Kevin Presseault

This morning I received my passport application signed by my step-dad (THANKS!!) and rushed off to the passport office at 11:30am. Since it helped to speed up my application for the birth certificate, I decided to bring my flight and hotel confirmations with me just in case. I arrived at 12:05. They were serving number 173. I was 251. Luckily I brought a book! When they hit around number 210, a lady stood in front of the waiting crowd and announced that it will take a minimum of 15 business days for applications received today to be processed... UNLESS you happen to have confirmed travel plan documentation WITH YOU. Thankfully I did! AWESOME! The wait in line was about 2 hours. I did a lot of my course reading (I have a ten page paper due in March on this book "Future Faith Churches: Reconnecting with the Power of the Gospel for the 21st Century"). Finally my number came up. Again, I was SOOOO impressed with the employees of this government agency. The young lady who served m...

Just stumbled on this website http://www.ifjesushadawebsite.net . Very interesting stuff here on church websites and blogging. I particularly like his article on "Why Your Pastor Needs to Blog". I think I'll start using that as my reason for doing this :-)

Since I'm no longer the technical guru I was in my previous life, I figured the next best thing to being at Lotusphere was to check out the Dolphin Hotel in Second Life . Thanks to the information provided on Alain Lepofsky I checked out the keynote and got myself my free Lotusphere t-shirt. I know... once a geek, always a geek. :-) Oh by the way. If you're looking for me in Second Life my name is Kev Priestly. I know, not very original...

This week the United States started it's new policy requiring all air travelers coming into the country to have a valid passport. No other form of documentation is valid (except for a frequent flyer pass - which I'm not). I've known for quite awhile that this was coming and I figured that I was properly prepared... but... My passport expired at the end of October 2006. Normally it's a simple 20 days to get a new one so I didn't give it much thought. That is until I booked my flight to California to attend Saddleback Church's Small Group Ministry conference in February. I figured "No problem, I have tons of time!". So just before Christmas I went to our filling cabinet to dig out my birth certificate to send off the application for a new passport. But lo! There were only three certificates in the folder where we keep the important documents... that of my wife and kids. Mine was nowhere to be found! Again, I figured "No problem, I'll ju...

I thought this was hilarious! I love the D&D dice! Thanks Mac for sending me this one.

If any of my colleagues and friends are heading down to Orlando for Lotusphere 2007 this weekend I would LOVE to get a CULT shirt! I'd send money for shipping. I have a CULT shirt from 2000 to 2006... can't stop now! For any of my church friends who might be worried about what I'm after it's C ompletely U nofficial L otusphere T shirt :)

I just returned from Heritage College and Seminary . I just registered for my first semester there. It was a tad odd being back in a school... back in college I was a pretty awkward and geeky guy, lacking in a lot of self confidence. Funny how walking around, lost on a school campus, trying to find where you're supposed to register and find the appropriate information can bring back those old adolescent feelings of dorkiness :) This semester I wanted to start easing courses into my schedule so I'm only taking one class. Since it's the winter session the two prerequisites I need to take for of my Biblical courses are not available. I'll need to take those next September. This gave me only 4 courses to chose from. After talking with the advisor I chose to start with Ministry Foundations. Here's the blurb from the course catalog: This course is a foundational study of the theology and philosophy of the church and church leadership. Attention will be given to the biblic...

Yesterday our Sunday services were led in worship by the Rising Above Band. This was my first time learning about Rising Above and was really touched by the story of this ministry. Rising Above is a conference ministry organized by and for First Nations people. Their conferences help give lay people and churches get necessary tools to overcome such issues as sexual abuse, substance abuse, family violence, suicide and the residential school experience. I really thought this is a wonderful ministry. We hear a lot of the hurting and pains of First Nation people and it was great to learn more about how First Nations Christians are reaching out to their communities and people. You can get more information on Rising Above and sample some of the music of the band on their website .

There are literally TONS of resources and articles geared towards Small Group Ministry. It can be quite a maze to navigate as leaders and volunteers trying to find all they need for their individual groups. I receive about 50 emails, 10 magazine articles and 20 book recommendations a month just in small group ministry. So I decided to start a new blog in order to help provide Woodside small group leaders (and anyone else involved in small groups anywhere!) with a one-stop-shopping for different articles and resources that I think is well worth their precious time to read and see about using in their groups. And who knows... maybe I'll start writing my own articles from time to time as well :) So here is the link to the new site. If you would like me to add something to that blog to share with other leaders please don't hesitate to send it my way.

During my wireless browsing last night, I found myself reading some really interesting blogs. I didn't get to bookmarking all of them yet but I'll be sure to do so in the next few days. For starters, here is a list of the new ones I added to my regular reading list. Be sure to check them out. J.D. Hatfield Pastor Mike Pyromaniacs Rick Ianniello Steve Norris Tod Bolsinger

Last week at Future Shop's Boxing Week Sale I picked up a nice little gadget for only $9.95! Since there was a $20 discount in the store and a $60 mail-in rebate I figured I would purchase a new 54Mbps 802.11g Wireless Firewall Router and 54Mbps 802.11g Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter from TRENDnet. I just finished setting it up and I'm flat out amazed out how fast this is! To be honest I'm surprised that my 7 year old Dell Dimension was up for the challenge. So I'm testing this out by surfing the net while watching some TV - and I don't know what's sadder... that my laptop battery is about to run out and my adapter is at the church or the fact that I'm watching Beauty and the Geek. Who comes up with this garbage??? Sad, sad, sad. :) The USB Adapter is for my mother-in-law's computer. I was hoping that this would be a great way to get her computer access to the Internet... but I'm having a hard time getting it to work. From her computer it sees the network ...

In January 2005 I started doing the One Year Bible as a way to encourage me to spend quality time with God in His word every day. I also came up with a short prayer that I used each morning as I started my day. I wrote this prayer on the inside cover of my Bible. My prayer in 2005 was "Give me a passion for God's Word, His people, His world and His service" . My passion for serving the church really took off that year. As did my joy in meeting new people and trying to live a godly life in my career. 2006 was a huge year for us. In early January, my wife and I spent a lot of time in prayer and felt this was the year that big change would happen in my career. The computer career had huge challenges as I was branching out trying new technologies and roles. Life at church was also really stretching me and helping me to step out in faith. My prayer for 2006 was "Help me hear You more clearly and give direction in my career and family" . Needless to say, God spoke qui...

I hope that 2007 will be a great year for all of you. May you be richly blessed in all your endeavors.