I Have a New Web Site

I would like to let everyone know that I will be using a different web site to communicate with everyone. I would also like to invite you all to visit the site and take a couple minutes to get aquainted with it. The menu at the top will give you a very quick and complete view of what I have out there.

http://greg.kedrovsky.com/

Reasons for the Change

I think all of you know that my ministry here in Costa Rica is carried out in Spanish, and therefore I have maintained a separate web site dedicated to our Spanish ministry. I used this site (greg-and-sue.com) to basically keep folks at home informed about the ministry.

This year I am planning on teaching a little bit in English and that has presented a unique opportunity to go ahead and combine the two web sites into one. You’ll see on the new site that there is a fairly large section dedicated to the materials and teaching we have available in Spanish. The English section is what I plan on building a bit this year. There is also a News section that I’ll use to keep everyone up-to-date on ministry events and such. The Blog section is basically just an “informational dumping ground” for me.

So, the new site is an attempt to combine all my communication needs into one site (that way I only have to maintain the one, rather than two or three or four).

Subscribing to the New Site

Many of you receive daily notices of new articles that I post on this web site. You can still do that on the new site, and actually I hope you will so that we can keep in contact. When you visit the home page of the new site, you’ll see about midway down, in the sidebar on the right, a number of links to “RSS Feeds” and “E-Mail Subscriptions.” Since I have almost 500 people who subscribe to my Spanish web site, I set up a separate feed for only Spanish articles (that way they can continue to get the same information through the new site that they are getting now through the Spanish site). For everyone else, I have a normal site feed that will give you updates of all articles posted.

If that just confused you… :-) …here is the link to subscribe via e-mail and continue to receive a quick note when something new is posted:

Subscribe to the new site via e-mail

I do want to give one small “word of warning”: There will be a bit more activity on the new site. The only option I have right now for e-mail notifications is a daily e-mail. If getting an e-mail notification several times a week is going to bother you, please consider subscribing via RSS using a feed reader, or simply check in every now and then to see if there are new articles on the web site.

Comments on Articles

Another way I hope to keep in contact with all of you is through the “comments” section at the bottom of each article on the new site. That will be a great way to have quick “conversations” about the topic of the article in question.

I’m Still Working on It

The new web site presents a lot of new options for communication (lots of bells and whistles), so that means that I’ll be “tweaking it” for a little while to get it to run like I want it to. For most part, this site and our Spanish site are now duplicated on the new one (so the standard communication we have now will continue). The stuff I’ll be working on in the days to come will be new things to add a little benefit here and there.

Thank you all very much for your continued friendship, prayer, and support!

~Greg

I Have a New Web Site

I would like to let everyone know that from now on I will be using a different web site to communicate with everyone. I would also like to invite you all to visit the site and take a couple minutes to get aquainted with it. The menu at the top will give you a very quick and complete view of what I have out there.

http://greg.kedrovsky.com/

Reasons for the Change

I think all of you know that my ministry here in Costa Rica is carried out in Spanish, and therefore I have maintained a separate web site dedicated to our Spanish ministry. I used this site (greg-and-sue.com) to basically keep folks at home informed about the ministry.

This year I am planning on teaching a little bit in English and that has presented a unique opportunity to go ahead and combine the two web sites into one. You’ll see on the new site that there is a fairly large section dedicated to the materials and teaching we have available in Spanish. The English section is what I plan on building a bit this year. There is also a News section that I’ll use to keep everyone up-to-date on ministry events and such. The Blog section is basically just an “informational dumping ground” for me.

So, the new site is an attempt to combine all my communication needs into one site (that way I only have to maintain the one, rather than two or three or four).

Subscribing to the New Site

Many of you receive daily notices of new articles that I post on this web site. You can still do that on the new site, and actually I hope you will so that we can keep in contact. When you visit the home page of the new site, you’ll see about midway down, in the sidebar on the right, a number of links to “RSS Feeds” and “E-Mail Subscriptions.” Since I have almost 500 people who subscribe to my Spanish web site, I set up a separate feed for only Spanish articles (that way they can continue to get the same information through the new site that they are getting now through the Spanish site). For everyone else, I have a normal site feed that will give you updates of all articles posted.

If that just confused you… :-) …here is the link to subscribe via e-mail and continue to receive a quick note when something new is posted:

Subscribe to the new site via e-mail

I do want to give one small “word of warning”: There will be a bit more activity on the new site. The only option I have right now for e-mail notifications is a daily e-mail. If getting an e-mail notification several times a week is going to bother you, please consider subscribing via RSS using a feed reader, or simply check in every now and then to see if there are new articles on the web site.

Comments on Articles

Another way I hope to keep in contact with all of you is through the “comments” section at the bottom of each article on the new site. That will be a great way to have quick “conversations” about the topic of the article in question.

I’m Still Working on It

The new web site presents a lot of new options for communication (lots of bells and whistles), so that means that I’ll be “tweaking it” for a little while to get it to run like I want it to. For most part, this site and our Spanish site are now duplicated on the new one (so the standard communication we have now will continue). The stuff I’ll be working on in the days to come will be new things to add a little benefit here and there.

Thank you all very much for your continued friendship, prayer, and support!

~Greg

Joel and Irene are happily married and on their honeymoon. And the gospel was preached to the lost.

Thank you all very much for keeping us in prayer!

And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. [Luke 24:46-47]

Evangelicalism Needs a Man-Up Call [mp3, 1:20]

I was listening to the free, 15-minute podcast (January 19, 2010) of Wretched Radio the other day and couldn’t help but say “amen” to what Todd had to say. For some reason Mr. Friel thinks most of the guys singing on the Christian radio today are a bunch of sissies and that evangelicalism needs a “man-up” call. Maybe (hopefully!) some of you guys out there feel the same way…

It’s a minute and twenty seconds long, if you want to hear it for yourself.

When numbers become so important to us that they outweigh the truth, it’s time that we admit to a crisis! When we receive missionary reports similar to the one recently sent to the church where I am now attending, it’s time we take stock of our methodology.

This missionary brother was rejoicing over the results that he had experienced in his first full year on the mission field. He boasted of 738 professions of faith with 25 following in believer’s baptism. How could you even pen those words without asking yourself if there isn’t something wrong with that picture? I seem to remember 3,000 saved at Pentecost, and 3,000 baptized!

The most refreshing missionary that I have heard in a long time gave his update to our church recently. He has been in Poland for 14 years and to date knows of only five people who have been saved under his ministry. Just like at Pentecost, he only counts the ones who have been saved, baptized, and are in the church. Most of our “one, two, three, pray after me” fellows would have dropped his support a long time ago! Myself, I would drop the guy with 738 saved and 25 baptized and shift the support to the fellow from Poland!

The full article that contains this quote can be found at the Way of Life web site in this PDF, on page 3.

I would like to say again (I know I said it a couple weeks ago, and probably many more times before that, but it bears repeating): I’d like to recommend the following:

• Ray Comfort’s School of Biblical Evangelism
• Hell’s Best Kept Secret, an mp3 sermon by Ray Comfort
• True and False Conversions, another mp3 by Ray
• Anything and everything by Mark Cahill
• Today’s Gospel is also a very good read (although I would preface that with a qualifier about Chantry’s Calvinism: I do not hold to his Calvinistic beliefs)

Many years ago, in order to answer the criticism of the mounting number of false professions, I heard a brother say, “I would rather lead 100 souls to Christ, knowing that 95 of them were false professions, and see five of them go to heaven, than to not attempt to be a soul-winner.” The first tragedy of that statement is assuming that those are the only two options: either to rack up false professions while winning a few, or to not witness at all. How about the option of being a witness within the guidelines of scriptural teaching, which produces very few false professions! The second tragedy is the flippant attitude about the 95 people to whom you gave assurance of salvation that will one day wake up in hell! Most of them will not allow a genuine witness to approach them about their souls, because they’re banking on that false assurance that you gave them.

Quoted from David Cloud’s Friday Church News Notes (January 15, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143), excerpted from “The Technique Catastrophe: An Explanation of the Multitudes of False Professions in the Independent Baptist Movement” by Bob Creel.

And, with those thoughts in mind, I’d like to recommend the following:

• Hell’s Best Kept Secret, an mp3 sermon by Ray Comfort
• True and False Conversions, another mp3 by Ray
• Anything and everything by Mark Cahill
• Today’s Gospel is also a very good read (although I would preface that with a qualifier about Chantry’s Calvinism: I do not hold to his Calvinistic beliefs)

You may remember that I’ve visited JuanCa before on several occasions. It’s always a joy to spend time with committed Christians, and JuanCa is very committed to the Lord and the work of evangelism and discipleship. We would covet your prayers tomorrow as we travel (it’s about three or four hours from here, one way) and as we preach the Gospel to those who need salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Later this week, I’ll also be going out to another area of Costa Rica called Puriscal. A pastor I know out there (his name is Giovani Rojas) is starting a new work in Guayabo de Mora and he has invited us out to participate in his initial outreach. I’ll be going out there this Saturday to meet with him and do some preliminary planning for the outreach event on Friday, February 29th, from 6:00-8:00pm.

Thank you for praying for us! ~Greg

Olford includes a quote from John R.W. Stott that I found very appropriate for the day in which we, as preachers, live today. Many of you know that we are assaulted from all sides to dumb down our pulpits. In the books we read and during the conferences we attend, we are inundated with “post-modern preaching philosophies” that exhort us to tell stories, use humor, and basically “not go too deep” or “teach too much doctrine.” Sounds a little like what Paul talked about in 2Timothy 4.1-5 to me…

Listen to what Stott said, and be encouraged! If you, like me, are committed to the simple, doctrinal, exposition of Scripture, verse-by-verse, passage-by-passage, and book-by-book, then take heart. Though we may be in the minority today, we are not alone! And, frankly, even if we were alone… it’s good to know that we are simply being faithful to the stewardship that was entrusted to us by the Lord. Preach the Word (not your stories and anecdotes), in season (when it’s easy) and out of season (when it’s tough)!

When John R.W. Stott was asked if he had “changed his mind” about the indispensability of biblical preaching, he retorted:

To the contrary! I still believe that preaching is the key to the renewal of the church. I am an impenitent believer in the power of preaching. I know all the arguments against it—that the television age has rendered preaching useless, that we are a spectator generation, that people are bored with the spoken word, disenchanted with any communication by spoken words alone. All these things are said these days.

Nevertheless, when a man of God stands before the people of God with the Word of God in his hand and the Spirit of God in his heart, you have a unique opportunity for communication. I fully agree with Martyn Lloyd-Jones that the decadent periods in the history of the church have always been those periods marked by preaching in decline. That is a negative statement. The positive counterpart is that churches grow to maturity when the Word of God is faithfully and sensitively expounded to them.

If it is true that a human being cannot live by bread only, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, then it is also true of churches. Churches live, grow, and thrive in response to the Word of God. I have seen congregations come alive by the faithful and systematic unfolding of the Word of God.

John R.W. Stott, “Creating the Bridge,” taken from Michael Duduit ed., Communicate with Power: Insights from America’s Top Communicators (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996), 187-88, quoted in Stephen Olford Anointed Expository Preaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 1998), 68.

After church there is going to be a Kedrovsky TEAM (our prayer/support group) meeting from 12-3pm at Krista’s house. If you need the address, phone number, or directions, just write me (I’d rather not post them here on the Internet). Krista says, “Feel free to bring a dessert or side dish. I will be making some soups, dessert and coffee….the really good stuff!  Feel free to come and go at your convenience and to bring your children….Alex, Kev and Beka will be here too. Sue will be updating us on their ministry.”

If you see Sue and the kids at church, be sure to say “hi.” I know she’s really looking forward to seeing everybody. And, hopefully you’ll be able to stop by Krista’s in the afternoon.

Thanks! ~Greg

The best series I’ve found so far is the Christian Liberty Bible Series. The only thing I do not like about those studies is their Calvinism (I am not a Calvinist; and please, let’s not turn this conversation into a debate over the issue because that’s not the point).

I’m looking for something to do with each of my children:

• Rebeka is 8 years old and finishing the 2nd grade this December.
• Kevin is 10 years old and finishing the 4th grade this December.
• Alex is 12 years old and finishing the 6th grade this December.

Does anyone out there know of a good series or curriculum that would “fit” each of my kids where they are at in their development? I know I could probably write and develop my own surveys (one for each child), but… I just don’t have the time with everything else going on. And, if there is something out there that is good, then why “reinvent the wheel”?

The goal I have in mind for all of this is 2Timothy 3.15:

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. [2Tim 3.15]

If you know of something, you can either leave a comment below (include a link if you have it) or write me at gregkedroATgmailDOTcom (replace the AT with @ and the DOT with a period). Thank you for the help!

~Greg

Just as a side note: Fernando, his family, and his church are very encouraging and generous. It is always such a pleasure to spend time with them!

Here’s the video:

I’m looking for a copy of the 25th Edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek Text, with critical apparatus. Here is the actual title of the book (the New Testament in Greek):

Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 25th Edition (published in 1963) [abbr: NA25]

It is important that the text be the actual Nestle-Aland NT and not the UBS or ABS text based on the NA25 (I need the original critical apparatus published in the NA25, and that apparatus is not reproduced in its entirety in any of the UBS/ABS “translators/students” texts). I know all that might sound technical, but if someone has one or knows where to get one, etc., then they’ll understand it all.

I would love to have a copy if you have one to sell me. If you know where I could get one, please let me know. Or, if you have one and could send me the ISBN from the first few pages, even that would help. Any kind of information about where I can get my hands on a copy of the NA25 would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

~Greg

We’re half-way through the year; here’s what’s going on…

Evangelism: Since it’s raining almost every day (in the afternoons and evenings), we’ve had to change our outreach strategy just a little bit since we can’t spend as much time out on the streets as we can during the dry months (December through March). We’re still going downtown to preach open-air on Central Avenue, but we have to get down there a little earlier, so we’ve chosen Saturdays to do it. At least one Saturday a month, we meet at the church and head downtown to preach, witness, and pass out tracts before the rain starts. We’re also forming teams to take our “Revista” (evangelistic literature) door-to-door throughout the east side of San José on Saturdays. So, even though the rain changes things a little bit, we’re still out on the streets, striving to intentionally seek out the lost to witness to them any way we can. Our prayer: Mar 15.16; 1Cor 3.6.

Discipleship: Discipleship this year has taken a giant leap forward! And it’s all due to one thing: A leader with a heart for discipleship. Simón is one of my key men that has been with the ministry for many years. He’s a computer software engineer and this year he has taken over the entire discipleship ministry. He has a heart for people, for getting the Word of God to them, and for helping them grow in the faith so that they in turn can reproduce themselves in others. He’s also a great communicator and “people person.”

In January we started a new group of people in our Biblical Discipleship ministry, and they have held together very well. They are currently in the third course, meeting as a small group in the church after lunch on Sundays. (We have several people who travel quite a distance to get to church, so it’s very convenient for them to be able to participate in discipleship on Sunday afternoons.) Everyone in the group has been faithful and Simón has delegated the teaching to another “up and coming” leader, Jorge, who is doing a fine job directing the group.

We also have several individuals being discipled one-on-one. When someone shows interest in learning more and growing in their faith, Simón sits down with them, finds out where they are at in their walk with the Lord, and then pairs them up with a discipler.

Needless to say, I am very pleased and content with the leadership God has provided in Simón for our discipleship ministry. Please pray for him: 2Peter 3.18.

Mid-Week Workshop: On Tuesdays nights we have our midweek Bible study and this year we are using the time to not only study the Bible together, but to also train up several people who want to learn how to study the Bible in order to preach and teach it expositorily. I’ve taken some time to walk my people through several methods of personal Bible study and also some instruction on “how to preach / teach.” Several have chosen a book of the Bible to study, and we meet on Tuesdays to answer their questions about how to do this or that. When they have a study ready (it could be a passage study, a word study, etc.), then they teach the whole group during our time together. They get the benefit of laboring in the Word of God, and we all get the benefit of good Bible teaching. There are about eight or ten people participating in the workshop. Pray: 1Tim 4.12-16.

Leadership Development: Obviously, one of the goals of a missionary (or a pastor, for that matter) is to replace himself with capable men who could lead the ministry in his absence. Regardless if the missionary or pastor feels led of God to go elsewhere, it’s simply “healthy” and biblical to train up your replacement. It’s been my experience that this process is not a very fast one! But, I’m thankful that God has given me a group of men with whom to work in this area: Ronald, Carlos, Alex, and Simón. Ronald and Carlos are my two deacons, Simón is my discipleship leader, and Alex (many of you know him as “Bimbo”) leads music and preaches in the jail. We are meeting together every other week and studying the pastoral epistles together. In time I hope to be able to work with these men in a pastoral team (if God doesn’t send them elsewhere to labor in the ministry). Prayer: Acts 20.28-32; 2Tim 2.2.

Sunday Series: I decided to take a break this year from preaching through a book of the Bible, verse by verse. We took all of last year to study the Acts as our “manual for ministry” and it was a very motivating series. This year, though, it seems we need grounding in some doctrinal areas, so I’m currently preaching a series on systematic theology, a study of the Person and works of God. It’s been a great time so far and we’ve only just begun! Prayer: Psalms 119.18

The Family: Many of your write and ask about the family, so I thought I’d let you all know that everyone is fine. Rebeka is eight (2nd grade), Kevin is ten (4th grade), and Alex is twelve (6th grade). Rebeka is having a blast participating in gymnastics; she’s won several medals and enjoys it a lot. Kevin and Alex have been going a few times a week to a kickboxing gym where the father of one of Kevin’s school friends teaches. They’re learning fast and really like it. Suzy is doing well and keeps more than active running around from school to church to gymnastics to kickboxing… As for me, I’ve started some new studies that I hope will prove useful in the near future in the  work of training men and women for the ministry of Word.

We appreciate your prayers, your friendship, and your support. Thank you all very much! ~Greg

However, there are times when God will provide us a little “extra something” on our plate at mealtime. For some it’s a bitter pill that’s hard to swallow, but for others it’s sweet! I hear messages like the following, and they make me sit up straight and shout, “AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!” (And as I watched the following video, I did just that. Wow!)

I hope messages like this are “sweet” to you and not a bitter pill that’s hard to swallow. I share this one not to “send a message” to anyone. I simply enjoyed the five minutes of good, solid, right-on-target preaching and thought I’d pass it along.

Porque el mandamiento es lámpara, y la enseñanza es luz,  Y camino de vida las reprensiones que te instruyen. [Prov 6.23]

False Teachers Are God’s Judgment

Literature, dear friends, is VERY powerful… I preach more widely through my books than [most anyone] has ever thought of preaching with his one mouth! A Christian book preaches. It can preach truth, and it can preach error, but one way or the other, it preaches.

In the Spanish-speaking world literature (book) distribution can be very difficult. The postal systems are anything but trustworthy and reliable. The cost of shipping is often prohibitive (and the fact that it will take two weeks to six months to get there, if at all, is discouraging to say the least). Even the cost of the book is often prohibitive. Remember, about 80% of the population in Latin America lives in abject poverty (and the majority of Christian churches are among the poor; 1Cor 1.25-29).

God has allowed us the privilege of preaching and teaching His Word to hundreds, and maybe thousands, world-wide through our eBook publishing ministry. Everything that I write, preach, or teach goes up on our web site in either PDF or mp3 format and it is made available for free download to anyone that has an Internet connection. We give written permission in all our materials to copy and distribute anything and everything as long as it is not for profit but rather for the advancement of the cause of Christ. We’re talking about thousands of pages of written material and hours upon hours of teaching and preaching on audio.

What would take months and a large monetary investment to ship (printed books) can be delivered in seconds for free on the Internet. And even though many might not have a computer in their home, Internet cafés are everywhere and very cheap (about $1.00 an hour). Our materials can be accessed and read on-line, or downloaded, printed and bound (in copy shops here we can print and bind a 350-page, 8.5×11-inch book with a color cover for about $10.00).

If you’d like to see some of the results of our web-based ePublishing ministry, check out these two reports from Google Analytics. The first is a “Page View” report showing how many times people “hit” our pages each day for the past month. The second is a map overlay showing where those hits are coming from.

• Page View Report
• Map Overlay Report

What we haven’t been able to do through the “printed” page, we’ve been able to do through the “ePage.”

I’m sure there are a lot (!) of churches and ministries that have a lot more hits from a lot more countries. It’s not my intention to brag about “being the best.” But, many of you know that I am dedicated to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, and one of the consistent burdens upon my heart is to write books, booklets, and articles based on sound, biblical doctrine. I just wanted to share with you some of the results of our efforts in this area.

One of the greatest needs in Latin America is the propagation of sound doctrine. I’m very thankful that God has allowed us a small part in meeting that need. ~Greg

Kyle is a great preacher. He believes the Bible and preaches it with authority. If you have the time and would like to hear some good, Bible-believing preaching from the King James, here’s the address of the church and the service schedule:

Bible Believers Baptist Church
7676 County Rd 200
Joplin, MO  64801
417-673-8077 or 417-529-8691

Friday  – 7:00 pm
Sat. – 6:00 pm
Sun. – 10:00 am & 6:00 pm

You be the judge!

Is this a case of a missionary “suffering for Jesus” or just… “Greg yer schtoopid.” My toenail on my left big-toe separated from the toe and bled all over the inside. It’s all black and nasty. :-) So, here are your two options:

• The case for “suffering for Jesus”: Our “Alajuela outreach” involved a lot (!) of walking, sometimes with a backpack full of evangelistic literature. All that walking resulted in my “injury.”
• The case for “Greg yer schtoopid”: When I bought my boots… I should have bought them one size bigger. My toes just barely touch the end of the boot. And so, while out walking in them all day, my toe mashed up against the end of the boot, and resulted in the mess I now have in my toenail. If I would have only bought them one size bigger…

So, which is it: “Suffering for Jesus” or “Greg yer schtoopid“?

Regardless, I need to shop for a better pair of boots or shoes for walking all over Costa Rica. We’re planning on being out on the streets of a different city (just like we did in Alajuela) at least one week, if not two, each month this year. We want to “walk across Costa Rica” and evangelize in as many areas as we can, taking our “pastor packets,” too, of course.

But, hey… I just thought I’d share my “wounds” from the “missionary field.” That’s gotta be worth something, doesn’t it…?  Maybe one of these days someone will throw rocks or pieces of dead cat at me. Now, THAT would be something!

He goes on to say that, “Sadly, many churches are so music-driven that the teaching of the word is swallowed up in its ample motherly arms until it is nearly irrelevant. Three weeks without the full production, and the church building would be emptied… it seems to me that we have gone to elaborate extremes before reflecting on what the New Testament has to say.”

I’ll not copy and paste the whole article here, but let me put in one more quote and then I’ll give you the link; you can read the whole thing out on Jim’s site if you want:

The main lesson, summarized, is that early New Testament believers purposefully abandoned choreographed, professional and elaborate musical presentations to the shadowlands of the temple age, and moved forward into the simpler, more fluid and flexible, leadership of the Spirit. Although I’m not sure exactly how all of this is accomplished, I would rather be attempting to go His direction than assuming I know better than God what He likes. With careful attention to the body language of the New Testament, and authentic trust in God, surely we can take steps, gradually if necessary, to return to this glorious simplicity, beauty and balance.

It’s a short article, but well written, and I hope you can take a few minutes and read what Jim has to say about this issue. It’s “timely” to say the least in these days of entertainment-driven “worship” services. Here’s the link to the full article:

Music in the Church: How Special Should We Make It?

Many of you know we’re having some money problems lately, just like some of you in the States with the financial problems that have presented themselves in the last several months. My friend is in the same situation — he is without a job; looking and applying, but still out of a job.

My buddy wanted me to be able to visit KCBT for the up-coming missions conference in March. Without a job, where could he get the money? He gave blood — platelets to be exact. I guess they pay you for that in the States. But… I wonder how many times one would have to give in order to purchase a plane ticket these days?! That’s what he did. For quite some time he’s been giving platelets and saving the money they’ve given him for the donation.

My friend paid for my plane ticket (so I could visit my sending church and even my Mom!) with his life’s blood. :-) Now that’s a friend!

Thanks, friend. ~Greg

We started a new Facebook “group” keep the prayer-support team informed and up-to-date. If you’d like to get in on it, just follow this link:

• Kedrovsky Prayer Team

We’ll still be using this site as our primary communication tool, but for all those out on Facebook, and those thinking about opening an account, this new group could be a great way to keep up on things this year in the ministry in Costa Rica.

“That just doesn’t work in the States.”

Well, I beg to differ. I think it “doesn’t work in the States” because many Christians simply don’t witness — they don’t evangelize, they don’t pass out tracts, and they don’t preach open-air. And the reason given is this:

“That just doesn’t work in the States.”

Yes it does. It “works” in any culture, any society, at any time, and with any people group. It “works” because God said it does:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God… For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  [1Cor 1.18-21]

Here are some examples that, yes, it does “work” in the States — biblical evangelism (purposeful, intentional witnessing to people we do not know) “works” in the United States of America.

Trish Ramos took advantage of a TV program filming a segment near her hometown and passed out tracts. Click the image of Trish (using the “Curved Illusion” tract); right around the 2:30 to the 3:00 minute mark you can see her passing out million dollar bill tracts and the people receive them just like they do here (with a smile and an outstretched hand!).

Here’s Ray Comfort passing out a ton of the “Giant Money” tracts in record time at a convention (who couldn’t do this?!):

Darrell Rundus makes it look easy (because it is! …once you get over your fear and intimidation):

How about open-air preaching in the USA? Here are some pics and links to guys that preach open-air on a regular basis. Check out the crowds they have, and if you watch the videos you can see that they crowds stay, they listen, and they interact.

Here’s Ray Comfort at Huntington Beach (hang with it if you watch the video… it’s a great example of how to use a heckler to preach the Gospel to those who are listening):

Here’s Tony Miano in Glendale:

Here are four of Leon Brown (he’s very good at interacting with the crowd — very articulate and interesting):

So, why would anyone say that biblical evangelism doesn’t work in the States? I still say the main reason is fear — people fear because they have not been trained. Here’s a quote from a great tool for getting trained up (Todd Friel’s “Terrified“):

Nobody expects a soldier to go into battle without training and proper equipment. Yet we are frequently encouraged to witness and share our faith without training and without weapons.

So get trained up! And get some good “weapons”! Ray has a great DVD on how to open-air preach (and not just “street holler”). I think a lot of us don’t like to give out tracts because the tracts we’ve seen make us ashamed of the Gospel when we give them out. Get good tracts! Get tracts you like so you will like to give them out. Spurgeon said that!

When preaching and private talk are not available, you have a tract ready, and this is often an effectual method. Some tracts would not convert a beetle: there is not enough in them to interest a fly. Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a telling, touching gospel tract may often be the seed of eternal life; therefore, do not go out without your tracts.

You know… even if it didn’t “work in the States,” we should do it because God told us to. But, if you just take a look at the videos above, you’ll see it does work. Folks, the needs is great, the message is urgent, and there’s so few that labor in the harvest. Let’s be different.

I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize… If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life… and you think that… well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… How much do you have to hate somebody to NOT proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and NOT tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming to hit you and you didn’t believe it… and that truck is bearing down on you… there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is MORE IMPORTANT than that.

Folks, an atheist understands what’s at stake and what a true believer will do. If we really believe the Gospel, how can we keep silent?

One of my biggest obstacles to witnessing has been fear (fear of man, fear of rejection, fear of… evangelizing). But one of the greatest ways to get over your fear is to get training. We would never consider sending a man to battle without proper training and weapons, but that’s exactly what happens to so many Christians today. They want to evangelize and they are exhorted to do so from the pulpit, but they don’t know how — they have no training and no weapons.

So, get trained up. Learn to use the “weapons” of our warfare: The Law of God. And then let’s get out in the battle because people are perishing in their sins…

• The School of Biblical Evangelism
• The Basic Training Course
• Training video for Open-Air Preaching
• Cahill’s Material (or better yet: Invite Cahill to speak at your church or ministry!)
• Tracts from Living Waters
• Tracts from Custom Tract Source

If we really believe the Gospel… If we really believe the Bible… If we really believe there is an eternal heaven and an eternal hell… How can we keep silent? Folks, even an atheist understands that much. ~Greg

Much of leadership development seems to hinge on personal character and diligence (being a “self-starter” and disciplined in finishing things well). Those kinds of things can’t be taught; character is a result of spiritual growth and maturity (the work of the Holy Spirit) and diligence is a matter of personal choice.

There are, however, certain skills and a certain knowledge base that a leader in the ministry should have. I’ve always struggled with defining just what those skills are, and just what that knowledge should be. This last year, God has put two key tools into my hands that seem to be just what we need in order to get our leadership development where it needs to be: [1] Adsit’s Personal Discipleship and [2] Sam Mile’s “SOT.” I’ll be talking about “SOT” in a separate post soon, but I’d like to share with you the tool that’s coming out of some material Christopher Adsit put together under the title “Personal Discplemaking.” Here are the links:

• Adsit’s ministry web site: DiscipleMakers International
• Adsit’s book and “kit” (I got them both, and I’m glad I did — you need the charts and stuff).

Here’s what the whole thing is about (in a nutshell):

Adsit’s premise is that we shouldn’t rely on a “materials-based” discipleship, but rather learn to focus on the disciple and his personal needs in seven specific areas of growth: Prayer, Word, Witnessing, Fellowship, Personal Growth, Ministry, and Family. I found two major problems with his approach (in the context of personal discipleship):

1. The average Christian that wants to participate in discipleship almost always needs a material-based discipleship “program” because he works a full-time job, has a family, etc. etc. and cannot put in the time required to do all that Adsit suggests (which leads me to my second point).
2. Adsit’s book is thorough and quite complete. That means it’s complicated. I had to read the book through twice to get a handle on it, and then a third time to start breaking it down into practical steps… and I’m still chewing on some of it to get it worked out in a way I can easily teach it to others. I had to hang his “Disciplemaking Growth Grid” beside my computer and look at it every day just so I could make my brain figure it all out. The average Christian isn’t going to have the time to digest it all (or maybe I’m just not the sharpest knife in the drawer).

However, he really did his homework and his stuff is very, very good. I just don’t see it fitting into our “basic discipleship” area of ministry. I see it fitting in very well on the other end — the last stages of discipleship (“advanced discipleship”), or what we call “leadership development.”

One of Adsit’s strong points is his focus on evaluation and planning. He has a really good series of questionnaires that, if answered honestly, will give you a fairly good idea of where your disciple (or future leader) is at in the process of growth through his seven areas (mentioned above). You “plot” that growth and evaluation on the big “Growth Grid” (like the one I hung by my computer).

Basically what it does is show you where you have “holes” in the development of your men.

I needed that! So, here’s what I’ve done with this stuff so far:

• I translated all his questionnaires and his Growth Grid.
• I put each one of the seven areas of the Growth Grid on a separate sheet of paper, while maintaining the large Growth Grid with short descriptions of each element evaluated.
• This way I have a tool to put in the hands of others who want to do the same kind of evaluation. They don’t have to wade through all the “how-to” stuff that’s buried in Adsit’s book. They grab the questionnaires, give them to their guys, and then when they get them back, they just have to go through the one-sheet summaries of each growth area checking off what’s “done” and what needs to be “shored up.” If they want, they can also check off the same things on the big Growth Grid to get an “at-a-glance” snapshot of a leader’s spiritual growth and development.

Nice! I love it! And like I said, it was something I definitely needed because I was constantly looking out at my men wondering, “What does this guy still need…? What does the fellow over here need…?” Now at least I have a tool to help me define needs. It’s not an end-all-be-all, but it’s shaping up to be a good leadership develpment tool in that it’s showing me the holes in the develpment of my men as mature disciples of our Lord.

Of course, along with all that, I’m combining Adsits “philosophy of discipleship” (four levels of growth) with my stuff from KCBT (seven stages of discipleship and five primary goals in spiritual growth). I’m hoping to have a good, solid discipleship course I could give in a week at a conference, and then I’d leave our Biblical Discipleship material with the people to begin to put it all into practice. This type of “philosophy” or “how-to” teaching has been something that’s always been lacking in our discipleship. With Adsit’s help, I think we’re going to get this shored up nicely.

I got this letter in my inbox today and thought I’d pass it on to everyone. HeartCry is Paul Washer’s missions organization. If you can help them, would you please get in contact with them? Thanks!

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am hoping you may be able to help us with something.

Dr. Nathan Berry, our Mission Coordinator, is trying to locate Christian physicians or other medical personnel who could offer advice and/or assistance in establishing a Christian medical clinic. If you, or someone you know, fits this description, please send me a reply email. Please include your name, phone number and your area of experience.

Please note that anyone who has experience in establishing or operating a clinic could be a tremendous help in this effort. You may forward this to anyone you believe could be of assistance.

Thank you for your help. May God richly bless you in Christ Jesus.

Looking to Him,

Shannon L. Ayers, Donor Relations Coordinator (sayersATheartcrymissionaryDOTcom)

So, if you get an e-mail notifying you of all the posts we’ve made since the beginning of time… sorry. As soon as I get the configuration right (again), that should stop. Thanks for your patience. ~Greg

I ran across an article written about poverty in third-world (underdeveloped) countries such as Africa and India. It was written by Peter Hammond, a long-time missionary to Africa. Here are some excerpts:

The difference of productivity and income per person in the Western world compared to the so called “developing” or “third” world was 2 to 1 last century. Now it is 70 to 1…

One of the main responses of the industrial nations has been to supply generous amounts of foreign aid to the poorer nations. However, foreign aid has been accused of denying the poorer nations the chance to develop their economies to viability. Most aid does not encourage self sufficiency and growth…

Since 1954 the USA has shipped millions of tonnes of food aid to India – to the Indian government (not private businesses or agencies). Rats have consumed more than half of this food at the docks and storage facilities! Because of Hinduism’s belief in reincarnation, rats and sacred cows may not be killed! It would take a train 3000 miles long to haul the grain eaten by Indian rats in a single year! Also, the sacred cows in India eat enough food to feed most of Asia!

It is actually Hinduism’s re-incarnation beliefs, its’ sacred cows, protected rats, idols made of gold and jewels, wasted resources and superstition that are causing the poverty and starvation in India…

Victims of self imposed poverty need the Gospel and discipleship to free them from their lifestyle of sin…

The Christian Foundations for prosperity are laid with these basic principles: Christians must respect one another’s property, never steal or cheat, always abide by contracts, be industrious in earning money, be disciplined in saving money, be wise in investing money, be obedient to God in tithing to Christian ministries, be discerning in sharing with those in need. Work all you can, earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

It’s a very interesting article. Dr. Hammond has not only “done his homework,” but he’s lived in areas of extreme poverty for years. If nothing else, it’s thought-provoking!

~Greg

I think a good rule of thumb to follow would be to presume the Lord wants you to share the gospel with everyone unless He leads you not to. ~Danny Lehmann

You have nothing to do but save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work… It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance. ~John Wesley

Save some, O Christians! By all means, save some. From yonder flames and outter darkness, and the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, seek to save some! Let this, as in the case of the apostle, be your great, ruling object in life, that by all means you might save some. ~Charles Spurgeon

Brethren, do something; do something; do something. ~Charles Spurgeon

We are not called upon to witness to everyone we meet… Some years ago one of Scotland’s great saints was walking across the Highlands with a young friend. They passed a shepherd. The younger man, perhaps to impress his colleague, accosted the shepherd, asked him if he was saved and gave him a tract. Expecting, perhaps, a word of commendation, he was surprised and rebuked when the old believer said, “Did you have the Holy Spirit’s permission to speak to that man about his soul?”

What a sad commentary! What an awful thing to say to a young, zealous believer who wants to witness! And… what a tremendous misunderstanding of God’s call to evangelize.

First and foremost, to judge the intentions of the heart of someone who is zealous in witnessing is a bit presumptuous. How does this commentator know that the young man was trying to impress his friend? Why does he assume the worst in his motives? Why not simply assume that he has a burden to reach people with the message of Jesus Christ? And, why is it “accosting” someone to give them a tract and inquire about their salvation? I’m sorry, I couldn’t disagree more.

So, let’s answer the old Scot’s question: “Did you have the Holy Spirit’s permission to speak to that man about his soul?” Yes, he did! And, not only did he have God’s “permission” to do so, he had God’s call and command to do so. We are called and commanded by God to preach the Gospel to each and every creature.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. [Mar 16.15]

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! [Rom 10.13-15]

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. [2Tim 4.5]

And what if we do so in a manner that is less than “diplomatic” (a manner that might seem as if we were “accosting” someone, though we do it from a sense of obligation and duty toward God, and love for the lost)?

What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. [Php 1.18]

Is the power to save a soul in the sower of the seed or in the seed itself? Is the power to save a soul in the way in which that seed is sown, or in the seed itself? Again, Scripture speaks clearly:

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. [Isa 55.10-11]

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God… For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe… Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men… [1Cor 1.18-25]

In the very same chapter of Acts, God shows us that Philip, the Apostles, and other believers gave every effort they could to preach to every person the encountered.

Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. [Acts 8.4]

And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. [Acts 8.25]

But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Cæsarea. [Acts 8.40]

Here’s the truth of my life: I don’t witness to everyone I meet. But, do you know what? I want to! I want to get to the point were the first thing on my mind when I speak to someone is their eternal destiny—God’s glory in their life; His goodness magnified through their salvation. Mark Cahill witnesses to everyone he meets. So does Ray Comfort. So do many of our Christian brothers and sisters.

Let’s not use a passage like this as an excuse for our lack of compassion… our lack of zeal in evangelism… our lack of dedication to the Mission of making disciples through evangelism. That’s not what the passage is teaching. We should all desire more zeal in evangelism. We should all desire to witness to everyone we meet (or at least desire to desire to do so!).

What does that mean in practical terms? Well… let me “peddle some goods”…

• Listen to the 10-minute testimony called “George Street” (a true story about a man who “accosted” people the same way that young Scot did).

Get trained up in evangelism. I don’t agree with everything coming out of Way of the Master and Ray Comfort’s ministries (obviously). But they have an outstanding training program. Mark Cahill is a tremendous resource, too. Take advantage of this stuff and get trained up. Do it with a friend so you’ll have a little bit of accountability.

• School of Biblical Evangelism
• Mark Cahill’s Book “One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven” (scroll down on that page to find it)

Get some tracts and give them out. If you get good ones (ones that you like), you’ll WANT to give them out. It won’t be a chore. Here are some of my favorites:

• Ten Most Popular Scratch Off
• Million Dollar Bill (new design from Ray)
• Million Dollar, July 4th edition (great time of year for this one!)
• Check out Custom Tract Source (My favorites: What if…? and their “Cash” tracts; 4th of July).

Oh, my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the Church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected. [Oswald J. Smith]

It’s true that many are praying for a world-wide revival. But it would be more timely, and more scriptural, for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest, that He would raise up and thrust forth laborers who would fearlessly and faithfully preach those truths which are calculated to bring about a revival. [A.W. Pink]

If you didn’t get the e-mail and you’d like to continue receiving e-mail notifications of new material… or if you’d like to start receiving them… please follow this link and fill out the small form with your e-mail address:

http://www.greg-and-sue.com/subscribe/

Once you do that, you’ll receive an e-mail with a link that you must click and follow in order to confirm your address and activate your subscription.

For those of you who use a feed reader or podcatcher, we’ve switched our feed over to FeedBurner. Here is the new link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/greg-and-sue

Sorry for the hassle, but it’s a change I’ve needed to do for a while. The small subscription program I was using had too many bugs that I couldn’t work out. Switching everything over to FeedBurner should help us out a lot. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

As always, if you have a minute or two, please drop us a line and let us know how you and yours are doing. It’s great to hear from you.

~Greg

Don’t miss this movie!
Coming out on April 18th

EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed starring Ben Stein follows his journey around the globe where he proves that scientists, educators and philosophers are being persecuted in a modern day witch hunt because they dare to go against the theory of evolution. These pillars of education are being fired, ridiculed and ostracized for merely challenging Darwin’s theory.

Here’s a link to the trailer. And here’s the link to the “Newsblast” I received about it.

Every now and then I hear a sermon clip (usually listening to a Way of the Master Radio podcast while mowing the lawn) and I think, “Wow! I’d like to hear that message.” So, I Google it and here’s what I find…

1. Five bucks for these messages.
2. Twenty to almost two-hundred (!) dollars for these.
3. Each of these will set you back six U.S. dollars.
4. And now here’s the one that really gets my goat: Downloads (!) for 99 cents each.

Now, I’ve contacted some of these folks and expressed my disagreement with selling messages, lessons, and sermons that God has give to them (their pastors). The explanation I was given was that they had to cover administrative costs. Really…?

I run several web sites and I put up message on my web sites, so.. what exactly are the “administrative costs” that one incurs when one desires to make the preaching and teaching of God’s Word available to the world on the world wide web (I understand the cost of a CD… postage… but let’s just deal with mp3 downloads first).

1. I use IX Web Hosting for my sites. For a whopping $5.00 a month you can get unlimited space and free domain registration. Five bucks! Now that’s a lot of administrative cost, isn’t it?
2. To record my messages I use an Olympus VN-960PC digital voice recorder. Now this is a bit more expensive… but maybe eBay would be the route to go. I paid about $65.00 for mine on Amazon. I just checked and eBay has them for 99 cents and up. Whoa! Racking up the administrative costs, aren’t we?!
3. Now we need to get the messages from the digital voice recorder onto the web site. That requires software. First, we need to edit the audio file to cut off the announcements at the first and the gabbing after the message. I use Audacity, and it’s free as is the mp3 plug-in for getting the audio file into a common format for everyone to download onto their iPod. Getting the mp3 file from the my computer to the web site requires an FTP client. Mozilla puts out a good one… and look at that price tag! My! Wow! Sky-high! (It’s free.)
4. If you want your web site to look nice, you need some sort of software that will help you build it. I opted for simple, and that means WordPress. If you want complicated but very (!) flexible, professional, and just plain cool, neat, and spanky, then you’ll likely want to look into Joomla and Drupal. Are we racking up a lot of administrative costs here? Nope. All those software solutions are… free.

Now, let’s be honest. In our day and age, this solution would supply the need for 90% of the people looking for sermons to listen to either on-line or out and about on their mp3 player. If they need a CD then they just burn their own from the mp3 they download. There is virtually no cost involved, and it takes me less than 15 minutes to edit and upload my audio files each week. No overhead. No administrative costs.

If we’re talking about CDs and other “physical” materials that a church would have to buy in order to sell and/or ship messages to people who don’t want to download mp3s, then we’re talking about a little more administrative costs. But come on… you buy CDs in bulk and get them for pennies a piece. How much to CD mailers cost? Postage?

And when we boil it down to the bottom line, this is my question: Why isn’t this considered a ministry of the local church? I believe in covering costs, if they’re high enough to merit such a thing (and, frankly, mp3 downloads from a web site does not cost enough to merit charging — I pay for mine out of my own pocket). But, even if there were costs involved in making CDs, putting them in nice cases, shipping them, etc., why would we not charge to cover most of the cost involved, but absorb the rest of the “administrative costs” as “ministry”? Isn’t that what God has sent us to do: “Go and preach His Word”? The commission is not, “Go and sell His Word.”

When I first ran into this “phenomenon,” I contacted the ministry in question and we spoke at length about it. After that troubling experience I decided to change the copyright page on all my books (we have printed two so far and there are five more, plus about ten booklets still in the editing process). I used to have a standard “don’t copy!” blurb on one of the first pages of my books. I changed it for this:

Copyright 2007 by Gregory Alan Kedrovsky. All rights to this work are reserved by law.

Although by law all rights to copy this work, in part or in whole (by all means and processes, including but not limited to photocopying and information transmission on the Internet), are reserved, Gregory Alan Kedrovsky (the author) gives permission to reproduce in part or in whole any part of this work, or the work in its entirety, with the condition that the material not be sold but rather distributed o used for the advancement of the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ (the edification of the Body of Christ).

“…freely ye have received, freely give.” [Matthew 10.8]

If, when reproducing the content of this work, changes are made, any and all references to the author and his various ministries must be removed.

Now, I know some printing ministries are selling books in order to keep the printing ministry running, and they sell books with a standard copyright in order to preserve the life of their ministries. I’m not talking about them (and, frankly, the one I’m thinking about gives out more material in a year than most folks sell in five.)

What I’m talking about is this: Many of the ministries that sell sermons and mp3 downloads are multi-million dollar organizations. They have huge facilities and offerings that would rival many secular businesses. The money is there to fund the ministry. The administrative costs are ridiculously low (they are virtually zero for offering mp3 downloads of messages or even pdf downloads of books).

So it seems to me that somebody is simply trying to make money off of what God has given them (1Tim 6.10). It’s either that or they’re trying to be so “professional” with their “product” that they’re generating astronomical overhead costs that could be avoided if they’d scale it down a little and stop trying to keep up with the Joneses (1Cor 1.26-2.5).

Kindle. Kindle? Kindle?! What in the world is a “Kindle,” I asked myself. Then I hit the link — the one I included above for your personal edification and enjoyment. It’s a wireless eBook reader! OH, PLEASE! SAVE ME! RID ME OF THIS PLAGUE!

Can you imagine “cuddling up” with a plastic, battery-powered box that feels like a kiddie toy? Can you imagine trying to “leaf through” those “pages” of your “book” and actually learn something? Okay, okay, okay… I’m coming out of the closet…

I want to be Luddite (or maybe a Neo-Luddite). Most anybody that knows me, knows too that I like computers. I’m a Linux addict. I have it on all my computers, sometimes with other operating systems at the same time. Give me an old Pentium III and I’ll make you a file and print server, or if all you have is a 486 or a Pentium I, we can make a router with a 1.44″ floppy. No problem. Love it. But… this is just going too far…

I refuse to give up my books — my REAL books (you remember… the paper ones that smell so nice when you first open them up!). I refuse to give up my paper and pens. You can sit me down at a computer with my Bible and I won’t be able to write a word. No creativity. No ability whatsoever to think, reason, or meditate. The computer means “busy work” to me and my wee-small pee-brain. But, sit me down with a wide-margin, Oxford KJV (the ones with thick paper, really wide margins, and genuine calf-skin leather bindings), a Strong’s Concordance (a paper one!), a pad of blank paper, and my slew of colored pens… oh, boy! I can go all day long!

Join the revolution! Think… paper! ink! Walk into a Barnes & Noble, open a book, and just smell it! You’ll like it, you know you will. God wrote His Book on paper with ink. There’s something to that! Visit Levenger (toys for readers!). Buy a Moleskin. Get a good set of pens you really like. Make yourself a calendar (so you can throw away that plastic box you call a “PDA”). If you need a PDA, build a Hipster (hey, they work!).

And then if you want, read this guy’s review of that playbox called the “Kindle.” It’s good.

Alrighty, then… I think I’m finished. I feel better… :-) ~Greg