It’s week8 at camp! The last week is always exciting, and hard at the same time. Be praying for our staff as they are tired and have been working hard all summer. I am kind of ready for summer to be over so I can start working on some big long term projects instead of lots of little stuff. Here is a quick little picture tour of summer camp at NLR for those of you who have never come to visit.
Photo credit goes to Monica.
Recently I have started developing more of an interest in marketing. I think it is very interesting to try and understand how all the aspects of a business play into the success or failure of your product and your brand, and trying to understand how to leverage these things to your business advantage. In the end though I think it is very odd that I am interested in this kind of stuff because I tend to be kind of anti-media, anti-consumerism, and anti-stuff you don’t need. But at the same time I see a lot of power in the market place as a way to influence for good, and if you are going to use the economy we live in for good you have to understand it.
And in other news….we sold the Rodeo last night. I hope the new owners enjoy it!
I added email subscription to the blog. Just fill in your email address (the form is in the sidebar to the right. You may have to scroll down some). After completing the confirmation you will begin receiving a notification email whenever we make a new post to this blog. If you have any problems with the system (as in…it doesn’t work…) let us know.
Here is our very first newsletter (from a year ago…) if you want to download the pdf.
One of my good friends from college, Katy, got married this past weekend. It’s a beautiful thing to see a close friend marry a person that is so perfect for them. It was a great wedding, and I had a really great time visiting with old college friends.
Some highlights:
-dinner at the Melting Pot…
-a princess dress…
-a glowing bride…
-her perfect groom…
-fun riding around St. Louis in a limo…
-riding around on a carousel…
-arriving at Steak & Shake in the limo and dining on burgers, fries & shakes like we weren’t wearing wedding gowns and tuxes and bridesmaid dresses…but we were…and it was great.
-watching Brandy and Danielle FIGHT for the boquet…
I read a little passage in Relevant Magazine:
Your educated, your well-read, you’re postmodern – and you speak negatively of everything. Big shocker. Welcome to the elite everybody. There are literally dozens of reasons not to do any given thing. If you obsess hard enough, I’m quite certain you can devalue another’s career, the Church throughout history, fans of Michael W. Smith, the Bible, and your mother’s claim to have birthed you, but that doesn’t make anything you do productive. You have been placed on this planet to add something. Expend some energy on that. Yes, the world needs critics in order to expel as much hot air as the rest of us need to breathe, but a lifestyle of criticism will lead absolutely nowhere. If you disagree with the way something has been done in history, how about attempting to change a new way instead of knocking down those attempting the old? And here’s a buzzword for you: perspective. As in, yours isn’t the only one. Believe me, in its day Smitty’s “Secret Ambition” rocked the Casbah.
I so often find myself drifting into a critical mindset. I hope that I will be somebody who changes things, and that I will not be somebody who is critical and devaluing of people…from the waiter at the restaurant (no matter if they do a good job or a poor job), to the president of the world (whoever that is…) I hope I lift them up and am positive in their life, in public and in private. And I still like “Secret Ambition”.
I went to the ribbon cutting of Picture Me Studio today. Picture Me Studio is a new photography studio in Siloam Springs owned by some friends of ours. If you live in Siloam and have a chance you should check it out. The studio is next to Radio Shack, and is a part of Color Mate.
