My Summer Camp Adventure

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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

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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

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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)

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HCVposter.jpgYesterday 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!

HCV 3 Months Post Treatment Results

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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)

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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.