without anyone at NICHE missing me.

Family ate at Hickory Park tonight. Good food. Great prices.

Evan loved his chocolate ice cream.
Ean wasn't too crazy about the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. He did eat it all though once he got a taste.

spent the afternoon updating the software on my Palm Treo 755p.

Updating the firmware took a long time.

I also got Opera Mini (http://www.opera.com/mini/) to work. Fortunately I was able to find a copy of IBM Java which is required for it to work.

New activesync works better too! Everything actually sync'd. I pretty much gave up on that after pulling my hair out trying to get it to work in the past.

Good day.

(Opps... this got posted multiple times! Sorry!!)

Evan looks cool in his sunglasses.

I got a little creative and with the kids help made Jayne a special gift for her birthday.

Jayne loved the gift.

The kids did a great job in allowing me to scan their hands on the scanner. Emma, our youngest, actually kept still while the scanner worked.

It took three separate attempts to get a photo of the three kids that would work. Would you believe it was the last photo that actually worked the best?!

I got the idea and poem from http://crafts.kaboose.com/handpoem.html. I reworded it a little so it applied to all three kids.

I'm working on integrating Posterous into my workflow.

Just wrote a review for "The Most Loving Place in Town" by Ken Blanchard & Phil Hodges.

http://www.librarything.com/work/book/45321665

Just finished some research on which LCD monitors to use in the remodeled home of our KZ Church and JH Ministries.

Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute

I was nominated to apply for a Community Leadership Program. Of the 500 individuals nominated only around 50 are accepted into the class.

Derek Holt has a website.

http://www.jdgreen.name/derek