Chris Poch

It’s been one heck of a month for me. I’m in that bittersweet stage where I’m both very glad that my education is almost over while at the same time not wanting to be done.

The week leading up to vtONE was a rollercoaster all by itself. There was so much still to be done going into that week, and we had no idea how to get it all done. God delivered, but was teaching us patience in the process. Saturday night was powerful beyond words. The Holy Spirit was all over Commonwealth Ballroom, and I’m praying that the fire from that night will never be extinguished. The fire has already been contagious–our anointed band has been invited to play at New River Community College because of the fire of God they saw at Virginia Tech this weekend.

God has been faithful in helping me to be productive and get all my work done. Work didn’t bother me at all during the vtONE lead up week. Now, I have all but one of this week’s assignments done. I didn’t expect to be done so fast, and I know that my productivity was a gift from God for some specific reasons. Last night, Tim’s father passed away unexpectedly, and I have been able to dedicate time that I didn’t expect to have (was expecting to be doing classwork) to being there for Tim.

Another way that God was with me during vtONE was by not letting my allergies get into the way. I didn’t have any significant allergy trouble before the worship event, even though the pollen levels were high. This week, I’ve had trouble sleeping, my head feels weird, and I sound like a cow in pain when I attempt to sing. I’m used to being like this in allergy season, so it was a huge relief to get through the vtONE event without feeling anything.

The original house I made an offer on fell through, but I have some more leads on potential houses and house-related stuff. I was feeling somewhat uncertain about moving forward this weekend, but my wise counsel seems to all be in agreement that it’s a good thing for me to do. My hesitation all revolves around on the fact that I’m really not sure where God wants me to be and what I should be doing. I’ve loved almost every minute of my time leading vtONE, whether things were going good or bad, and I don’t want my graduation to mark the end of my ministry. I’m praying about what comes next in my ministry life, but have been getting more questions than answers. And that’s why I’m thankful that I have a great job lined up, since not knowing what to do and being broke would be a bad combination.

I will bless the Lord who guides me;
     even at night my heart instructs me.
I know the Lord is always with me.
     I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
     My body rests in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
     or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.
You will show me the way of life,
     granting me the joy of your presence
     and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalm 18:7-11

It’s been a crazy month for me. I’ve accepted a full time position with Digital Sandbox as a project engineer. I helped the company move to McLean, VA. I’m looking for a house (I’m most interested in one in Reston), and am currently applying for loans.

We’re also 10 days out from vtONE (updates will be on vt-one.com). I’m very excited about this event. As a leadership team, we’ve risked a lot with this event. We’re stretching ourselves beyond what we can do, and believing that God will deliver. After all, if we could change Virginia Tech through our own human effort, why bother with God? We want this event to be completely about what God is doing, and not at all about us. We’re praying that this night (March 31) would rock peoples world for the glory of God. With 10+% of the campus active Christians, it should look different. And we’re believing that God wants to start making the change with us. I would covet your prayers for this upcoming event.

Once we get past these next two weeks, I’m hoping to return to a more normal blogging schedule. I’ve been stretched thin in the areas that tend to make me want to blog, and so this blog has been short changed.

After the hard drive died in May, the MythBox has been in a constant state of disarray. First, I couldn’t get a reasonably current Linux distribution to install (for a variety of reasons, different for each distro I tried). Then, I finally got MythDora 3.2 installed correctly and I had no sound. Turns out the audio chip in my TV tuner card has been depreciated. No luck trying to get it back.

I decided that the no audio problem meant it was time to break down and buy a new TV tuner. My old STB TV tuner has been with me since early 1999 and was ready for retirement. I purchased a Hauppauge PVR-150 hardware MPEG2 encoding TV tuner from NewEgg.com for under $60 shipped. The PVR-150 is identical to the very popular PVR-250, except that many components that were separate chips on the 250 have been integrated together on the 150. Functionally, they’re identical.

Now Myth is back up and happily recording. Now if we only got more TV channels . . .

I would like to add a DVD+RW to the machine still, but that can wait for a super sale. I want to try out MythArchive.

Last night, 4.3 degrees here.  Coldest I’ve ever seen in Blacksburg.  Today: several inches of snow and a balmy 28 degrees, also featuring some municipal golf course action.  Also got two job offers from Digital Sandbox today.  It was a good day.

A post from History in the Making:

It’s tempting as a pastor to lead people on a comfortable path. Ahh, the love and appreciation you get. No one leaves the church. But it’s ultimately not the route God wants us to take. God doesn’t just lead us to green pastures. He leads us to green pastures through death valley. Take Psalm 23:

We just blew #1 ranked UNC out this afternoon in basketball.  94-88.  I was there.  Very exciting game–we were up nearly the entire game, and at one point had a 22 point lead.  We were up by 20 with five minutes left.  Of course, we rushed the court.  We’re undefeated against teams from North Carolina: ASU, Duke, UNC-Greensboro, and now UNC.  Go hokies!

Hokiesports.com story

Interview By Proxy
From Stephan …

After digging through a pile of resumes for a junior developer position, I settled on a few for an in-person interview. When the day came around for one particular candidate’s interview, the receptionist told me that there were two people in the waiting room wanting to see me. By all accounts, a husband and wife. That was a bit confusing, but I called them into a meeting room and had the following conversation …

Stephan: So what is it that I can do for you?
Man: Yes, we have come for the interview.
Stephan: Interview? For the programming position?
Man: Yes, we come to do interview for our son Rajib.
Stephan: Excuse me? You’re here on his behalf?
Man: Yes, we do interview. He’s very good boy and he do good job to you.
Woman: Yes, very good boy.
Stephan: Ummm … err … I normally talk to candidates directly …
Man: Yes, we here for him. You interview with us.

I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I did the interview. I asked all the technical questions I had and I’m happy to report that not only were they answered very well, but Rajib was apparently more than willing to work long hours, be a team player, and contribute a lot. After all, his father told me so. But unfortunately for Rajib, an *actual* candidate turned up and secured the position.

Link

I watched two outstanding movies today: Hotel Rwanda and Psycho. Of the two, Hotel Rwanda had a far greater impact on me. I was blinking back tears at the end–I think the part of the story that really got to me was that it really happened. I can understand why it was nominated for so many awards.

I also enjoyed watching Psycho. I am quite a Hitchcock fan, but honestly, I was expecting more from the famed shower scene. Maybe I’ve just seen too many horror movie spoofs, but I just didn’t find it scary. No way it’s on my scariest movie moments of all time list. I especially liked reading the trivia about the movie’s production. Apparently, the blood is actually Bosco chocolate syrup. After it’s Seinfeld fame, I feel like going out and buying a bottle. And yes, Kroger is one of the few grocery chains that carries Bosco.

I’d recommend seeing both movies if you get the chance. VT students, the library has Hotel Rwanda on DVD and Psycho on VHS.

I got back from Passion 07 last Thursday, but haven’t blogged about it yet. I came down with a cold Friday night that’s still with me, so I’ve accomplished a lot less than I’d like in the past few days. At Passion this year, there were over 22,000 college students in Atlanta for four days devoted to God’s glory. There were three highlights of this year’s conference:

1. My family group – last year, I didn’t connect well with my family group. I was one of two guys, and every time we saw each other, I think we ended up talking about eating disorders. This time around, I had an excellent family group, where we were open and relevant to each other. I want to keep in touch with these guys! Thanks Daniel (x 3), Hunter, Gennie, and Julie. Oh yeah, I also still have a long way to go on humility.
2. Being personally challenged – I learned that I need to risk more for the cause of Christ. Especially in the areas of my image and my finances. And I thought that I had things in order in those areas. Interestingly enough, the speaker that connected with me and challenged me the most this year was John Piper, especially in his breakout session. I say that’s interesting, since I haven’t previously been a huge Piper fan.
3. Do Something Now – we wanted to impact the world as a result of these four days. When I first saw the partial list of do something now causes, I thought they were impossible goals. But with God all things are possible. We didn’t meet every goal–we exceeded every goal, usually to the largest extent possible. See the official blog post about the results here.

Everything in the conference was top notch, but the specifics are irrelevant. What matters is that God was glorified, and his glory is going to become more prominent shining through the world as a result of these four days. Especially cool was the arrive in silence outdoor candlelight vigil on the last night. Cool to be worshiping God late at night in the heart of the city.

My prayer for myself and everyone who was at Passion is to not let this be a spiritual high, but to let it be a spiritual turning point–a time when God spoke to us both as a generation and as individuals. Let’s get out there and let his lite shine.

You can also check out my Passion 07 pictures in the gallery.

The past few days I’ve been in Atlanta.  I drove in on Saturday with Chris for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, formerly the Peach Bowl.  Unfortunately, our Hokies continued their bowl game tradition of choking.  Still, the game was exciting and well worth attending.

After the game, we headed to Sno’s aunt’s compound for the night.  It’s quite a house, complete with a room designed by Hildy from Trading Spaces.

We’ve done some sightseeing in Atlanta and are currently at Passion 07.  I’m on free wifi during dinner, so I can’t post much now, but I’ll share more once I get back in a few days.