Today the blogosphere is abuzz with the news of a new app in the App Store called I Am Rich. The man behind the app is asking $999.99 for his efforts. What does it do? Here’s the description in the creator’s own words:

The red icon on your iPhone or iPod touch reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this.

It’s a work of art with no hidden function at all.

After pressing the (i) button on the main page, a secret mantra will be shown. This may help you to stay rich, healthy and successful.

So, in other words, it does nothing.

There’s been a wide variety of reactions to this app. Some folks are angry, some find it humorous, and still others wish they’d thought of it first. Personally I was sad to hear about it, but it did get me thinking.

Reminds Me of Facebook

I was hoping the Apple App Store wasn’t going to turn into the Facebook App Directory. When the Facebook Platform first launched I’d swing by the directory every now and then just to see if there was a gem I hadn’t heard of yet. But have you tried using the Facebook App Directory lately? It’s impossible to find anything of value in there! And I’m sure there are some pretty stellar apps being made each month that get buried under the endless supply of drivel.

Now, I don’t own an iPhone or an iPod touch but I have debated getting one recently. If I did own one I would be far less likely to “window shop” the App Store if I thought I’d have to sift through garbage like this just to find something useful. And believe me, copycats of this app are bound to be made now that the world knows Apple is willing to grant them a piece of digital shelf space. Personally, I’d like to see this app get pulled from the store and for Apple to take a stronger stance against useless applications.

Apps Worth a High Price

Obviously none of us would pay $1000 for this iPhone application. But I got to thinking: how much would a guy like me be willing to pay for an iPhone/iPod touch application? Could I see myself paying $50 for an app? How about $100?

There’s been a lot of talk about the potential for the iPhone/iPod touch to become the next great gaming device. I’m still a little skeptical, but if developers turn out good products I could see hardcore gamers (but not me) dropping $30-50 on a good game.

There have also been persistent rumors that turn-by-turn GPS is coming to the iPhone in the form of an app. I could see myself spending good money on a quality GPS app if it meant that I didn’t have to buy a standalone unit.

But those are really the only two types of applications that I could really see warrenting a high price tag, and neither would come anywhere near $1000. Plus, when you come right down to it, many of the best apps are free.

What Do You Think?

What do you think of the “I Am Rich” application? What’s the most you’d pay for an iPhone/iPod touch application? What would that application be?

Update (8/11/08):

I found a video walk-through of the I Am Rich application out on YouTube. Enjoy!

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

If you’re a reader of my content — whether it be through visiting my site, through RSS or via Facebook notes — come show your interest in my writing by joining my blog network. After that, if you’d like to be a big help, become fans of other blogs you like so the application will have some cross-referencing data to work with.

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

Aaron Gavila (aarongavila.wordpress.com) had been my roommate before. Back when I was a senior at FSU we lived together in Kellum Hall. Even though we had one of the largest rooms in that dorm it was still like living in a shoe box, so as a result we became even better friends than we had been. He graduated from FSU this spring and is now just killing time until his tour with the Peace Corps begins in February.

Aaron takes on a variety of topics in his blog drawing from his eclectic knowledge base. Putting his new economics degree to use, his most recent post responds to a blogger’s article citing the increase of porn site membership since the government began passing out stimulus checks. But Aaron also uses his blog to talk about his interests, such as his experience at a recent Dave Matthews Band concert. He’s a major fan of the NBA and has written about this year’s NBA Finals and Shaq’s rap about Kobe. Many of his other posts highlight fun YouTube videos that he’s come across. One of the features I hope he expands in the future is his personal dictionary, in which he defines made-up words (such as flabbergastnationness).

I just met Jacob Breman (jahkobian.wordpress.com) this past fall. He came to one of our Nav Night meetings after being referred by a friend. Starting in the spring he hung out at my house quite a bit, in large part because my house is very close to campus. He also graduated from FSU this spring and is waiting to begin grad school in the fall.

Jacob doesn’t deliver the quantity Aaron brings, but he makes up for it by spending a lot of time on each post. He too has put his recent degree to use — in his case, a physics degree — in writing about lightning prediction and 3-D glasses. He also tackles spiritual topics. After the tragic death of a four-year-old girl whose family attends his church he wrote a thoughtful post about death and salvation. Also, as a way of wrapping up some of what he’d learned in the two Ephesians Bible studies he was in this spring (one as a leader, one as a participant) he examined male and female relationships in the context of Ephesians 5.

So I encourage you to check out their sites. This is true of all bloggers, but new bloggers especially love to hear from their readers, so leave them a comment on one of their posts. Oh, and be sure to tell them who sent you.

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

The Miracle Tickets

Originally I had thought of organizing a big group of people to go see The Dark Knight last night, but upon hearing that the majority of people preferred to see it Friday night I decided to see if I could just find one or two other people to go with me. It turned out my friend James was planning to go with a few of his coworkers, so I figured I would join him. But none of us had gotten tickets ahead of time. We were planning to go to the theatre at around 10 PM and get our tickets two hours before the show started. Two hours in advance would be enough time, right?

Wrong. Very wrong. There are two major theatres in Tallahassee. James went to one and I went to the other to increase our chances of success. As soon as I walked in I overheard some disgusted fan express his anger at the fact that the theatre was sold out of tickets. So I call James and discover that there aren’t any tickets at his theatre either. He told me his theatre had a 3 AM showing and asked, jokingly, if I wanted to go home, sleep for a couple of hours and catch that one.

Tempting as that was, I had an idea of my own. I suggested that I go ahead and buy tickets for Friday night while I was at the theatre so we wouldn’t run into this problem again. James agreed. I went up to one of the unmanned computer kiosks and selected two tickets for the Friday night 10 PM showing. I slid my card and waited for everything to print out.

If you’re familiar with these kiosks you know that they print out one ticket and one ticket-like receipt for each ticket you purchase. But my machine just kept on printing. It printed out six little pieces of paper instead of four. I take a closer look at what I’d been given. In my hands were two tickets to the Friday show that I had meant to buy, two receipts for those tickets and two tickets for the midnight premiere showing! I know it sounds crazy and like I’m making it up but that’s really the way it happened. So I tell James to get to the theatre as quick as he can. We were even able to get two seats together even though we were two of the last two people in.

My Non-Spoiler Reactions

I don’t want to ruin this movie for anyone, so here are just a few thoughts that I have that won’t give away any of the story.

First, I have to talk about the Joker. Leading up to this movie I had read all sorts of reviews saying that Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker was his best work yet. Furthermore, his interpretation of the Joker was said to be utterly psychotic. I typically take reviews like that with a grain of salt. Movie critics are the masters of hyperbole and overindulgent language. I came in to the movie with high expectations, but I expected especially great things from Ledger.

That said, after watching The Dark Knight I can say that I felt the Joker was legitimately terrifying. I never knew what he was going to do next, and the fear of the unknown combined with the knowledge that he was capable of tremendous evil was a very scary mix. Previous to this I wasn’t a major Ledger fan, so I can’t say I’ve seen all of his work. But from what I have seen I can say that this is far and away his best outing. His performance is what makes this movie. Yes, the other stars turn in good work, but Ledger is the star of the show from start to finish. I believe Ledger’s Joker will be remembered as one of the great iconic villains in modern movie history, up there with the likes of Hannibal Lecter and Darth Vader.

One concern I had heard voiced about this movie was whether you would be distracted by the fact that Heath Ledger was alive and well on the screen but in reality had passed away back in January. Don’t worry; that probably won’t be an issue. He’s so convincing that I never saw Ledger on the screen, only the Joker. There is one line that, given his death, has taken on some sad irony, but that didn’t even occur to me until I was out of the theatre.

Should Ledger be considered for an Oscar? I think it would be a crime not to give him a nomination. I know there’s some concern that it would be done in large part because of his death, but after you see what he’s done I think you’ll agree that the work speaks for itself. Should he win? That’s really dependent on his competition. But you never know.

Maggie Gyllenhaal does a great job replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. I can’t deny, however, that it was a little distracting to try to convince myself that this was supposed to be the same woman from Batman Begins. But her performance is great. She has a certain subtlety to the way she portrays her character that I think Holmes lacked. I think people in the business call it “presence.” In the end I still wish they could have brought back Holmes just for the sake of continuity, but considering the hand that was dealt the outcome was better than I expected.

It’s hard for me to say whether or not I liked Christian Bale’s sophomore outing as the Caped Crusader. If Batman Begins is about Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, The Dark Knight is about Batman and the consequences that persona has on Bruce Wayne. Wayne has a much smaller role in this film. Much of Batman’s screen time is shared with the Joker, who steals the show in every frame. As such, I’m going to wait to pass final judgment on Bale until I’ve seen the movie one or two more times. My first impression is that his performance was adequate, but nothing all that special.

I felt like there was a lot more going on in this movie than in Batman Begins. Maybe that’s because the violence is on such a greater scale, or maybe it’s just because this movie is longer. It could also be due to the fact that I’ve only seen this movie once and I’m still trying to process everything I’ve seen, whereas I’ve seen Batman Begins many times and know every turn of the plot inside and out. At any rate, you should prepare yourself for a multi-layered film.

Overall the movie is much darker than its predecessor. Of course this is in large part due to its primary villain, but even Batman himself is darker in this film. He makes some choices, one in particular, that are morally questionable. Some may not like this, desiring Batman to be incorruptible regardless of the circumstance. But this is the Batman of the graphic novels, the one who is a vigilante and chooses to observe society’s standard moral code most of the time, but who also makes his own rules when the going gets tough. It certainly raising some questions that are very relevant in our world today, like how much leeway are we willing to give our protectors so that they can keep us safe?

Here’s a quick tip: there isn’t a scene after the end credits. Feel free to leave when the credits start rolling.

I do have a couple of negative things to say, but feel like there isn’t a way to say them without giving away plot details. I plan to write a follow-up review of the film in a week or two, just to give the general population a chance to see it at least once so they can agree or disagree with what I have to say.

The Verdict

A lot of movies that will come out this summer are not worth your $9 to go see in the theatres. I believe The Dark Knight is one of the few exceptions. This isn’t just a great superhero movie, nor is it just a great crime saga. It’s a movie that trendscends generes. Now, that’s not to say this is a movie for everyone. It can be heart-in-your-throat scary at times. There’s a lot of violence. When it’s over you’ll probably walk out of the theatre exhausted, even if you aren’t watching it at midnight like I did. So if that’s not your bag I might think twice before seeing it. But if none of those things rub you the wrong way I would highly recommend this movie to you. Batman Begins informs this movie, but if you haven’t seen it (or if you haven’t seen it in a long time) you can still see The Dark Knight without experiencing major confusion.

Did you see The Dark Knight at midnight too? Did you or anyone with you dress up like one of the characters? Let me know some of the things that made the movie great for you in the comments (please, be sensative with plot details).

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

Blippr has taken a page from Twitter and capped the number of characters you can use in your review at 160. That’s the max length of a standard text message. This forces all those typically long-winded folks to get to the point of the matter in a hurry. Even if I never felt compelled to write a review using Blippr I’d still want an account there so I could browse what others have said. I can type in a movie, album, book or video game I’m interested in and quickly get an idea of what people think of it. If I find a user who has similar tastes as I do, I can select to follow that user and will receive their reviews automatically within my profile.

If you find you want to share your opinion you are prompted to select one of four emoticons (representing “loved it,” “liked it,” “whatever,” and “disliked it”) and then to write your short review (or “blip” as they call it). How do you capture how your favorite movie makes you feel in only a couple of sentences? What about that video game you wish you hadn’t blown $60 on? Since I’m an aspiring writer I have found it to be an interesting challenge to use an economy of words and to select exactly which points are most important in my review. Rather than hampering my creativity I believe it is actually helping me identify and articulate my opinions more effectively.

It’s worth mentioning that Blippr isn’t trying to become the next big social networking site. Their goal is to integrate with previously existing social networks. They already have a Facebook application which does a great job of bringing your blips into the News Feed and Mini-Feed. Actually, you can do almost everything from within the application that you can do on the Blippr website. My hope is that some talented developer will make a great WordPress plugin so I can bring my blips to my website seamlessly.

Blippr is currently in private beta, which is a fancy way of saying they’re only letting a handful of people use the thing, listening to their feedback as they prepare for its public launch. However, you can get an account there the same way I did. I first heard about Blippr a few weeks ago in a post by FaceReviews.com. In that post they provide a link to get a beta invite email right on the spot. You’ll be up and blipping in no time! Update: As of July 25, 2008, Blippr is open to everyone without the need of an invite.

I highly recommend Blippr as a creative way of reading or writing reviews. You’ll find it to be both informative and addictive. Go get your invite and join Blippr today!

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

You see, this past year Kyle was one of my two roommates and Nicki one of my three next-door neighbors. On top off all that, all of us were campus ministers with The Navigators. When we all moved in to the respective sides of our hole-in-the-wall duplex in August ‘07 Kyle and Nicki weren’t even dating, much less thinking of marriage. In short, I got to witness these chapters of their love story unfold from a very unique angle. Before I become too far removed from it, I’d like to try to tell some of that story.

I remember a night in the spring after Kyle and Nicki were engaged. My roommates, Luke and Kyle, and I were getting ready for bed. The wedding was drawing near, and Luke commented that it had been fun to watch Kyle and Nicki fall in love. I immediately disagreed with him, which they both thought was hysterical. But I was being half serious. Don’t misunderstand me. Once they fell it was lots of fun, but the falling was not fun at all. The months leading up to their dating relationship were filled with suspense. Will they? Won’t they? Each week Luke, Kyle and I had a roommate meeting where we could share how we were struggling or how we needed prayer. In the fall those meetings more often than not featured Kyle lamenting over the proper way for him to relate to Nicki, whether he should start a second dating relationship with her, and what that would mean if he did.

Alyssa and Helen, Nicki’s roommates from this past year, probably agree with me to some extent. That fall they started calling Kyle “the elephant,” referring to the old expression “there’s an elephant in the room.” I imagine a typical conversation back in the fall might have sounded a little like this.

Nicki (getting off the phone): Kyle’s going to come over for a little bit, okay?
Helen (big smile): Oh, the elephant’s coming over!
Alyssa (big smile): Oh, the elephant’s coming over!
Nicki (small smile): Yeah, the elephant’s coming.

I can relate to that elephant feeling (though — and let’s be clear about this — I would never refer to Nicki as such). She and Kyle were fond of watching The Office together in our living room on her laptop, which generally signaled my cue to exit to the back of the house. Not only do I think The Office isn’t funny at all, but, you know, I didn’t want to be the third wheel on their fake-date. More than once Nicki had to assure me that it would be fine if I stayed out in the living room with them while they watched, to which I politely thanked her and made some excuse for needing to be at my computer (thank God for desktops).

This kind of thing went on for months. I have to admit, I had no idea how the story was going to end. As a rule I tend to think that most stories will have a happy ending so long as I’m not one of the principle characters. But with this I wasn’t sure. But I remember the exact moment I knew this story was going to have a happy ending. It was the beginning of December. It may very well have been December 1, because I think we were all celebrating Kyle’s brother’s birthday. I don’t recall how he did it, but Kyle really injured his back that day. Kyle has had chronic back trouble, but on this day he was in absolute agony, barely able to move.

So Ross’ party had given way to tending to Kyle and trying to get him comfortable. It was getting late and the birthday party crew had dwindled to myself, Ross, Nicki and Kyle. Nicki had gone to her side of the duplex to get something, a heating pad I think, and when she returned I stopped her at our door. Thinking that I was being considerate, I told her that I thought Ross and I could handle things if she wanted to go home and get some sleep. Looking past me, she responded saying, “I just want to take care of him,” and rushed into the house.

It wasn’t just her words, and it wasn’t just how she said them. She had a look on her face and in her eyes, a look that I can really only describe as a mothering look, a look that I hadn’t at all expected to see. But there it was. It was love. Because he was hurting so was she. I stood there in the doorway struck dumb by the scene, for it isn’t everyday you see that sort of thing. And even though they were still only fake-dating, that’s when I knew this story was going to end well.

They began real-dating not long after that, a week or two later. That came as both a joy and a relief to me. Finally! Of course, with this came a new question. When were they going to get engaged? And no, it wasn’t too early to begin asking. Saying they wanted to be a couple again was saying they wanted to be a couple for good. Allow me emphasize my point. I remember one afternoon in early January, before they were engaged. Luke, Kyle and I were in our kitchen. I was eating lunch. Then this little conversation happened.

Kyle: Nicki and I were talking and we might be getting married in April.
Me: [Pause for effect, then, incredulously, without looking up from my sandwich...] Whatever.
Luke: [High-pitched laughter, either at me or Kyle, possibly both.]

A few days later they were engaged. It was over MLK weekend. I’ve heard that story a hundred times now but I could never do it justice. Soon after they set a date of May 4. In the time between the “Yes” and the “I do” they were racing around putting the pieces of the wedding together. I would come home and find them on our couch, both on their laptops, with all sorts of everything laying out in front of them, making calls or talking through details. Most of my memory of those spring months, as far as wedding prep goes, has to do with hearing of their latest completed step and their next big hurdle. Kyle’s roommate meeting talks turned from lament to a strange mix of stress and peace: stress over the work that still needed to be done and peace over the woman he was marrying. Those months seemed to go by very fast. I can see why most couples don’t try to plan a wedding in such a small amount of time.

I remember the last night Kyle was my roommate. It was April 30. The FSU Nav staff, sans Kyle and Nicki, had just come back from a region-wide planning meeting in Gainesville. Kyle was going to Ocala the next morning where he’d be through the wedding day. The three of us went out for a late dinner at Gordo’s, a little Cuban restaurant near our house. It was all a little surreal. It was strange to think about the fact that he wasn’t going to be my roommate ever again, stranger still to think about who his next roommate was going to be! It had been a great year together. To not only be living together but to all be campus ministers for the same ministry together was very special. I’m going to miss it.

The wedding weekend, so far as I could tell, went exactly as they planned it. I got to be apart of so much more than I ever thought I would. Like I said, I wasn’t in the wedding, but you wouldn’t have known it. I went to Kyle’s bachelor party, played ultimate Frisbee with he and his groomsmen, and even attended the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (I received a last-second special invite from Nicki). To top it all off, instead of staying with my friend at his parents’ home, I got to stay in the hotel with the groomsmen. And not just any room — Kyle’s room. Yep, it was me, Kyle, Joe Landon, JD and Ross. (Fold-out couch for the win!) I continue to feel very blessed to have been apart of so much of that weekend.

The ceremony was very special. Nicki was such a beautiful bride! Their wedding included some moments I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Like when little Benjamin Wirgau, who’s possibly the cutest five-year-old ever, came in right on cue waving his little bell saying, “The bride is coming! The bride is coming!” Or how at least half a dozen times I thought Kyle and Nicki were going to kiss before they were told to. Or how the whole ceremony seemed to be happening around the bride and groom, that when you looked at them looking at each other it was as though they were already somewhere else entirely. But even if I forget all that, I’ll never forget their kiss! You have to know that these two had never kissed on the lips before. You also have to know that the groomsmen put me in charge of timing their kiss because we were betting on how long it would be (I know, men are twisted). That smooch was officially 12.23 seconds! I’m smiling just thinking about it. Those crazy kids.

The newlyweds were openly playful at their reception. Quite appropriately their first dance was to Ella Fitzgerald’s “At Last.” It was a classy reception, complete with a song from High School Musical (to which everyone seemed to know the corresponding dance). Cheesy Disney music not withstanding, it really was one heck of a party. We all danced the night away, and before too long Kyle and Nicki made their exit under a canopy of bubbles, off to a Jamaican honeymoon.

I said at the start that I felt very much apart of this wedding despite the fact that I didn’t hold any role in it. I think that’s because this is the first wedding in which I knew both the bride and the groom this well. In fact, I’ve only been to two other weddings where I’d even met both bride and groom prior to the ceremony, and in each case I knew one far better than the other. That’s what made this a unique experience for me. I’ve known both Kyle and Nicki for six years now. This past year I was privileged to get to know them both much better as fellow laborers and dear friends. I don’t typically express happiness with tears, but I had them on my face for most of their ceremony. Truly, I couldn’t be happier for them.

[A few photos I took during the wedding weekend are on my site and on Facebook.]

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

In an attempt to spice things up a bit I took a break from many of my regular activities and commitments and began some new ones. I started sleeping in, which for me means waking up between 7:00 and 8:00 AM instead of 5:30 AM. I stopped running to rest my bum foot and started weight training with my friend James. I’ve been cooking more and eating out much less. I spent less time one-on-one with students and instead put a lot of energy into leading a Bible study on 2 Timothy. But most significantly, I barely did any writing in any form all month. I’m hoping the result will be a freshness in my blogging and journaling that I think it disparately needs.

I have a few topics that I’m really looking forward to writing about here over the next couple of weeks. Keep checking back for updates.

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

Today is the first ever RSS Awareness Day! The organizers (Daily Blog Tips) have asked participants to blog about RSS on May 1, so here’s my contribution.

Now, I know that typically an awareness day is used to highlight a major social problem in the world. So if you’re unfamiliar with RSS you might think that it sounds like an abbreviation for a disease, as in:

Person 1: “Yeah, my dad’s living in a home now. He’s got ESRD.”
Person 2: “My mom just found out she has RSS.”
Person 1: “Oh, I’m so sorry.”
Person 2: “Yeah, she doesn’t have much time.”

But that isn’t the case. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. An RSS document, commonly called a feed, contains either a summary or the full content from a website. You as the user can subscribe to a site’s syndication feed using a feed reader.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Why would I want to do that? I have enough online accounts and websites to worry about!” Do you have a few blogs or news sites that you visit the most? Have you ever found yourself going through your bookmarks, clicking through that list, wondering if someone has released an update, only to find that the content is still the same from when you last checked? That’s pretty frustrating, isn’t it? It’s also time-consuming.

What if you could go to one place to find out when all of your favorite sites had posted new content? That’s exactly what RSS is for! Once you subscribe to a site’s feed you will automatically receive all updates that are published in that feed. Typically a blog will include all of its posts in its feed, but some sites even let you subscribe to a specific category of posts. Similarly, on a news site you can subscribe to “All News,” but you can also subscribe to “Breaking News” or “Entertainment” or “Sports.”

The following video, created by the good people over at Common Craft, demonstrates what I’m talking about.

As the video explains, the first thing you’ll need is a reader. I prefer web-based readers because you can access your list of sites from any computer. I use Google Reader. I would especially recommend Google Reader if you already have a GMail or Google account. You’ll be able to use the same login information for Google Reader.

After you have chosen your reader you need to subscribe to your favorite websites. You’ve probably seen this orange image and blown right past it without even thinking about what it means. That’s the RSS logo. Most blogs and news sites will prominently display that logo somewhere on their page. If you don’t see it, don’t worry; it’ll appear on your browser as well. In Firefox it appears in the far right-hand side of the address bar. In either case, to subscribe to a site you need to click on that icon.

The page you’ll be taken to will either be a subscribe page generated by the site you’re visiting or a bunch of code. If you see a subscribe page, it will list a bunch of common readers for you to choose from. The Google Reader subscribe image typically looks like this: If it’s code you see, copy the address in the address bar and manually add it to your reader using the Add Subscription link. But you can setup Firefox–under the Options menu–to automatically take you to the Google Reader subscribe page whenever you click on that icon (instructions here). That way you’ll never see a scary page of code ever again!

Once you have all your favorite sites entered into your reader you will only have one site to check to see if any new content has been posted. And I’m going to give you one more trick so that you won’t even have to visit Google Reader to find out if there’s anything there waiting for you! There is a Firefox add-on extension called Google Reader Notifier. Once you install it and enter in your account information this little guy will sit at the bottom of your browser window, periodically refreshing, letting you know exactly how many unread items you have over at Google Reader.

For more information on RSS you can check out RSSDay.org or the Wikipedia entry for RSS.

Do yourself a favor and start subscribing to your favorite sites! You can start by subscribing to my blog: click here.

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

We ended the evening with a musical. Last year we had “Mary Poppins in Fifteen Minutes.” This Christmas we had “It’s A Wonderful Life in Fifteen Minutes.” This year was “The Sound of the Lion Newsies,” a combination of The Sound of Music, The Lion King and Newsies. Yeah, it was sort of a mess, but very funny. A couple of us recorded the performance and, eventually, we intend to create an edited version that looks nice and polished. For now I’ve posted up the unedited version.

Like what you see? Come visit my site for more. From there you can see my best posts, my photos or my videos.

© 2004-2008 John Andrew Ledwith, All Rights Reserved

I’m fond of saying that this is the most important trip our ministry takes each year. Conferences and road trips are great, but nothing can hold a candle to setting aside a 40-hour period toward to pursue God. As I reflect on college I realize now that the most important things I learned were life patterns that I could put into practice outside of college. One of those was the practice of getting away from life every now and then to seek God for extended periods of time, and the very first time I did that was for the prayer retreat in 2003, my freshman year. That weekend was led by Vic Black, the National Prayer Director for the Navigators. It was the very first time I had ever heard anyone talk about generational sin, which was the topic the Lord led us to that weekend.

I missed last year’s pray retreat on account of my cousin’s wedding, so I was really looking forward to this trip. Vic Black was once again leading our time, his first prayer retreat with us since 2005. He actually started things off by giving the message at Nav Night the Thursday before the trip. Friday afternoon he had lunch with the staff to prepare us as facilitators for this retreat. Vic is a great teacher. He’s also an extremely open man. These two qualities make him one of my favorite Nav staff.

The retreat itself had an interesting flow to it. The major themes of the weekend were God’s faithfulness, the Lamb of God (Revelation 5) and the Cross. One striking thing about the retreat: we never really asked for anything. In the past we’ve petitioned God for something as a community, either for our friends to come to know Jesus or to be free from sin in our lives or something of that nature. But not this time. The entire weekend was praising God for who He is. As staff we even went so far to put a chair in the middle of the room on Sunday morning, saying that if anyone wanted prayer for anything they could come up and we’d pray for them. No one took the offer. We spent that morning praising God. This amazes me still!

Prayer retreats are also fun because we get sort of goofy. One thing that’s turned into a tradition is that we always get Dave Wirgau - our head campus minister - to play the guitar and sing for us. He does it reluctantly at first, but he really gets into it. Anyway, this year I captured the magic on video.

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