“The RoseBouquet”

Last Wednesday it looked like my major mission supporter had failed me, but Thursday morning they sent a check for both March and April. Praise God! (I think friends were praying for me!)

Then Thursday evening I drove out to the country home of new friends, Art and Rosella Willock. He is the new director of Expanding Youth Ministries International, and I’ve taken their website on as a paying client. (http://eymi.net) I’ve got their old site transferred to my hosting service, and now need to develop it. We needed to talk about some things, which would work best if I could show Art on his computer.

He is a fast talker and a prolific writer too, so we’ve hit it off quite well. He’s already given me one old computer and a couple of printers for my business, but Thursday night he also gave me an older laptop that he has not used much, except for two trips. It comes complete with a fancy carrying case with all kinds of extra pockets. In return I will help him get his articles published online and paying him some income. Since we’re both very busy we’ll fit this in gradually over a long term.

Before I left he had me drive up to their on-farm gas tank and he filled up my car with gasoline! Isn’t that terrific?

Very few of my friends really understand what I’m going through with starting up a business, but this couple were sympathetic and prayed with me. I tell you, I came away greatly encouraged.

So now the laptop saga. I took it to the office on Friday and tried to install my favourite operating system over the old Windows 98. (Remember, I’m a Linux fan). It didn’t work. I got a message saying that the cpu was too old for that kernel. I tried another and another, and each time got this message. Hmm….! Well, I took it home planning to try some other systems on the weekend.

I tried some more on Saturday evening. Even FreeBSD balked. So I tried the Debian netinstall disk. That needed some info from me, but then it was off and running, only it goes online to fetch files so I had to disconnect my desktop and let the line go to the laptop. When I got a message that it was going to take another 5 - 6 hours, I went to bed.

Sunday morning I discovered that it was 95% done, and then stalled at the bootloader. I gave it some answers, but when it was done, I couldn’t get into the system. In the evening I did more online research and learned that there are some wonderful systems out there for the older computer. (Linux comes in over 400 flavours!) So I picked a few and started downloading. Fortunately I have high-speed here at home as well as at the office, so this is not a problem, but most of these systems take hours to download, then I have to burn them to a CD as iso images. One for each system. This generally takes only minutes.

I now have three or four options which I hope to start trying out today yet. With patience and perseverance I expect to get a good office laptop out of this. In its case it is too heavy to carry like a purse when walking, but I’ll drive it over. It should mean that I can work at either location with ease.

Yesterday I took the morning off for a prayer retreat, and reviewed all aspects of my business plan with the Lord, with an open mind. In the end I saw that it really is a good idea. It will succeed. I was reminded how last year the finding a new home in the city looked like such a huge problem, and the delays were frustrating, but by holding on from March 19 to June 1, I was a home-owner. By the end of July I had finished cleaning up Dad’s house. Now, in a few weeks I expect to have all my quotes in and sent to the RRAP inspector. Then this house will see some major repairs - at government expense!

Although I could willingly step back and just work at home and squeeze more and more clients and websites into my life here, I realize that in the long run, I still do need to teach others what I know, and that God will bring it to pass. He seems to like me living on the edge of fresh challenges. Always learning and growing. To prove I believe He will bring in the right students, I’m going to do all I can from my end.

I’ve rearranged my schedule a bit to get a better grip on the most important stuff, (like I’m clearing three mornings a week to work on the SBI site. That will pay the office rent soon!) but I am confident that the Lord will provide those first four students or interns. Once they are caught up in the course I have planned, their word of mouth is going to get others lining up for when the next course starts.

Life is good when you know you are on the right track. But there’s always a faith factor, isn’t there?