Thank you for all your prayers & emails and kind words regarding the passing of my computer. Shortly after posting that, JJ, who oversees the technical/media stuff at Lake Pointe offers me his Dell laptop. A couple hours later, Los instant messages me and offers to let me borrow his 17″ Powerbook. And a few hours after that, my old boss & friend from when I lived in Dallas five years ago sends me a message on MySpace and says if nothing works out, he’ll let me borrow his Powerbook G3. Next, Rich writes a post, pimping my need to his audience.

So, needless to say - God has provided more than enough to get me through the trip! And maybe beyond. Thank you for your generosity & trust. Thank all of you for your prayers.

I’m still not giving up hope on Steve Jobs & the MacBook (hey, a girl can dream) as a permanent solution, but I have been blessed, and humbled beyond words. I am so glad I can share with you all what God has done on this crazy day!! Yay, God!

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That’s right. He is officially deceased. Hard drive is safe. The power board went out, according to Shane, who spent his morning disecting it piece by piece. A new powerboard? A whopping $1000.

So - the positive is I have less to pack for Scotland. The negative? The fact I can’t design, write, or do any of Mosaic Edinburgh’s communication while we are in Scotland.

I am just going to have faith that Steve Jobs or one of his croneys, (heck, I’d even settle for Bill Gates this time, although it was his computer that is causing this mess…) will read my blog, and send me a new MacBook. Or at least let me borrow one for September.

Prayers, greatly appreciated. And I know it’s lame to ask you to repost this, when there are so many other crisises going on in the world, but if you wouldn’t mind reposting this, well, you just never know.

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Not counting today, we leave in three days. I’ve decided that, although I will be using this blog to update photos & videos and give brief summaries, I’ll be keeping a separate detail journal on a different blog. That way you can choose how much of our trip you want to experience with us - just the pictures, or if you want to read how God is working each and every day in our lives!

I’ve already started writing on the other journal, just to record some pre-trip lessons we are learning. So, follow me over to Anne’s Scottish Musings (http://edijournal.wordpress.com/). After this post makes its way off my page, you can access it by clicking the icon on the left.

Thanks for your computer prayers. I still don’t know if it will be working by the time we leave, but I am leaning towards no. So, if any of you out there have a laptop I can borrow…

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I know where mine’s going. Any computer that decides to end its life five days before a missions trip where it will be heavily used is not going to a place filled with angels and harps.

That’s right, folks. My computer has died.

It had pulled through three comas in the last six months, but whatever sleep it fell into tonight, I don’t think it will recover.

There are two really bad things that happen because of this. One - I had all my freelance work on it. One site I was working on, I didn’t have access to upload, so I doubt I’ll be able to get them to my client before we leave. And two, I was going to be working on web stuff for James while we were in Scotland as part of our trip.

I tell you these things for this reason alone:

Please pray.

Pray that our wonderful IT director Shane will somehow be able to revive its soul. And if not, please pray my clients will be graceful when I tell them it may be another month. And please pray that somehow this will get resolved. We don’t have the money to fork out for a new computer, and finding one with all the software I need preloaded is near impossible.

I am really looking forward to see how God’s going to work in this one…

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One of the most frequent complaints I hear about some churches is how they’re always asking for money. Teaching about money and what the Bible says is important, and there is definitely room for some churches to do more of that. But you also have your extremeists who are all about money and how they need more…and more.

I’ve been part of three different churches who collect offerings in three different ways. One, we would take our offerings to the front during the service. Another, boxes were located by all the exits so you could drop it off whenever, but mainly as you entered or exited. And lastly, the traditional passing the plate.

There were benefits of each one. The first church was a small church and they were full of faithful givers. For the size of the church and the demographic, how far their money went didn’t make logical sense. The second church, it was easy to see that they cared about not being all about money. The third (and my current church), honestly, at first it was weird for me to get back into passing a plate, but the more and more it happens, the more and more I see it as an expression of worship and setting an example of how we do worship through our finances.

So, what is it for you? Do you pass a plate? Drop it off? Bring it up to the front?

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I am usually a big opponent of tagging people. However, when someone as cool as Mark Waltz tags you, you can’t help but to oblige.

First, let’s answer one question. Why is Mark Waltz cool? Mark is a pastor at Granger Community Church, and he and I have occasionally kept in touch over the last year and a half or so, after I attended one of their workshops last May. Although I’ve never met the guy face to face, one can tell he’s an authentic guy. He says people matter - and he means it. I love hearing about how his family’s doing…and those are the people who matter most.

On to the questions…

* One book that changed your life: The Barbarian Way - Erwin McManus. I realized I am, in fact, crazy. But that it’s okay. In fact, if you’re not…something might be wrong.

* One book that you’ve read more than once: In Cold Blood - Truman Capote. My senior-year English teacher Mr. Bennett had a theory that Truman Capote wrote To Kill a Mockingbird instead of Harper Lee. I thought Mr. Bennett was hot, so I wanted to impress him with my Truman Capote knowledge. I ended up liking Truman far more than Mr. Bennett, yet I still agree with his theory on TKAM. Next time you see the movie Capote, keep this theory in mind as you watch Truman & Harper interact. The people who put this movie together definitely think Capote wrote TKAM too.

* One book that you’d want on a desert island: Survive on a Desert Island - Claire Llewellyn.

* One book that made you laugh: Are You there God? It’s Me, Margaret - Judy Blume. Yes, it was a long time ago. Maybe I need to read more funny books.

* One book that made you cry: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. I still have my copy I bought 16 years ago (and it looks like the one I linked).

* One book that you wish had been written: How to be a Preacher’s Kid and NOT develop a complex about the Church

* One book you wish had never been written: The Harry Potter books…I say this not because I think they’re full of witchcraft & evil, but because my husband has bought them, and they cost so dang much. When we’re in Scotland, we’re actually going to visit the West Highland Line, which is the train station they used in the movies.

* One book you are currently reading: Cost of Discipleship - Deitrich Bonhoeffer. I’ve been reading this since 1999. It’s so intense it has seriously taken me that long.

* One book you’ve been meaning to read: Revolution - George Barna. I’ve had about 20 people say I need to read it…but I have a rule about reading books…if it’s a trendy book, I’ll wait until it’s untrendy to read it.

Now, in keeping with the rules of tagging, I am now supposed to tag people. But you all know me. I hate rules. So, instead of tagging five people - I tag YOU. Here’s the tradeoff - you don’t have to post it on your blog, but instead, I’d love to see your book list in my comments. That way, a little bit of cyberspace is saved and respected! I know I’m not as cool as Mark, so I don’t think I could legitimately tag anyone.

Happy Tuesday.

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