meBible App Review

With this post, I am excited to tell you about a really cool Bible app available as a free download for the iPad. The meBible Ultimate Research Bible app will totally change how you interact with scripture, and it even has some really great features that make you excited in new ways about digging into the Bible.  Here are just a few reasons why I think you will enjoy checking it out...

1. It has a terrific interface that allows you to "split" the screen, with the Bible on the top pane and your notes and/or Internet browser on the bottom pane. This makes it really easy and fun to find things like pictures and resources online and link them directly to a text that you may be studying.

2. There are loads of features that you can add once you have downloaded the app...things like commentaries, a Greek/Hebrew lexicon, Topical Bibles, and fun themes. Each of these items makes meBible more personalized and makes it feel more like "you."

3. And my favorite reason that meBible is so cool is because it was developed by my very own husband! Many hours of coding and thinking and praying have gone into putting this app in a category all its own. (And I'm not just saying that! If I wasn't married to the meBible creator, I still would count it as my favorite Bible app!) :-)

But don't just take my word for it, check out a recent review on iTunes:

"I'd give this 10 STARS if I could!  I just opened this Bible app for the first time & already love it. Firstly, because it's completely FREE.  Secondly, I love all the options - highlighting, adding my own notes, bookmarking. Thirdly & most important to me, are all the free foreign language translations.  Overall, I will use this app every day for hours & I'm very pleased with it. It looks great, the setup is user friendly, & I'm sure I'll get plenty of use out of the additional tools once I figure them out."

You can go to iTunes and download it for yourself and give it a spin:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mebible-ultimate-research/id476441818?mt=8 

You can also check meBible's website for loads of great information:  http://mebible.info/ 

meBible connects the ancient truths of scripture with the modern amenities of the Internet right at our fingertips. Try it, I bet you'll like it!

Compassion Visit

During my March visit to Haiti, a definite highlight was the trip we were able to take into the mountains to the town of St. Raphael to visit with Olgentz and his family. Our youth group has been sponsoring Olgentz through Compassion International for the past year and a half, and it was a wonderful, over-the-top, surreal experience to get to meet in person this dear young man who has been a fixture in our youth group on Sunday nights by way of a picture on the wall.

Outside the Compassion Project

We first arrived at the Compassion project--the faith-based school Olgentz attends thanks to the Compassion funds. We got treated like royalty as we were the first Compassion sponsors to EVER visit this site! The staff came and was introduced to us, a feast of fried plantain, chicken, cake, salads, casseroles, and ice cold drinks was served to us, and we got a tour of the project site.

Left to right: our translator Bernard, Olgentz, me, Pastor Randall B., the Pastor who oversees this project, Lori G..

Walking the footpath to Olgentz's home

After a brief visit there, we all piled into the back of a truck and headed to Olgentz's home. Nearly a month later, I am still overwhelmed by the incredible hospitality that we received there. Olgentz's mother welcomed us into their home where we all squeezed around a table and were presented with ANOTHER feast with more ice cold drinks. They blessed us time and again for the ways that we have helped to provide for Olgentz. Such a humbling experience, and I find that words continue to fail me when it comes to telling about that experience.

Showing the family some pictures from our town.

Some lessons from my time with this most precious family?

Hospitality matters. Your house's condition does not. Relationships matter.

Loving people matters. "Stuff" is not important.

Jesus is quintessential to life.

Those are all very simple sentences and concepts, aren't they? You know what I'm finding, though? They are much more difficult to put into practice than they are to type out!

Part of our Compassion support has provided a pig for the family, and we were thrilled to see babies!

With Olgentz and his family in their sugar cane field.

As we left the sugar cane field and headed back to the truck to prepare to leave, I glanced back over my shoulder and saw the most beautiful sight: Olgentz's mother was standing there by herself, with her hands raised toward the sky, her eyes closed, and her mouth moving in prayer. In the midst of poverty and lack, she did not forget "from whom all blessings flow."  I want to be more like her...