Note: For those who were wondering, this post has nothing to do with the drink, and everything to do with my inner geek.

This post is to give some info on how to get the lyrics presentation software Openlp working on your Linux install. I didn’t really have to do any tinkering, things pretty much just worked. Here is my setup:

• Multiple monitor setup already working in Linux, with KDE and Xinerama.
• Wine 0.9.57 (configured as Windows XP)
• Openlp 1.0

I ran the installation with Wine, and everything seemed to go smoothly. Once running Openlp, the display settings drop down box has an option to display lyrics on “Monitor 2 on X11 Windowing System”.

The only thing I’ve had problems with so far is displaying alerts; no text ever seems to show (just the red background). Not sure if this is an Openlp bug or a Wine problem yet. Hope this post helps someone!

Irony: To hope that a day’s air travel will produce a good story. When it does, it turns out that you’re the butt of the joke.

True, I turned up to the airport yesterday secretly hoping for a cool story to tell at the end of the day (yes, us sanguines do things like that. Or at least eccentric old men like myself).

First thing that happened was finding out that the flight we were not on the passenger list. Yes, we had a printout confirming our booking. No, that didn’t make it to the airline computer.

Secondly, our flight was had been canceled. Yes, the airline called people to tell them this. No, they didn’t call us! (We took a later flight in the end).

Thirdly, I forgot to take the pocket-knife off of my keys. This wasn’t a problem at this end of the flight; the knife was small enough that security didn’t seem to mind. Returning however, I was advised that security was strict at the Wellington terminal (point of departure), and advised to check in my bag, which I could then put my keys into. I should have just put the knife portion in; when I tried to collect my bag upon arrival home, I discovered that the airline had “forgotten” to put my bag on the plane! They didn’t forget anyone else’s…

That’ll teach me to go looking for a story to at every opportunity!

A few weeks ago I met Tom on campus. Tom wasn’t 100% sure about the basis of his faith, so we spent some time talking about how one can be sure of their salvation. Tom and I decided to meet each week to look through the “Knowing Jesus Personally” magazine, to learn more about how to grow in a relationship with God.

Today Tom brought a friend Dennis along to our meeting. I hadn’t met Dennis before, so I didn’t know what he thought about God. I asked Dennis what he thought, and he said he wasn’t really sure. He told me how he was looking for something to help him get on the “right path” in life, someone to turn to in times of need. I asked him if he’d heard about how someone can know God in a personal way. He said no, but he’d be interested in finding out more.

Tom and I talked through the “Knowing God Personally” booklet (a basic gospel presentation) with Dennis. When we got to the point about how to invite Christ into your life, Dennis said that he had never asked Jesus in, but he wanted to! Dennis then prayed to ask Jesus into his life right there!

Events like this make my day! It’s great to see people receive Christ into their lives. It’s even more exciting to see people like Tom wanting to share with their friends! Had Tom not brought Dennis along, the chances of me meeting him would have been slim to none. Tom is still learning how to share about God with his friends, but the fact that he’s eager and taking steps to do so is encouraging!

This is what gets me out of bed in the morning! Please pray that Tom and Dennis would continue to grow in their relationships with God!

Today was the first time I paid for parking while living here in Auckland. I feel dirty inside.

It’s official; I’m an old man. And you know what? I’m not afraid of it!

I love to tell stories. I’ve thought a lot about when I’m actually old, how I’ll be one of those guys who tells stories all the time, capturing everyone’s attention with tales that no one’s quite sure if they’re true. One of my favourite photos of myself is me telling a story.

In my church home group, there are two of us with the name Joseph. I’m the oldest, so my nickname is “Old Man Joe”.

The other day was my birthday. I received a card from a friend with a picture of an old man on the front. It made me smile. “Happy Birthday! I saw this card and thought it looked like a picture of you when you’re old.”

There are many fun things about the bus system in Auckland. This week:

• Bus driver of my bus honking wildly at the bus in front. Possibly due to my bus driver parking too close to the second bus and being unable to leave the bus stop.
• As I stare blankly into space while riding to work… screeeeech… wait, was that the sound of metal scraping against the side of the overpass we just went under? I’ve seen some close calls, but never seen the bus actually hit something before!
• I’m walking along the footpath — as one does — only to realise that there’s a bus heading towards me, also on the footpath!

I guess that getting used to Auckland may be a little more difficult than I thought…

Tune In is one of the biggest opportunities we have each year to connect with lost students on campus! Through short questionnaires, we have a chance find students who are searching for something more in life, and talk with them about God. One of the questions asks, “Would you like to find out how tune into in to a personal relationship with God?” In Auckland, we’ve collected about 4,000 completed questionnaires, and have followed up the 2000 odd of those who answered “yes” or “maybe” to the above question!

Some of those people have prayed to receive Christ in their lives! Still others we’ve met are Christians already, and we challenge them to become multiplying disciples of Christ! One way in which we do this is through Action Groups, a chance not only to study God’s word and grow in faith through doing so, but also a time to learn how to share about God with others and put that into action!

Please pray both for those students who have received Christ into their lives, as well as those who we meet that already know Him; that they will continue to grow in their faith and become multiplying disciples; that is, making disciples who make disciples!

I never quite got around to posting this earlier, but you may have noticed that the “Student Life/CCC” category has been renamed “Student Life/Tandem”. From my latest newsletter:

In moving forward for the future, Campus Crusade for Christ NZ is now known as Tandem Ministries. The names of the core ministries have not changed (Student Life, Athletes in Action, etc), but the new organisational name represents the fact that we want to be working together as a unified whole, both for the ministries within the Tandem umbrella, and alongside those who aren’t!

If you’re interested, don’t forget to check out the Tandem Website!

Jeff Childers:

“Your inner life is like a banana tree filled with monkeys jumping up and down.”

Describes me perfectly!

Some friends and I went to Denny’s restaurant late last night. As in many restaurants, Denny’s has an area where you wait to be seated. The four of us waited 10 minutes, without anyone coming to give us a table. After 10 minutes, a party of three arrived, and were seated almost straight away! (Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode). It took one of us to ask to be seated, before they paid any attention to us!

Karin: “I love the fact that you can go to Denny’s at 3am in the morning, and the food sucks and they’re mean to you, but you can count on it!”