after 9.5 years

In June of 1999 I bought my 4th car after only having my licenses for a little over 3 years. It was a 1996 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, moonroof, keyless entry, power everything and it only had 29K miles on it. This past weekend 9 and half years, 135K miles, hundreds upon hundreds of trips to Fort Wyane, a trip to Florida and a trip everywhere in between…….I sold my dream car from 1999.

As they say “it was the best car I ever owened”!

I going to miss this

Pam Agler does this weekly post about what in her life she is going to miss when it’s gone. With the arrival of our baby less the 8 weeks away I know I am going to miss many things. For starters I am going to miss the nights at home with not much to do and just sitting around relaxing and talking about anything and everything. Packing up and taking off to go do whatever we on the spur of a moment will be missed. The spare time I have that I can do whatever I want with, will no longer be as available. Being the center of Brittany’s attention when we get home, going to bed and not waking up till the alarm (not the baby) goes off; these are just a short list of things that I am going to miss when that new little package arrives.

Don’t think I am not looking forward to the new things in life I am very excited but like always, I want the best of both worlds!

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Monday, Wednesday, Friday…….then Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Sunday!

Does it get any better than this? Today is Monday tomorrow will be like a Wednesday (hump day of the work week) then Friday (last day of the work week) and off to the weekend which will consist of 3 Saturdays and a Sunday. On top of all that we get to eat way more than a person ever should in 4 days, and see all those cousins you spent hours with growing up and aunts and uncles that you thought were so great growing up (not saying they still aren’t)!

It’s easy for me to look at the holidays as overwhelming and not relaxing but this year I have decided I am going to have a good attitude and look at it as the blessing that it is and enjoy every minute of it. So to turkey, potatoes, dressing, pies, family & friends Cheers it’s going to be an awesome weekend!

People are more important.

People are the most valuable things in this life, they alone are the only thing that will last for eternity. There souls are the reason Christ became man, there souls are the reason God created Earth. It seems so obvious that I would put the highest importance on another person and there well being. But I don’t always do that, it’s easy for me to shift my focus on the task at hand and make that more important than people.

Here are a couple examples from this week………..
-Going to work I get to drive up St Rd. 1 every day and anyone who drives that road knows that you usually end up driving slower than the speed limit (to this day I haven’t figured out why). So when an elderly woman wanted to merge in front of me coming out of Bluffton my instinct was to but the task at hand (getting to work on time) ahead of this elderly woman and speed up in get in front of her.
-I played Basketball this morning and instead of focusing on people and making them the important part of the games, I wanted to win.
-I would tell you stories at work but that list is to long unfortunately of when I walk over somebody just to get a task or job done.


Needless to say I have room to improve but my goal is to make people way more important than any goal, task, job, possession, desire, or anything else that might come up.

God in a Box

For me I often have to concentrate on not putting God in a box. I have to constantly remind myself that Gods resources go way beyond anything I can Image, remind myself of all the great stories in the bible where God was anything but in a box.

Like when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego get cast into a fire so hot that you couldn’t get with 10 feet of it without burning, but they come out without a trace of smoke on them. Or how about Gideon defeating the Midianites with only 300 men, who happened to only have a trumpet, a pitcher and a lamp; Or what about Moses and the Israelites facing the Red Sea with the Egyptians closing in, but God in a box and try to get out that mess.

If I do put God in a box then I have done just that, put God in a box. How then is He suppose to take care of all my cares, worries, concerns, and prayers? But if I take all my cares and my worries and my concerns before God knowing that He is not in a box but instead is the one who created everything I can see, and is the one who controls all I see, and ask Him to take care of them not tell how to take care of them. Then once again He shows me that nothing is impossible with God!

Citrix XenServer

Citrix in the last few months has released a new version of XenServer, version 5.1. What is great about this is has many new updates and features. Since they offer a free edition of the software I thought it would be worth a look see. I installed it on a desktop computer at work which has 2gig of ram and a dual core processor. So far I have installed Windows XP and Open Suse 11 on it and they both seem to be running great. If you want to try virtualization at home or in your small business this is the best way to do it.

Maze of life......

Sometimes in life it when things are not going good I wonder where is God or how could He let this happen to me or to anybody. When cancer comes, when jobs are stressful, when friends or family make bad decisions, when marriage seems harder than it should be, it is in those times easy to ask where God is.

The problem for me most often when in this situation is best illustrated by this picture.

You see there are many people in the maze but each person can only see the part of the maze they are in, and it seems like it makes no sense and there is no way out. If they would only look to the people in the middle of the maze on the high point who can see the whole maze at one time, then the big picture could be explained to them and they could be given directions on how to get out.

Life is a lot the same………I am often in the maze of life, lost and confused wondering how God could leave me in the situation I am in. The problem though is not always as it seems because I am looking at the problem (maze) from our perspective. If I would just look to Jesus for all my questions and doubts and ask for guidance He could very easily help me make sense out of my maze of life. Because He sees the whole maze at one time, and He sees the maze from my point of view and every other person who is in the maze point of view.

Therein lies the reason of why I try to see my life from God’s perspective!

tag....

Well I have been tagged, and even though I am not a big fan of this stuff (no worries vanessa) I am going be a good sport.

So with no further ado here are my 7 random facts in no particular order……......

1. I am currently addicted to the following addicting game World Wars
2. I have driven the same car since 1999!
3. My feet are ridiculously ticklish.
4. I am part of the Salt and Light team.
5. I have lived in 4 different houses and one apartment my whole life.
6. I like conversations that make me think and revaluate my life.
7. I am a jack of all trades and master of none, just ask Brit.

However the buck stops here, no tags handed out here!

Rufus

What do you do when you are sick at home, well besides blow your nose 341 times and cough endlessly take a few naps and eat some thing occassionaly. I sit in the recliner and am entertained by our dog Bailey, who I more than not call rufus because that would have been the perfect name for him (I lost in paper rock sicsors so his name is Bailey). Rufus has more character than most dogs I have met he has A.D.D. and more engery than what I would ever dream of having.

I believe his goals in life are the following in no particular order.

- Get anybody to pet him.

- Get anybody to give him food.

- Catch a squirel (I will post a video of this when I get it on tape).

- Catch a bugs, poor guy really struggles with this.

- Burn up all that engery he has.

- Sleep

Since we moved he has not found one place to sleep like he did at the other house but the funniest spot is in a chair on our back patio.

He hung out in the chair this morning just waiting on something living to come into the backyard

Nothing Else

I always pictured my soul as a place in my body that is empty but longs to be filled, and I have tried to fill it with so many things. I have tried money, possessions, alcohol, drugs, friends, and all kinds of other stuff. What is funny (because it so true) about all of that, is that it seems like it will always make me so much happier. However after it (the newest, the high, etc) wears off I am right back where I was before the money, the car, the house, the alcohol, the pride, the whatever. With a soul that is empty but still longing to be filled. There is only one thing that can fill it because it was made to be filled by only one thing and that is Jesus Christ. Unfortunately I have had to be reminded of this fact numerous times in my life, and again today I was reminded of this fact by a song from Matthew West called Nothing Else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSuJBSum4Kc

Nothing Else Lyrics

I tried money

I got as much as I could

and I went to the store

And I bought it all

But it wasn't enough 'cause

I wanted some more

But my house was full

So I bought a bigger house

and filled it up

And there I was with all that stuff

And empty

Nothing else can take the place of You

It's true

Nothing else can take the place of You

I know it's true

Still I try friendship

I called everyone I knew

And invited them over for a party

They ate all the free food

And they told me how much they loved me

But when the food was gone

My friends were gone

And there I was all alone

And empty

Nothing else can take the place of You

Nothing else

Nothing else can take the place of You

I know it's true

So take the place

The place of you

And fill this space

The way you do

I'm tired of searching

Those days are through

So take the place

It's made for you

Not a Coincidence

Why do I doubt, or why do I every have concerns that I don’t give to the Lord? Sunday morning in church our Minister talked about the most important think in our walk with God, our relationship with Him. The world might call it a coincidence that only a couple weeks after the Lord laid it on my heart to evaluate my relationship with Him; I hear a message on it church. There is no such thing as a coincidence though so I know that Gods hands where at work again!

What I have come to the realization of is that it’s my relationship with God that drives all the other parts of my Christian walk. How close I am to God directly affects my attitude, my relationship with others, my ministries, my patience level, my desires, etc. My relationship with God takes work though its not fast food, its more like a home cooked meal it takes time & effort. I need to spend time talking to God, reading His Word, listening to God, then I am focused on the Heart of God and not my heart, and life seems simple!

SOS Olympics I

Last night we had the first every SOS Olympics. SOS is a long story but what it has come to be is getting the High School Sunday School kids together every other Wednesday night for some fun activities and a lesson.

We had a great time last night I laughed incredible hard a few times. It got a little serious a few times (but at least no one was pulling others canoes, right Chad). I personally decided I better not get involved because all I would do was prove how out of shape I am getting. But watching the kids was a blast, they all had fun and wanted to do most of the events over again.

The funniest think that happened all night was these three young lads steering there canoe under the pier. Watch in the video towards the end the canoe in the top right corner. How Dillen made it under the pier I have no idea………




So with out further ado here are your winners……..

Girls Shot Putt

Bronze: Elise Gold: Tiff Silver: Jessica

Boys Shot Putt

Bronze: Jordon Gold: Alex Silver: Troy

Girls Long Jump

Bronze: Elise Gold: Jenna Silver: Tiff

Long Jump Boys

Bronze: Troy Gold: James Silver: Brandon

Relay Race

Gold: Jr Sr. Team
Silver: Freshman Team

Canoe Race

Bronze: Clint, Caleb, James I Gold: James A, Tiff, Cheater Silver: Phillip, Taylor, Shawn

Vollyball

Gold: Jr. Sr. Team

The last event of the night was Devotions, because winning without a good attutide does not bring Glory to God. But winning with a good attitude can!!!!

Prayer before Devotions

For more pictures go to http://picasaweb.google.com/byron.gerber/SOSOlympicsI

Work, Work, Work......

All the administrators got new BlackBerry’s this week. For me that meant I had to setup BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) that allows them to get all there email calendar and task, all that collaboration stuff. Which sounded simple but come to find out the BES is very picking on which version of BES software you are running with which version of GroupWise Server and GroupWise Client on your BES server. After putting that puzzle all together I found out we were running different version of GroupWise on a couple of our GroupWise servers. So we update the all the GroupWise servers to the newest release, which in turn meant that we needed to update all the GroupWise Clients on all the staffs’ machines. At this point I sing my praises to ZENworks because instead of having to run to every staffs’ computer we updated all 500 some staff computers this morning and I never left my office or remoted into any staffs computer. The BlackBerry’s are being synced and the administrators will being getting them soon.

Also today I the opportunity to help in an online webinar to prompt the wonderful Helpdesk software that GroupLink puts out. Daren, Jarod, Zack keep plugging along you guys have create software that makes my life better, and Norm thanks for letting me get involved. I appreciate it!

Only two more days to go……..

Gods first desire

I read John Hagee’s weekly devotional on occasion. The following is an excerpt from this week’s
“God did not deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt's bondage so that they could live in the promise land. He brought them out of bondage so they could know and worship Him.”

He goes on to talk about how God first and foremost wants a relationship with you that is the reason we were created. That it is easy for us to get caught up in other things bad or even good things can interfere with that relationship. He therefore may bring things into our lives in order for us to see our need of a relationship with Him.

If you want to read his version here is the link he says it much better.
John Hagee Weekly Devotional

So I say all of that to say this. Today I have really been thinking about where I am with my relationship with God. Is He the friend I talk to everyday and share everything that is going on in my life? Or is He the friend that I call when I need someone to talk to? Is He the friend that I call when I need advice with a problem? Is He an old friend that I only talk to when I bump into Him somewhere? Or is He the friend that I don’t talk to anymore because I we had a difference of opinions?

If He is not the like the first friend the next question is why? I don’t really like the answer to the first question so I am trying to figure out way. What is in my life that I am allowing a higher priority than my relationship with God?

Looks like it might be a good weekend for pondering and organizing priorities.

Remodeling Pictures

Here is the link to the before and after pictures of the house that we remodeled.


http://picasaweb.google.com/byron.gerber/BeforeAfter

Emotional roller coaster

Emotional Roller Coaster…….

This Labor day weekend will be remember for many years in our family, for good and sad reasons alike.

Saturday morning we went to the memorial service for Leslie Aschliman, (Brittany’s first cousin). Leslie (32) beat cancer in July and now is perfectly healed and praising Jesus for it every minute now and for all of eternity. The memorial was but together and done in great style; Tyson’s (Leslie’s husband) minister message was very good. Honestly I have no idea the last time I cried that much, but it was good to get all those emotions out.
Two thoughts have helped me come to grips with this whole situation. One is that God the created of the universe can see everything, everybody, every situation as they are right now, and into the future forever, while I can only see things through my own two eyes. Which leads me to thought two, I know that God is using this for good in many ways that I can’t see or understand and that I will never know about. For example Tyson and Leslie blog that originally was used to keep family updated on what was going onn ended up receiving over 100,000 first time hits in 70 different countries. So I could ask why for all my days on earth and never completely understand, but I know All things work together for good when you are following God!

Sunday my brother In-law Logan Aschliman got married Abby Reinhard, still not sure how he got her to marry him (just kidding Lo). It was a great day everybody was all done up and everything looked great. The minister Ted Witzg Jr. was great I got to talk to him some he truly is a scholar. The food at the reception was amazing I could have had 2cds and 3rds.
Most importantly is that they both have Jesus first in there lives and I know that they will be together forever. Sure they will have some ups and downs and they might even argue a few times (even though they probably don’t think that yet).

Monday was a relaxation day, I slept in did work at the new house to get ready to move. Then we went and hung out with friends for the afternoon and evening, which included swimming and badminton (I was 0-4) for the most part. It was great end to a very emotional weekend.

Tyson, Steve, Vic, and family we are still praying for you. Logan and Abby Congratulations!!!!!

Moving On.....

Last December Brittany and I decided to buy a new house with one catch. The house was from the 50’s (built like bomb shelter) and had not seen to many updates since it was built, besides the 3 layers of flooring they had added to the original. We started the remodel process on January 2cd, and had most of it finished by the end of April. All the doors and windows need replaced, we took out all 3 layers of flooring, added all new plumbing (come to find out copper in cement does not last forever) fixed all the lovely plaster walls then painted everything, add some new light fixtures, remodeled the whole kitchen (thanks to Brittany who designs kitchens as her occupation), and gutted two bathrooms, I think that is it.

When we decided to take on this project we said the only way we would do it would be is if we didn’t have to live in the mess while we were working on it. The goal was to enjoy the remodel process and hopefully sell our house (which we listed at the beginning of March) about the time we would be getting done so we could move in. The remodeling was really not that stressful sure there where days but, it was a lot more enjoyable because we didn’t have to be there every waking hour and we could make a mess and leave it for the next day because we could go home.

So I have said all that to say this……..last night we accepted an offer on are old house, PRAISE GOD!!!!!! So as long as all the paper work goes through we should be moving into our new house at the end of next month. We both are very excited and ready to get moved and settled in before the baby comes.

Thanks to everyone who has helped in this process!

What a summer

What a summer………..

The highlight of the summer had to be our trip to Alaska where Brittany’s grandpa (A big thanks to him) Charlie lives. It was absolutely amazing! From the beautiful scenery, to the very cool wildlife, and in between we got to spend time with family!

The size of everything in Alaska is very hard to explain or comprehend. Its kind of like going to the Grand Canyon, you can see a ton of pictures before you go and you get excited about how cool its going to be. Then you get there and it’s 100 times better than the pictures. So you then take a bunch of pictures so you can go back and show everybody how cool it is, the only problem is when you go and show everybody your pictures they can’t begin to understand how big it is.

So with all that said here are a few pictures.

Sunset on our Fairy ride from Juneau to Skagway

A herd of 13 whales we saw on our fishing trip.

The Tracy Arm Glacier which is over a 1/2 mile wide.

Yes thats a Killer Whale

To see more pictures.......

http://picasaweb.google.com/byron.gerber/Alasaka

Gods Glasses

Looking at life through Gods Glasses is just that, instead of looking at lifes troubles, situations, problems, blessings, and joys through your own glasses or the glasses that the “media” wants you to see them through.

Looking at life with His glasses on requires a few things. First you have to step back from the situation and look at it with wide angle glasses instead of a microscope. Two you need to know what God wants for each person on the face of the earth, the only way of doing this is by knowing what the Bible says. God wants everybody to accept the Jesus Christ as there personal Savior, we also can not be seperated from the love of God (Romans 8:38,39). Third we must take ourselves out of the picture, for it is very dificult to have the correct persective when we have our desires and emotions tied into it.