Powerful Times

There were a couple of questions on the last (informative and optimistic post), so here are my best answers.

Not to be nosy, but will they allow Tim to have a popsicle or a hard sucker. Those are sometimes what we use to give throat relief with an NG tube and they exercise your mouth :-)

No, not until he can swallow, which he cannot yet.

Have you all considered the thought that this has been an amazing way to bring all of us us 'out there' here in CA and around the world to share in a Concert of Prayer? It is one of the most immediate 'Ask for according to my will...' prayer vigils I have ever been part of...

We've had at least 9,200 different people check out the blog from at least 75 different countries and every US state and territory (see below for why both of these could be higher). Even as I write this post more comments that foreshadow this post are being posted.

TJ often is a guest speaker at churches around the country. The one he most often gives on missions is called Powerful Times. He gave it as recently as October 28th, and was scheduled to give it two days before he entered the ICU. Gaithersburg Community Church has a synopsis of it on their website (so I don't have to write one up!):

When we watch the news, there are so many bad things going on it’s a challenge to stay optimistic. It’s amazing to remember that God created all people and determined their time on earth. [TJ] encourages us in Acts 17:24-27 that there is no event in our world- good or bad- that does not first pass by the hands of God and that He does not use to build His church. (Emphasis added)

Having heard this sermon it occurred to me rather early on that this whole event could be part of a much larger going-on than we know of, or could ever imagine. I certainly didn't think that when I started this blog there were going to be thousands of people reading it, many every day, from all over the world.

From a young teenager speaking on behalf of his missionary father (TJ was 15 when he started public speaking) to the pasterhood, to his current position it has been his mission in life to glorify the Father. I'm positive that this would not be TJ's first choice to build the Church, it certainly isn't his family's first choice! But I am equally sure that he would submit to the Father's will for this reason.

If you are interested you can download the sermon courtesy of Gaithersburg Community Church here. The first five minutes are very telling considering TJ's current situation. It should play with just about any audio player. Sermon notes are here (PDF).

I am learning quite a bit about my father and mother from the outpouring of prayers, and offers to help in anyway possible. When my mom's mother passed we learned how many lives she had touched that we never knew about through the funeral. Similarly, but thankfully less morbidly, I am learning the same about my parents.

Technical Notes on Counting Blog Visits
Technically the hit counter (as it is called) tracks individual computers, i.e., it has no way of knowing whether one person is viewing the website from a computer or 10 (which I know is the case in my extended family). So the number of people that have visited this blog exceeds 9,200. There are also people that stay updated over the phone or through email that I know of. I don't think I'll ever know the exact number of people who are keeping track, but 15,000 wouldn't surprise me (anymore!) and 20,000 is possible.

Furthermore, for security reasons a lot of workers in sensitive countries go through an internet proxy which reroutes them through the US so their host country can't see where they are actually going. So the number of countries that have visited may also be undercounted.

Here is a non-specific example. Saudi Arabia filters their internet traffic so their citizens can't visit anywhere they please (as do other middle eastern countries and China). To get past this, or to visit a site you don't want Big Brother to know about you can go through an encrypted connection to a freer country (France, the US, Britain, whatever) so the only thing they see is that you are connecting to that country. From there, you are free to visit whatever you want. Therefore a visit from such a country would show up as a visit from France, the US, whatever. So the number of countries might exceed 75 because of this as well.

Slight Updates made 2:56 PM CST January 1st, 2008