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Posted on December 15, 2017
by Nathan
The big news of the month is that Carpathian Mountain Outreach is back! We took the summer of 2017 off to focus on literature and web development, but we will be heading back to the mountains in 2018. You can learn more by checking out the announcement on ETO's spiffy new blog, or you can go straight to the CMO site.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned literature/web development continues. I recently finished a big project that will allow users to switch the interface of the Bible First site to their preferred language. And now that we have gotten the CMO announcement out of the way, Josh and I are hoping to make some good progress on Good and Evil and the Bible First site.
Family
It's birthday season at our house! As of about a week ago, Briana is a big two-year-old! Melissa's birthday is coming up soon, and she is counting down the days. Then then begins the Christmas countdown! Lydia finished her kindergarten math book a few weeks ago, and she has moved up to first grade math. Katelin recently decided to try potty training Briana, but so far, about all we have to show for things is a lot of puddles!
All dressed for cold weather, but no snow yet!
Posted on November 18, 2017
by Nathan
Our web development marathon is now in the books, but the work continues. We were able to make our goal of importing test data into the application, but the import of the test data exposed some more bugs. (Which is what we expected.) So the development goes on.
Left to right: Nathan, Trevor, and Josh. Nerds for Jesus!
Lately, Josh and I have been dedicating our mornings to working on the Bible First app. We usually have a quick meeting on Skype, talk over what needs to be done, and then jump into the code. Progress is slow, but steady. And of course, Trevor does what he can from his side of the Atlantic.
Bible First
We recently received a note from Catherine, who is translating Bible First into French, saying that she had completed Lesson 3. In addition, the translation into Russian is now 90% complete! There is still a lot of proofing left to be done, but it is exciting to see the progress being made!
Good and Evil
Speaking of proofing, Josh and I just finished proofing Chapter 6 of Good and Evil, and plan to proof Chapter 7 sometime this next week. Tolik is making good progress on the translation, and it looks like he has just about finished translating Chapter 8. So maybe will will be proofing Chapters 7 and 8…? We'll see. There are 13 chapters in all, and our goal is to be finished with the translation by the end of the year.
Family
We had our first taste of winter last week when we got a light dusting of snow. Of course, the girls were determined to go play in it, even though there wasn't much of it, and it was all soaking wet. The girls are still enjoying their school. One of the highlights of the month was a couple of boxes that arrived from America. While there were a lot of Christmas and birthday presents that got set aside for their respective holidays, there was still enough fun stuff left to make it feel like Christmas had come a month early!
Soaking up some beautiful fall weather!
Posted on October 14, 2017
by Nathan
I'm happy to report that our web development marathon is well underway, and we are making good progress! Josh and Trevor are optimistic that within a couple days, we will be able to start importing test data into the new app. Then we can take things for a test drive and spend the rest of Trevor's time here squashing bugs and ironing out wrinkles. Hopefully by the time Trevor leaves on the 24th, we will be to the point where we are comfortable with importing our actual student data into the app, and we will begin using the app ourselves.
Trevor and Josh discuss the best way to structure the application.
On a personal note, I am by far the junior developer on the team, but I am excited that I have been able to make some meaningful contributions to our forward progress. As a result of everything going on, my abilities have increased exponentially in the last few weeks, but I sill have a long ways to go. I am looking forward to making more progress in the near future!
Family
Our family is currently dealing with some colds, so we would appreciate your prayers. School is going well. The weather has taken a turn for the cooler and the trees are starting to turn, but according to the forecast, we have a bit of Indian Summer coming our way next week (or Grandma Summer, as they call it over here). It will be nice to set aside the jackets for a few days before the cooler weather sets in for good.
Posted on September 14, 2017
by Nathan
I've spoken many times in the past about our desire to create a website that would allow people to study through Bible First online. I've also mentioned a young man named Trevor Brown from Florida who is helping to build that website in his spare time. Well, I have two pieces of good news to report on:
- Trevor survived Hurricane Irma.
- Trevor is coming to Ukraine for just over two weeks in October to help finish the website.
While the website will still need more work after Trevor goes back to the States, the hope is that we will get it to the point to where we can start using it ourselves. Once we get the bugs worked out, we will open it up for others to use.
While Trevor doesn't arrive in Ukraine until October 8th, we are making a lot of progress on the website as we speak. Now that Trevor's trip is on the calendar, everyone is doing their best to get as much work done ahead of time, so that we can make as much progress as possible while he is in Ukraine.
Good and Evil
Tolik is continuing to make progress on translating Good and Evil. I have been working on converting the text into a format more suitable for translation, and hope to finish that project soon so I can focus on preparing for Trevor's trip.
Family
The big news of the month is that we have officially started school! Katelin has been "unofficially" doing school with the girls for a while now, but now it's official: Katelin and I are homeschool parents, and Melissa is a first grader. Melissa is doing quite well, and is already turning into quite the bookworm!
Working on Lydia's birthday cake.
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