A Boomer in the Pew

Huge News for our Roaming Boomers Website

Please click here to see our exciting news!

Thanks!

We are Celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary

More than one of you have inquired as to my whereabouts over the past few days. 

Please forgive me.

You see, I have whisked my bride to the Caribbean Islands for a very romantic 25th wedding anniversary vacation.

I thought, silly me, that I would be able to keep up with my daily posts here, as well as my daily posts for our The Roaming Boomers on-line travel magazine.

I was wrong! 

Actually, I probably wouldn't have a 26th wedding anniversary if I sat in my room all day creating posts for our Internet properties.

So, I'll be back.  I am keeping up on my daily chronological journey through the Bible, but I will not be making my normal postings until we return.

OK?  Forgive me?

More Than A Skeleton by Paul L. Maier

I just finished reading More Than a Skeleton, by Dr. Paul L. Maier. This is my second Maier novel, the first being A Skeleton in God's Closet.

Both of these books read like a good Grisham novel.  Both center around the church, and have been called by some "theological thrillers".

"When Joshua Ben-Yosef, an Israeli from Galilee --- born in Nazareth to parents Mary and Joseph --- begins assembling 12 followers, attracting crowds and performing miracles, the world takes notice. Could Dr. Melvin Merton have been correct about the imminent return of Christ? It seems everyone is a believer in this "Messiah," including Weber's wife, Shannon --- especially when Joshua performs the "ultimate sign" by raising his disciple from the dead. Plagued by skepticism, Weber may be the only one who can intervene before the very foundations of the Christian faith are shattered."

These novels are very easy reading, yet will force you to contemplate your own belief system when you peer at Christianity's potential undoing in both of these novels.

Both would make great summer reading, and I highly recommend them both.

Up next, I am going to read Maier's historical novels The Flames of Rome (about Nero), and Pontius Pilate.

I'm looking forward to them both.

Did you Know That The Boomer in the Pew is also The Roaming Boomer?

Did you know that the Boomer in the Pew is also The Roaming Boomer?  Here is a sample video from our new travel adventure website.  Come join our adventures!  God has made a wonderful earth for us to explore.

You can also follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

Zondervan to Publish Wayne Grudem's Politics - According to the Bible

Zondervan has announced a September release of Wayne Grudem's new book Politics - According to the Bible.

The Roaming Boomers - Our New Travel Adventure Website

We just launched a new website called The Roaming Boomers.  Please come visit, say hello with a comment, subscribe/connect with our RSS Feed, Twitter, Facebook, and/or e-mail feed, and give us your feedback.  Thanks!

The Roaming Boomers - Our new Travel and Adventure Website is About to Launch

My wife and I are about to launch a new travel/adventure website called The Roaming Boomers.  This will be the third jewel in our social media adventure.  We are really looking forward to jumping into this new business to see if we can build a subscriber base in the travel/adventure space.  Plus, traveling all over the place isn't so bad either.

Here is the introductory video that we will be putting on the front page of our new website.  When we launch the new site, I will come back an let you know.

Food for the Hungry: Help us in Haiti

Here is the link to learn what Food for the Hungry is doing, and how you can help with a financial gift.

Spring in the Sonoran Desert of Scottsdale, Arizona

In just a few weeks it will be spring in the Sonoran desert!   

Behold spring from these photographs from my flickr site:

1. Desert Spring Flowers, 2. Cactus Spring Flower, 3. Orange Butterfly, 4. Butterfly Macro, 5. Arizona Butterfly, 6. Blue Flower, 7. Arizona Red Flower, 8. Blue Flower (cropped), 9. Octopus Catus, 10. Old Man Cactus, 11. Delicate Desert Flora, 12. Orange Desert Delicate, 13. Bees on Mesquite Blossom, 14. Desert Pink Flower, 15. Spring and Easter Colors, 16. Delicate Desert Yellow, 17. Yellow against Green, 18. Red Yellow Orange Desert Wildflowers, 19. Blue Desert Wildflower, 20. Sonoran Desert Bee, 21. High Sonoran Desert Bee, 22. Beauty and the Beast, 23. Purple Floating Flower, 24. Arizona Wildflower, 25. Yellow Desert Flower, 26. Passionate Purple, 27. Passion for Purple, 28. Arizona Pomegranate, 29. Saguaro Bloom, 30. Orange Butterfly on Yellow, 31. Black Butterfly on Purple, 32. Arizona's Passion Flower, 33. Arizona Red, 34. Daisy, 35. Hummingbird

Boomer in the Pew's Statistics for 2009

Each year, it is kind of fun to glance back at my Google Analytics to see what I can glean from my statistics.

These numbers are minuscule as compared to some of the highly trafficked blogs, but I suppose in the world of blogs I continue to show growth.

It should be noted also, that I really don't do much to grow traffic here, it really has been fairly organic thus far.

Here are a few highlights:

• we had visitors from 170 countries.
• we had 72,621 visits/198.96 visits per day
• we had 109,983 pages read during the year/1.51 pages per visit
• 1,331 individuals visited over 200 times during the year.  Other than people who visited three times or less, the 200+ crowd was my largest group.  That means that I have real daily readers.  I am thankful for that.
• 47% of my readers us the Firefox browser.
• I had 354 visits from iPhones.  This will likely continue to grow as a percentage.
• 47% of my readers were referred from other sites.  StumbleUpon was #1.
• the #1 most widely read post was when we gave away a $250 ESV Study Bible on our 1st birthday.  Over 7,400 people visited that post.  People love to win free stuff.
• I have written over 900 posts since launching in February of 2008.
• We earned a Google Page Rank #4 this year. 

I have greatly enjoyed this journey thus far, and I am looking forward to seeing where 2010 leads.

To those of you who are loyal readers, thank you very much, I hope to continue enjoying your trust, and pray that this year we might see a great crowd reading the Bible together,  in our year-long ESV Study Bible series.