God wants us to know what is on His network

When I first arrived in PNG there was no way to monitor the devices on our network. We knew they went down when people called to complain. One of my first tasks was to build a NOC (network operations center), so I would know, get emailed, paged whenever anything went down.

I had done this at previous jobs several times, only now, I had to do it with zero budget.

There are opensource tools out there that are nice, but they have huge drawbacks in that the guy who sets up the NOC is the only guy who understands it. I needed something intuitive that anyone on the team or following me could learn quickly.

That rules out a LOT of solutions.

One solution that I knew and liked was Solarwinds 7. I wrote a friend years ago and they donated a license. Suddenly we could see all our devices and do monitoring. We fell in love with it and it was easy to manage. Now it's several revisions old, but still very useful.

Not long after that I wrote a letter to a company producing PRTG because I needed to bandwidth monitor my firewall via SNMP. They wrote me back with a 100 node license, gratis!!! FREE donated because we are a non-profit organization.

I saved that letter as 'this is my template for a successful donation request.'

Recently though we've needed to monitor services (linux and windows). So I began playing with Zenoss. But found that while it was the best opensource monitoring, it wasn't a simple and good compliment to Solarwinds. More like a replacement. It was hard to configure but not as hard as others.

Which brings me to IPsentry and WhatsupGold. IPsentry is an unassuming little tool, it looks a bit aged, but it's very powerful and easy to configure and does EXACTLY what I want to do. Total price $695.

I took out my request template, customized it, and sent it to IPsentry. Within 24 hours they donated a full package license to us!!!!!

I'm so elated right now I can't explain it to you.

THEN, I did the same for WhatsUpGold, which is around $4000 product now. (I remember when it was free). They wrote me back and said 'how many nodes do you need?'

WHAT!??? WOW!!!

Okay so that you are following:
-Solarwinds - $3000 - donated
-PRTG - $800 - donated
-IPsentry - $700 - donated
-WhatsUpGold - $4000 - donation possibly in progress

With those 4 products, there is no way anything happens on my network I don't know about.

Oh yeah,
Bomgar - appliance costs $61,000 - donated at cost $1400
Packeteer - new $10000 - purchased at bankrupcy sale $1300

I know I groused a bit about Microsoft changing their licensing on us and costing us thousands, so consider this post equal time and a thank you.

There have been some great donations to my department in the last several years.

Whenever I run into a problem I run through this mental flow chart:



And I get to that part about a creative solution, and I sent out emails and letters, and wouldn't you know it, God responds through people.

I have had failures, I've asked for donations and been told no. But it strikes me today, that in this one thing, I've had a tremendous amount of encouragement and success. God must REALLY want us to be able to monitor what is on our network. Look at that list of products? We would NEVER be able to have brought this NOC up to this professional level without those donations.

I am so encouraged by the fact that God seems to be blessing our efforts to supply professional support to the effort of Bible Translation. It's like a huge stamp of approval on my efforts here.

I would have never thought about writing for donations, years ago. I never had to, I always worked for corporations that had financial resources.

Here, we have to be a tad more creative and I thank God and give Him the glory for every creative effort and thought I've had in this area!!

So this is a thank you to the people who have contributed, to the companies and their donations, to the work of accomplishing changed lives through Bible translation!

Lots going on

This is a nice lunch snack in some villages. I have volunteered to eat one, but have been warned some people are really allergic to them, and so I have passed.

There is a LOT going on right now, so much I haven't had time to blog.
-there was a bible camp for local kids

-a 2 week training course to teach Papua New Guineans why we are here, to help us become 'wanbel' (of a like mind - but literally means 'one stomach'.. here the stomach is used how we would use 'heart' in the U.S. so.. we have the same heart for seeing people changed by God's Word....we are wanbel (juan - bell)

-bible dedications revisited - we looked over all the dedications done in the first 6 months of 2011!

-work has been busy, we're on the verge of connecting to the internet 3 new regions in the next month alone!!! using VSAT technology.

Today was a very good day at work, as I was able to help a translation consultant before he left for the village tomorrow, I was able to help solve a problem that could have put a major project off by a month, and I was able to assist a teacher to conduct some English learning training.

Every now and then, God gives you a glimpse, a reminder of how we are honored to serve Him, and how our contributions help. Today was one of those days!

Thanks God... keep up the good work in this country! I'm very pleased to see all the training and the changing of hearts and minds as people start to see the importance of growing closer to Christ and training others to follow.

anwered prayer

I wanted to tell you all this story... I'm still sort of shaking from how amazing it is.

Today at 10:30 we had 4 network guys sitting in a room taking training. When the phones began to ring. Something was seriously wrong on the network. Typically we can find the issue within moments with our operations software, but we couldn't.

It took a while but we finally found out a server was down,
then another server
then another
as we tried to find the common denominator, each time we tried to fix things, it got worse.

Then a knock on the door, my wife said 'pray for (our friends) their 5yr old daughter is getting medivac'd for an appendicitis'.

Email stopped working. EMAIL is critical during a medivac because they need to get email approval before getting a plane into the air.

So now the pressure was on. Aviation couldn't fly, the clinic couldn't get approval, and servers were going down.

We worked through lunch, and into the afternoon when we found also that in the middle of this, all of our DNS records were gone.
Our ISP had a routing issue that caused the dns servers to go offline... so now, mail and internet weren't working.

DURING a medivac.

The network room was complete chaos. I took a few minutes once we realized calls needed to be made, left a co-worker to make the calls and headed home. I talked to my wife who mentioned that their Bible study was cancelled.

And then it hit me... this is NOT a coincidence.
I headed back to the office, buried my face in my hands. I prayed, 'God I don't think this is a coincidence, I think the enemy is stirring up confusion right now and I don't know why, please thwart him. God bring us victory over this!!'

While I was praying, the phone rang, my co-worker answered it, I ignored it and kept praying.
I lifted my head from my hands the call was over, my coworker said,

'it's all working again'!! PRAISE GOD!!!
and then I turned to tell him how I was just praying and we heard the medivac plane take off.

PRAISE GOD.. HE is powerful, HE is victorious.

In the end, a routing problem in Singapore was the cause of the computer issues.... and I'm glad those are over, but there had to be a reason all this strife was stirred up, so we're continuing to pray against that.

But I wanted to take a moment and praise God, for immediate answered prayer, and how awesome is that!

Krahij

The tok ples name of this is krahij, and we get the word for two minute
noodles (like top ramen) from this - krahij taphmnei - rope of krahij. When you eat these,
the insides come out as a piece of thread. They are pretty tasteless - a
good thing when you need to be polite and eat what is given. The only thing
to handle is to get the thing into your mouth and then just swallow and
smile.

No, I have not had the privilege of eating one yet, but I'm sure if I visit my finish friend who lives in this village, I may be offered a few... and yes, I would in fact eat it if offered.

Often people ask me what the oddest thing I've eaten here is. I may say 'grasshopper' I've avoided eating rat, but I did eat a small river eel. I have also not eaten the popular sago grubs, which I hear are as fun to eat as popcorn.

No matter how disgusting a food sounds, when you're offered it as a form of hospitality, in a culture where food is so central to relationship building, you eat. And you smile!

like a friend once taught me 'take small bites, and think CHICKEN!' (-;

Sorcery

today I thought I might borrow from someone else's blog, because the 'teen mission trip' mentioned had some of the youth from our center here and the author/translation team actually live on our center here that I help support.

from
http://www.pbtpng.org/forgiving-amongst-sorcery
Forgiving amongst sorcery


By Rhonda Hayward

“Before she became a Christian, Martha killed some of my children through sorcery. But now we are sisters in Christ and I don’t have any bad feelings toward her. Christ has forgiven me and I have forgiven Martha.” These amazing words were spoken by our good friend Druk. She is the wife of Gabriel, the Tay preacher who helped establish the first church amongst the Tay people. During the teen mission trip in April, Druk, in the presence of Martha, gave the above testimony to Carissa and a few of her friends as they were sitting talking together one afternoon.

Martha, now an exuberant Christian, was indeed an ex-sorceress. She readily testifies that she used sorcery to kill many Tay babies and children. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul enumerates various past sinful lifestyles held by the Corinthians. Then he says, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”. Paul’s words are true for Martha, as well as for each one of us.

Though we knew Martha’s past, when Carissa and friends returned to the house and shared with us what Druk had said, we were amazed. We had not realized the depth of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation the Lord had done in the lives of these women. These words are a powerful testimony of God’s supernatural grace at work in the lives of the Tay recently to bring about the fruit of forgiveness and reconciliation.

In March, we held a scripture use course, requested by the Tay, on unity. It was a delight to realize that many of the scriptures on unity in the Bible are from the recently translated books of Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians into Tay. How even more delightful to see the truth of those verses “translated” into the very lives of the Tay and see the fruit of unity evidenced, as in the lives of Martha and Druk.

Druk’s testimony was a great encouragement to me, but also a great challenge. May God’s forgiveness and reconciliation be richly displayed in how I love and forgive others.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-14

Rhonda is the wife of Steve Hayward. Steve is a Bible translator serving among the Tay people group. They are nearing the completion of the Tay New Testament.

zuchinni

this morning I stayed home to watch my sick son while my wife taught. Upon leaving the house she had a hard time opening the door. Then she said 'uh babe, what is the date today?'

and I instantly knew....

I said 'oh no... they didn't?' but they did.
Someone snuck a zucchini on our front porch.

But that wasn't all.

When I got into work after lunch, there was on on my desk.

Whoever you are, well played.

I didn't see it coming

Tween

Tweens.

Our daughter turns 12 in a few days. Here the transition to 'upper grader' happens at 7th grade. It is much like becoming a freshman in high school because of the way the campuses are integrated.

As a result of this new 'upper grader' status and all the many changes that come with it, my daughter fancies herself a teenager.

All you folks out there who have gone through the transition, will laugh and know what I'm going through.

All those who have yet to face it, consider this your warning.

Currently my home is no longer my castle, it is in fact, my daughter's castle. And we, her humble servants.

At least I am tempted to say that is what goes on in her mind.

As a result my wife and I are making attempts to get to know her friends more and become involved in youth ministry.

For those of you in youth ministry, I applaud you. How you can look at a kid and say 'they have a good heart' and desire to foster that, is a gift beyond my comprehension.

I instead look at the kids and say 'these boys are going to want to date my daughter FAR too soon.' It has to be a hard thing to look at a kid and recognize that they have growing up to do. I look at a kid and forget that and somehow think 'they're going to be like this their whole lives.'

Patience in the growing process.

My house has been turned upside down a bit. Dad is suddenly requested to do a lot of projects without warning, that MUST be completed immediately. I don't understand this, but other fathers tell me ..'yes, it's true, something happens to their brains and they can't think ahead.'

'Dad, I have to leave for school in 2 minutes and I need you to build me an invention for school, can it be done in 30 seconds?'

'Dad, I need you to construct a replica of the Eiffel tower with toothpicks in the next three moments, please hurry.'

Is it any wonder that this is also the time that teenagers begin to realize their parents are not in fact, super heroes?

I'm unable to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but given enough time, I could probably climb tall ladders in a short time, and then spend the next few days icing my knees.

I am learning however, that when confronted with an unreasonable expectation, and an emotional young girl wondering why I can not conjur school supplies from thin air, the BEST way to react is a loving and patient, 'I love you and want to help, but I am unable to do it immediately.'

And then for fun I throw in 'because you see, I spent all morning using my super powers at work this morning and I'm tired out.'

The point of this blog, is about life here. My wife and I are involved in youth ministry now, but only just. We are planning activity days, every 3 weeks. It seems there is no MALL here to hang out at, no movies to go see, no mini-golf to go do. So 4 adults band together for a group of kids (we have 40 7th and 8th graders), and we plan a night. We become the MALL, the theatre, the ... hang out place.

Last week we made up a life size version of battleship that involved dodge balls. Soon we'll be doing something else... but I can't say what it is in case any kids read the blog.

That's part of life here. The kids go to church and bible study, but we also know they need times to simply have FUN together. My wife and I (and another couple) are in charge of manufacturing that FUN.

As someone once said, 'sure there is LESS to do, but that hasn't really turned out to be a problem.'