Confession

As you can tell from the title of this post, I have something that I have to admit to everyone. I know that this is going to come as a shock to all of you, but the truth is..... I haven't posted a blog update in almost 2 weeks. I know, I know, you are all stunned and can't believe what you are reading. But it's true. I know it will be hard, but I am hoping that you can somehow find it in your hearts to forgive me.

What's that you say?? You have already forgiven me?? Gee shucks guys you are the greatest.

Well now that we are all on speaking terms again, I guess I should tell you about what has been going on. Things have been very productive at NHC recently. I have really been getting a lot of things accomplished, and I have been learning a lot from the entire NHC family.

My biggest project so far while I have been here is implementing a new system for keeping track of NHC's children on Sunday morning. Here is what I wrote about it a few weeks ago:

At Nags Head Church we are modifying the way that we sign children into the Nursery and Kids Church. The whole process is being moved from a paper system to a computer program that will keep track of everything for us. My big job last week was to set up a new kiosk with a touchscreen, scanner, and label printer, get everything working together smoothly, and design name tags that are printed off each time a parent signs their child in. We partially implemented the system on Sunday, and the full thing will be up and running by next Sunday at the latest.

This project has turned out to be somewhat more complicated than I anticipated in that last post. A few days after I posted it, the computer we were using completely failed. It is basically useless now. Fortunately, Bernie Staples graciously donated an old computer he had, and it works extremely well. The only problem was that the main check-in software did not want to install on the new computer. After a lot of frustration, we finally got it all working. This Sunday will be the official first test of the system. I will try to take pictures of it in action.

I also have been working on the iMac that we use in our auditorium to run our slides and post our podcasts. It has been having a lot of issues, and I have been figuring them all out. I was also able to upgrade the memory in it from 1GB to 4GB, which is really necessary for a computer that is running such demanding programs.

Some other things I have been doing:

• Took down an old basketball hoop in the parking lot. It was rusted beyond use, and it was disintegrating in my hands while i was removing all of the screws.
• Helped build walls in our new Kid's Zone. We have outgrown our old Kid's Zone, and so a much larger area is being built for them upstairs. See pictures here.
• Washed the outsides of all the first-floor windows on the church building. Rick said he could see them shining from the road as he pulled in the next day. I was hoping for more of a shimmer, but I guess shining is okay too.
• Designed a new slide to promote the NHC Young Adults beach volleyball. It is now part of the announcements slideshow that rolls every Sunday morning.

• I have also been participating in the volleyball every Tuesday, and it is a blast! Everyone should come out and play. Note: You don't actually have to be a young adult. You only have to think that you are a young adult.
• Youth group has also moved to the beach for the summer. The first half is beach games/swimming/surfing/volleyball/eating hot dogs/etc, and the second half is lesson time and small groups. It is 5-7pm on Sunday nights at the Bonnet St beach access. All students and parents are welcome.

Thats everything I can think of right now. This would be a lot easier if I wouldn't go 2 weeks without posting. I wonder what I could do about that. Any suggestions??

One last thing. NHC had an ocean baptism last Sunday, and it was awesome. If you haven't already done so, I recommend that you check out this video. It is very worth it, especially 2:50 to the end.

Matt