Frank Broughton Times

My Summer Camp Adventure

Frank Broughton — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:10:17 +0000

Summer Camp was GREAT. Last year as many know I missed all the weeks of camp. So, this year I had some making up to do! Commonground Baptist Camp is a great place to spend a summer. Many believers get backslidden during the summer, thus my love for Summer Camp – away from the world and the things of the world for five weeks – love it – REVIVAL!

It was nice to see my many friends again from across the tristate area (NY PA & Ohio). I felt like a million bucks with all the welcome backs & hugs I received. Thank you my friends.

We had 1,035 campers over the five weeks. Many decisions were made for our Lord during the preaching services. The preaching was great (as usual). I hope I never take that for granted. You can listen to the preaching here. It was a blessing to be able to run the sound booth again. I had one dedicated computer for the task (one for the pictures too). The recordings came out good! Among my others duties I again took care of organizing all the photos and creating a picture DVD for each week. Having a first class duplicator (1 to 11) and my newest toy a Primeria BravoProXi Autoprinter made quick work of the task. No more staying up all night the last day of camp getting the DVD’s ready – YES! A good selection of the pictures are online at the Camp Site here.

Much more could be said about camp but would ya read it? {grin} The highlight was once again simply being able to serve the Lord the best I could in ministering to many people. I love camp! Thanks to my good friend, Pastor Jim Krohn of Southeast Bible Baptist church of Penfield, NY for allowing me to the opportunity to serve.

Spending time with my son Frankie (he worked staff for three of the weeks) and daughters Lisa & Hannah (attended one week) and son Timothy (attended one week) was good too!

Peru Missions Trip

Frank Broughton — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:58:14 +0000

I am in Peru typing this on a Spanish keyboad in our hotel near the Plaza De Arms square. All is going well. Looking forward to creating a full report with tons of pictures upon my return.

Operation “Ditch the Bag of Cement” Update

Frank Broughton — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:52:03 +0000

I keep getting smaller – yipee ya hooie! Starting at 257 back on January 19th I weighed in today at 220.8 – 36.2 pounds less! I did not want to say, but I weighed 269 pounds back yonder last year. The heaviest ever – yikes 48 plus pounds of that person is gone! I am close the removing that ole bag of cement. I feel so much better and have way more energy.

Just felt like bragging today! Hope I did not jinx myself… haha

HCV Treatment Six Month Update (Final Update)

Frank Broughton — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:42:04 +0000

Yesterday I received the best news I could about my 48 weeks of HCV treatment. Six months after being off the medicines the virus is still undetectable. That means I have achieved a sustained virologic response SVR! That was the goal of the treatment. See this article for more info on this: What Is a Sustained Virologic Response or “SVR”? SVR is a good thing. Studies have shown that with a six-month SVR (which means no detectable virus in your blood for six months after finishing treatment), relapse occurred in only 1-2% of patients. So, for every 100 people who finished treatment and attained SVR, the virus will return in only 2 of them.

A big thank you to all my praying friends who through the past 18 months have prayed to the Lord on my behalf. Thank you to my family and especially my wife Carol for your untiring support during this long and trying treatment. Most of all thank you to God who showed me mercy! You see treatment for hepatitis C is notoriously difficult, and the side effects are so debilitating that many patients decide to stop therapy rather than endure the consequences. In addition, treatments are curative in less than half the people who receive them. I was able to finish with God’s help. Thank you Jesus!

What is next? I need to do as all of us need to – eat healthy foods, get some exercise and stay away from stress!

Operation “Ditch the Bag of Cement” Update

Frank Broughton — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:32:50 +0000

Glad to report a small size bag of cement has been removed. I started at 257 pounds (was up to 260 at one point arg!) and now the scale says 226! Starting to feel much better. Still have 20 or so more to go! I am determined.

I Support Israel

Frank Broughton — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:00:23 +0000

Be it known to the whole world. I support Israel and agree totally with the words of Charles Krauthammer in his Washington Post article:

Krauthammer: Those troublesome Jews

We must remember on Memorial Day:

Frank Broughton — Sun, 30 May 2010 18:39:09 +0000

“The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.” – Samuel Adams

HCV 3 Months Post Treatment Results

Frank Broughton — Sat, 08 May 2010 15:17:56 +0000

Hello my friends. I will get right to it. I have great news to report. I am still undetectable after 3 months! I went in 2 Mondays ago, but just received the results late this week. The lab lost some of my blood. Man, it was enough to have to wait the 4 days for the results but they added 6 more days to the wait. It was worth it though as the virus has not come back. In 3 more months I get tested a final time, if still undetectable I have reached SVR and have a 97% change of it never coming back. They say I am one of the lucky ones (only 35% or so are successful with the treatment) but I know better. I fully acknowledge it has been because of prayer, prayer that some of you have joined in with me on and for that I thank you.

SEO tips from Google (How to get your website high in the search listings)

Frank Broughton — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:49:20 +0000

I recently came across two nice articles from google that will help webmasters practice good techniques to help their websites get higher listings on search engine result pages. Here ya go:

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Google’s SEO Report Card

Google says “These optimizations are intended to not only help search engines understand the content of our pages better, but also to improve our users’ experience when visiting our sites. Simple steps such as fixing 404s and broken links, simplifying URL choice, and providing easier-to-understand titles and snippets for our pages can benefit both users and search engines.”

Here is a free tool to check your site’s SEO: SEOrush – give it a whirl.

In Firefox & IE how to remove suggested autocomplete entries for forms

Frank Broughton — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:30:59 +0000

Many times I mistype something while completing a form, it maybe a user name or address or whatever. I do not want to have to scroll past it again and again as Firefox suggests it in the suggestion drop down box as I use the same phrase in another similar form.

It is simple to delete an entry from the autocomplete dropdown. Type into any form field until the dropdown box appears. Next use the cursor keys to move to the entry to be deleted and press ‘SHIFT’ plus ‘DELETE’ and the entry is gone. (For those using IE just hit the ‘DELETE’ key)

Simple tip, but if you are like me you like having a clean system, free of errors {grin}.

How to use a keyboard shortcut to create New Folders with Windows 7

Frank Broughton — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 00:29:38 +0000

If you are like me (old school DOS 5.0 days) you love to use keyboard shortcuts as much as possible. With Windows 7 it is possible to use one for creating a new folder from the keyboard with a shortcut key combination. To create a new folder all you need to do is press Ctrl+Shift+N with the targeted explorer window open. The folder will appear and be ready to be named to something besides new file. This is a small but useful tip – if you prefer the mouse you can still use it to click on the New Folder Window. This was a time saver for me recently as I was setting up a complete newly formatted hard drive reorganizing all my documents, music, videos and thousands of preaching MP3 sermons.

HCV 2 months post treatment update

Frank Broughton — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 18:09:53 +0000

Things have been good so far. My energy level is back to “normal” (50 year old normal). Not feeling like I have the flu for 3 to 5 days a week is AWESOME for sure. The meds I were on are nasty indeed. Recently I found out an old friend of mine who was on the treatment for 16 weeks tried to hang himself. The meds cause depression and really mess with your mind.

I took a trip to Indiana for a week long seminar a couple weeks ago and endured it well. Even drove home (7 hours trip) right after the Thursday evening session and felt great. I remember in my younger years doing that and being wiped out for a few days.

My next big step is a some blood work I will get done on the 26th of this month (3 month post treatment). I will get a full liver panel done along with a viral load count. Please pray with me that the virus is still undetectable! If it is, I will get a final test at the 6 month mark. If found undetectable at that point I will have reached SVR (sustained viral response) and will have a 97% chance of the virus never coming back!

Looking forward to working five full weeks of Summer Camp at Common Ground Baptist Camp this summer! I will need all my energy for that for sure (and then some).

On “Operation Ditch the Bag of Cement” I hurt my back a month ago and it has prevented me from continuing on the treadmill. I am sad about that but just started back again. Man this weight thing has been a battle for the past 12 plus years. I will keep trying!