Before we left for furlough, back in June 2014, I had created a 'note' on my phone listing all of my ideas for things we could do/learn/bring back from furlough. I had planned out how I would spend my time in the U.S. knowing that things don't always go according to plan.
Some of the many ideas I had:
-market the need for solar panels in our house, to christian businesses
-research new internet technology and purchase and deploy in PNG
-learn basic 3d printing and modeling
-learn basic robotics programming enough to teach young people
-raise enough money to purchase a new vehicle
-publish book
-introduce kids to new and exciting things
-bring back cool educational things to help and bless the PNG community.
The list was really long. I figured if we accomplished even 50% of it we'd be golden.
We got close to 85% of it I think, maybe more. The Solar thing never happened… that was a no brainer but had a lot of up front costs we couldn't afford.
Once we got here, and got access to Youtube… man, like a friend of mine said 'this decade has been like a Do-it-yourself renaissance'. Tons of new and crazy ideas came flooding into my head.
Our super cool potato gun didn't happen…. but that's only because we thought of it too late.
When you have a dad full of crazy ideas,
and a son interested in mechanical engineering…
then you have the formula for two people who want to try and build all kinds of interesting and quirky things.
And when you have a lot of ideas like that, then you feel this constant clock of time ticking. 4 years of high school for my son, he graduated from middle school this week. 2 years for my daughter.
tick tock… tick tock..
10 days before we move out of our house…
tick tock
15 days until we get on a plane
tick tock….
This constant barrage of ideas flowing into me… that is what furlough has accomplished. It took a tired, 'I just want to sleep for a month' version of me… filled me with wonder and excitement and a million ideas….
and now the only restrictions are time and availability of materials.
This is truly a wondrous time… a time where imagination and reality are getting closer and closer.
I never want to hear anyone younger than 50 say "I'm bored." There is too much to do out there, too many possibilities!
The only lament I have is losing this fast internet connection means that learning will come more slowly. The water pressure of information will be slowing to a drizzle, but in some ways, that will free me up to act on current ideas, without flooding in the new ones.
It'll be a welcome respite from the onslaught of information. And so, to be honest, I am not really saddened by the slower speed or the higher cost of internet in PNG. It is there if you need it… but it doesn't have the power to overwhelm you at every turn.
Sometimes people ask me 'Chad, HOW did you think this crazy thing up?' I'll tell you. At night, before falling asleep, I say my evening prayers, and I lay there with my eyes open, and begin to just think… think about this need or that need, and how I might meet it. What we might be able to do. And I drift off to sleep thinking about things…. in the morning, when I wake up, I sometimes have ideas, and I write them down quickly.
And then, I start to act on them quickly. To me that's the key. Give value to your ideas by not letting them just die. They may die along the way, but sometimes, taking the first step, helps birth a whole new idea.
Enough blogging…
And now.. it's time to get working on some of these ideas!!!!
