The Seabourns

Archives for November 2007

Edit Google Maps

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I’m a big user of Google Maps. But since I moved into our home in Orlando four years ago, Google Maps has led people to the wrong house in our neighborhood. Now, Google allows users to edit their maps to improve accuracy. Hooray!

Before, I would tell people, “You can look up our address on Google Maps. It will get you close, on the correct street. But we’re on the other side of the lake, so keep driving around the lake until you find our house number.”

So, I’ve edited Google Maps. Now anyone can use Google Maps and actually get to our house without driving around the lake looking for house numbers. Cool!

Now, if Mapquest and MSN Maps would just let me update their location marker…

So if you want to come see Kay and me, please use Google Maps!

Keith & Kay Seabourn

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I’m reading in 1 Peter this morning. Some of the passages are especially challenging.

“So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while. These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. … So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed…” (1:6,7, New Living Translation).

I don’t understand why God needs to use trials to test our faith. It feels bad. It seems there must be another way. But apparently there is not, because he is both all wise and all loving. Putting these together tells me that he is not playing games with me. This is serious stuff and he’s committed to me – both as his child whom he loves and as his child whom he knows will be happiest as I grow stronger and purer.

I was also finishing reading in James this morning. Ch 4:10 surprised me in NLT (which is why I like to read different translations from year to year). “When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.”

I’ve been convicted personally about my need to feel and express my dependence on the Lord more regularly, multiple times each day. It’s easy to drift into independence where the focus becomes the mechanics of the Christian life and the processes that lead to success (like sharing my faith with the guy sitting next to me; organizing successful conferences, etc.). It’s a fine line and it’s not very sharply defined. But a life truly dependent on God delights him. By this time in our Christian lives, many of us know the words, and I can trick myself into a feeling of dependence.

My prayer lately is that I’ll truly live out my total dependence on him. It pleases him. He loves it when it’s pure in my own soul.

Happy Thanksgiving

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Kay and I were on a flight from Dallas to Atlanta as we returned to Orlando. I sat next to Matt.

Matt was returning to Charleston from a medical mission project in Mexico. He was very excited and deeply touched by the things he had witnessed. He told me story after story of suffering and deprivation . One thing I’ve learned is to never assume people have made a personal decision to accept Christ. As I talked with Matt, I asked him one of my favorite questions, “How would you describe your spiritual journey? Where are you in your journey?” His response surprised me. “I’m wandering.”

The Delta Airlines seat assignment system had been used by God to make a divine appointment. Kay and I are people who truly follow Jesus. And Matt needs to know people who truly follow Jesus.

Matt lives off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. He told me proudly that he lives in the 62nd most prosperous zip code in the U.S. He is the son of a pastor. But he was hurt deeply as a young man by “people in the church”, as he put it. He does attends a church with his wife and children “because it’s good to be exposed to church stuff as long as the people are nice.”

But Matt doesn’t know Jesus. Matt is growing in his awareness that there is more to life than owning a home in the 62nd most prosperous zip code. God used the medical mission trip in surprising ways that touched Matt deeply.

As we parted in the airport , I gave Matt a booklet that speaks to young professionals. The booklet begins, “You invest in yourself daily — education, relationships, career. But have you ever considered the value of investing in the spiritual aspect of your life? The following four principles will help you succeed spiritually through a personal relationship with God.” I encouraged Matt to seek out a small Bible study group of similar young professionals to explore the spiritual aspect of his life.

So in this season of giving thanks, Kay and I are so very thankful for God’s faithfulness in our lives. We are thankful for His allowing us to serve as His ambassadors helping people find purpose and meaning in life. We are thankful for friends and partners who pray and give so that we can work around the world, and also so that we can speak to the guy sitting in the next airplane seat.

Church website design help

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Does your church have a website? How effective is it? How would you measure effectiveness? Would you like some expert advice?

Some friends of mine have recently completed a powerful tool to help evaluate and improve church web site design to reach outsiders. This is a free, online self-assessment tool to help you and your church communicate to others, especially those outside your church.

Church website design help: tool to evaluate and improve church web site design to reach outsiders

I highly recommend that a small team from your church use this tool to evaluate your site. It’s based on several years of wise website design developed and tested by some of the best in the internet ministry world.