Sunday, December 12, 2010
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Technology and Short Term Missions
Interesting article about the relationship of technology to short-term missions. When we didn't have the ability to keep up with friends and family while in a far-flung place, this wasn't an issue as it wasn't really possible. However, now that the Internet is so pervasive, I would think it is a strong temptation for short and long term missionaries to remain closely connected to their home, with a consequence being that they are not fully engaged with the culture they are ministering to.
There's plenty that is good about technology in this sense. Those that support missionaries can get very timely updates about how they are and what needs they have. However, how to use the technology so that it serves this purpose but not to draw the missionary away from engaging with friends in their own culture is difficult.
Kristy and I have lived in three different towns since we were married. I'm very glad to keep up with some of our friends from the previous two towns via Facebook as I want to know what's going on with them. But, I can certainly see how people can get so involved with friends on Facebook that they don't make time for friends that are real and present here.
While I miss many people that are in other locations, I'm called to be with those that are here, geographically. In spite of Internet hype, geography is still an essential factor of life, and I think the more deep ministries (e.g., of the church) recognize that.
There's plenty that is good about technology in this sense. Those that support missionaries can get very timely updates about how they are and what needs they have. However, how to use the technology so that it serves this purpose but not to draw the missionary away from engaging with friends in their own culture is difficult.
Kristy and I have lived in three different towns since we were married. I'm very glad to keep up with some of our friends from the previous two towns via Facebook as I want to know what's going on with them. But, I can certainly see how people can get so involved with friends on Facebook that they don't make time for friends that are real and present here.
While I miss many people that are in other locations, I'm called to be with those that are here, geographically. In spite of Internet hype, geography is still an essential factor of life, and I think the more deep ministries (e.g., of the church) recognize that.
Friday, December 03, 2010
Failure is Not an Option
I recently read Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz, a former flight director (among many other jobs) at NASA. He's the flight director that is the main focus of the Apollo 13 movie. It's his memoir of his life, focusing mostly on his time in NASA and on the missions he was a part of.
In short, I loved this book. Spaceflight is terribly interesting to me, and I'm still amazed that they accomplished what they did with the technology available at the time. But this book brings out the personalities of the many people involved.
One thing that struck me was the amount of leadership, ingenuity, and deep expertise expected from everyone involved. Many involved were from a military background and so naturally tended to leadership positions. The great importance of the project made it necessary for only really good leaders to rise up - no "social promotion" or promotion based on years experience. Definitely a meritocracy. Also, leaders had to both know their technology backwards and forwards. It wasn't enough to be a good manager, but you had to have come up through the system having not just the ability to look up information but the ability to pull it out of your head at a moment's notice.
The ingenuity to deal with not just the extraordinary circumstances like Apollo 13, but designing everything from the rockets to the landers to the procedures to make it all happen in mission control to the communication system in such a short time was extraordinary.
I highly recommend it.
In short, I loved this book. Spaceflight is terribly interesting to me, and I'm still amazed that they accomplished what they did with the technology available at the time. But this book brings out the personalities of the many people involved.
One thing that struck me was the amount of leadership, ingenuity, and deep expertise expected from everyone involved. Many involved were from a military background and so naturally tended to leadership positions. The great importance of the project made it necessary for only really good leaders to rise up - no "social promotion" or promotion based on years experience. Definitely a meritocracy. Also, leaders had to both know their technology backwards and forwards. It wasn't enough to be a good manager, but you had to have come up through the system having not just the ability to look up information but the ability to pull it out of your head at a moment's notice.
The ingenuity to deal with not just the extraordinary circumstances like Apollo 13, but designing everything from the rockets to the landers to the procedures to make it all happen in mission control to the communication system in such a short time was extraordinary.
I highly recommend it.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Forcing Tech on Others
A fellow named John Dyer has an interesting post on his blog about how since his father cannot access the Internet, he does not get all of John's updates about his life. He must use "older" technology like the phone or postal mail to keep up or send pictures.
This inspired a few thoughts. One is that we have higher expectations of others to keep up with our lives. We expect them to use the same tech we do, such as Twitter, Facebook, or just a blog, and to follow those in whatever way they wish to keep up with what we're doing. That can be framed in a positive light as allowing others to choose whether or not to keep up with us. It can also be framed as us expecting them to conform to our means of communication and to make sure they check it on some regular basis to find out if there's an update. It seems to me that if we really value someone, we will want to keep up with them no matter the technology medium.
A second thought is that our communications to let others know what we're up to has become less personal as it has become easier to broadcast. I remember when my mother would hand write individual letters to friends at Christmastime. Family friends started writing a generic letter that was just copied and sent to everyone, and mom decided at some point to do that as well. Kristy and I only do a generic letter at Christmas, as do most (maybe all?) of our friends. Surely that's multiplied now as our Facebook status gets broadcast to anyone with permission to read it. Now, it would take quite a bit of time to write individual letters, or even individual electronic messages to everyone I would like to send an update to. The technology (copiers, printers, Facebook, Twitter) now facilitate broadcasting an impersonal message. It's much easier, but I fear we've lost meaningful personal contact in the process of getting to this point.
What do you think? What is lost and what is gained in terms of keeping up with people?
This inspired a few thoughts. One is that we have higher expectations of others to keep up with our lives. We expect them to use the same tech we do, such as Twitter, Facebook, or just a blog, and to follow those in whatever way they wish to keep up with what we're doing. That can be framed in a positive light as allowing others to choose whether or not to keep up with us. It can also be framed as us expecting them to conform to our means of communication and to make sure they check it on some regular basis to find out if there's an update. It seems to me that if we really value someone, we will want to keep up with them no matter the technology medium.
A second thought is that our communications to let others know what we're up to has become less personal as it has become easier to broadcast. I remember when my mother would hand write individual letters to friends at Christmastime. Family friends started writing a generic letter that was just copied and sent to everyone, and mom decided at some point to do that as well. Kristy and I only do a generic letter at Christmas, as do most (maybe all?) of our friends. Surely that's multiplied now as our Facebook status gets broadcast to anyone with permission to read it. Now, it would take quite a bit of time to write individual letters, or even individual electronic messages to everyone I would like to send an update to. The technology (copiers, printers, Facebook, Twitter) now facilitate broadcasting an impersonal message. It's much easier, but I fear we've lost meaningful personal contact in the process of getting to this point.
What do you think? What is lost and what is gained in terms of keeping up with people?
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Pictures from Summer & Fall 2010
These are pictures from this summer and fall that I finally got off the camera. This covers the local festival, VBS, beach trip, summer fun, Raleigh trip, birthdays, and Halloween. I'm also testing out this embedded thing from Shutterfly to see how it works.
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