A quick appology for the hiatus from writing. Baby number 2 arrived in July and live prior to and since has been pretty hectic, including moving house with a 6 week old baby (I do not recommend this).
If you still have the feed running, I’m glad that you have stuck around!
Look forward to reviews, thoughts and actions, and your interaction
Cheers,
Darren
Yesterday was Christmas, and with the temperature getting to 40 C and spending much of the day above 38 (the old century) it was definately one for staying inside with the aircon on! Today my extended family get together for breakfast at a local park, but with the temps heading to 40+ again today…we might not stay long!
Some thinks I want to reflect on in coming posts:
Merry Christmas everyone!
It’s Christmas morning…the house is still quiet…weather man is predicting 39 degrees celcius today (102.2 F), so most of today will be indoors with the aircon running flat out!
From everyone here at Digital Church we wish you a very happy Christmas…may your Christmas tech run smoothly!
Darren
I have been very slack lately with my writing and while my mind has been full of plenty to write about…time has been the killer. What with work projects coming to completion for the end of the year, Christmas, my daughters first birthday, my wife’s birthday…life has been very full.
However as the treadmill accelerates to top speed before slowing to a gentle jog, I will be attempting to write more and share what I can…more soon.
Well spring has truly arrived here in the southern hemisphere. The weekend was glorious, with the sun out and warmer day time temps. On Saturday I even managed to get out and mow the grass which hasn’t been done in way too long, I completed our tax returns (that’s a 3 weekend effort I don’t want to repeat) and spent a great weekend with my wife and daughter.
Yesterday was Fathers Day here in Oz and it was my very first! I loved it. My daughter wore a t-shirt which said “My Daddy, My Hero” all day…she already knows how to make a grown man cry all day long!! It was truly a great day though and one which I will never forget.
Thanks to Cynthia for getting me back on the blogs…the simplest of prompts (via facebook, you can find me here and be my friend) after a winter hiatus.
The current geeky/tech tasks we will be engaging in ovber the coming weeks are:
1. moving the church web site to a Drupal implementation
2. installing a 3rd projector at church
3. using MediaShout to IMAG in the auditorium and foyer
A busy few Geek weeks ahead at church!
I just realised this morning that it has been a while since I posted…It has been a really busy time in the Digital Church camp.
Easter
Church had the usual two services, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, both were full houses, particularly Sunday with every chair in the church taken (approx 240). On the tech side we had a number of things to deal with as well. We purchased some nice motion backgrounds for the services which we purchased from the Media Shout shop. These worked really nicely and added to the service.
New Mic Systems
We took delivery of 3 brand new Shure SLX Wireless microphone systems in the week after Easter so these were installed and tested prior to Sundays services. They worked exceptionally well and sound excellent, giving good clarity and brightness to the vocals. They are different to handle than the wired SM58’s we have traditionally used, as they seem a lot touchier, but with a bit of practice that will be OK.
Baby Dedication
On Sunday 15 April in the morning service we dedicated our baby Tamar Grace to God and gave thanks to Him for this great blessing. We made a 3.5 minute video highlight reel to show, which was a huge effort to condense 7 hours of baby footage into such a short time, but we succeeded in making family members and others tear up! Not to mention Dad, who spent ours looking at the footage, who kept having to stop as I was getting all teary at how blessed we are with our beautiful girl. We had a BBQ in a local park afterwards where about 70 family and friends gathered. It was a great, but tiring day.
Baptism
On the night of Sunday 15 April, my Nephew was baptised. Again a great family occasion! We produced a 3 minute video of him giving his testimony which as really powerful and gave some insight into his decision.
So lately all my time has gone into video production and presentation technology! Which is all fun and I really enjoy it, especially when it gets an audience, and communicates a message.
On the 25th November 2021 my daughter Tamar will be 15 years old. My mind has been wandering as to how she will interact with her friends and others when she is a teenager? Your current teenage girl will txt, chat, My Space, email, phone or physically talk to her friends. But how will Tamar interact and more importantly interact with the Church as I pray for her salvation in Christ.
If I put my forward looking goggles on I see a proliferation of virtual worlds, I think Second Life may pass away but be replaced by a newer world. Will the church have a place in this world? I don’t think that is a question open for discussion, I think that it must! As we are commanded “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15), the on-line world desperately needs to hear that gospel.
Will mobile phone technology be long gone and replaced by large wireless mesh networks which support VoIP, and our small hand-held devices use these to stay connected all the time?
Tamar’s world will be very different to our current world and I look forward to helping her explore it and find out how new technology can assist her.
My wife and I spent 10 years in the Kimberley region of WA and Tropical Cyclones are frightening things. For much of that time we were members of the State Emergency Service where we managed the operations for cyclone events. Today’s news is often our worst fears. people in less than ideal structures in the path of a severe cyclone. Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected and with those involved in the response and recovery efforts. A lot of volunteers will be working long hours (often taking time off work with no pay) to support others who they do not know.
I still know quite a few of the people working in the area and expect we will see them on the TV news tonight looking tired and ashen that we lost people to a Cyclone in WA, something lots of people have worked for a long time to prevent. Prayers for you all.
Whilst not the usual fare of Digital Church, I thought that I would post a review of last night’s Perth City Muster, mostly because I promised Bagga that I would!
Having spent 10 years living and working in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, country music is something that you learn to appreciate (BTW my beautiful wife K, never learnt this appreciation and to this day country is only heard in this household via headphones). 4 of those years were at Fitzroy Crossing, where if we were fortunate enough to have a musician at church on a Sunday, then everything took on a country feel!
I had a birthday recently and K indulged me with a ticket to the City Muster.
So on Saturday afternoon I jumped on a train to the Royal Agricultural Society Showground’s in Claremont (aka the Claremont showgrounds for locals), where it was a sunny 35 degrees C, shade was at a premium, and big hats, boots, RM Williams and Ute’s were de rigour.
The Line Up
Magnificent Seven
I got there too late to see this local cover band.
The McClymonts
I heard some as I queued to get in and as I wandered around looking for shade and having a look at the Beaut Ute competition entrants, not enough to pass any real comment, but sounded ok, they also came on later and provided BV for Lee Kernaghan.
Beccy Cole
Whilst I really enjoyed the true country feel of Beccy’s music I was really put off by her commentary which bordered on sleazy and suggestive. It didn’t need it. She has a great talent which was spoilt for me, she even made jokes about how people thought what I thought. The crowd in general seemed to enjoy her performance though. Musically quite good.
Troy Cassar-Daley
Billed as the gentleman of Australian Country Music, he truly set this standard with a high quality performance facing into a setting WA sun. He donned sunglasses (after apologising for having to do so) and said he hadn’t sweated like this in a long time, but still he managed a great performance.
Adam Brand
Perth boy Adam returned home to an eager crowd who enthusiastically encouraged him to return for an excellent encore set.
Lee Kernaghan
A true showman, a high quality energetic performance to end the night. His rendition of Great Balls of Fire was outstanding and a personal highlight for me. Also his ode to Slim Dusty was heart felt and all hats were off and lighters and mobile phones were swaying in the air, and I’m sure a few tears.
Of interest to Digital Church readers was Lee’s statement that “we don’t want you to be inhibited…get out your camcorders, tape recorders, cameras or anything with batteries and do what you like”. In this age of high level persistent DRM, it was a very refreshing perspective.
Wrap Up
Overall it was an excellent, well organised show which returned me to the feel of a small country town concert on the local oval.
It was interesting to note that at least 3 artists asked God to bless us all.
Also interesting is the iconic status of the late Slim Dusty.
I’m sure more thoughts will emerge from this event including an analysis of the PA quality on a windy Perth night over the coming weeks.
Digital Church has been a little quiet lately as my wife and I welcomed a beautiful little girl into the world at 9:45am on Saturday 25th November 2006.
For more info check out baby.blackcat.com.au
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