Monday, March 31, 2008
Countdown for Spring
Spring comes a bit later in Philadelphia than in Seattle. But today I saw five forsythia -- an early warning sign that spring is about to be sprung. I'm now looking for three tulips. Five, four, three, two ... it's getting closer. Once I find three tulips I'll be anxiously waiting for one warm, sunny day!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Zone Leader Council - The Mission Brain Trust
Once every six weeks we hold a meeting called Zone Leader Council. Our mission of 120 missionaries is divided into six zones of about 20 missionaries. Each zone is led by two Zone Leaders. Zone Leaders are among our best missionaries. They are excellent teachers, are full of charity, and exemplify Christlike living in all they do. Zone Leader Council brings together our 12 Zone Leaders plus my two Assistants, Joyce and me.
Back Row: Elders Wilkinson, Bosshardt, Brown, Maughn, Urrutia, Hansen, Fessler
Front Row: Elders Flores, Groover, Ball, Jones, Szvoboda, Batty, Worley
We meet from 9AM - 2PM and use this time to discuss needs, challenges and opportunities in our mission. It is always a remarkable meeting for me. I continue to be astonished by the intelligence and maturity of our young elders. It has become quite clear to me that these young men are being literally expanded by God while serving as missionaries. Their intellectual, emotional and spiritual strength has been noticeably enhanced -- beyond their normal capacity given their age and life experiences. (Click on photos to see larger images.)
Back Row: Elders Wilkinson, Bosshardt, Brown, Maughn, Urrutia, Hansen, Fessler
Front Row: Elders Flores, Groover, Ball, Jones, Szvoboda, Batty, Worley
We meet from 9AM - 2PM and use this time to discuss needs, challenges and opportunities in our mission. It is always a remarkable meeting for me. I continue to be astonished by the intelligence and maturity of our young elders. It has become quite clear to me that these young men are being literally expanded by God while serving as missionaries. Their intellectual, emotional and spiritual strength has been noticeably enhanced -- beyond their normal capacity given their age and life experiences. (Click on photos to see larger images.)
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Trizzle Trazzle Trozzle Trome, Time For This One To Go Home!
We know it's time for a missionary to go home when we find him praying to his computer!! Actually Elder Timothy Shupe is finishing up one final report, even though someone took his chair. Elder Shupe has been serving for 6 months as one of my two Assistants to the President. He has been a wonderful leader in our mission and I counted on him regularly for advice, insight and counsel. He is a young man with a pure heart. We will miss him greatly when he flies home to Ogden this Tuesday morning.
PPM Tests New Software for Mission Department
All missions use Church-developed software to manage operations of a mission. There are numerous data bases and reporting systems that help us keep track of each missionary, apartments, incoming and outgoing travel itineraries, health records, baptism and confirmation records for new converts, vehicle maintenance, bill paying, etc.
The Church recently upgraded the software so that it is now a web-based application. This is a great improvement because, among other things, it allows for user flexibility. For instance, I can access the applications on my laptop wherever I am. This is a huge benefit to a mission president.
PPM (Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission) was asked to test this software about 3 months ago. We were the first mission in the world to use it. This past week the Church sponsored an online webinar -- an internet-based interactive seminar -- featuring our set of data and records. This was great fun for Elder Andrew Toolson who was the primary tester of the software while serving as an Office Elder. In addition to Elder Toolson, his replacement Elder Allen and our Office Secretary Sister Larson have played big roles in testing and using the new software. These photos are from the webinar. The Church broadcast the webinar over the Internet and we projected it from a laptop onto a wall in our mission office. The audio for the webinar came through our speakerphone.
(Click on photos to see larger version)
The Church recently upgraded the software so that it is now a web-based application. This is a great improvement because, among other things, it allows for user flexibility. For instance, I can access the applications on my laptop wherever I am. This is a huge benefit to a mission president.
PPM (Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission) was asked to test this software about 3 months ago. We were the first mission in the world to use it. This past week the Church sponsored an online webinar -- an internet-based interactive seminar -- featuring our set of data and records. This was great fun for Elder Andrew Toolson who was the primary tester of the software while serving as an Office Elder. In addition to Elder Toolson, his replacement Elder Allen and our Office Secretary Sister Larson have played big roles in testing and using the new software. These photos are from the webinar. The Church broadcast the webinar over the Internet and we projected it from a laptop onto a wall in our mission office. The audio for the webinar came through our speakerphone.
(Click on photos to see larger version)
Been Thinking About Your Cerebellum?
How would you like this as your job title:
Chief, Division of Neuropathology
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Such is yours if you are Dr. Alexander R. Judkins, M.D. We know him simply as Bishop Judkins of the Philadelphia 1st Ward. This ward covers a large swath of land in south and southwest Philadelphia. In the 1950s these neighborhoods were full of white Catholics who worked in local factories and worshipped in local parishes. In the 60s and 70s large demographic and economic changes took place.
The factories closed down and many of the families moved towards the suburbs. What remains is one of the great challenges for those who still consider America to be the land of opportunity. Poverty, crime, disintegration of the family structure, drugs, unemployment, despair and hopelessness have become the norm for those now living in this area.For his day job, Dr. Judkins specializes in examining brain tissue of sick children, particularly those with nasty tumors in the cerebellum. If you get way too interested in this, you can check out his research:
1. Judkins AR, Mauger J, Ht A, Rorke LB, Biegel JA.; Immunohistochemical analysis of hSNF5/INI1 in pediatric CNS neoplasms. Am J Surg Pathol. 2004 May;28(5):644-50.
2. Judkins AR, Burger PC, Hamilton RL, Kleinschmidt-DeMasters B, Perry A, Pomeroy SL, Rosenblum MK, Yachnis AT, Zhou H, Rorke LB, Biegel JA.; INI1 protein expression distinguishes atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor from choroid plexus carcinoma. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2005 May;64(5):391-7.
3. Allen JC, Judkins AR, Rosenblum MK, Biegel JA.; Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor evolving from an optic pathway ganglioglioma: case study. Neuro-oncol. 2006 Jan;8(1):79-82.
And away from work he is one of the most remarkable and gifted Church leaders I have yet to meet. He is acutely aware of the challenges and dynamics working both for and against our members, many recently baptized, in these inner-city areas. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ brings the light of hope to all -- if you doubt this, come visit the Philadelphia 1st Ward!
Recently my Assistants, Elders Shupe and Worley, and Joyce and I had lunch with Bishop Judkins at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia). This fine man who studies the cerebellum has been blessed with a very fine cerebellum of his own!
Meeting a New Member - Dr. Seisay
Dr. Alieu Hamid Seisay (prounouced "seh-say") was born in a poor village in Sierra Leone, a country in western Africa. Most of the people in the village were illiterate. He attended schools sponsored by the Mehodist Church. English classes were part of the required curriculum. During his teen years Muslims came to many communities and enticed many to join their religion. They said that Christianity was for those who could read and that Islam was the preferred religion for everyone else. Many families, including Alieu's, converted to Islam.
At age 19 Alieu's life abruptly changed. He was selected to receive an education in Moscow. The Soviet Union had good relationships with Sierra Leone and they selected exceptionally bright students for state-sponsored education in Moscow. For the next 16 years Alieu lived and studied in Moscow. This was a period of no religion for Alieu. He earned a PhD in developmental economics with a focus on the issues of poverty in west Africa. He then returned to Sierra Leone and worked in the microcredit lending field, mobilizing poor women with small loans. He met Muhammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank (and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize recipient). Based on this meeting he sent 12 young men to Dhaka, Bangladesh to be trained by the Grameen Bank in state of the art microcredit lending practices. His teamed helped women become economically self-sufficient. In addition to extending micro=credit loans, they taught the women how to make laundry soap, how to sew clothing, and how to bake bread.
In 1991 civil war broke out in Sierra Leone and everything changed. The war would last until 2003. Dr. Seisay felt his life was in danger and he moved (or escaped) back to Moscow in 1996. But much had changed in Russia since the last time he was there. He struggled to find a job and after 18 months he moved to London. He then applied for a U.S. diversity lottery visa. The Congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to persons who meet strict eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Dr. Seisay was awarded a Diversity Visa and entered the U.S. in 2000.
He now lives in Philadelphia and works as the Director of Programs for the African Cultural Alliance of North America (www.acanus.org). This organization helps African immigrants resettle and assimilate in the U.S. It was while working with some African immigrants that he learned about our church. He met with our missionaries, carefully studied the doctrine and principles regarding the restoration of Christ's church and chose to be baptized a couple months ago. What an amazing life journey Dr. Seisay has had -- and the best is yet to come! This warm, engaging and intelligent man has so much to give to so many.
Meeting Dr. Seisay was especially important to me because many west African immigrants in Philadelphia have become members of our church in the past three years. Their lives are very difficult: poverty, language barriers, cultural barriers, health issues, unemployment, etc. It is our desire to help all of these new members develop the skills and abilities to move forward in their lives. Dr. Seisay will be a valuable bridge between the lives of west African immigrant new members and the more established members of our inner-city wards.
At age 19 Alieu's life abruptly changed. He was selected to receive an education in Moscow. The Soviet Union had good relationships with Sierra Leone and they selected exceptionally bright students for state-sponsored education in Moscow. For the next 16 years Alieu lived and studied in Moscow. This was a period of no religion for Alieu. He earned a PhD in developmental economics with a focus on the issues of poverty in west Africa. He then returned to Sierra Leone and worked in the microcredit lending field, mobilizing poor women with small loans. He met Muhammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank (and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize recipient). Based on this meeting he sent 12 young men to Dhaka, Bangladesh to be trained by the Grameen Bank in state of the art microcredit lending practices. His teamed helped women become economically self-sufficient. In addition to extending micro=credit loans, they taught the women how to make laundry soap, how to sew clothing, and how to bake bread.
In 1991 civil war broke out in Sierra Leone and everything changed. The war would last until 2003. Dr. Seisay felt his life was in danger and he moved (or escaped) back to Moscow in 1996. But much had changed in Russia since the last time he was there. He struggled to find a job and after 18 months he moved to London. He then applied for a U.S. diversity lottery visa. The Congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to persons who meet strict eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Dr. Seisay was awarded a Diversity Visa and entered the U.S. in 2000.
He now lives in Philadelphia and works as the Director of Programs for the African Cultural Alliance of North America (www.acanus.org). This organization helps African immigrants resettle and assimilate in the U.S. It was while working with some African immigrants that he learned about our church. He met with our missionaries, carefully studied the doctrine and principles regarding the restoration of Christ's church and chose to be baptized a couple months ago. What an amazing life journey Dr. Seisay has had -- and the best is yet to come! This warm, engaging and intelligent man has so much to give to so many.
Meeting Dr. Seisay was especially important to me because many west African immigrants in Philadelphia have become members of our church in the past three years. Their lives are very difficult: poverty, language barriers, cultural barriers, health issues, unemployment, etc. It is our desire to help all of these new members develop the skills and abilities to move forward in their lives. Dr. Seisay will be a valuable bridge between the lives of west African immigrant new members and the more established members of our inner-city wards.
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