Archive for December, 2007
Christmas Letter 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
You may have noticed the sixth person in our family picture this year. On October 20th, we celebrated a very special occasion as Sara and Caleb were united in marriage, and we joyfully welcome him to our family 
We started 2007 by taking our annual family ski trip to
Joseph finished junior high then began high school this fall. Soccer continues to captivate his attention. His brother and sister have been glad to see his maturity in many areas—though Joseph would still like to catch up to Caleb in height. He was quite a hard worker as he and his friend Ben Nicholas helped out at Forest Glen Bible Camp. Then later in the summer he spent two weeks at Woodlands Camp in the S.A.L.T. leadership program. Last week he had an unexpected knee surgery and is taking it easy. We are still waiting to see what is next in determining the cause of the cartilage degeneration.
Jonathan is very busy with school, so we enjoy seeing him over Christmas vacation. In January he moved into the residence hall for the semester and made many friends. He learned sign language to communicate with his friend Eric. He was also a blessing to many as he spent the summer in
Sara finished her last year at BJU as a society president and sportswriter. Graduation was a busy time with saying goodbye to many friends and participating in the weddings of her best friends. Caleb and Sara enjoy married life in
Dan & I spent the summer traveling to
This Christmas, we REJOICE in God’s Son, the JOY of our salvation!
Sincerely,
Dan and Karen, Jonathan, Joseph, Sara and Caleb
An Amazing Power of the Gospel Story
I just received this story from some very dear family friends, the Colson family, who are missionaries in Chuuk, Micronesia. It reminded me of the “reason for the season” and the amazing power of the Gospel! I hope many can be blessed by this story, written by Andrea Colson.
Today while we were visiting at the hospital we saw some friends of ours from the island of Polle. They told us that the mayor of Polle had drowned last night when his boat capsized. The family had brought his body to the morgue, and his teenage daughter was in the emergency room. Apparently, the mayor and his family had come to Weno yesterday to go Christmas shopping, along with some of their friends. They and several other boats were headed back to Polle last night after dark, when the mayor’s boat was overcome by the waves and sank. One of the other boats picked up the rest of the people who had been on board, including the mayor’s wife, but they couldn’t find the mayor and his daughter. The young girl couldn’t swim, so when the boat sank her dad carried her on his back and tried to swim to the nearest island. The girl told her family later that her dad carried her as far as he could, then he told her that he knew he was going to die and for her to save her life. She said he looked up towards heaven and prayed, “Father, I am a sinner; please have mercy on me and remember me.” Just as his head went under the water a five-gallon bucket drifted by. The girl said she grabbed hold of it with one hand and held on to her dad’s head with her other hand. She was finally able to make it to the shore of Eot where she called out for the people of that island to please help them, but her dad had already died.
When Atrina came over this evening to help the teenagers practice their Christmas program, she told Mama that she and Ongichy had shared the Gospel with the mayor of Polle twice and that both times he really listened and was open. She was so glad to hear that he had prayed right before he died. Praise the Lord for that, and also for keeping us safe when we were out on the water Thursday. The same thing could so easily have happened to us if He hadn’t protected us like He did.
To God be the glory!!!
Teaching My Children Computer Science
Posted by admin in Family, Internship on December 16th, 2007
My greatest desire for everyone of my children is that they might find and do the will of God for their lives! He has seen fit to give each of them a unique combination of talents and interests. As parents, Karen and I desire to provide a God honoring home from which they can learn to know God, love God and discover how God wants them to invest their lives for eternity!
To that end, I’ve been thinking how I can best teach my trade, computer science and more specifically the “bit business” to my sons and daughter. Here are the beginnings of some topics I want to start with, particularly with our youngest son, Joseph, as he appears to be most gifted by God for this “bit stuff”. However please let it be known that Sara and Jonathan are also highly “bit literate”, though their strongest talents and interests seem at this time to lie in other areas, which is most exciting for Karen and I to be a part of seeing God work out through each of them!
- how computers work and what are bits?
- what are programming languages and who cares?
- how are bits used on the Internet and how do they move around to accomplish all (good and evil) that they accomplish?
- what are databases of bits and how to program them?
- what is computational thinking (something I want all my children to know) and what impact will it have in the 21st century cultures?
- what is it that The Worthwhile Company does and why does EVERY BUSINESS AND MINISTRY in the world need it?
This is just a start, but I believe represents the majority of the “important” bit business things I want to impart to my children.
We shall see, by the grace of God, what happens next.
UPDATE (4/16/08) I was asked by one of my computer science faculty for the five topics I believe to be most important for a computer literate person to know. Here they are:
- security/passwords/information protection/email spam/phishing/etc
- appropriate use of communication technologies (email, text, phone, blogging, etc)
- computational thinking – what do computers do well and what do people do better and how do they work together to solve problems
- how to select the write tool for the job (word processor, spreadsheet, db, blog, wiki, email, web page, etc)
- fundamental difference and similarity between atoms and bits
Computer Science Recruiting
PROJECT: Get More CS Students!
It is often said “if you don’t like the way things are then do something about it!”. We’ll that’s the approach I’m taking when it comes to enrollment figures in my Computer Science Department at BJU. Reduced CS enrollment is not limited to our school. It has been seen across all American colleges since the famous “dot bomb” hit as we launched the 21st century. One figure says enrollment is down 60% since 2000.
My concern is at least 2 fold:
* if I don’t have students taking my classes, I won’t have any classes to teach!
* the fewer numbers going in means fewer numbers coming out and that impacts all the businesses and ministries looking to us for good quality, worthwhile computer scientists! (yes the worthwhile pun was definitely intended
So, what can we do about it? The same thing a business does when sales are down – a better job of advertising!! That’s why I’ve been excited about putting together a team of students who “hit the road” with me to visit Christian high schools in an effort to inform students, administrators, teachers, and parents that AMERICA NEEDS MORE COMPUTER SCIENCE GRADUATES!
We are getting great response from the school and the students. (woosters.org Photo Gallery for photos and comments from students). The only problem is I cannot get to very many schools because they all follow the same calendar we do and therefore when I’m free to travel (summers and Christmas) there aren’t any schools in session! (unless we start recruiting in the lands down under, which I would love to do, but I’m not sure about the financial return on the investment).
Therefore I have proposed the creation of a full time Computer Science team which will travel Fall semester each year. At first it may sound like a crazy idea, but consider the following:
* look at the impact BJU’s ministry teams have made on the enrollment in the fine arts
* no other schools in our league are doing this! (time to take the first provider business advantage)
* we’ve had a graduate donate money to help us get the tools we need to do the “road show” (Lego Mindstorm Robots and notebook computers)
* we have 2 CS grads who are now married and finishing up their MBA degrees and are very interested in leading a team!
* every school I’ve visited (7 so far) has asked me to come do it again!
Please pray with me that the Lord would give us an open door to send out a full time team next Fall in order to “test my theory”. I believe that over time, we can see the kind of enrollments BJU sees in the fine arts if we follow this simple concept of “get the word out about the opportunities at BJU!”