Hi Dr. Cates,

We had a wonderful weekend in Canada. Joel did the USA proud! He was a wonderful host for the event and his singing and workshops went great. ANCA is making a dvd of the event, and hopefully we will get one in the near future.

Joel said he would be honored for you to share his story.  Here is an article in the our local newspaper about him.

I attach it and also the letter he received from Congressman Darrell Issa!

We miss you all!
Sandi

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you know, our kids have had a blast participating on a LEGO Robotics team through the FIRST LEGO League over the past three years.

This year, the theme was BODY FORWARD and we were challenged to research a bio medical topic. We chose to research the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), a deadly disease that impacts over 195 million people world-wide and will eventually kill more people than AIDS. HCV attacks the liver- the clearing house for toxins in your body- and has no known cure, nor a vaccine. HCV is a silent epidemic that left untreated, scars and shuts down the liver. The current reactive treatments for HCV involve an expensive 24-28 week drug routine with difficult side-effects. iBrick proposed a new solution- a preventative treatment- to fight HCV, using a transdermal monoclonal antibody patch.

Here’s the really exciting part!  We currently have a provisional patent for our patch with the The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Also, we submitted our patch idea in a LEGO Robotics contest sponsored by The X Prize Foundation, a leading nonprofit organization sponsoring competitions to inspire scientific discovery. The winner of

the contest receives $20,000 towards advancing their patent and attend an awards ceremony in Washington, DC.

OK…here’s where you come in. People can vote on the submitted patents and we would love it if you would vote for our team!

Here’s what you do:

Go to link:

http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org/

• Click on “search” on bottom left side
• Search for team-  ”ibrick” (see the kids picture)
• Click and vote for ibrick

You can actually vote daily if you like.

The contest, though not contingent solely on the actual hits, will tabulate the total number. Every vote counts.

The contest ends March 4. Feel free to pass on the link on to others to cast their votes too.

Thanks so much!

Team iBrick

Eli, Sam, and Jesse Parham and John, Josh and Caleb Pottebaum

For more on team ibrick, check out our website at : www.ibricknews.com

Dear Dr. Cates,

Don’t know if you want updates like this, but…

Here is a picture of Matthew receiving the Congressional Award Gold Medal from Congressman Duncan in his Knoxville office last Monday. To earn this award Matthew greatly surpassed the required 800 hours of activities in Personal Fitness, Personal Development, and Volunteering, along with a 4 night camping trip that he helped plan…all over a 3 year span. These were activities that Matthew was doing anyway as part of our homeschool program, but it sure is nice to have an outside agency validate his hard work.

Yesterday we mailed in the paperwork for Stephen’s work on the first two certificate levels of the Congressional Award. He’s on track to earn the gold medal as well in the next 1-2 years. Andrew will be old enough to start his work on the award in the fall.

We sure appreciate your support and encouragement in helping our homeschool program be successful.

Blessings,

Kathy Waldrep

Dr. Cates,

We wanted you to know that Team iBrick, our LEGO  Robotics team (consisting of John, Josh and Caleb Pottebaum, and Eli, Sam and Jesse Parham), won the Finals of the State First LEGO League competition December 5,  and advanced to the International competition. The International competition is in St. Louis (we went to Internationals in Taiwan last year where we won Best Research) on April 27, 2011 at the Edward Jones Dome. They anticipate over 40,000 people to participate/attend. We are prepared to take our research to another level for the competition.

The best part of the long day, was something that happened in the last hour of competition. Part of the LEGO Robotics project is research and the other part is robotic programing. Each team gets three chances to accumulate the most points they can on the robot mission field. Teams keep one score out of three attempts. Due to unequal pairings of teams, iBrick got to run the robot an extra time, but was not allowed to get the points for the 4th time. Rather than making a showy exhibition, iBrick gave up some of their points to a rookie team, by foregoing a mission. The judges were amazed at the notion that kids could put the needs of others ahead of their own.

We were satisfied with the day knowing the boys made an impression with the judges far more lasting than winning a trophy. To top it off, they won the Champion’s Award. It was the second year we have won our division of the Missouri State Finals and advanced to the International competition.  I do not know if that has ever been done before.

We thought you would be excited to know.

Thanks so much,

Michelle Pottebaum

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Download audio file (3-bitterorbetter-thanksgiving.mp3)

Click play above or download mp3 to your computer.

Dear Dr. Cates,

I thought I’d pass along some news that has had a big impact on our family.

My brother-in-law and sister, Ron & Connie Stiles, raised their son Nathan to have an incredible relationship with God, which he lived out with such quiet, humble cool. At 17, this football captain, straight A student, and home coming king had posted on facebook, “Why live for anyone other than Jesus?” That was on the page when he collapsed 2 weeks ago during a high school football game. He was life-flighted out, and despite the best efforts of a caring team of neurosurgeons, went to be with Jesus. We are dedicated to continuing the work of Nathan in turning the hearts of his classmates to Jesus. The strength required of my sister and brother-in-law for this feat is nothing less than heroic and God-given. At the memorial service, The Nathan Project put 600 Bibles in the hands of high school students and got them signed up for a non-denominational Bible study for a year.

This was on the news tonight:

“Spring Hill Parents Find Purpose In Death of Their Son”

Churches, or individuals, can learn more about The Nathan Project through facebook or by contacting Laurie at (913) 731-4177. So far there are 10 churches in our area offering study classes and they are filling with youth and adults alike. The story will be carried by ESPN the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

With a heavy heart and confidence in a loving God,

Kathy McAnany

]]> http://www.faithchristianmin.org/2010/11/unfortunate-news-from-kansas/feed/ 0 http://www.faithchristianmin.org/2010/11/podcast-when-the-church-becomes-a-culture-of-complainers/ http://www.faithchristianmin.org/2010/11/podcast-when-the-church-becomes-a-culture-of-complainers/#comments Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:52:06 +0000 Paul Cates http://www.faithchristianmin.org/?p=553 Download audio file (2-church-complain-culture.mp3)

Click play above or download mp3 to your computer.… Read the rest...