Yesterday, my father lost his job as his company did not get their contract renewed.  Please pray for him, as he's taking it pretty hard, especially with everything that's gone on the last 15 months.  I know he'll land on his feet, but unemployment is never a good place to be in.

Thanks for your prayers, and if you know of a need for .NET or C# developers in the Pittsburgh area, let me know and I can pass it along to my dad.

Well, you may have noticed that I haven't had many updates to the site recently, and I've gotten a little behind on the critiques. Don't worry, I'm still working on them, and they're coming soon. I've just been a little distracted...

Spring has finally come to Pittsburgh, and I've definitely been taking advantage of it to the detriment of my blogging time. My dog has definitely appreciated the long walks though!

Well, after a long search, my wife and I have settled on a new home church.  We will now be attending Beverly Heights Church.  We were really drawn by the passionate and insightful preaching of Senior Pastor Rick Wolling and Assistant Pastor Nate Devlin.

I have yet to get involved in any of the ministries, but eventually I'd like to help get involved with their website...not that it needs much help.

Wow, where have the last two weeks gone? Errands, exercise, work, and everything else in life has gotten in the way, and the site has kinda fallen on the back burner. Sorry about that, but I'm sure you've experienced the same.

Anyway, I hope to get back in the swing of things in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out for new material!

Ok, so I've finally joined Facebook for the connecting benefits, thanks to some prompting from Jim Walton and Jason Powell.

Check out my profile, if you like.

Well, Friday night, I had a bit of a setback. My computer at home shut down spontaneously, and wouldn't come back on. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I tried changing out the power supply, checking out the CPU fan, and anything else I could think of without any luck.

So, I'm computerless for now. Hopefully I can get back up and running in a week or so with another computer, but for now, I'm going to be a bit hampered when it comes to maintaining the site.

Wow, it's almost been three weeks since I've done anything with the site. It feels like the time has passed very quickly, and I'm trying to get everything back in order in my life.

With that, let's do a little roundup of what's going on in the Christian webmaster world:

• Internet Evangelism Day: April 29th, 2007 - Yes, it's coming up quickly. Have you and/or your church planned to do anything special for this year's event? For more information about last year's IED, check out here and here.

• Heal Your Church Web Site Returns - Dean Peters returns after an almost 6 month hiatus. I, for one, gladly welcome the insight and experience which his blog provides.

• Rockin Chruch Website Tips - James Dalman of Branding Shed contribures this excellent assessment of some of the places where church web sites go wrong and how to correct them over at Church Communications Pro. Take a minute to look over them and figure out how to strengthen your own church's website.

Also, I'll be getting back to my AJAX series in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back for that. In the meantime, it already feels good to be getting back to blogging...

Unfortunately, my mother passed away Wednesday night at age 54 after almost two months of battling with cancer in her brain. Here's to a wonderful woman who was the greatest mother a guy could have asked for. It was a shame to see her go, but at least I was able to be there for her, and she is now at peace.

Things are going to be on a little hiatus here for the next week, because there's too much going on and to deal with in that time. Once things settle down, I'll try to get back in the swing of things.

In the meantime, your prayers for me and my family are appreciated as we deal with the loss of a loved one who seemed to leave us too soon.

You may have noticed that it's been a little quieter around here the last week, and for the most part it's because I just haven't had the time to deal with the site...

Last weekend, my mother went into the hospital because she was feeling ill and having terrible headaches, and shortly thereafter she was admitted to be treated for a mass in the brain. She underwent Gamma Knife radiation surgery last Wednesday, has been getting daily radiation treatment since then, and may undergo chemotherapy shortly due to fears that the tumor is cancerous. It's been difficult for her and my whole family, as she is a breast cancer survivor, has been clean for over 3 years, and we all thought that chapter of our lives was over.

On top of that, she had just moved with my dad and sister to a new community, nearer my wife and I, less than a week before being admitted, so she's dealing with all new doctors. I also started a new job last Monday before we knew exactly how serious things were for her, and I haven't had the option of taking days off. Then this past weekend, the transmission in my car broke down on one of our trips to visit her and my dad, and it looks like we'll need to search for a replacement.

It's been difficult, let alone all the other stuff that has been piling on, and I know we could all use your prayers. In the meantime, please excuse the sporadic updating of the site.

Also, if anyone would like to submit a story as a guest author to help fill the void, please feel free to submit them to gnilsen@ifjesushadawebsite.net.

Thanks for your prayers in advance.

I just wanted to pass along that I was recently asked to participate in ChurchCommunicationsPro.com's 5 Questions With Blogging Pastors/Believers series, which has included all kinds of influential Christian bloggers. I have to admit that it was really cool to be asked to be a part of the project by Cory.

If you'd like to check out my answers, then you can check here. You should at least check out some of the other responses. It's an interesting look at why many of us do what we do.