Logos Bible Software Blog

June 20, 2007

Bible Study Bus Rollin' Through the Bayou

Landon Norton files this brief from the Bible Study Bus. View more road trip photos at Flickr or read previous posts from the trip. 

Hello Logos blog readers...and greetings from the Bible Study Bus!!

The Bible Study Bus Road Trip: America has entered into its 3rd month and after taking the reins from Bob, the Norton Four (my wife Krissy and I together with our nearly 3-year-old Taylor and 11-month-old Nicholas), began presenting Logos Bible Software at churches across Arkansas – Razorback Nation! 

This year, our accommodations have been mostly KOA campgrounds, which have been really great – family friendly and fun. That’s not to say we had too much time to play. With 5 Road Trip stops the first week and radio interviews in Little Rock, our time was filled pretty quickly.

People have no idea what to expect when they show up at the church. It’s great to see their face when these Bible study tools go into action right before their eyes. I’ve been telling radio listeners to bring two pairs of socks to the presentation – because they will have one pair blown off!

The Bus rolled through the Bayou State this past week, stopping in Lake Charles for a few days and the weekend here in Lafayette. We had a little more time for fun this week and made the most of it. After having the RV worked on for regular maintenance (insert toll booth joke here), we hit the barbecue, the pool and a few local points of interest.

During one event here, we had more Spanish-speaking people show up than English-speaking and I had to have an interpreter repeat my entire presentation on the fly. It was really neat!

On Saturday, WSJY, the AFR station in Lafayette had their big fundraiser the day after our event - it’s called Freedom Fest. We pulled the Bus in and had a great time celebrating our freedom in Christ with people in the great Acadian region of Louisiana – even Bob and Larry showed up!

This week we head into Mississippi as we make our jaunt northward for a few days before going into the end-run of our month-long leg.

I hope to make some more time to write, but honestly, folks, most days I live on airplanes, shuttles and rental cars. Having my kids here to play with each night...let’s just say I love making ‘Father Time’ a major part of this awesome endeavor.

Blessings from the Bus Crew!
Landon, Krissy, Taylor and Nicholas

 

June 11, 2007

Teaming Up with AFR (Logos on the Airwaves 2)

Part 1 | Part 3

A cool thing about partnering up with American Family Radio for the Bible Study Bus road trip this year is that AFR has about a billion radio stations nationwide. So they've been able to promote the events with radio spots sprinkled throughout their normal programming in every city we visit.

That means hundreds of thousands of people across the country are hearing about Logos Bible Software this summer. And it might sound something like this...

Bible Study Bus (mp3 | 60 seconds)

Or far more entertaining, this...

Harry and Margaret (mp3 | 60 seconds)

June 8, 2007

Bible Study Bus is Not in Kansas Anymore

The Bible Study Bus rolls on...and we keep hearing good things from those who attend. An attendee/organizer from Kansas sent this email after the Bus visited her church in late May:

Landon,

The Bible Study Bus event was a success!  We had between 40 and 50 people there, which I thought was good considering the majority were not from our church. I was really excited because I had sent a media alert to our local TV stations and one of them actually came and interviewed Bob and took pictures of the bus. It was featured on the news last night.

The presentation was awesome! I was impressed with how intuitive the Bible study software is. I suggested to Bob that he go back to work for Microsoft and make Word and Project more user friendly, too :)  One of my favorite features is the ability to see flowcharts of the relationships between everyone in the Bible. I can never keep track of who knew who.

Please thank everyone for bringing the Bible Study Bus to Topeka.  It was a terrific experience!

Thanks!

Wendy

Sure enough, channel 13 reported that "A big green tour bus cruised the streets of Topeka." Big and green don't quite do it justice, somehow...

May 30, 2007

The Changing of the Guard

Guest blogger Scott Lindsey is back in the office after five weeks on the Bible Study Bus. View more road trip photos at Flickr or read Scott's first and second posts from the trip.

Bob Pritchett, our fearless leader, and family flew into Dallas on Tuesday evening to take the keys to the Bible Study Bus and continue our Bible study campaign across America!

I can’t believe my leg of the trip is done… WHEW, that was a lot of driving and work. The Lindsey Crew drove almost 5,000 miles in the last 5 weeks. But it sure has been a privilege to introduce people to the best Bible study technology on the planet!

We had some great BBQ and an even better event Tuesday night in Fort Worth at Christ Chapel Bible Church. Attending Tuesday night’s event was Mike Atwell, our new Field Rep for the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

Wednesday was a day to celebrate… the first installment of the Bible Study Bus Road Trip is complete! So, we went to Six Flags over Texas. Thanks to Sean Fields - our resident graphic artist - and his loud-and-proud Bible Study Bus design, it’s impossible to forget where you park the thing. You should have seen the bus in the massive Six Flags parking lot… thousands of people all day walked by mouthing the words Bible-Study-Bus. We invited the Dossey family up from Austin to enjoy the day with us. Alex and Nicole both used to work at Logos and have remained dear friends. It was great seeing them again! 

It was truly a blessing to travel across this great nation for the last 5 weeks and meet so many wonderful churches and show the Body of Christ how Logos can greatly impact personal Bible study. I pray the fruit of our labor brings glory to the Lord and creates a hunger and thirst for His word.

Well, onward Logos Bible Study Bus! The Road Trip continues through August so we hope to see you at one of the events.

- Scott Lindsey & Family

May 8, 2007

Trekking Through Texas

Today's post is written by Scott Lindsey, director of ministry relations for Logos, who is on the Bible Study Bus road trip. View more road trip photos at Flickr or read Scott's first post from the trip.

The Bible Study Bus is still trekking through Texas. Wow, is this a big state! We have been driving all around Texas for over 2 weeks now. It was so great to see so many old friends while we were in Abilene. My 11-year-old son, Beau, was born in Abilene. When he found out we had the Texas leg of the Road Trip he exclaimed, “I get to see my people!?” Beau sure has loved the great BBQ we have been eating while in Texas. None has been better the feast we had with our friends, the Held family, at Harmon’s BBQ in Cibolo. If you are ever in the San Antonio area you have got to make this detour. Your mouth and belly will thank you for it! 

While in Abilene, we were able to introduce our friends, the Ganske Family, to the awesome hobby of Geocaching. We spent a Saturday venturing all over Abilene looking for geocaches.

Geocaching is a treasure hunt using a handheld GPS. My family is hooked! We have done 14 geocaches while on the Bible Study Bus tour. The best part of geocaching for the kids is when they find a larger geocache that has small presents in them. The rule is: take something, leave something. We have left Logos coffee mugs, t-shirts, and Logos-branded, Bellingham roasted coffee as treasure for the next geocache discoverers.

We have many geocachers at Logos. It's a great way to be in the great outdoors with your family. For more information on the sport, visit: http://www.geocaching.com/faq/ 

After Abilene we headed to San Antonio where we had the biggest Bible Study Bus event to date at Castle Hills First Baptist church. The drive down to San Antonio was all small country and farm roads. You know you are out in the middle of nowhere when the GPS in the RV shows that the nearest Starbucks is 94 miles away!!! I had to wait almost 3 hours for my caffeine fix. 

We had a great turnout at Castle Hills. Logos created a lot of Bible study excitement that night! I received a great email from the senior pastor a few days later concerning his Bible Study Bus presentation experience:

“Our church loved the Bible Study Bus Road Trip presentation!  Scott has a unique ability to connect with an audience. His presentation was engaging, entertaining, and most of all, inspiring.  He demonstrated to our people the power of Logos. He showed us how user-friendly and convenient it is to use this revolutionary software. As a result, I now have dozens of leaders and teachers in my church who are seriously studying the word of God with the best tools available. Pastors make many decisions while leading their people to grow spiritually…having the Bible Study Bus visit Castle Hills First Baptist Church was a homerun. We can’t wait for it to return!” 

Just a few more weeks in Texas… hope to see you at a Bible Study Bus event soon!

April 30, 2007

The Bible Study Bus is Rolling!

Today's post is written by Scott Lindsey, director of ministry relations for Logos, who is on the Bible Study Bus road trip. View more road trip photos at Flickr.

Right after Easter service on April 8^th, I took off with my family to begin the 2007 Bible Study Road Trip. Our first event was in the Gresham, OR area at Good Shepherd Community Church. We had a great turnout. Those who attended were shocked to see what Logos has been doing for the last 16 years.

The goal of this year’s Bible Study Road Trip is to introduce congregations to the potential of using the Logos technology for Bible study. We are honored to have American Family Radio sponsoring this year’s tour. American Family Radio is one of the largest Christian radio networks in the country and they will be promoting a majority of the events in the cities where they have radio coverage.

For the past 2 weeks we have been trying to get to the AFR listenership areas as fast as we can…3,000 miles in 14 days! In has been an amazing journey with my wife and children seeing this awesome nation we have the privilege of living in. We have made stops in Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and now Texas. We will be in great state of Texas for the next few weeks.

The children had a great home school learning experience this past Saturday night in Amarillo when we all spent 4 hours in a RV park storm shelter while 11 tornados dropped all around the city! My wife loves the Pacific Northwest even more now! On the way down to Lubbock for our April 23^rd event, we stopped through the small town of Tulia, TX where one of the bigger tornados touched down. The tornado completely destroyed a Ford dealership, grocery store, and gas station (see the news story). We took some amazing pictures and were glad to find out no one was seriously injured. My children pay a bit more attention now to Texas storm clouds!

We are currently in Abilene, Texas. I was stationed here at Dyess Air Force Base over 10 years ago and we still have great friends here. It has been a wonderful few days of fellowship. We are on the way to San Antonio this weekend. If you would like more information about the Bible Study Road Trip and where we are going, please visit www.BibleStudyBus.com. We would love to see you at one of the events!

Scott Lindsey & family
- The Bible Study Bus Crew Chief

March 28, 2007

Bringing the Bible Back to America

Logos is taking the Bible Study Bus back on the road this summer!

Right now we're working hard to line up host churches in cities all across the country. If you're able to open your church or school for an event, please check the itinerary at www.BibleStudyBus.com and then fill out this brief survey with some details about your venue.

The following article should give you a flavor of what the tour will be like.

Bringing the Bible Back to America

By Mark Van Dyke and Daniel Foster

American Family Radio and Logos Bible Software want to help Americans get back into the Bible. That is why they have teamed up to create the Bible Study Bus Road Trip: America, which will travel nearly 13,000 miles around the United States this spring and summer.

A short time ago, Gary Burge, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, reported in Christianity Today the results of a Bible literacy test his department applied to incoming freshmen. Of these students--most of whom came from strong evangelical churches--a third didn’t know that Paul’s travels are recorded in Acts or that the Christmas story is found in Matthew.

The crisis facing the church is not that Christians disagree with what they have studied in the Bible and what is taught from the pulpit--it’s not simply that they don’t believe the clear teachings of Scripture; it’s that many have never heard them to begin with.

Christians desperately need to study the Bible and have it communicated clearly to them from the pulpit, but as churches turn to “spiritainment” to draw the masses, what often falls through the cracks is the transfer of doctrinal truths and/or the edification of parishioners’ minds.

In a recent interview, Burge maintained that biblical illiteracy is “a universal and growing problem,” among students and churches, citing the trend toward a therapeutic emphasis in preaching as part of the problem.

“There’s not an educational dimension any longer. We’re all about the experience, not the facts,” he said. And as a result the younger generation is not learning the important stories, people and background of the Bible. This semester, Burge asked 45 seniors in an advanced class to paraphrase, from memory, the Ten Commandments. Only one student could do it.

What’s to be done to remedy this situation? It’s simple: study the Bible.

However, knowing where to start or how to conduct a Bible study is often an area that many Christians could use some help in. That’s why American Family Radio and Logos Bible Software are embarking on the Bible Study Bus Road Trip: America. A Logos trainer will present the new ways that technology is being applied to Bible study at each free Bible Study Bus tour event.

Starting April 9, 2007 the Bible Study Bus will trek throughout the lower 48, showing Christians how to improve their own Bible study. More than 70 events will be held in large metropolitan areas and small towns alike.

Scott Lindsey, Director of Ministry Relations at Logos will travel the first leg of the trip, which starts in Portland, Oregon. Scott has been teaching at conferences for nearly 8 years.

Scott says, “Every time I present Logos at a conference, jaws hit the floor in seconds. Countless times I have had people come up to me afterwards and tell me Logos is an answer to prayer!”

“The number one excuse people give for not doing Bible study is a lack of time and Logos is the best solution for this problem,” says Scott. “Not only can you do amazing Bible study in 15 minutes or less but Logos can help people dig deeper into the Bible than they ever thought possible.”

The fact is that adults and children are spending more and more time in front of their computers. We work in front of the screen, entertain ourselves there, maintain relationships via E-mail, and research purchases on the web. It’s only natural that the computer should become a place of Bible research and meditation. You can go straight from checking your favorite newsgroup to checking what the Bible says on the topic, painlessly integrating Bible reading and study into the daily ebb and flow of life. And when you’re ready to get serious about study, all the books and tools you need are available at the click of a mouse.

And what about those people who aren’t very comfortable in front of a computer? Logos has them covered. Each event is designed to be appealing to everyone from home schooling families to pastors to retirees – not just the tech savvy. For example, take the experience of Dr. David Jeremiah, president of Turning Point Ministries.

“Turning Point Ministries recently spent a day being trained on Logos Bible Software,” said Dr. Jeremiah.

“I am a computer neophyte and was not looking forward to a few hours of ‘tech training’ – whoever scheduled this was going to hear from me. But my apprehension quickly passed as we were captivated by this amazing new technology. You owe it to yourself to find out how Logos can bring a new level of excitement and scholarship to your time in the Word.”

According to Scott, “The goal of Logos is not to show off our technology but rather to show off the Word of God. All Logos does is put trusted Biblical reference books on your computer so you can find the information faster and dig even deeper into the Bible.”

Knowing the Bible is the responsibility of every Christian, not just a pastor or teacher. That’s why families are encouraged to attend events together. As 1 Peter 3:15 instructs, “Always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.” The Bible Study Bus tour was created by American Family Radio and Logos Bible Software to help you heed this simple yet challenging command.

Join Logos and American Family Radio on their mission to bring Bible study back to America. To register for the Bible Study Bus Road Trip: America please visit www.BibleStudyBus.com.

November 17, 2006

NZ Road Trip Report

Dale and Jenni Pritchett recently returned from New Zealand, where they did nine Bible Road Trip events. Here's their retrospective on the trip plus a few photos...

Jenni and I are just getting back to normal after spending about two and half weeks in New Zealand visiting Logos users. Hal and Nancy Mickens, long time Logos users and frequent assistants at Morris Proctor’s Camp Logos seminars accompanied us. Hal and Nancy were not only great travel companions; they were great in helping individual users with their questions.

It is hard to begin to describe our experiences. We traveled over both the North and South Islands and conducted ten two-hour presentations in churches and schools, met privately with numerous people and enjoyed hospitality in a variety of homes. It was a wonderful experience to be with so many people who love Bible study. We can’t wait to go back!

(More photos from Bible Road Trip: New Zealand...)

October 13, 2006

Road Trip Rolls South...of the Equator

During the past few months, we've devoted a lot of words and attention to the Bible Road Trip that involved 70 events in 31 states across the United States. Which prompted users in other parts of the globe to ask, "When are you coming to my town?"

If you live in New Zealand, the time is now!

From October 24 through November 2, Dale and Jenni Pritchett will be doing 9 Bible Road Trip events, driving from one end of Aotearoa to the other. With 5 events on the North Island and 4 on the South Island, we hope that everyone who wants to attend will be able to make the drive.

So head over to the Bible Road Trip page for dates, locations and maps...and be sure to RSVP for the event nearest you!

And, Dale, we're putting in our official request for some of those Hokey Pokey Squiggles!

September 22, 2006

Missing in Action (Part 2): Road Trip Memoirs of the 4th Leg

John Fallahee recently completed the fourth leg of the Bible Road Trip and contributed this travelogue about his experiences. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.

Warning: These images may cause you to think twice about purchasing an RV. This small video clip (WMV, 696KB) will bring you into the world of RV Driving. See the panoramic view of the landscape, experience the gentle sway of the pavement, and hear the melodic tones of cross country driving.

07/25 – “Help! Lost in New York”

Confidently, the GPS guided us along the highway as we approached a major fork in the road. As we passed through the Big Apple, David, Kate, and Olivia kept pointing to what they thought was the largest building in the skyline. I nervously commanded the GPS, “Which way”…the GPS was silent! Alarmed, I appealed, “left or right… am I heading towards the blessings on Mount Gerizim or the cursings on Mount Ebal?”

Soon we found ourselves, 37 foot RV and all, in downtown NY on a one-way street, cars on the left, cars on the right, and 6 inches of clearance on either side! My wife, Stephanie, white-knuckled and clutching the dashboard is shouting, “you’re too close, you’re too close!” With a nervous sweat on my brow and two hands gripping the wheel I yell, “I know, I know! I See I see! Show no fear!” We can read the lips of the bystanders who are awkwardly gaping and reading our RV: “Bible Road Trip?”

We frantically look left and right for a larger road with fewer cars, and we turn onto a larger road only to face a low bridge with an 11 foot, 8 inch clearance. I turn to my wife and quickly ask, “How tall is this RV…do you know?” She replies, “I don’t know”. So I say, “Quickly hop out and see if I can make the clearance.” As she gets a closer look she starts to feverishly wave her hands back and forth mouthing, “NO…NO…We won’t fit”. Soon cars are backing up behind us. Stephanie tries to direct the traffic to give us room, but it is too late…GRIDLOCK in New York. She hops back in, I put on the hazards, and soon the police arrive and “part the traffic” like Moses parted the water and we escaped New York! Stephanie remarks, “I sure am glad for all your hours of video game playing as a boy, it is a miracle you did not hit any of those cars!” I exhaustedly replied, “Grace….it was all grace!”

7/26 – 7/30 “Look at all those flowers!”

During the road trip, I had to leave the family behind to present Logos Bible Software at Kay Arthur’s National Women’s Conference. Fortunately, Stephanie has a friend by the airport and the kids had some friends to play with. Their family runs Green Circle Growers Inc. a supplier of plants and seeds to distributors around the world, including Wal-Mart. Read the fascinating history of this family.

7/31 – 8/2 “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… ”

It’s 8 pm, Dayton, OH and I am presenting Logos while Stephanie and the kids wait comfortably in the RV that is parked on the street when suddenly a loud noise rips through the RV and the vehicle vibrates from the shock. Stephanie looks out the window as a moving truck drives away, leaving our driver’s side mirror in pieces! The police come and we report the incident. We are now left wondering how to drive another 40 miles without a mirror?

So I put on the “MacGyver thinking cap” and improvised – the first row of pictures above is our 4 inch by 6 inch makeup mirror with duct tape. We next drove to Walgreen’s to find a larger mirror – see the second row of pictures. As you can see, the fix was durable enough to last even during Dale’s trip. No doubt we are now “the fairest RV of them all!”

08/4 “Mosquitoes in Michigan?”

The day has arrived, the RV handoff! After I debriefed Dale and Jenni, I proceeded to the rental car to finish the road trip in Illinois and Wisconsin. When I opened the door to check the kids, a swarm of blood-thirsty mosquitoes assailed our family. Kate and Olivia had at least 20 biting bugs all over their legs and arms and both of them screamed a piercing shriek that deafened my senses. They immediately hopped out of the car and ran to Stephanie who was flailing her hands to put these ravenous rogues to rest. David sat helplessly, buckled in his car seat, immobilized as one particularly oversized mosquito slurped from his skull!

You see, my kids have never experienced mosquitoes. Soon we evacuated the car that was now filled with hundreds of mosquitoes (no exaggeration). I told Stephanie I will drive the car with the windows down to remove these creatures (a trick I learned from my Dad when we left the light on in the car on a humid night near a swampy Wisconsin lake – except we remained in the car –ouch!!)

As I proceeded to drive, Stephanie and the kids tried to run away from their assailants, but the mosquitoes pursued. While I am driving rapidly in circles and Stephanie and the kids are crying, throwing their arms up and down, and running in every direction; people are driving by and staring at them wonderingly…Dale and Jenny call me on my cell phone inquiring if everything is all right- NOTE: they could not see the mosquitoes but they could see all of us acting out of our mind!

Needless to say, we have no handoff pictures, but we lived through our red bumps, and a couple of hours of interrogation by the kids about “Killer Mosquitoes”. The good news…no West Nile virus!

08/4 – 8/12 “Truly Deep Dish!”

I grew up in Chicago, IL and this was the first time I was back in 7 years. I had my Logos mission, but I also had my pizza mission! There is no better pizza on the planet than Pizzeria Uno, with their incredible deep dish pizza and good ol’ wooden booths carved and etched with sayings from paying customers over the years – it is truly a delight of the senses! Make sure you visit the authentic Chicago location, the others…well, just don’t slice as well!

RV SURVIVAL TIP #3: When it breaks, don’t panic, duct tape! - Before leaving for any RV adventure, check out a book on the various uses of duct tape

RV SURVIVAL TIP #4: When entering the Midwest during the summer…bring a can of insect repellent!

My Most Interesting Pictures from the road trip.

State Signs!

September 12, 2006

Can you see me? I can’t see you!

Dale Pritchett recently completed the final leg of the Bible Road Trip. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.

Now that we are home in Bellingham, I decided to go back and fill in some of the blanks and tell you more about our experiences on the road.

Jenni and I arrived in Detroit on a hot Friday night and next morning met John and Stephanie Fallahee, and their kids in a motel parking lot where John quickly showed us the RV ropes and handed over the Starship Enterprise. He graciously encouraged us to call him with any questions -- which we did incessantly for the next four days. The first question was "What happened to the driver’s side mirror on this thirty-seven foot cargo container look-alike which already lacks a rearview mirror?"

Well, it turns out that some passing trucker used his own mirror to take out our mirror. Since “our mirror” is some fancy one-of-a-kind, made for the RV mirror, we would have to wait a week for the replacement. In the mean time we had to “make do” with a cheap vanity mirror John had cleverly duct taped to the shattered mirror mount. Every hour or so we would pull over and adjust the tape, and attempt to reduce the weathervane tendencies.

Since the vanity mirror did not include the additional convex mirror normal on an RV, we could only see our blind spot when wind forced the mirror to vibrate left and right thereby momentarily increasing our field of view. Ya' gotta love that vibration. The blind spot on the Starship Enterprise could easily conceal a formation of six Harley riders, a state trooper and perhaps a small traveling carnival. But all this is just to see the road and what a road we had to see. The entire state of Michigan appeared to be celebrating “road reconstruction month” with special emphasis being given to single lane merges on three lane expressways and temporary single lane bridges. Such were the joys and terrors of our first full day in the RV.

Once in Grand Rapids we parked the RV and considered the option of abandoning it and taking a cab back to Bellingham. But relief came in the form of Jim and Karolyn Van Noord, parents of James Van Noord, one of our Logos programmers. Jim picked us up at the campground in a normal car. We had a wonderful, relaxing evening at a great restaurant, followed by a tour of Grand Rapids. It was just what we needed.

August 22, 2006

Missing in Action (Part 1): Road Trip Memoirs of the 4th Leg

John Fallahee recently completed the fourth leg of the Bible Road Trip (including the period when the damage to the RV was being repaired) and contributed this travelogue about his experiences. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.

WARNING: This driver and his family has never been to an RV park, nor driven an RV more than 30 minutes on the highway, prior to this trip! When asked by the president about the RV idea months ago...well, let's just say that those imaginations were replaced by the following reality!

7/14 – 7/19 “Dad, Where is the Big Car?”
Minivan/Hotel: David, my 4 year old son, was having fun helping me place the luggage in the trunk. With a very serious face, he said, “Dad where is the Big car?” I said, “It’s getting repaired, it should be ready in a couple of days.” David in a thoughtful manner carries on, “Well, there is plenty of room in this Mini-Car for me to eat and sleep!” By the way, the family enjoyed Washington D.C..

24 Hours – 4 Presentations: What have you done in the last 24 hours? We visited two churches in the area. I spoke at night at Immanuel Bible Church and trained the next morning. Then in the afternoon we headed to McLean Presbyterian Church and trained in the afternoon and then presented in the evening. Although tired, the fellowship was great! If you are ever in D.C. stop by!

We parked at the RV site by midnight!

7/21 “Mom…What’s that smell?

We drove over 4 hours to Norfolk, VA to pick up the RV and as you can see the kids were pretty excited! When is the last time you ran to a car?

 Video clip (WMV, 3.2MB)

Liquid spills, Frightening Smells, but no Chills: During the repair process all power and gas were shut off. When Stephanie went to open the refrigerator door, once-frozen but now rotting, liquid chicken sprung from the dead and onto my wife.

The eggs were breeding a cure to the avian flu and the milk curdled into white cheese balls. We were left wondering if something ate something else! We were forbidden to take pictures of this crime scene.

Don’t Open the Fridge!: Though Stephanie worked hard to clean the fridge, the smell lived on until we discovered a cure. The new RV House rule: only Momma opens the fridge!

HOUSE KEEPING TIP: Place a few chunks of charcoal inside the freezer, wait 24 hours, and all smells removed.

7/21 – 7/24 “Let’s Gas it up!”
Our First Gas stop: By the time we reached Mechanicsburg, PA, we needed to get some gas. As we pulled in, John Palm--owner of the local auto repair--expressed curiosity in the RV and tour. I sat down in his shop and showed him Logos Bible Software. He was so excited, he bought the software on the spot. John teaches and oversees the Sunday school program at his church.

RV SURVIVAL TIP #1: To bring the sides of the RV in, you must turn the RV off!

If you choose to ignore this advice, fear not, the RV campgrounds will knock on your door and assist you in operating your RV.

RV SURVIVAL TIP #2: To turn on the gas stove, the gas sensor need to be on!

If you choose to ignore this advice, you will go hungry!

August 18, 2006

An Unusual Salsa

If you're a regular reader of the Logos blog, you know we enjoy salsa so much that we hold an annual "cook-off" devoted to the stuff. Dale Pritchett posts this paen to the spicy sauce from the midst of the Bible Road Trip.

And now for something entirely different. . . hot strawberry salsa!

Meet Brian Creveling of Creveling Family Restaurant and Creveling Family Farms, makers of more kinds of unusual salsas than you have ever tasted. Jenni and I wandered into the Creveling Family Restaurant in Sparta, Michigan, before our Logos presentation where we struck up a conversation with the owner, Brian Creveling. First Brian asked us if we cared to advise him on the color scheme of the restaurant and then he introduced us to his real passion, salsa making.

Brian’s salsas are something else. There are the normal tomato, chili and garlic components but from there it reaches out to strawberry, blueberry, peach, pear and apple salsas in both medium and hot. Did I mention, Brian loves garlic? You have never tasted anything like this before.

Well, at the risk of sounding like a commercial from the Food Network, let me tell you, Brian makes some of the best tasting salsa that has ever warmed a tortilla chip and it is not something you have had before. Just call him at 616.885.6667 if you would like to order.

August 14, 2006

Major victory on Road Trip

Dale Pritchett recently started the final leg of the Bible Road Trip. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.

Yesterday we got through an entire day without a major RV mishap! The feeling was heady! This is big news as we complete our first full week in the Starship Enterprise. This is a big ship in a small galaxy. Jenni kept reminding me that this was not my old Harley Davidson. It would be better for parking lots, curbs, speed bumps, trees, shrubs, stop signs, medial barriers, bridge railings and assorted honking motorists (just wishing me well, I am sure) if it was a Harley. I may deserve special thanks for leaving Michigan, Indiana, and Missouri.

Today I broke the one-day streak. Jenni and I worked out an exhaustive check list to be completed before leaving the RV park. We checked off the items on the list, agreed we had forgotten nothing, pulled twenty feet out of our parking space only to see a bunch of wildly enthusiastic, waving neighbors shouting to us that we had left the door wide open and the steps down.

Despite our general road trials, the evening meetings are going well and we have met some serious Logos users. This is a real source of encouragement to us. We have had some great time of fellowship with pastors, students and long time Logos users. Every night there has also been a small group of curious first-time people who have heard about the software but have never seen it.

One day we had a truck driver at a rest stop come over and tell us he had just heard about the software on the radio and wanted to know more. It is amazing to us how many people recognize the bus and wave or honk and give us a thumbs up.

July 21, 2006

5 mph in the Bible Bus

Scott Lindsey just finished up the third leg of the Bible Road Trip. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.

The Lindsey Family leg of the Road Trip is over but not without some great stories, testimonials, and RV issues!

What an amazing journey it has been traveling this great nation showing the body of Christ the latest in technology for Bible study. My wife and children were actually sad to turn the RV over the Fallahee family for their part of the Road Trip.

After almost 2 weeks in Florida we headed north to South Carolina. We had a tremendous turnout for the events in Columbia and Greer. In Greer, Dr. Tony Beam the director of the Christian Worldview Center for North Greenville College attended the event and had this to say:

Without a doubt, Logos Bible Software version 3 is the fastest, most inclusive, easiest to use Bible software I have ever seen. The new Version 3 of the Scholar’s Library is beyond belief. I teach several classes at North Greenville University and I host a two hour morning talk show (Christian Worldview Today) Monday through Friday on Christian Talk 660. I also serve as Interim Pastor at Whitefield Baptist Church in Anderson, South Carolina and I write three columns per week for various publications. I will use the Scholar’s Library in all of my ministry settings and feel it is the perfect theological tool for teaching, answering questions about the Bible, and of course preaching. Thanks Logos for helping me become better equipped and making the most of my Bible study time. It is simply the best Bible software on the market!

When the last South Carolina event was done the Lindseys headed to the mountains for a peaceful weekend at Solitude Point. For 3 days we had no Internet or cell coverage – I almost died and my wife loved every minute of it! What a peaceful and relaxing weekend. One evening while sitting by the campfire roasting marshmallows for S’mores, I got the laptop out to demo Version 3. During the presentation, the Skinner family got really excited about Logos and purchased the Leader’s Library. Kathy Skinner had this to say about Logos:

When Scott pulled in the campground with the Logos Bible Software RV, our interest was piqued. When we were sitting by the campfire, he brought out his laptop and gave us an amazing demo!! In my Bible studies I enjoy comparing the different translations. I have a very thick, heavy Bible that does have 4 translations in it, but limits me to where I can do that type of study. It’s too heavy to take on vacation and use. I also do my family history and was thrilled with the fact that this new version of Logos will take any name from the Bible and generate a genealogy. I also will enjoy using the Bible Reading Plan and the Prayer Journal. Logos will also help my husband, who is a long distance truck driver. Thanks for making Bible study so easy, it throws the excuses of not doing it right out the window!

From South Carolina we headed to First Baptist Church of Matthews in North Carolina. From there we finished out North Carolina with Pastor Mike Garrett at Crossroads Fellowship. Pastor Garrett is very passionate about Logos and helped us with a great turnout. There were many Precept Bible Study students at the presentation who were very excited about the new mark-up tools in Logos (watch a demo!).

Our last day of the Road Trip turned out to be quite eventful. With about 8 miles to go on our drive to Norfolk for our last event the RV decided it had had enough of the heat and severe storm weather and wouldn’t go more than about 5 MPH. With a few hours till the event at First Baptist Church of Berkley we had to drive the remaining leg of the trip at about a walking pace on the side of the freeway with the hazards blinking. When we got to one of the Norfolk tunnels the Lindsey family was in major prayer that we wouldn’t get stuck under the city…my heart was pounding!

We barely got through the tunnel and made it to the church with about an hour to spare…God is good! Almost 100 people were there to see the new Logos in action. One of our special guests was Pastor Peter Badia from Kenya. The host church purchased Scholar’s Gold for Pastor Badia and he sent me an email detailing his excitement:

It was such a blessing to be present during the Logos Bible software presentation. I am excited as I get to make use of Logos to teach the word in Kenya Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and southern Sudan. Next year I will be targeting North Africa. I am glad that I will be better equipped when I take the step into the northern part of Africa. I am very sure that the Lord brought me from Kenya right on time to receive instruction on how to use Logos. I count myself privileged to go back home with this tool!

John Fallahee and family took the keys from us in Baltimore. Although they weren’t able to jump right into the RV for their part of the Road Trip journey it looks like all the RV repairs will be finished in time to keep the Road Trip schedule on track. Sorry for the bad picture of the RV being towed, all I had was my cell phone camera but had to document the memory.

It was a privilege to work with so many wonderful churches and people and the memories we made as a family will last a lifetime. We now head to Williamsburg for the start of a few weeks' vacation. Please pray for the Fallahee family as they embark on this great adventure!

July 11, 2006

Swinging Through the Sunshine State

Scott Lindsey is doing the third leg of the Bible Road Trip. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.

Our second segment of the Logos Road Trip journey brought us from Atlanta down to Florida where we spent 11 days in the Sunshine State. The Atlanta to Tampa drive was the longest for our leg of the Road Trip… a ten hour drive with four kids is quite tolerable when you have an RV loaded with amenities. It is going to be hard to drive anywhere in the minivan when we get home!

Our first event was at Bible-Based Fellowship Church in Tampa. My dear friend, Pastor Earl Mason, did an amazing job of getting the word out about the event and we had a great turn-out. From there we headed down to Ft. Lauderdale where Coral Ridge was our sponsor. I have listened to the ministry of Dr. James Kennedy for many years and it was a privilege to introduce the congregation and people of Ft. Lauderdale to the amazing new tools in Logos 3.

The next morning the children got to swim in the Atlantic ocean for the first time. My five year-old couldn’t believe the ocean was actually warm. Swimming in Florida was fun but the kids were on the constant lookout for alligators after they read the sign at our Tampa RV park…notice how the two little ones do not want to be part of this Kodak moment!!!

Northland – A Church Distributed was our sponsor for Orlando. The 29 mile drive that evening from the RV park to the church took 2 ½ hours!!!! We made it to the church with about 10 minutes to spare. I think Mickey Mouse (not all the tourists) should be the one paying all the toll booth fees for everyone in Orlando!

Don Pederson was the elder from Northland who sponsored the event. Don is the coordinator for the New Tribes Mission Field Ministry Office with responsibilities which include evaluating all aspects of NTM's church planting efforts with the goal of enhancing their effectiveness as a mission. New Tribes Mission is an international missionary agency with a ministry focus on evangelism and church planting among unreached people groups.

Don had this to say about Logos 3 and how he sees it benefiting missionaries worldwide:

"A key part of seeing viable indigenous churches planted among unreached people groups is the translation of scripture. Without God's word in their language, believers are unable to mature in their faith, and churches never develop. The task of translating is a long and difficult one, taking years of dedicated work. Eugene Nida of the American Bible Society once commented that there is no task on earth more difficult than putting God's Word into another language and culture in a way that is understandable and at the same time retains the meaning of the original text. There are three key elements in producing a good translation: understanding translation principles, having a high level of fluency in the target language, and the ability to to understand the original text (exegesis). In the translation process, a great deal of time is spent determining the exact meaning of the scripture portion to be translated. In the old days, this meant spreading a large number of commentaries, Bible translations, and Greek or Hebrew resources out and laboriously looking the relevant material up. Fortunately, this is no longer necessary. Bible software makes this process easier, quicker, and cheaper. The new Logos version 3 is the easiest and quickest way to do the necessary exegesis for Bible translation. Previously, it took a fair amount of learning and setup to work efficiently with Bible software. The new Logos automates the process and puts everything that a translator might need right at his finger tips."

Bob very graciously gave the Lindsey family a few extra days off while in Orlando…although my wallet isn’t grateful in the least bit! We had a great time at Universal and Epcot. I was actually selected from the audience to be a part of the Animal Show at Universal. When I grabbed the microphone to talk about Logos 3 they kicked me off the stage!

After Orlando we headed to Jacksonville for our last Florida event. The morning of our departure we went to The Holy Land Experience. My good buddy Marquis Laughlin does work for The Holy Land Experience and gave us the grand tour. Marquis is the voice behind the audio version of the ESV and is an actor whose life's work is enabling his audiences to hear, see, and feel the God of the Bible, through the words of the Bible. The Holy Land Experience is an amazing place! My favorite part of the afternoon was the 50 minute Scriptorium tour where the artifacts from the Van Kampen collection are on display. We learned how the Word of God has been preserved and transmitted through history. If you are ever in the Orlando area make sure and visit the Holy Land Experience.

Well, onto our last few weeks of Logos Road Trip. We’re heading to South Carolina and will post our next blog update soon…

July 5, 2006

Deep South in Summer

Scott Lindsey is doing the third leg of the Bible Road Trip. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.

The 3rd leg of the Logos Bible Road Trip began June 16th in Nashville when my family and I took the keys from Landon Norton and his family.

We spent Saturday with Morris and Cindy Proctor. The ladies took off for the RC Cola and Moon Pie festival in Bell Buckle, TN, and Morris gave me the grand tour of the new Morris Proctor Seminars headquarters. I was amazed to see all the new Logos 3.0 training materials Morris has produced. Make sure and check out the Camp Logos schedule and attend a Camp Logos coming to your neck of the woods – with over 100 new features and updates in Logos 3, Camp Logos is a great place to get the most from your Logos investment.

The evening was capped off with an incredible lasagna dinner prepared by Cindy and then it was off for our first night in the RV – by the way, there are six of us trekking through the U.S. in the Logos RV for the next 4 weeks: Scott, Michelle, Tayler - 13 years old, Beau - 12 years old, Autumn - 5 years old, and Chase – 3 years old. Please pray for my wife’s sanity over the next 4 weeks!!!

We had a very busy 1st week presenting Logos 3.0 in Nashville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, and twice in Atlanta. Wow, is it hot in the South!!! The 2 events in Atlanta were split between Walk Thru the Bible and Destiny Metropolitan Worship Church where Bryan Crute is the pastor of this dynamic fellowship. 125 people showed up for the Destiny stop making it the largest attended Road Trip event so far! Here are some encouraging words Pastor Crute had to say about the event:

“The Logos Bible Software Road Tour will prove to be one of the highlights of our year - our congregation was on the edge of their seats during the entire presentation! I can't say thank you enough to the Logos family for its commitment to fuse technology with faith and create a tool that will strengthen the spiritual core of a weakened church. Thank you Scott and the Logos family for your commitment to equipping the Body of Christ and helping us become "workmen who do not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." (II Timothy 2:15)"
– Pastor Bryan Crute, Destiny Metropolitan Worship Church

We spent Saturday with our dear friends Jon and Heather Langford of Loganville, GA. As we were preparing to spend the day sightseeing we heard a knock on the door of the RV. I opened the door and was greeted by Roger Brock. Roger is a demolitions expert and was driving through the neighborhood when he noticed the Logos RV. [Insert joke here about Roger wanting to finish the job Landon started. —Ed.] He pulled over to find out what Logos was all about. After a brief 10-minute demo of Logos in the RV kitchen, Roger sped away (literally burnt a little rubber) to talk with his wife about what he witnessed. 15 minutes later Roger was back with check in hand and is now the proud owner of Scholar’s Library. What a great start to our day with the Langfords!

The day got even better after our friends took us to the restaurant voted “Best Southern Cooking” where I had the awesome privilege of tasting fried green tomatoes…after reading this post my wife wanted me to be more specific and mention that I ate at least 15 fried green tomatoes! If you’re ever in the Atlanta area you have to visit The Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle, Georgia – probably the best food I have ever had.

After Atlanta we headed down to Florida…I’ll write another blog post soon to let you know how things are going in the Sunshine State.

June 23, 2006

Handoff in Tennessee

Landon is doing the second leg of the Bible Road Trip; this is his final post from the road. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.

The last week of our 5-week leg of the Bible Road Trip started on an easterly route to Louisiana and we pulled in to Baton Rouge right in the middle of rush hour traffic. The Chapel on Campus hosted our event that night and I must admit it was pretty neat to drive the RV around Louisiana State University and right next to Tiger Stadium. I can’t imagine what that place must be like on an autumn Saturday afternoon.

Our event that night was coordinated by Bob Soule and Dee Alberty who are local Precept leaders and teachers. We enjoyed Dee’s homegrown Southern hospitality over breakfast the next morning and talked about ways to better equip Precept leaders with how to use this amazing tool in the awesome Bible studies done with Inductive Bible Study methods taught through Precept Ministries International.

I love spending time with Precept people around the country each year and since I’ve been working with Kay Arthur and Precept for two years, I’m a little bummed I won’t be in Chattanooga for our event there. Trust me, though, I was becoming a little road weary and fortunately, we had another day off Tuesday as our next stop in Little Rock was over 500 miles away.

We took our time heading up to our RV Park in Lake Village, LA halfway between the two cities and drove a little out of the way to visit the legendary Frisco Deli in Jackson, MS. This restaurant is owned by the father of our very own Phillip Malouf (in academic sales) and we were treated to the best ribs I may have ever had in my entire life! Seriously, if you ever go through Jackson (actually, Pearl) right off I-20, do NOT miss the chance to pull in and have Mitchell and the family put some on the smoker for you! From there, it was only a short little jaunt over to Vicksburg next where (since I am such a Civil War buff) we had to tour the National Battlefield of one of the most incredible Civil War battles. The USS Cairo is something everybody should see in their lifetime.

One of the greatest parts about my job in Ministry Relations is the privilege I have to work with some of the most renowned leaders and ministries in the world both introducing them to and training them how to use Logos. I already mentioned Kay above and Wednesday afforded me another highlight as I spent the afternoon at FamilyLife Ministries and met with Dennis Rainey, his wife Barbara, Bob Lepine, and Nancy Leigh DeMoss (of Revive Our Hearts Ministry).

Through the Logos ministry relations department, FamilyLife was introduced to Logos. They instantly fell in love with these tools because of their usefulness as a family tool for Christians looking to improve their Bible study and the application of God’s Word in the home. As I write, radio interviews we did at FamilyLife are promoting Logos to one of the biggest radio audiences in the nation. Still, even in my job, it’s rare to have a room or audience that has as much impact on the Body of Christ as was the case that day!

The next day after installing the upgrade on the Rainey’s home computer, I got back on the road as we headed out to Memphis, TN where we stayed next to Graceland, met Dr. David Olford and presented at Olford Ministries International. See what I mean? How often does one (even on my team!) have the privilege of serving both Dennis Rainey and David Olford at their headquarters – in one day!? Believe me, through the power of Logos Bible Software, leaders like this throughout the world are being equipped.

We ended up this final week (much to Krissy’s delight!) in Nashville last Friday night, where we had our final (of 25!) church presentations at Christ Presbyterian Church. Meeting Scott Lindsey and his family the next day (I’ve never seen kids rush a Game Cube quite that ferociously!), I was happy to hand off the keys to the next driver. Hopefully, he’ll remember to keep all the jacks up and the bedrooms in as he starts out on a month-long leg with his family of 6.

I’ve immensely enjoyed blogging about the Bible Road Trip and keeping you up-to-date with the latest happenings on the road (even through some humbling times!). It’s been quite a challenging endeavor out on the road, but I’ll cherish the memories always and am grateful for your support (both at the events and in prayer) for Krissy, Taylor, (Nicholas), and me as we’ve ministered to Bible students, Christian leaders, pastors, RV park passers-by, the occasional police officer and toll booth operator, and (hopefully) to you...showing people the amazing new Logos 3!

For His Glory,
The Norton 3 (plus 1)

June 13, 2006

June in Texas

Landon is doing the second leg of the Bible Road Trip; this is his fourth post from the road (read previous Road Trip posts).

It’s been a while since my last post, but we haven’t gone far! For the last ten days we’ve been sweltering across Texas, stopping to stun serious Bible students with this stupendous software. Seriously, it’s been a super time! As we leave today to head into other states for the last week of our 5 week leg, let’s catch you up on the stops around the “Lone Star” State.

We started in Dallas a weekend ago at St John’s Missionary Baptist Church and Denton Bible Church. It was great to see a good turnout from two churches in the same city. I’m thankful to see our prayers answered in that these events are appealing citywide (and further!).

We had a nanny come and stay for the next few days. Actually it was just my sister, Kay Vollans, who is in her last year of graduate work at Abilene Christian University, and who joined us for a few days on the “Bible Bus”. Aunt Kay and Taylor got to spend some quality time together as we headed to Austin for our stop at First Evangelical Free Church.

This proved to be a very special stop as we had some distinguished guests (at least in Logos lore) in attendance. Nicole Dossey, a former Academic Sales Manager, lives in Austin where her husband (a former Logos developer) now works. Nicole was the person who helped me get my job at Logos and it was great to have her in attendance.

Also there were Bradley and Susan Grainger; two employees at Logos who just happened to be on vacation visiting the Dosseys. Bradley is one of our software developers and it was nice to watch him soak in the great response we had from the crowd there who was amazed (like all our other groups!) with what a light-year leap we have taken with Logos 3. It must have been neat to get that type of perspective on his work helping to develop these tools (for people like you and me) to study God’s Word more effectively.

On Tuesday, we stopped in San Antonio, where we took in some hometown Texas cooking at Bill Miller’s BBQ. We enjoyed the brisket and beans, sweet tea (served in a bucket, of course!), and a slice of pecan pie (my favorite!). The day off on Wednesday afforded us a rare opportunity to relax and we spent some time at the pool at Blazing Star RV park.

Thursday and Friday night we had churches in Houston welcome the Bible Road Trip as we stopped at Impact Church of Christ and West Houston Bible Church.

Dr. Robert Dean, Jr is the pastor at West Houston. I spent most of Friday with him and members of his Logos users ministerial association, training and teaching them how to use some of the 100 new features of Logos 3. That day, the members of his church came out in droves and helped with refreshments and other things to make that night one of the most successful nights of the Road Trip with over 75 people in attendance!

So Texas, I guess it’s so long, partner! And as they say, “y’all come back now, y’ hear”?

From here, we head out to Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee where we will hand off the RV to Scott Lindsey and his family after an 11-state, 17-city, and 4,800-mile leg of this awesome endeavor for His glory.

If you live in one of these states, RSVP for an event this week and bring along a friend to introduce them to this amazing tool. And if you see the RV, be sure to wave!

From the RV,

The Norton Three (plus 1)

June 1, 2006

Kansas was great, Oklahoma wasn’t OK

Landon is doing the second leg of the Bible Road Trip; this is his third post from the road (read previous Road Trip posts).

What a wonderful end to the week we had in Kansas as we stopped in Shawnee for a night with Mill Creek Community Church and many users around the Kansas City region. A man and his children even drove all the way from Lincoln, NE to be with us!

The next night we had a wonderful time with Pastor Ross Strader and the warm folks at Calvary Bible Church in Wichita. It will be hard for anyone to beat the reception we got from these guys and gals with all the work they put in to make this one of our best events yet. Everything was going so great. I should have seen the looming storm clouds on the flat, prairie horizon.

The next day we stopped for gas and lunch at a little truck stop just inside the Oklahoma border (can you believe people still pay less than $3 for a gallon of gas!) and while we were stopped, I pushed the bedroom slide out about a half-a-foot so I could slightly open a drawer to pull out some shorts to wear instead.

Now, you’d think there’d be a warning display or an observant passer-by who would have notified me that I began driving down the road toward Tulsa (our Friday night event) with my bedroom sticking out, but the first announcement I had was the glass breaking in the back room as we pulled off from a toll-booth where I had, to my horror, caught the slide on the toll-booth roof accidentally remodeling the RV and causing a total mess on our bed.

After the cops came, we barely made our stop that night in Tulsa, pulling in just in time to get the laptop plugged in and to tell the story to the small, stunned crowd there who laughed when I joked about having to ask for a love offering to pay for the inevitable deductible (and possibly job-hunting expenses!).

Thankfully, Bob and Dale were just as understanding as I hoped (and prayed) they would be encouraging me in my efforts to repair the RV along our route in the coming days. The holiday weekend was full of nauseating grimaces, phone calls, repair shops, story-telling (it’s actually given us MORE opportunities to tell people about this Road Trip and Logos Bible Software!), glass cleanup (sometimes with a spoon) and boarding up as we began the process of fixing the glaring hole in the side of the RV.

So, as we head out to Texas in the coming days, pray with us for no rain, streamlined insurance and repair tactics and the internal reminders that cause us to slow down and take a second look at everything around us, and most importantly, that we realize everything is going to work out fine.

We are mindful that the Lord uses all things for His glory and that, as James tells us, we should be joyful in tribulation as the Lord uses it to refine us into servants more steadfast and mature. (James 1:2-4).

And that’s the whole reason we are out here – for His glory trying to help people become better servants of our Lord.

See more photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibleroadtrip

May 23, 2006

Home, Home on the Range

Landon is doing the second leg of the Bible Road Trip; this is his second post from the road (read previous Road Trip posts).

It was quite a unique homecoming this past weekend. You see, I graduated from Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, CO, where I played in the state basketball championship in 1995 and so, I guess it was fitting that the Logos Road Trip stop in Colorado Springs at Village 7 Presbyterian Church was held in their brand new basketball gym (I’m not sure I’ve ever taught in a gym before…) nearly 11 years to the day after I received that diploma.

What a neat experience it was, then, to spend the weekend at the base of Pikes Peak on the front range of the Rocky Mountains showing my wife and daughter some of my old stomping grounds and many of the world famous sights just minutes from our base camp.

We visited my high school and the Wal-Mart where I used to work. We had dinner at my first and hometown Cracker Barrel (where I handily beat Taylor in a game of table checkers, I might add). We drove up and saw the United States Air Force Academy parked the RV in front of the Garden of the Gods and even took Taylor to the “North Pole” to visit Santa’s Workshop.

During one of our stops, we had a gentleman named Michael knock on our window in a parking lot and ask for an order form (what kind of “wings” would that be?) and comparison guide, wishing he hadn’t missed our presentation the night before.

After driving up to Denver to stay Sunday night before our presentation Monday night at Calvary South Denver, we headed up into the mountains a bit to eat at the world-famous (okay, so it’s just famous to the locals) Beau Jo’s pizza where many a skier or snowboarder has contributed his/her own napkin drawing among the many on the old wooden walls of this antique building from the good-old mining days. When they make pizza, it truly is a pie!

Today, we leave the Rocky Mountains behind and head into the plains of Kansas where presentations in Shawnee (outside Kansas City) at Mill Creek Community Church and in Wichita at Calvary Bible Church will bring pastors, teachers, Bible students, and anyone interested in better, more frequent and deeper Bible study out to see the brand-new Logos 3!

Don’t miss it! Right, Michael?

May 19, 2006

Leaving the West Coast

Landon Norton here from the Bible Road Trip RV with the first of what will inevitably be many entries over the next 5 weeks.

After a one-way plane ride to San Diego to meet Bob Pritchett and relieve him and his family, Kristine, my wife (pregnant with Nicholas Drew – a boy due late July), Taylor (our 19 month old daughter) and I decided to take the RV over to Sea World and the world famous San Diego Zoo for some sightseeing before starting out on our 37-day leg of the Bible Road Trip.

SIDENOTE: We learned a very valuable lesson here about where to park as we had to stop parking lot traffic and complete what must have been the world’s first 27-point turnaround to extricate ourselves from the busy parking lot.

Bushed, we spent the night at Mission Bay RV Park before leaving the west coast as the sun went down behind us on Interstate 8. As we rolled along towards the next Road Trip stops in Phoenix, AZ, we received many curious stares, many picture takers and even one enthusiastically honking youth who had a massive “Jesus Freak – Hard Core” window decal adorning his truck window. We headed east through the desert along the southern border of the United States and little did we know that those 7 hours on the road would be the most relaxing time we would have that weekend.

Pulling in to the Desert’s Edge RV Park at 10:30pm Sunday night, we encountered electrical problems when attempting to “jack” the RV up for the night and were unable to put all the legs down or slide out the living room and bedroom. Calling roadside assistance could not even resolve our 3-legged coach or our cramped quarters overnight because of the late hour so Monday I spent most of the day with a pleasant technician named Chad who finally found and flipped the breaker (now I know where it is for next time!) which reset the electricity to the system and who (after somewhat reluctantly accepting a Logos Bible Software water bottle full of ice-cold water for his help) sent us on our way. Unfortunately, not before the added trauma of Taylor’s first face-to-face meeting with asphalt!

Backing our schedule up this much caused us much distress as we rallied to attend our scheduled event at Stone Creek on Monday night. Audiences there and at Red Mountain Christian Church in Mesa, AZ on Tuesday, the 16th, were excited and thrilled to experience firsthand the myriad of new features and resources in Logos 3 as we spent two evenings in Phoenix studying God’s Word using these amazing, brand-new tools.

We woke up yesterday, with a bit of a reprieve as we had only a short, yet beautiful drive out of the desert basin up to Flagstaff, AZ which sits at over 6000 feet elevation. On the way we had lunch at In-N-Out (if there’s a better burger in America, I haven’t found it!), and visited gorgeous Sedona, AZ, stopping for some pictures of the RV in front of some of the most breathtaking and amazing handiwork our Creator ever touched.

Last night, we were at Hoffmantown Church in Albuquerque, NM to introduce people to this amazing new software and fellowship with long-time users of Logos Bible Software. We are privileged to be a part of such an awesome endeavor for His glory and we look forward to meeting people across the Midwest who are hungry for better bible study and the inevitable impact that it will have on their children, church, community.

We’ll check in again soon…

From the RV,
The Norton Three (+1)

(View more Bible Road Trip photos on our page at Flickr.)

May 12, 2006

Day Eleven: Technical Difficulties

Day Eleven saw the Pritchett family off to the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace for another attempt at some education. Despite protests beforehand, the kids paid attention and learned a bit about the presidency and American politics. And we got to see the bulletproof presidential limo.

In the evening we headed over to Faith Community Church, where we found a pretty impressive technical setup with multiple projection screens. The only problem was that my laptop couldn’t “see” the projector over the extra long video cable. It would not switch into projection mode because it did not see the projector. After a bunch of messing around with the help of Faith Community’s great tech team, we discovered that we could go into projection mode using a short cable and my backup projector and then swap the longer cable in without leaving the mode. It all worked just in time.

Tonight is my last presentation before flying home from San Diego tomorrow. Landon Norton, one of our Ministry Relations reps, will be flying in with his family to take the RV on the next leg of its journey around America.

I have really enjoyed being on the road with my family, and it has been fantastic meeting so many people at the evening events. If you are anywhere near San Juan Capistrano, California, I hope you’ll come out and join us tonight at Ocean Hills Church.

May 11, 2006

Day Nine: Cars

After ancient artifacts, I decided to do something on the kids' list. So we went to a go-kart racetrack and arcade. It was pretty empty on a Tuesday afternoon, so they got to do all the racing and game playing they could handle.

In the evening we were at the beautiful New Life Community Church in Artesia, California. I was impressed by the large wall of windows in the sanctuary looking out onto a huge lawn. I was surprised to hear that it was designed to allow drive-in attendance, and that some people still show up for services in their car.

After the presentation a Logos user brought me his copy of Fire Someone Today to sign. Even better, he was wearing a Facilitates Serendipitous Discovery t-shirt!

Next stop: Faith Community Church in Irvine, California.

May 9, 2006

Day Eight: Ancient Artifacts

The Road Trip RV is using Anaheim, California as home base for this week’s events. I wanted to get something a little more educational than roller coasters out of our free time during the day, so after lunch at In-N-Out Burgers we headed north to the Getty Villa for some Greek and Roman art and artifacts. The Villa staff kindly found us parking among the tour buses, and I got a new sense of appreciation for bus drivers. It isn’t easy taking a huge vehicle up those narrow driveways.

The steep, winding Malibu Canyon Road slowed us down (and frustrated sports-car drivers behind me, despite my frequent use of turnouts) but it didn’t keep us from the Evangelical Free Church of the Conejo Valley. There I met two Logos 1.0 users and got some very encouraging feedback: one user stayed late afterwards just so he could tell me in person how ‘your software changed my life and teaching.’

What a privilege it is to have a job building tools for Bible study! And to have such wonderful people as customers.

Next stop: New Life Community Church in Artesia, California.

May 8, 2006

Day Four on the Road: A Great Evening!

What a great evening! After a nerve-rattling ride over some bumpy, narrow state highways (“Windy Levy Road Next 3 Miles”), and a trip over the feels-too-high-and-narrow-for-this-RV Antioch Bridge, we arrived at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Pittsburg, California.

Pastor Maurice Bates and everyone at the church really put out the red carpet for us. They had prepared a big spread of food for us, and they recorded my presentation on both audio and video. Attendance was great -- our largest group yet! And after I demonstrated Logos Bible Software 3 they sent me off with a big basket of snacks and drinks for the road. I felt like a celebrity!

There were some more familiar names to meet in person, and Dean Forbes (co-editor of the analyzed Hebrew text) came, too. Best of all, there were lots of people there with a real interest in Bible study. It was a fun and encouraging evening.

Next stop: Evangelical Free Church of the Conejo Valley in Newbury Park, California.

May 4, 2006

Day Three: Making friends, eating olives

The whole point of driving around in a big billboard is to get attention.