July 2008 - People of Praise

Vine & Branches
July 2008
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THE PEOPLE OF PRAISE • “CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY.”
Remember the Tempest:
Trinity School Wins
Virginia Lacrosse Title
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By Bill Crimmins and Sean Connolly
Sudden Life
www.sportspageva.com, the premier site for high school athletes
Senior captain Luke Hlavin stick checks an opponent in the state championship
game against Blue Ridge.
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With just over four minutes left to
play in the semifinal of this year’s Division III lacrosse tournament, Scott
Niklason (northern Virginia) signaled
for a timeout. His Trinity School Tempest squad was down 8-5 to Seton
School—the defending state champs,
the tournament’s top seed and, more
to the point, the team that had blasted the Tempest out of last year’s
tournament.
“You guys are down by three
goals,” Scott intoned, staring into
the sweat-soaked, eyeblack-smeared
faces of his players. “You’ve been a
scoring machine before. You can be
one again.”
The Tempest responded, rising
up to score three times in less than
three minutes, sending the game into
sudden death overtime.
Lacrosse periods begin with a
faceoff: two players with long-handled sticks pointed toward the ground
stand opposite each other, waiting for a
whistle before scrambling for the ball.
When the whistle screamed to
start overtime play, Seton’s player
scooped up the ball out from under
John Mysliwiec’s nose, then headed
down the field on a fast break, looking to score. Sprinting after him, Mysliwiec drew close. He raised his stick
A Steep Climb to the Top
Of the 12 schools in Division III of the
Virginia Association of Independent
Schools, Trinity School at Meadow
View, with just over 100 students enrolled in high school, is easily the tiniest. Their schedule includes schools
with 15 times as many students,
schools with lacrosse traditions older
than TSMV itself.
The Meadow View program began humbly eight years ago, as an
after-school clinic. There were no
games, just skills training and conditioning led by Scott, a novice coach
who hadn’t even played the game.
(He was and still is a humane letters
teacher and the dean of boys.) His
son Brendan Niklason, a senior captain who played goalie for the team,
was a fifth-grader then and can remember suiting up for practice along
with other grammar school students
who eventually became Tempest
players.
Though the players were young
and inexperienced, the game was an
instant hit at Meadow View. Boys
were attracted to lacrosse’s challenges
and its hard-hitting aspects. Body
checking and stick checking (hitting
an opponent with your stick) are both
legal when they’re aimed at a ballcarrying player. Students honed their
skills by practicing with tennis balls
before school. They installed big bins
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for their sticks in the
school’s locker rooms
and met for pick-up
games on weekends.
Participation was
widespread. One year
nearly every boy in
the school played on
the team, and this
year, 37 of 57 boys
participated.
In the early years
the Tempest battled
local junior-varsity
squads and lost far
more games than they
won. Then, two years
ago, the coaching staff
decided to up the
ante and play tougher teams. During
that long, hard season, the Tempest
achieved a seemingly unimpressive
3-10 record, but they did so while taking on many larger Division I schools.
On the strength of their schedule,
Coach Niklason and his players felt
they should have been invited to play
in the Division III state tournament
that year, but the invitation never
came.
The team only grew hungrier,
practicing hard in the off-season.
They wore t-shirts with their new
motto, “We will not be denied,” and
they weren’t. After putting together
a 10-3 record, they received a tournament bid . . . only to lose in the semifinals to Seton.
The Last Battle
In 2008, the Tempest played 14
games on the road while posting an
11 and 4 record. After their comefrom-behind victory against Seton in
the state semis, their season came to a
close on a sunny, blustery spring day
in Charlottesville, Virginia. Their final
nemesis was the Barons of Blue Ridge
School—with about twice as many
students as Meadow View and a size
and weight advantage at many positions.
But the Tempest was ready.
They jumped out to an early 5-0 lead,
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and hammered it against his opponent’s stick, jarring the ball.
Mysliwiec scooped it up, then
hustled downfield, passing it off to a
teammate. A few passes later sophomore Michael Cassell caught it as
he cut toward Seton’s goal. He fired
off a slow-moving bounce shot that
hit ground just in front of the goal,
catching the eyes of fans and players alike, who watched awestruck as
it bounced in seeming slow motion
past the goalie and into the back of
the net.
The Trinity School lacrosse team
had won the biggest game in their
eight-year-history. They were headed
to the state championship game.
Top: Senior Thomas Daniels.
Above: Sophomore Michael Cassell
(left) body checks his opponent.
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Lacrosse Quick Facts:
Senior Justin Lokke (left) prepares for
a faceoff.
Senior goalie Brendan Niklason made
15 saves in the state championship
game, earning him the MVP award
for the state tournament.
though not without paying a price.
Early in the first quarter, a hard shot
hammered John Mysliwiec in the
head, and the Tempest’s face-off man
had to leave the field with a possible
concussion. Blue Ridge came fighting
back, cutting the lead to 5-3.
Play seesawed through the first
three quarters, and with eight minutes left to play the Tempest was
clinging to a two-goal, 11-9 lead.
A few minutes later, Brendan began moving away from the goal to
chase down a wide shot, but before
he could get to it, the shot ricocheted
off a Tempest defenseman into the
net, bringing the game to within one. With 53 seconds on the clock, Blue
Ridge had the ball and all the momentum. A Baron midfielder weaved
his way through the Tempest defense,
giving him a one-on-one showdown
with the goalie. He pulled back for a
shot, aiming just over Brendan’s head,
but Niklason deftly raised his stick
and deflected the ball wide.
Sideline
110 yards
35 yards
Wing Area
20 yards
Attack/Defensive Area
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Goal
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Penalty
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A Attackman
D Defenseman
G Goalie
SportSpectator.com
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M Midfielder
Endline
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Midfield Line
Attack/Defensive Area
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60 yards
Endline
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The game: Lacrosse is a fullcontact sport of Native American
origins, played with a baseballsized hard rubber ball and sticks
that range from 40 to 72 inches
in length. Teams attempt to score
goals by using their sticks to carry,
pass and, eventually, shoot the ball
into a six-foot-tall by six-foot-wide
goal, guarded by a goalie. On defense, teams can intercept passes,
and players can use their sticks
and their bodies to jostle the ball
from opposing players.
The field: Regulation size is 110
feet long by 60 feet wide.
Positions: Each team fields ten
players: three defensemen, three
midfielders, three attackmen and
one goalie. Defensemen and attackmen can only play in their respective halves of the field, while
midfielders can move anywhere on
the field.
The sticks: Lacrosse sticks involve
shafts of varying lengths and a
head that holds loose netting used
for scooping, carrying, passing and
shooting the ball. Attackmen use
sticks with shorter shafts (40’’) so
they can shoot and pass rapidly,
while defenders employ longer
shafts to extend their reach.
Background: Lacrosse is the oldest known North American sport.
It began as a game used to train
warriors and resolve conflicts.
Games sometimes lasted for several days and could involve as
many as 1,000 players per team on
fields ranging from one to 15 miles
long. In 1536, Jesuit martyr Jean de
Brebeuf was the first European to
document the game. French pioneers adopted it in the 19th century, followed by colleges and high
schools in Canada and the US. Today, Lacrosse is one of the fastestgrowing team sports in the US and
the fastest-growing sport in US
high schools.
Sources: US Lacrosse, Wikipedia
After a Tempest foul and a Blue
Ridge timeout, the Barons got to
bring the ball in for a final attack,
with just 13 seconds left. A Blue Ridge
player caught a pass just 18 yards
from the goal. He raised his stick to
shoot, but John Mysliwiec—back in
the game again, hacked at his opponent’s stick just as the ball was flying
out of it. The ball lost momentum and
it arced softly, and harmlessly, toward
the goal. Tempest defenseman John
Buonforte caught it and slung it toward midfield as the clock ticked 3, 2
and, finally, 1.
Helmets and sticks flew into the
air and the Tempest bench cleared as
the players and their coaches rushed
onto the field.
Champs
“Scott and the boys started with nothing and built Trinity into the best
Division III team in the state,” says
Meadow View head of school Andrew Zwerneman. “They pulled off a
remarkable feat.”
Indeed, a school with only 100
high-school students, whose lacrosse
program is less than a decade old, a
school whose coach teaches humanities courses and serves as the dean
of boys, a school where students do
particle physics homework after prac-
tice, a school with a tough and gritty
group of young men, juniors and seniors, some of whom have been playing for the Tempest since their grammar school days, these underdogs can
now call themselves the state champs.
Maybe St. Paul felt something
similar to this year’s lacrosse squad
when he wrote, “I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the
air. I pummel my body and subdue
it . . . so that I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
In other words, “We will not be
denied.” n
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Back Row: Assistant Coach Jason Parr, John Buonforte,
Assistant Coach John O’Beirne, Joe Ridenour, Daniel
Ballou, John Mysliwiec, Vincent McNichol, Chris Cornett, Robert Kress, Rafael Gil-Figueroa, Parke May,
Kevin Flannery, Justin Young, Brendan Niklason, John
Piescik, Andrew DeCelle, Cole Seiberlich, Andrew Herrera, Assistant Coach Paul Sjoberg, Head Coach Scott
Niklason.
Middle Row: Michael Willieme, Gjon Kadeli, Michael
Cassell, Nathaniel Hlavin, Josh Kelly, Thomas Daniels,
Michael Rooney, Justin Lokke, Peter Kadeli, Stephen
Quinn, Luke Hlavin.
Front Row: Stephen Lokke, Danny DelBianco, Jose GilFigueroa, Beau Lovdahl, Chris Wagner, David Magill,
Ben Redgrave, David Rice, Robert Forbes. (Not pictured:
Chris Walker.)
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5
COMMON LIFE SIGHTINGS
By Chris Meehan
Tony Fraga
Things are looking up for Dave.
His cancer has stopped spreading—
it’s in “holy abeyance,” Frank declares. Dave is walking with a cane
now and can drive the car.
“I’m in great shape for the shape
I’m in,” Dave says. “I owe it all to the
Lord and his provision.”
CAMPING TOGETHER
What’s a little fun in the sun (or, for
that matter, in the backwoods) without some brothers and sisters to share
it with?
The Mertz family knows the
answer.
For more than 10 years Ed and
Janice and a rotating cast of Servant
Branch families have enjoyed summer vacations together, venturing to
the Black Hills, Colorado Springs,
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and this
year to nearby Wisconsin. In June a
group of families camped near Appleton on Lake Winnebago, venturing
back into civilization to join brothers
and sisters at a branch barbecue.
They like to travel in a caravan
Dave and Kathy Temeles with their daughter Jessica (left)
HOLY ABEYANCE
It’s been a long journey for Dave Temeles, with deteriorating vertebrae,
diabetes, kidney cancer, plus the side
effects of aggressive radiation and
chemotherapy—four years of trials
for Dave and his wife Kathy.
“I got through them,” he says,
“with the Lord’s help and the tremendous support of the People of
Praise. It’s been amazing to see how
my family, my doctors, my head and
men’s group and the entire northern
Virginia branch rallied to meet my
every need.”
Dave points to a steady stream
of prayers, hugs, visits, cards and
encouraging words, as well as many
larger-than-life acts of service:
There were the branch’s days of
prayer for Dave, organized by his
long-time friend and head, Frank Bassett. “Pray for a miracle!,” Frank
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exhorted everyone.
There was the transportation battalion, five men who took turns, two
at a time, ferrying Dave and Kathy
to medical appointments while Dave
was confined to a wheelchair.
There was the renovation crew
organized by Dave Temeles, Jr.,
brothers who cleaned, repaired and
repainted the Temeleses’ split-level
home, readying it to be sold. Sisters in
the branch helped Kathy and daughter Melissa sort through 36 years of
attic accumulations, packing up the
important things while preparing everything else for a garage sale. Action
division members did landscaping
work, just like they’ve done every
year since Dave’s first surgery.
During the two-and-a-half-week
renovation period, Frank and Carolyn Bassett opened up the lower level
of their house to Dave and Kathy.
Carolyn fixed Dave’s favorite foods
for their nightly meals together, and
Dave, in spite of a loss of appetite,
began eating normally again. Frank
spent some time talking and praying
with Dave.
Servant Branch members enjoyed a
hike in High Cliff State Park southeast of Appleton in June.
Photo courtesy of Geriann Raway
Editor’s note: In this article, we depart
from our usual Holy Spirit sightings to
bring you some interesting examples of
common life from around the community.
of cars, campers and motor homes,
pausing for common meals along
the way. “On one trip it was like a
Chinese fire drill at every rest stop.
We’d pull up with a car full of girls
but drive off with a car full of boys,”
Monica Laust remembers.
Daily activities are structured
loosely. One day this year, the group
split into thirds, with one group
touring Green Bay’s Lambeau Field
(home of the Packers football team),
another riding bikes and a remnant
relaxing back at camp.
The families share cooking duties and other chores, and Monica
says that distributing the chores adds
up to less work than a normal family
campout.
“It’s a golden opportunity to escape from the busyness of daily life
and reconnect with good friends,”
adds Ed.
“I have many fond memories of
hanging around with other kids on
those trips,” notes 18-year-old camping veteran Nick Raway. “Especially
the time we camped in the Porcupine
Mountains and played on the large
rocks on the shore of Lake Superior.
I also enjoy my friends’ parents. Mr.
Laust has a great sense of humor and
Mr. Mertz knows a lot of interesting
facts and has stories to share when
we visit historical sites—things the
tour guides don’t normally tell you.”
Monica looks back fondly at the
group’s trip to Colorado Springs.
“Three families stayed in John and
Katherine Brophy’s empty house
while they were away on vacation.
Chris Raway took a picture of our
pile of 50 pairs of boots, sandals and
shoes by the front door!”
“The Raway family is spoiled
by the richness of community vacations,” says Geriann Raway. “We
really would find it hard to do vacation any other way.”
THE VILLAGE
Tracy Scriba
Above: When the Harrises’ washing machine broke, Mary Beth and her daughter
Claire carried their wash to Lisa Tychsen’s
nearby townhouse in the village. Below:
Evening prayer in the village. From left:
Genevieve Kane, Julia Fraga, Maria Kane,
Eileen Pizer, Mary Beth Harris, Matt Harris, Mae Cheung, Lisa Tychsen.
Tracy Scriba
It’s becoming a familiar site in the
northern Virginia neighborhood of
Trail Run: people moving back and
forth between townhomes, their arms
full of soup, turkeys, laundry, coolers,
tables and even babies. Branch members have lived in the neighborhood’s
townhomes and houses for years,
but about a year ago they decided to
pray, eat and celebrate together more,
and to invite their neighbors to come
along.
They began with meals together
and have added morning prayer
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Jim Hinkle
on Thursdays, evening prayer on
Sundays, as well as picnics and barbeques that often draw 20-30 guests.
But, as Tony Fraga points out,
life in “the village” (as residents call
this micro-community effort), means
more than just scheduled activities
and big events. “This is about sharing the nitty-gritty parts of life—like
mopping up flooded basements, or
sharing the cost of a big grill. One
evening, one of the single women arrived home late from work not having eaten. She stopped by our townhouse to say hello, and my wife Nadia fixed her something to eat while
they both shared about their days.”
Villagers have had neighbors
join them for prayer and meals, and
they’ve prayed over sick neighbors
with back pain, and even a brain tumor. Neighbors have responded by
coming to branch men’s and women’s
nights and other village gatherings.
“Planning things together was
not always easy in the beginning. It
Branch members from Biloxi, Mobile and New Orleans gather at the home of
Walter and Julia Drey in Mobile.
Jim Hinkle
required a lot of conversation and a
lot of work,” says Nadia. “But now
our events are easier to organize. Everyone chips in and we’re able to pull
things off spontaneously, whether it’s
an impromptu Lord’s Day meal or a
picnic in the park.”
GULF COAST
GATHERINGS
From left: Loyd and Regina Fortenberry (Biloxi), Geraldine Cameron (Biloxi),
Mary Hinkle (Biloxi) and Diane Evans (New Orleans) chat and eat at a
gathering in Mobile.
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Common life can happen within
branches or between branches. After
Hurricane Katrina, the community’s
board of governors asked the Biloxi,
Mobile and New Orleans branches to
work at putting more of their branch
life in common. (Katrina had a big
impact on the Biloxi branch, where
it reduced numbers and scattered
members.)
Leaders from all three branches
decided to designate weekends for
visiting one another. Biloxi and Mo-
ENTERTAINING
NEIGHBORS
Keith and Stephanie Justen had three
unexpected guests at their Indianstyle Lord’s Day meal in North Portland this May—and that was on top
of 11 expected dinner guests and
three more coming for dessert.
“We began the evening with
hors d’oeuvres in our driveway, so
we could interact with anybody who
happened to pass by our house,”
Keith explains. “Because of our citybuilding efforts, we want the People
of Praise to be very visible in our
neighborhood.”
Soon after the hors d’oeuvres
started, a young couple walked by
pushing a stroller. Keith struck up a
conversation, and 15 minutes later he
gave the couple some water and invited them to stay for the Lord’s Day
meal. The couple said they were planning to go home and make pizza—
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Justen
L to R, Keith Justen, Abigail Justen, Hannah Caneff, Bridget, Stephanie, Peter,
Caleigh Justen.
then they stayed talking for 30 more
minutes.
“By then it was 7:30 p.m. and
dinner was waiting. Even our dessert
guests had arrived,” Keith says. “So
we invited them one more time to
dinner. We explained that we would
be singing songs and sharing Lord’s
Day prayers before the meal.”
The couple talked it over and
came. He is a nonpracticing Jew. She
is agnostic.
“We started our Lord’s Day by
singing “This Is the Day” because
we thought it would be easy for the
couple to learn. When it came time to
share our blessings they didn’t miss
a beat and seemed very comfortable
with all that was happening.”
At the end of the evening all the
guests said their goodbyes. “Steph
and I felt like we had the beginnings
of a friendship with these neighbors,”
Keith says.
That Monday, the Justens called
and invited the couple to a Lord’s Day
meal the next week. “They agreed, and
again, we shared songs, food, prayers
and blessings and had a wonderful
time.” Now the Justens are waiting to
work out a time when they can go over
to the couple’s house for a meal.
Mike Stapp
bile branch members have attended
New Orleans branch meetings, and
in December a dozen New Orleans
branch members and a Mobile couple
traveled to Mississippi for a Lord’s
Day meal at Loyd and Regina Fortenberry’s home. (It’s about 150 miles
from Mobile to New Orleans, and 90
miles from Biloxi to New Orleans.)
This June, Biloxi branch members and
about 60 people from New Orleans
met at the Dreys’ home on Dog River
(near Mobile Bay) for an afternoon
picnic and boat rides.
“The hour drive to New Orleans
is nothing compared to the benefits
of getting together with other branches,” says Mary Mozingo (Biloxi).
“Those visits bring us hope.”
“The Lord is bringing good out
of all this,” adds Mike Coney, New
Orleans principal branch coordinator. “Everyone agrees the extra effort
to get together is worth it. Katrina
didn’t have the last word at all!”
Stephanie and Abigail Justen
“I am not sure where this friendship may go or what the Lord may
be doing,” Keith says, but the People
of Praise is a little better known
among the Justens’ North Portland
neighbors. n
9
Simple Technologies for Sharing Lives
Tess (front), Vivian and Emma Barrett (South Bend) use Skype, a free video conferencing service, to connect with
their grandparents Mike and Linda Coney in the New Orleans branch.
By V&B Staff Writers
T
hese days every newspaper
has its technology section, and
the release of a new cell phone
can come with messianic overtones—
as in, June, 2007, when some commentators heralded Apple’s iPhone
as “the Jesus phone.” The age of cell
phones, laptops, blogs, Facebook,
GPS maps in cars, the age of gadgets
and the Internet, is both here and
here to stay.
But this technological age doesn’t
have to be complicated. In this article,
we take a look at three simple technologies that community members
are using to share their lives with
friends, family members and brothers
and sisters in many different places.
Video
Conferencing
Two Christmases ago, Mike and
Linda Coney (New Orleans) decided
they wanted to see their grandchildren more often. So they gave their
grandchildren’s families a present—
web cameras.
When South Bend sisters Emma,
Vivian and Tess Barrett called Linda
in New Orleans on a recent Sunday
evening, the three little girls didn’t
have to hand a phone back and forth.
All three of them could cheerfully
chime in together, cuddled in front
of their home computer and web
cam. What’s more, they could grin
and wave and chuckle at Linda,
who could see all their smiles and
squirms on her computer monitor in
New Orleans.
Web cameras are small machines
about the width of a hand. They
perch on top of a computer monitor,
where they can spot the face of the
person (or persons) seated in front
of them. A web cam works together
with a broadband Internet connection
and a free software program called
Skype to transmit and receive sounds
and video images.
Linda isn’t a computer geek, but
she says Skype and her web cam
were “fairly easy” to set up. The Co-
Gretchen Rolland
neys use them regularly to watch
little ones grow up a thousand miles
away—or even half a world away.
When Linda and her daughter Megan Edwards traveled to Guatemala
to bring home Megan’s adopted son,
Joseph, they used a web cam and a
laptop to show Joseph to his new Dad,
David, who was back home in the US.
Internet video conferencing can
have other applications, as Tim Wagner (Corvallis) has discovered. “My
younger son is a musician and was
recently replacing the pick-up heads
on his bass guitar. He called me with
questions about how to interpret the
wiring instructions.” When it became
clear that a phone call wasn’t sufficient to communicate all the details,
Tim’s son hung a web cam from a
light fixture and then used Skype to
call Dad. “He laid out everything on
his floor, showed me what he was
doing, and even held up the instructions so I could read them,” Tim
says. “After seeing all of that, we
were able to figure out how to wire
the pick-ups correctly.”
Tim points out that Skype can
also be used for plain old longdistance phone calls without the video, including calls overseas. He uses
the service to connect with Kevin
Ranaghan in South Bend and with his
son and daughter-in-law who often
travel to Japan.
Calls from one computer to another are free, regardless of whether
the call is to Portland or Poland.
Skype can connect to standard landline and cell phone numbers for a fee.
Adds Tim, “For phone calls
through Skype, I use a wireless headset, which I really like, because I can
walk around the house or sit outside, and still have my hands free to
take notes.”
Photo Sharing
If a picture is worth a thousand
words, than there’s a few heavy volumes worth of information about life
in the community available on photosharing web sites.
Internet sites like Flickr.com and
Picasa.com allow users to upload
shots to personal galleries. These galleries can be kept private or shared
with a few select friends and family
members, or thrown open for anyone
to see. As with blogs, users can link
to their friends’ galleries and post
comments on photos. Already there’s
a thriving network of more than 80
community members who post and
view photos on Flickr, link to one another’s pages and write comments on
one another’s photos.
Cathy Grill posts pictures of
flowers, landscapes and the activities of her missionary household in
Allendale (www.flickr.com/photos/
cathygrill). “Two years ago some of
us started talking about ways we
could be present to community members in other branches,” she explains.
“We asked ourselves how we could
keep in contact and share what’s going on. How could we continue to
build community even when we’re
not physically together? I’m not a
writer, but I am a photographer.
That’s why I chose a Flickr account as
opposed to a blog.”
A basic Flickr account is free,
though it costs $25 a year to post a
high volume of photos. Beth Couch
(South Bend) says that she didn’t
have any trouble getting one started.
“Just last week I started putting my
pictures up on Flickr,” she says. “It
was intimidating for me to think
about posting pictures. But it really
isn’t as nerve-wracking or scary as I
was making it out to be in my head. It
isn’t hard.”
Beth decided to post her own
photos after she realized how much
she was benefiting from the snapshots posted by other community
members. “I enjoyed seeing what the
Lord was doing with so many other
people. I see pictures of people in
Cathy Grill (Allendale) posted these
photos of herself and Allendale
neighbor children on her Flickr page,
www.flickr.com/photos/cathygrill.
For a good list of community members with Flickr accounts,
check out Mary Gaffney’s site at www.flickr.com/photos/mcgaffney.
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Above: Collin Anderson (Servant Branch) took this picture of a beach-goer leaping over
a sand dune. It’s on his Flickr page, www.flickr.com/photos/collinanderson.
Right: This photo of Eli Shreves with sisters, Naomi (carrying a plate) and Sophia can be
found on Mike Stapp’s Flickr page, www.flickr.com/photos/stapp.
Minnesota, and it really makes the
world a lot smaller and a lot more
familiar.” Beth’s pictures include
shots of home renovation work, community brothers and sisters who live
nearby, and family shots (www.flickr.
com/photos/elizabethcouch).
Collin Anderson (Servant Branch)
has posted more than 5,700 photos on
Flickr, but he doesn’t pride himself on
that large number, but on the speed
with which he posts photos. He can
have photos on the Internet in under
a minute, first sliding a memory card
out of his camera and directly into
his computer, then, with two clicks of
his mouse, he launches a computer
program that automatically posts his
most recent photos.
Collin’s site has become a goto spot for folks looking for up-tothe-hour reports on happenings in
Dinkytown, where Collin lives during the school year, or on happenings wherever else he happens to be
traveling (www.flickr.com/photos/
collinanderson). “A friend told me,
‘Collin, when I look at your Flickr
photos, I know I’m looking at what
you’re doing now, not what you were
doing!’”
“I try to put my pictures up as
fast as I can because that’s what I
hope other people will do,” Collin
says of his speedy posting.
Blogging
This April, Nick and Polly Jayjack
(northern Virginia) joined the ranks
of 50 or so People of Praise members
who maintain blogs. A blog is a personal web site comprised of entries
called “posts.” Posts are normally
displayed in chronological order—the
most recent entry appears at the top
of the screen. Blogs can be topical,
covering sports, politics or technology, or they can be personal, keeping
friends updated about a new baby,
a trip to Timbuktu or birdwatching
finds. Besides written text, blogs can
include photos, videos and links to
other blogs and web sites. Blogs are
also interactive; readers add their
own comments to the posts. (Think of
these comments as brief letters to the
editor.)
The Jayjack’s blog (http://
jayjackadoption.wordpress.com) tells
the story of their six-week-long trip to
the Ukraine to adopt three children.
Nick and Polly posted news updates
every few days, detailing their arrival
in Kiev, where they stayed with Orest
and Susan Holovaty, and their travels
to an orphanage in Cherkassy, where
they first met Anna, Yaroslav and
Stanislav (who are now Anna, Warren
and Corey Jayjack.)
They also posted prayer requests.
For example, on May 28 they wrote
Gina Massa (South Bend) posted this
shot of colored glass blown by artists in Dale Chihuly’s studio on Flickr,
www.flickr.com/photos/ginaemassa.
Drew (left) and Sam Reinhardt can
be seen on their father Jim’s (Servant
Branch) Flickr page, www.flickr.
com/photos/jwreinhardt.
13
that they needed help getting approval from US Citizenship and Immigration Services to bring their children
home. A few hours later Bob Magill
and Lee Smith (northern Virginia) noticed the post, and added comments
offering to make some phone calls to
help out. The calls did help hasten
the approval process, something that
might not have happened without the
blog.
Here are more highlights from
the People of Praise blogosphere:
When 16-year-old Hannah Roth,
the daughter of Dave and Lisa Roth
(Indianapolis), was hospitalized with
a liver tumor, household member
Jenny Sergio started a blog (www.
caringbridge.org/visit/hannahroth)
to keep Hannah’s classmates, relatives and friends updated on her condition. The blog meant that the Roths
didn’t have to talk to each of these
folks individually . . . which was a big
help since Hannah’s blog racked up
58,000 visits.
Nick Holovaty (Indianapolis)
keeps a photo blog (http://missiossippi.blogspot.com), with shots of
funny road signs, gorgeous landscapes and memorable faces from his
travels among People of Praise mission sites. He takes all these shots using the camera on his cell phone and
then uses his phone to post the photos directly to his blog.
Dan Ficker (Servant Branch)
posts reviews of new gadgets (sports
watches, cell phones), movies (Stardust, Ratatouille) and happenings in
the Twin Cities on his blog (www.
da-man.com/blog).
Molly Seale blogs about her life
with the Indianapolis missionaries
(http://sealeofred.blogspot.com).
Last March, she asked her readers to
identify themselves by leaving a comment on one of her posts. Fifty-two
people responded, representing five
states and two countries. “It’s great
to have a window into the life of the
People of Praise in Indianapolis,”
wrote Pat Clark in Portland.
Katy Connor (South Bend) has an
eclectic blog (http://larrykatyconnor.
blogspot.com) with family updates,
prayer requests, Green Bay Packers news and other sports coverage,
even a video of a skit from this year’s
South Bend branch summer camp.
Bill and Carolyn Reinhardt (New
Orleans) have a blog (http://bill
reinhardt.blogspot.com) with lots of
family photos and videos. Less than
24 hours after the birth of their son
Peter William this June, they posted a
picture of him on their blog, and they
have posted many more photos since.
These are just a smattering of the
online musings of People of Praise
members. A full list of community member blogs can be found at
http://9of.us/bloglist, or go to www.
google.com and search for People of
Praise blogs. n
For a list of more than 50 blogs maintained by community members,
check out http://9of.us/bloglist.
So How Do I Get Started?
Video Conferencing
Bill Reinhardt (New Orleans) has graciously agreed to
answer readers’ questions about getting going with
video conferencing. He can be reached by e-mail at
billreinhardt@gmail.com.
Before you e-mail, you’ll need some basic equipment:
1. A web camera
Basic web cams for PCs cost between $30 to $75 and can
be purchased at consumer electronics stores or on web
sites like Amazon.com. Bill recommends the Logitech
Quickcam Communicator web cam for use with desktop
computers. Most new Mac computers already include a
web cam.
2. Skype
Skype is available as a free download at www.skype.com.
3. A high-speed Internet connection
14
Blogging
Justin Walters (South Bend) is happy to take
questions from readers interested in starting
blogs. He can be reached at justinpw@gmail.com.
There are also a number of free services to
help novice bloggers get started. Check out www.
wordpress.com or www.blogger.com for details.
Photo Sharing
Feel free to contact Patricia Brewer with your questions
about photo sharing. Her e-mail address is pbrewer@
peopleofpraise.org.
Of course, you’ll need a digital camera or you’ll
need to digitize photos taken with an analog camera.
(Most photo processing stores offer this service.) Then
you’ll need an account with a photo-sharing site like
www.flickr.com or www.picasa.com. Happy posting!
LifeNotes
The LifeNotes page in V&B is the
place to spread the word about key
events and milestones, new babies,
adoptions, college graduations,
awards (academic or work-related),
major promotions, accomplishments
(sports, professional, hobby), retirement or job changes. Send items to
Tom Noe at veritas@trinityschools.
org.
When in doubt, send it in!
n Congratulations to Christin Rose
(South Bend), who made her final
commitment to the Sisterhood on
February 10, 2008.
Nick and Polly Jayjack with Anna,
Warren (middle) and Corey. The Jayjacks tell the story of their children’s
recent adoption from the Ukraine on
their blog, http://jayjackadoption.
wordpress.com.
n Congratulations to Jim and Pat
Feehly (Osceola, IN), who celebrated
50 years of marriage on July 5.
n Congratulations to Whit Au (Kailua, HI), who has been chosen as president-elect of the Acoustical Society
of America.
n Bill and Carolyn Reinhardt
(Metairie, LA) are pleased to announce the Lord’s gift of Peter William on June 29.
n Dan and Beth Kabele (Portland)
are spreading the news of the birth of
Benjamin Joel on May 25.
People of Praise Vine & Branches is published monthly by the People of
Praise community for its members. Reprint permission must be obtained
before use. Please contact Sean Connolly, 107 S. Greenlawn, South Bend,
IN 46617; e-mail thevine@peopleofpraise.org or phone 574-234-5088 or fax
574-236-6633.
For subscription information or to purchase additional copies, please contact Gretchen Rolland at grolland@peopleofpraise.org.
All contents © 2008 People of Praise.
Editor: Sean Connolly
Copy Editor: Tom Noe
Business Manager: Gretchen Rolland
Design & Layout: Jennifer Kenning, Elizabeth Loughran, Gretchen Rolland
Lead Reporter: Chris Meehan
Reporting Staff: Catherine Bulger, Bill Crimmins, Claire Holovaty, Susan
Holovaty, Debbie Mixell, Gene Stowe
Front cover photo: John Mysliwiec, photographed by Patricia Brewer.
Back cover photo: Mary Gaffney
n Zig and Gale Mazanowski have
been assigned from the branch in Indianapolis to the branch in Tampa,
effective the first week of August.
Executive Office Notes:
At an elective assembly on May 13,
2008, Charlie Fraga, Joel Kibler, Kerry
Koller and Kevin Ranaghan were
elected to six-year terms on the board
of governors of the People of Praise.
The members whose terms were
expiring were Charlie Fraga, Kerry
Koller, Phil Monaco, Kevin Ranaghan
and Mike Zusi, and we are all thankful to these brothers for their service
on our behalf. The other members
of the current board are Craig Lent
(chair, overall coordinator), Mike Coney, Rich Preuss, Hugh Springer, Sr.,
and Ralph Whittenburg.
New Orleans:
Nick Chetta has been appointed to a
third three-year term as area coordinator, effective September 13, 2008.
Nick has also been granted tenure as
a coordinator.
Northern Virginia:
Lou Gionfriddo has been elected to a
third three-year term as area coordinator, effective June 16, 2008. Lou has
also been granted tenure as a coordinator.
Servant Branch:
Dan and Nancy Peterson were released from the covenant of the People of Praise on June 18, 2008.
Janet Kroll Indrehus was released
from the covenant of the People of
Praise on June 30, 2008.
South Bend:
Rich and Missy DeClerq were released from the covenant of the People of Praise on July 14, 2008.
Tampa:
Elizabeth Brookman was released
from the covenant of the People of
Praise on July 8, 2008.
15
“ Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to
such as these” (Mt. 19:14).
The People of Praise, Inc.
107 South Greenlawn
South Bend, IN 46617