Jason’s department was responsible for the 3D graphics, advanced video graphics, and set designs at 3ABN. Jason was also an important part of our young adult group at 3ABN, and was a regular part of our small group’s activities. For these reasons and more, he will be missed.

L to R: Trent, Scott, Neto, Kyle, Nicole, Michael, Eva, Shelley, Jason, Joel, Michael Y., Robert. Photo taken by J.D. Quinn.

The first evening Sandra and Kendol were here, the three of us went for a walk at West Frankfort Lake. There was a beautiful sunset, which made a great backdrop for photos.

West Frankfort Lake Sunset

Sandra and Me

We were swarmed by mosquitos!

All day Monday Sandra taped music. I got in a few photos; but most of these were taken by someone else (courtesy of Sandra).

Sandra singing

A beautiful smile

Having fun

Sandra and Kendol

Kendol and Mary, 3ABN's receptionist ... awww, they match!

On Tuesday Sandra was interviewed for a taped 3ABN Today program. I’m not sure when this will air.

Later that day we had lunch together at the Manna Restaurant here in Thompsonville. The restaurant was serving pizza (huge slices!), as well as a cold vegetable pizza-like thing that was really, really good. We had a great meal. After lunch we met briefly to discuss plans for the GC Readathon website. You can see a preview of the redesign I am working on here:

The rest of the day went all too quickly, and we didn’t see much of each other until the end. It just so happened that I caught Sandra as she was loading up her car to leave, having missed her call to let me know that she was heading out. It was sad to say goodbye, but great to have some time with a new and dear friend.

Providentially, my friend Diana was leading a group of Bible workers at Battle Creek, and she invited me to come. The timing was perfect, since if I had waited any longer, their evangelism series would have been over, and I would have lost my “inside connection.” Thanks, Diana!

The drive there would have been about 7.5 hours, except for a little mishap. Near Effingham, Illinois, a police car came up behind me, and flashed its lights. I was driving exactly the speed limit, so I couldn’t guess what would be the problem. He pegged me for two things: not having a front license plate (my saving grace was that I had the missing plate in the car, having intended to put it on as soon as I could visit a dealership), and my back plate was half off! I could hardly believe it. We walked around to the back of the car, and as I was fiddling with the plate to see if I could reconnect it, the other screw popped out, and the whole thing fell to the ground! (The screws were the ones that came with the car, but they were definitely non-standard.) The officer was friendly, though, and didn’t fine me for anything. He told me where to go to get it fixed, which I promptly did. The whole episode cost me maybe 30 minutes.

When I arrived in Battle Creek, the night’s evangelism series was in progress at the local SDA academy, so I went directly there. The evangelist was Ted Struntz, someone who I’d never met, but indirectly knew: He was the father of a girl I knew in academy and whom I had done LE work with one summer (Julia). Also, it just so happened that I sat down, without realizing it, next to David and Marie Tenold, who had been staff at Oklahoma Academy when I was a student there. Also, Marie had been my work supervisor for two years. The night’s message was good, and it was encouraging to hear that quite a few non-SDAs were attending and interested in baptism. Besides Diana, I also bumped into someone else I knew that night: Phil Mills.

The Bible workers were staying right at the Historic Adventist Village, and they let me stay with them. I had a nice, comfortable room to myself, on the second floor. The room had eight windows, four each on two adjacent walls—really nice.

Sabbath morning I went to the Dime Tabernacle, the main SDA church in the area. There was a large painting behind the pulpit, Heinrich Hoffman’s “Christ and the Rich Young Ruler”—one of my favorites—which I thought was cool. I joined a Sabbath school class taught by Jerry Finneman, which was really good. The sermon was by the evangelist, and was part of the series. Later, at lunch, I met a couple more people I know: Doug Carlson, an associate pastor who previously was the pastor at my grandma’s church in Edenville, and Ranger Jim from Kids’ Time on 3ABN! He was showing off a hummingbird and a chipmunk, both of which were in large glass jars.

Sabbath afternoon I took the official tour of the village.

William Miller’s prophetic chart, on display in the visitor center:

The pulpit in a church where Ellen White spoke:

Garth Stoltz, Village Director:

The Whites’ home:

An early edition of Early Writings, published in Battle Creek:

The dining room in their home:

Where Ellen would write jounal entries, manuscripts, and letters (these are not the original items of furniture, but are similar to what she would have used):

Copies of her writings (pretty good penmanship!):

A carriage similar to what the Whites would have used:

That evening we returned for more of the evangelism meetings. Later back at the village, we had a long discussion about women’s ordination; it lasted past midnight! Although the five or so of us most involved in the discussion had deep-seated opinions on this subject, the entire exchange was very civil, and I came away with greater perspective on the subject.

The Bible workers:

In front of David Hewitt’s home:

On Sunday we all went out to eat at a pancake place. This was mainly in honor of the Bible workers for all their hard work, and was paid for by Pastor Russell from Andrews who had oversight of them. But they invited me along. It was a good meal! But my stay was over all too soon!

I left soon after we got back from the restaurant, but on the way home I stopped at this cemetary in Battle Creek where many SDA pioneers are buried:

The tombstones of James and Ellen White:

On the way home I passed these vehicles. I took this while driving, so it’s a bit blurry. But if you look closely, you can see the car on the left is one of those models that can be driven in water. You can see two propellers under the bumper, and it has a high exhaust pipe to keep the water out. The other truck is towing a log cabin!

Another blessing today was the arrival of my new graphic design assistant, Nicole. She’s moving here from Colorado, and turns out she knows some mutual friends of mine (Adrian, Regi, Diana, maybe others—friends who’ve gone to Southern). From what I’ve seen, she is quite talented, and seems like she will be fun to work with.

Hernando and I also went biking this evening. It was the perfect weather for it. We have a little loop that we do, which runs around the campus of 3ABN. It takes us 30-45 minutes to do it. I’m not sure how many miles it is. Great way to end a long day at work!

I put a collection of photos up on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40771&l=afab0&id=809418097

There was a great turnout. I’ve put some photos on Facebook (link below), and then I’ve added a few other photos below that.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42845&id=12296170694

It was great to see long-time friend Staci (L), who was here visiting mutual friends Jill (pictured) and Greg Morikone.

We had a very good panel answering Bible questions on Wednesday night. L to R: Stephen Bohr, John Lomacang, Mike Tucker, Kenneth Cox, David Asscherick, C. A. Murray.

Many 3ABN staff, such as Larry McLucas, put in long hours. It was practically a marathon!

Eva doing what girls do best:

Ken Cox gave a great message on the commandment, “Thou shalt not murder.” If you missed it, you need to find a copy and learn the secret of why women outlive their husbands!

David Asscherick spoke on “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” He brought down the house!

Another friend from college days, David Shin, spoke on “Thou shalt not steal.” It included a powerful personal testimony.

If you missed it, I’ve heard that the DVDs should be shipping sometime in July. Eventually the programs with air again on 3ABN, as well. Check the program listings for times.

The hall was decorated really nice. Lots of lights, candles, lanterns, and greenery. There was beautiful music playing too; I later learned the album is called “Celtic Wedding.”

Two bridesmaids; two groomsmen. One of the bridesmaids sang I song a really like, “Bless the Broken Road.”

The sermon:

The kiss:

The cake (decorated with rose petals):

A special presentation in honor of the mothers (it was Mothers Day):

Happily ever after:

* * *

My flight departed on Sunday, April 20. It was a long flight, but mostly uneventful. I traveled from a regional airport in Marion on a small plane (18 seats or so), to St. Louis where I caught a larger plane (an MD-80, I think) to Atlanta, where I caught an even larger plane (a 767 I think) to Copenhagen. I managed to sleep quite a bit, and this seemed to help me adjust to the time zone change, which was 7 hours.

Flying over Denmark was quite interesting. Looking down I could see all these little farms, bunched together in oddly-angled shapes, not like the large one-mile square tiles you may see in the western U.S., but not too different perhaps than the smaller farms in New England. Denmark and Sweden are both covered in farmland.

My flight arrived in Copenhagen the next morning, Monday, April 21. Theresa Nybo was there to meet me at the airport. She had brought her dog Max along, and this was my first time meeting him. He is a big fluffy white dog (there is a picture of him below). After a little shopping in Malmö, we were on our way to LifeStyleTV.

I have several longtime friends working at LifeStyleTV: Claus and Theresa Nybo, Daniel and Antonella Pedley, and Richard and Roxana Ramont. It was great to see all of them again. It was also neat to see their facilities — which are extremely modest compared to what we have at 3ABN. Still, what they do with what they have is quite amazing.

Daniel at his workstation:

Claus:

The LifeStyleTV master control:

Their cool OS X based server rack:

Dan and Jennica:

Torleif:

Huldah:

Andrea:

Max — always ready to play:

The guys’ “dorm” — where I stayed:

My room:

A couple times a day I walked this 10-15 minute journey from the dorm to the LifeStyleTV center (the Nybos’ home):

On Tuesday I worked in the Nybos’ garden, mulching the berry bushes and other things. I miss the garden I had at my previous residence, so it was a fine way to spend the morning. Later I went with a group to a place called the Hallesberg Stones. These are statues and carved stones created in the 1800s by a Swedish farmer. One set of stones contains writing and pictures related to the Bible, including Old Testament chronology, the Fall, and prophetic symbols with interpretations. LifeStyleTV was planning to use these as a springboard for doctrinal presentations.

The badly eroded mountain of sculpture at the Hallesberg farm:

This stone depicts Bible chronology:

This one depicts the Fall:

This one shows the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension:

This one is full of prophetic symbols — the Lamb on Mount Zion, the King on the white horse, the woman riding the beast — along with dates and explanations:

A stone face:

On Wednesday I led morning worship for the group, in which I talked about how God has led all types of people into the unity of the Adventist message, and how that unity in the truth is so important for a ministry such as LifeStyleTV. Later Theresa took me to look at a castle in the area. Later I helped prepare lunch (tofu squares with tartar sauce), which I didn’t get to eat. Instead, I had lunch with the Pedleys. Their children are so cute!

A Swedish castle — this one remains a private residence:

The Pedleys:

Thursday I flew to Stockholm, where I met up with my good friend Ellen. That evening we visited the Vasa Museum, where a large warship that was raised from where it sank, is on display. It was really fascinating. Later we walked around the downtown area called Gamla Stan, ate out at a Korean restaurant, and had some sorbet and oat-based “ice cream” for dessert. On the way back we stopped by the Royal Palace. I spent the night at the church headquarters, in an apartment shared by a new friend, Ronnie.

A church in Stockholm:

The warship at the Vasa Museum (photo: Ellen Kim):

Ellen:

One of the many canals in Stockholm — it’s built on a series of islands (photo: Ellen Kim):

Ellen and me:

A street:

Moi (photo: Ellen Kim):

On Friday Ellen and I visited some shops in the morning, and then I was on my way back to Malmö. But the bus that was taking me to the airport kept crashing! Computer crashing, that is. The monitors were locked in an endless cycle of Windows XP booting and crashing with an error message. Tsk, tsk. If only they had Mac OS X.

Windows XP: Where do you want to go today?

Back in Malmö, I enjoyed a tasty haystack lunch at the church. Then I joined other workers from LifeStyleTV handing out fliers in the community, inviting them to an upcoming event with Louis Torres. Later, back at the Nybos’ home, we had a tasty fruit smoothie supper. And then we discussed Bible verses related to baptism, which Claus was gathering for his sermon the next day in Malmö.

Saturday morning found us at the Malmö church. The program was good. Theresa interpreted the sermon in English for several of us. After the very nice fellowship lunch, I joined the Ramonts and Pedleys for a walk in the park with their families and some friends. Later, back at LifeStyleTV, we had a birthday supper for Andrea, and then played a fun game, “Four on the Couch,” that I had never played before (the guys won, haha!).

On Sunday the Nybos took me for a little drive to the beach. On the way we saw a sheepdog herding competition. It was quite fascinating to watch. The dogs did such a good job, but the sheep were just a little too stubborn. We had a great time at the beach. The Nybos’ dog Max met some new friends. It was a beautiful beach, with white sand. There were swans out swimming on the water.

Sheepdog competition (the dog is crouched to the right of the sheep pen):

Another Swedish castle:

I thought this was funny — the “Badhotell” (it actually translates to the “bath hotel” — it’s near the beach):

Claus and Theresa, with Max:

The beach is lined with these concrete bunkers from WWII:

White sand:

A creek flowing into the ocean:

Flowers at the beach:

Later I traveled with some of the other workers at LifeStyleTV back to Malmö. Jonathan, Jennica, and Huldah gave me a tour around the city. In the evening a couple of us watched a David Asscherick training video that had been taped at the Bible Institute in Norway. This was my last full day in Sweden.

Banner at the church advertising the meetings with Louis Torres:

Jonathan, Jennica, and Huldah enjoying their falafels:

The Turning Tower in Malmö:

This is a small dam in a park area; the small black things are faucets — quite clever:

On Monday I took a bus, and then a train, which took me to the airport in Copenhagen. With the benefit of the reverse time zone changes, I arrived home the same day, at around 9:00 pm. It was great to be home again!

First, I learned the sad news that my friend and coworker Kenton Rogers had turned in his resignation. His last day will be May 9, I believe. His family is moving back to the West Coast, to be closer to their relatives. Kenton is a very talented and spiritual person, and will be greatly missed at 3ABN. He plans to start a small publishing house at a location yet to be announced.

That means we are looking for someone to replace him in my department. You can read the job posting announcement on my Xanga blog. If you know of any qualified individuals, please pass the word along. We are looking for people who are professionally employed in graphic design, not hobbyists or persons wanting to enter the field (although we make exception for college graduates with no employment history).

The second news is happier: Another friend and coworker, Connie Kuehn, got engaged and will be married this month. Unfortunately, there is a sad side to that story as well: She will be moving away to be with her future husband in Mississippi. We will all miss Connie’s bubbly personality and valuable marketing skills. Congratulations, Connie!

A section of one of the streets:

Here is a video I took on Claus’s camera:

The music for this video was taken from this website. Ordinarily I would not think of the “1812 Overture” as Christmas music, and I almost chose another song. But in the end I thought the soundtrack matched the exuberant display perfectly. If I had more footage, I could have done something to synchronize with the music (especially the cannons!), but this was a quick and dirty job.

I also had a great time visiting with Rob and Christine Neall, and Chuck and Christina Holtry. I joined Rob and Christine on a short walk at nearby Rend Lake with the youth and earliteen group they were supervising. Later we all met at the guest apartment where Chuck and Christina were staying. It was fun to catch up with them. It was the Holtrys’ first time to 3ABN (hopefully not last). On Sunday everyone came over to my place for breakfast. We had yummy scrambled tofu courtesy of Christina H., as well as fruit and cereal. I later kicked myself for not taking any photos the whole weekend.

It would be cool if 3ABN could host an event for young people, like one of the regional GYC-style meetings. This age group is definitely underrepresented at our camp meeting. There are certainly plenty of potential attendees around. The third largest city in the United States, Chicago, is only five hours away. And then there is St. Louis, Memphis, Evansville, Louisville, and Southern Adventist University, all within the same approximate radial perimeter.

PS: I learned a lesson this weekend: I don’t know anything about what’s going on around here. Okay, I admit that’s overstated. The point is, I had opinions about certain 3ABN-related things (mostly minor and unrelated to my work), which turned out to be groundless. Note to self: Memorize the phrases “I don’t know,” “I have no idea,” and “I forgot.”

One thing I’m looking forward to at this year’s camp meeting is seeing my friends Rob and Christine Neall, and Chuck and Christina Holtry. They will be helping with the youth and children’s programs.

If you are within driving distance of Thompsonville, Illinois, we’d love to see you there!

Since my mom is trying to sell her place, I spent part of the weekend helping her sort and clean. My mom has enough books to start her own library.

On Friday I met my friend Eve at the Tennessee Aquarium. I had been there before, but a number of new features had been added since then, and I was looking forward to checking them out. Besides that, it is such an awesome place, I’d visit again even if nothing was new.

The lighting throughout the facility is very subdued, so I did not get many good still pictures. However, I discovered I could get acceptable images by using my still camera’s video function. The movies below are not award-winning quality, and they are all very short (the longest is under 20 seconds). But they still offer a glimpse of some of the things I saw and enjoyed.

One of my favorite sea creatures, the sea dragon (a relative of the seahorse):

We also saw some cool jellyfish. This one was absolutely amazing. I could not get my camera to focus on it for some reason, but still you can see its amazing lights, which blink in multiple colors in a mesmerizing pattern (the video doesn’t show the colors very well):

There was a tank with several of these jellies inside, lit very dramatically. It looked like a living lava lamp.

This sea turtle was really cool:

There were tanks where you could touch sting rays. But those were not as cool as these fresh water rays with amazing patterns:

In another place there were adult and juvenile alligators:

The penguin exhibit was really fun. The penguins were absolutely amazing under water. They swim unbelievably fast, like underwater torpedoes. Here’s my friend Eve visiting with a curious, friendly penguin:

We also enjoyed a large walk-through butterfly exhibit. With the natural light, it was much easier to get photographs there:

This one had amazing blue wings, but he kept them folded whenever he was resting:

I had to laugh at this T-shirt, in the style of an iPod poster:

On Sunday I got to visit my friends Alan and Nicole Parker, who just recently moved to Southern Adventist University. It was fun to catch up with them. Nicole’s home reminds me why having three preschool age children is not for the faint of heart. But she does a great job of keeping the little monsters/cherubs in line.

As could be expected, I saw many friends at ASI, as well as some family, including my brother and his wife, and my cousin James and his family. I met some new friends. I volunteered a little at 3ABN‘s booth, which is always fun (at least when one doesn’t have to do it!). And I volunteered a little at the Health Expo booth that was put together by my friends at LifeStyleTV.

Since this was the 60th anniversary of ASI, there was a strong emphasis on the history of ASI, especially its roots in the Madison school, and the ideals of E. A. Sutherland and Percy Megan. (The story is also vividly told in the book, Madison: God’s Beautiful Farm, which I highly recommend.) It was neat to hear this history repeated for the thousands of attendees, especially in light of the many parallels between their difficulties and what other ministries face today.

There were many inspirational testimonies of people sharing Christ “in the marketplace” (ASI-speak for “on the job”) as well as in innovative mission projects and other forms of evangelism. We also heard inspiring messages, and some awesome music. It was also interesting to see the new projects and products in the exhibit area, which is always a major highlight of ASI.

ASI is one of my favorite events of the year, the other being GYC. Both are events where God’s presence seems especially near, and the personal blessings are abundant. If you want to see where Seventh-day Adventist evangelism is headed, as well as hear powerful stories of ministries on the front lines, ASI is the place to be.