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Posted on December 17, 2020
by Nathan
Bible First Online
Due to sickness in the Steele family and our family, we've had to push back our beta release of Bible First Online until sometime in January. Still, preparations continue! Lately I've been writing documentation and recording screencasts to help the new users understand how to use Bible First Online. (And I've learned a thing or two about screencasting in the process!)
This is the first Bible First screencast I made — a short demonstration of the signup process.
Coronavirus
The number of daily new cases of coronavirus in Ukraine peaked about three weeks ago and has been in decline since then. Something tells me that the coronavirus isn't done with Ukraine yet, but for now, we'll enjoy the respite.
Family
It's birthday month! We celebrated Briana's birthday earlier this month, and Melissa's is just around the corner. Katelin and the girls recently finished a unit study on the oceans that they have been working on for the past few months. To celebrate, we've decided to visit a new aquarium in town, which is the only one in Lviv, as far as I know.
Yay for snow and sledding buddies!
Posted on November 19, 2020
by Nathan
Helping Dad
We all know that God is our Heavenly Father. And we know that God is a Good Father. But why is He a Good Father? One of the reasons is because He lets us help Him with His projects. As any parent will tell you, kids love to do grownup stuff. Give them the choice between "cooking" with plastic food or cooking real food with Mom, or "fixing" things with play tools versus helping Dad fix something with Dad's tools, and they'll take the real stuff any day.
The Bible says that God was/is "reconciling the world unto himself". Missions isn't something that man came up with, it was God's idea. But then the Bible says that God has "committed unto us the word of reconciliation". God didn't have to do that. I'm sure He would have done a much better job of it. I'm sure He has to be very patient with us as we make messes, and sometimes do more harm than good. But because He's a Good Father, He decided to let us get involved in His grownup stuff.
A couple months ago, when the above thoughts popped into my head, I realized that one of the best things I could do for my children was to let them be a part of something bigger than themselves. Because we live in an apartment, taking the kids to the playground is part of our routine. On Saturdays, I sometimes take the kids to the playground so that Katelin can have some downtime. So we started taking stacks of Good and Evil invitations with us on our Saturday outings. On our way to a playground, we stop in a few buildings and put the invites in the mailboxes. We mark off the buildings on our map, and the next time, we do different buildings. The girls enjoy it, and even Jonathan has gotten in on the action! It doesn't take long, maybe fifteen minutes. After all, little attention spans are short! That said, a couple days ago, we got our first request for a Good and Evil, and we were all pretty excited!
Working together to put Good and Evil invitations in mailboxes.
Getting back to the idea of missions, some might think that missions is something that we have to do. Maybe some assume that it's something that our church or denomination requires. But in reality, getting to do something with your Father isn't something that you have to do, it's something that you get to do. And hopefully my children will one day choose to do the same.
Jonathan follows his sisters to the next building entrance.
Bible First Online
Our goal is to do a beta release of Bible First Online to a group of friends and acquaintances sometime next month, with a public release to follow sometime next year. The BFO application is mostly ready to go, so most of what needs to be done is in the realm of preparing promotional and support materials.
Coronavirus
Covid cases are spiking in Ukraine, as they are in many parts of the world. Today's number of new cases was a new record: 13,357. That may not sound like much, but adjusted for population differences, that would be about the same as 100,000 cases in the US. That said, Ukraine's medical system seems to be holding up decently well, and things continue to be calmer in our part of Ukraine.
Family
Katelin and I recently celebrated our 11th anniversary, and we celebrated with an overnight getaway. We left the kids with a babysitter, and I think they had about as much fun as we had! Katelin and the kids also regularly call Katelin's grandfather, who lives alone in a nursing home, and can't have many guests because of Covid. Thanks to the regular calls, the girls are probably closer to their great-grandfather than they ever have been. The girls are also hoping it will snow soon, although Katelin and I would prefer a bit more fall weather before winter sets in!
Nothing like a good old-fashioned romp in the leaves!
Posted on October 24, 2020
by Nathan
New Translation Project
If I were to rank the all the books I've read in terms of the impact they have had on my life, a book titled By Divine Design would definitely be in the top three. I'm excited to report that we have recently started translating it into Ukrainian!
Despite being fluent speakers of Ukrainian, we don't actually do the translation ourselves. Instead, we hire a translator to do the work, and the result is a text that sounds much more like it was written by a native speaker. But that doesn't mean that Josh and I are off the hook! We read through the translation, comparing it with the original, making notes on the spots that didn't quite get translated right, and then sit down with the translator to sort them out. And since By Divine Design contains a lot of higher-level language and concepts, there is a lot to do! Take this closing thought from Chapter One as an example of one of the more thorny spots for a translation team: "In forming this independent soul and then releasing him to his own cognizance, in a real sense, God had entrusted His sovereignty to this man and his descendants. This and all that would result from it were and are by Divine design."
Web Development
We are continuing to make progress on different web development projects. Sometimes it's "two steps forward, one step back", but the good news is that we are still moving in the right direction.
Family
Not much to report on here. Except for a couple sniffles, we are happy and healthy, and life continues on!
The whole family!
Posted on September 18, 2020
by Nathan
Web Development
Just last night, Josh and I were testing a new feature of Bible First Online that makes it easier to sign someone up for Bible First wherever you happen to be, using just a smartphone! Our goal is to finish up a few last features, then recruit some friends to be beta testers while we tie up some more loose ends.
Just tap the Invite Now button, and you get a QR code, or a signup key and web address!
Bible First
While we work on Bible First Online, it is nice to see a steady stream of people finishing the Bible First course. So far this year, about 3-4 people have been graduating each month. We also occasionally get notes and testimonials which remind us that others are using Bible First as well!
Coronavirus
New Coronavirus cases in Ukraine continue to rise, averaging about 3,000 per day now. The good news is that new cases in our corner of Ukraine have remained stable.
Family
Cooler weather is returning to Ukraine. It will be nice to have a break from the heat, but that also means that a long, cold winter is coming. This morning, Katelin and the kids were trading out their sandals for shoes and digging out their jackets! Yesterday, Katelin spent the day canning tomatoes. Fall is in the air!
This swing is just right for three sisters!
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