manna?

Posting Links

Posted by Mike Boyink

There are a couple different ways to post links to this site.

The easiest way:
-Open the site you want to link to in your web browser (it’s easier if you have two windows open—so Internet Explorer open twice).
-Go to the site you want to link to.
-Select (click and drag your mouse over) the text in the address bar - otherwise known as the URL of the site.  It starts with “http://www”
-Go to the Manna Control Panel
-Click “publish” to get into a new post.
-Click into the “Body” field
-Paste the copied text in (right-click, paste or ctl-v).
-When you submit the post, the site will make that text a clickable link: http://www.boyink.com

A bit fancier
If you want a word to be linked, and not show the URL that it links to (like this) then follow these steps.  This is helpful when the URL is really long - like a link to a Mapquest map, etc):

-Do the same as above then:
-After pasting in the URL, add “[url=” in front of it (without the quotes), no spaces
-At the end of the URL, put a single “]” again, without the quotes.
-Immediately after that bracket, put the word that you want to be linked.
-Immedately after that word, put “[/url]”, again, no quotes.
-It’s helpful to use the preview function here to make sure you’ve got the formatting right.

The Blogger’s Bookmarklet
If you often find yourself reading something on the web and wanting to post a link and some commentary here, there’s a tool called a Bookmarklet to help make that easier.  To install it:

-Go to the Manna Control Panel
-Click “My Account”
-Click “Bookmarklet” on the bottom left
-Choose a name - mine is “MannaPost”
-If you get a choice for which weblog to post in, choose “Manna”
-Click Next Step
-In the dropdown for “Select the default field you want the entry posted in” choose “Summary”.
-Click “Create the Bookmarklet”
-On the next screen, right-click the Bookmarklet link and choose “add to favorites”.  You may get a security warning, click OK.

Using the Bookmarklet
If you’re reading a web page that you want to link to from Manna:

-Select any text from the web page you want to appear with the link (I often select whatever it was that caught my eye).
-Bring up your favorites list and choose the Bookmarklet (it’ll be whatever you named it above, MannaPost for me)
-A window will pop up (note - if you run a pop-up blocker you might need to tell it that this bookmarklet is ok).
-The window will contain the Manna new post form
-The title of the post will be whatever the title of the web page you were looking at was.  You can change this if not appropriate
-The URL and any text you selected on the page you were looking at will be loaded into the Summary field.
-If the URL is really long you can edit it using the above instructions and make a “Full Article >>“ kind of link.
-Add your comments to the Body field
- Post!

Ethan’s Appointment

Posted by Matt Wolters

Hi everybody!  Thanks again for all of your prayers.  We just got back from the appointment with the neurologist, and we’re very happy about the report we got.

The doctor is confident that the tissue that was found in Ethan’s brain is simply a group of cells that formed while Ethan was in the womb, which means that it probably has nothing to do with the symptoms, and makes it the most scary coincidence that we’ve ever experienced.  As for the symptoms, (White in his vision, and muscle weakness in his hands), The doctor thinks that they’re, more than likely, the cause of a migraine.  He’s not 100% sure, so he’s going to put Ethan on a migraine suppresant, and if his symptoms go away, then we’ll be sure.

Thanks again to all of you for your prayers.

GOD IS GOOD!!

Thanks,

Matt and Wendi

Pop Culture

Posted by Ed and Lois

Monk is a TV detective with more phobias than Sammy Sosa has homers. ( a baseball metaphor) Joan is a high school student who has regular conversations with God. Both of these TV sreies give me pause to reflect. Neatness, cleanliness, and noise are but a few of the phobias that can set Monk off. All the while solving some of the most unusal murder cases I’ve ever seen. My thoughts here are what are my phobias? Are they obvious? Do they make other people chuckle? Do we as Christians have have habits that make the world grin? How about the church? Lunch lady, janitor, teen hunk, and a little girl on the playground are but a few of the guises that God uses to talk to Joan. He usually has a task for Joan to accomplish for Him. Joan argues and wrestles with God and sometime gets it right, and sometime doesn’t have a clue what happened. She always wants to know why. Who does that sound like. It seems to always work out OK, although not in the way she expects. Monk is on the USA network Friday night at 10:00 P.M. Joan of Arcadia is on Friday night at 8:00 P.M. on CBS.  Give them a chance and let me know what you think. It’s summertime. You already seen everything else. Two thumbs up. 

Ed

MarketingProfs.com > Storytelling for Leaders

Posted by Mike Boyink

As Judy Wicks, founder, president, and matre’d; of Philadelphia’s White Dog Cafe so eloquently says, “People in our society hunger...to share their values, to enjoy a sense of community, and to be part of something that is larger than themselves.”
http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/clark1.asp

A few good take-aways in this article…

First, how sad that this article comes out of the business world.  It really speaks to our culture that people have to look for community, values, and a sense of belonging from their jobs.  A reciepe for disappointment, I think, as the basis for that whole relationship is only based on dollars and cents, and the moment your position crosses the column from black to red it doesn’t matter what kind of community you were part of, you’re gone.

The latter part of the article (where I grabbed the quote from) really reminded me of our “high-touch” discussion a few weeks back. 

The first part of the article is about storytelling (which we touched on this past Sunday) and reminded me that one of the primary goals I have for this website is to provide a place to tell, respond to, and archive stories that are important to us as Christians, and as Manna.  It’s in those stories that we see God at work first hand.  It’s those stories that people not involved in a church want to hear.

Ethan Wolters

Posted by Matt Wolters

Wendi and I just want to thank all of you who have been praying for Ethan lately.  Your prayers are absolutely priceless.

Just an update....  We took him in for a second MRI last Wednesday and the tissue that they had found had not grown between the two appointments, so that’s good news.  Praise God!  The neurologist wanted to see us, but had a three to four month waiting period, but praise God again, he had a cancellation and will see us this Thursday.  Then we’ll hopefully get some more detailed and concrete information.  We’ll keep you all posted.

Thanks again for all of your prayers.  We don’t know what we would do without them.

God bless!

Matt and Wendi