kylegilbert

I know that not everyone likes the thought of reading books or magazines in a digital format.  Even if you don’t, you have to admit that this looks pretty cool.

I personally have converted to doing about 90% of my off-computer reading on my Kindle iPhone app and YouVersion Bible.

What do you think?  Will this kind of interaction win over any of you who have been sitting on the fence when it comes to digital reading?

I never thought that a video about Google searches would nearly make me cry. What a great example of engaging people’s emotions through media.

If you attend Faith Promise Church, you can hardly help but get into the spirit of personal evaluation during this time of year.  Both Josh and Pastor Chris start focusing their attention on personal growth and establishing their plans for the coming year (excellent post by Josh here).

I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon to let you know about a cool update to YouVersion (a free Bible website that is mobile enabled and supported with mobile apps) that now allows you to select from a variety of reading plans.  This is a very cool update, and if you’re a person who struggles with reading the Bible, I’d highly encourage you to take a look at their reading plans and find a good fit.  There’s nothing that will help you grow spiritually like the systematic reading and application of God’s Word.

I love being the pastor of our Internet Campus, and I love the people who gather there each week. It’s an eclectic group from all over the United States (as well as a few from other parts of the world), and I get to listen to the stories as we see people’s lives impacted by God. It’s amazing.

Some people who log on there are just checking out our church before they visit. Others are attending because they’re sick, home with a new baby, or home bound. Some attend because they are Deaf, and we offer ASL interpreted worship services. Even though it’s different from traditional methods, God is meeting people there.

Let me give you one recent example:

Last week I made a follow up phone call to a young woman who lives out of state but attends online each week and wants to start serving through our Internet Campus.* After a short conversation with her, I realized that she hadn’t committed her life to Christ, and I got to lead her to the Lord. Since then, we’ve connected a couple of times, she’s going to be visiting Faith Promise over the Christmas holidays, and I’m scheduled to baptize her during the service when we do the recording for iCampus. Amazing.

While some are suspicious and fearful of this kind of ministry, we see both the current impact and the future potential. Because of that (and a group of people who have stepped up to the plate in service), I’m very pleased to announce that beginning this Sunday, our iCampus will now feature three service times: 10 am, 11:45 am, and 9:00 pm.

I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Please join with me in praying that God would continue to bless this online ministry – to impact lives for His Glory alone.

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*In case you don’t know, we have online greeters, prayer volunteers, administrators, and soon we’ll have our first online small group. There’s room for more, so shoot me an email or drop a comment on here, if you’re interested.

Keri and I just got back from a fantastic night at the Whitestone Inn. It’s really an amazing place. The rooms and scenery were very nice, and the food was delicious.

With little kids, it’s hard to find the time and resources to get away like that, but we’re more committed than ever before to carve out time to spend together.

The top image below is a panoramic image that I created from our photos, so you can click the left and right buttons to pan across the view.

All of these photos were taken within an hour drive of my home.  Coming from the flat lands of Lubbock, Texas, it still blows my mind that I now live so close to this kind of view.

One of the most anticipated parts of our trip was a visit to the Great Wall.  Rather than going to the area most frequently visited in Beijing, we drove out to a part of the Wall that includes a ski-lift style gondola to get to the Wall and a toboggan slide to get back down.  The view was amazing, and the slide was a lot of fun too.

I thought I filmed my ride down, but I must have accidentally turned off the video.  So, while the video below isn’t mine, it’s a close approximation compared to most of the others I viewed.

I’ll post more photos of the Great Wall tomorrow.

Part of our trip to China included a visit to a Chinese market. It was a lot of fun, especially since you get to bargain with the merchants to try to get a good price.

Most of the time, it was a fairly painless process, but when I was walking around with Josh, things got pretty crazy. Fortunately, I managed to catch some of it on video.

Keri thought I should go ahead and post a couple more photos of my hair on here, so here you go.