troy austian | blog

The Grillin' Days of Summer

With the cooler weather these past few days, I'm beginning to dread the departure of the wonderful, warm weather we'd been having and the onset of of the coming cold.  Yes, I realize I'm speaking of the cold weather as if it were a disease...a disease to this great land of ours.   Well... To be fair, though, I gripe about the cold, but pretty much never gripe about the heat (only the humidity!).  I welcome the cold only because I really love to snow ski, and the cold is necessary for suitable snow.  Otherwise, I'd really be okay if it never, ever dropped below 60 degrees.

I was thinking that I need to do some more grilliing while the weather's still nice, but then I remembered a picture I saw of a guy grilling in the middle of winter... He had the grill right up next to his window.  He'd open the window and just reach through it to lift the lid of the grill and tend to the meat he was grilling.  Basically, he'd just do it all through the window and never go outside!  Now that's a smart guy!

New Online Bible Website

There's a new online Bible website that recently went live. It's eBible.com. I had received a beta test login for it before it was public, but now it's open to everyone, and I think it's worth checking out.  It has a nice, simple look and some cool features.  It has three main sections: use the Bible, understand the Bible, and share the Bible.  It allows for searches by keyword/topic and by particular Scripture passage, and it's a very nice site for reading the Bible online.  It has 6 versions of the Bible available for free, far fewer than some other sites, but these do include some modern versions like the New King James, the Message, and the New Century Version.  It is missing some that I'd like to see, such as the New Living Translation (NLT) and the New International Version (NIV).  Try it out, especially for just reading the Bible online, and let me know what you think!

I've got to mention my favorite online Bible site, and one we use a lot at RVC, which is BibleGateway.com. This site isn't quite as pretty as the new eBible site, but it has a whopping 21 English versions of the Bible!  And this does include the New International Version (NIV) and the New Living Translation (NLT), which I love.  It also has 8 Spanish versions, plus versions in Korean, Slovak, Swahili, Thai, Russian, Japanese, etc.  There's over 80 versions in all, spanning over 40 languages!  It has a really good search engine, by keyword/topic and by specific Scripture passage, a topical index, and some available commentary.  (There's also a place where you can click to make a donation if you'd like to support it.)  This really is a great site, and we use it a lot.

Photo Caller ID, part 2

Okay, time for more.  (Please read "Photo Caller ID, part 1" first, if you haven't already.)

This is what pops up when Pastor Anthony calls.  We might be finishing up a conversation on the go, touching base on a quick church matter, or just shooting the breeze while he drives home to Minneapolis, typically passing through a McDonald's drive-thru on his way.  Well before RVC, I got acquainted with Anthony Hilden while at North Central Bible College -- the likes of us elevated the college so much that they renamed it North Central University!  Anthony's a funny guy, and one of those great friends for whom I have a number of nicknames.

I named this image "Jamie-Ahhh!"  This the amazing Pastor Jamie Doyle.  And I don't say that just because he's an accomplished magician, which he is, but for some other reason...just gimme a sec and I'll think of something.  Jamieson is witty and entertaining, and amazingly insightful when it comes to kids.  He knows his stuff and does an amazing job.  He's got the goods all the way through the toughest stuff that kids and parents have to deal with.  And best of all, every once in a while, he shows me how he does one of his magic tricks!

Mountain Biking Adventures

It's been a great summer with my mountain biking small group!  We mostly rode at Lebanon Hills but  also hit Theodore Wirth Park and the Minnesota River bottoms.  All three of these places are great places to ride.

For our second to last ride, we went to Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis.  There are some great trails with lots of turns and obstacles, and it's just a really nice area.  There's this one big dirt mound jump that's a lot of fun!  At one point in the ride, Brian Andren stopped in front of me and pointed into the woods.  There was a good size female deer just 20 feet away from us!  Beautiful!  And then we noticed a fawn just beyond her, and then another!  We looked at the deer for a while...they looked at us.  It was nice.  I think that while we were thinking, "Wow! These deer are beautiful," they were probably thinking, "I wish these pesky humans would quit staring at us and move along so we can get on our way!"

For our very last ride (as a small group), we went to a section of the Minnesota River bottoms that I'm rather fond of.  At almost the farthest point (of course!), I got a flat in my back tire.  Arrgh!  Bummer.  Some guys came by that let me use their tire pump, and then I booked back as far as I could make it until the tire pressure was too low again.  Then we walked quite a ways until finally someone else had a pump, which gave me enough air to make it back to where we were parked.  I wasn't the only one riding without a spare pump, but right afterwards I got my tire fixed and bought a pump!  The really serious riders don't only carry a pump, but a whole tire repair kit.  Maybe I'll do that next year!

I really love mountain biking, and it's great to do it as a small group and build relationships in the process.  For more info on small groups at River Valley Church, click here.  For more information on bike trails in the area, check out the Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists web site for trail guides, directions, trail conditions, calendars, forums, etc.