Cambodia Trip: Post 2 - My First Moto Ride

On Saturday, we just relaxed most of the day at the Phillips house. We did head out in the late afternoon for a “moto” ride through the town of Ta Khmao where Chad lives.

Cambodia Trip: Post 1 - I Have Finally Arrived

Well after over 20 hours on an airplane, I made it to Cambodia.

Thanks to Jason King and Travis Birge which dropped me off at the airport on Thursday morning. I landed in Cambodia last night around 11PM their time.

I was right by the wing on the plane trip leaving Atlanta, so here is a time-lapse vid of the takeoff. Also, Chad and Linda got some pics of the kids as they waited for me at the Phnom Penh airport. They were easy to find since they were the only group with Braves clothing. haha! The kids showed me how to do the Tomahawk chop on the van ride to their house.  You will have to get them to show you when the come to Georgia.

I am going to try to be putting up a post every few days, so Be sure to check back for more updates during the next couple weeks.

Also, I wanted to say thank you to the many friends and church family that helped me financially for this trip through donations, and purchasing my Cambodia packages. I truly appreciate it! If you would like to get a package, I still have plenty of them left and I will hook you up. You can order online Here, You can see my Mom at church or send me an email at vichuff@gmail.com. Thanks again!

The Young Family - Party of 6

As I mentioned in my last post, I am headed to Cambodia later this month. It turns out that I am not the only one going on a journey to the Far East!

One of the best things about my time Freelancing is the opportunities I have had to work on some very special projects. What seems like forever ago, a member of my church Crystal Young, asked me if I could help them create a family video. She explained to me that they had been doing the preliminary work for adopting a child overseas, and one of the things the agencies like to have is a video showing the family and home. I told her I would help as much as I could and to let me know if things worked out. Well, praise the Lord, earlier this year things finally worked out. In June, Mr. Jason and Mrs. Crystal let me know that everything was moving along with the adoption process and that they were ready to make a video. The next addition to the Young Family would be a little 4 year old girl named Sunny May!

We set aside a day to get some video which included some personal greetings and a tour of the house. I have known the Young family for quite some time, but being in their home I was able to see how special they really are. Jason and Crystal are great parents to an amazing group of kids already. Shelby, Malachi, and Cody each have their unique characteristics and it’s fun to see them interact. I can’t wait to see how it will be when SunnyMay joins the party!

Here are some shots of the vid:

In August I finished up editing “The Young Family” video and got them a DVD. This was my first time working on a project like that so I was unsure if I was satisfied with how it turned out. It accomplished the criteria that the adoption agency requested, but this being such a special event I really wanted it to be great. At the end of the month Mrs. Crystal forwarded me an email that made me feel like a million dollars. It was titled “Update on Sunny May”. Crystal included a message that said this:

Here is a Note from worker at Mothers Choice:

"I have shown the family video and album to SunnyMay today. Here’s some photos of her.

She keeps on waving her hand to the screen when the video is showing to her, and she kisses her daddy’s photo when we told her this is her dad. She is so lovely/"

Well the Young Family is on their way to Hong Kong now to pick up their newest addition, SunnyMay! Please be praying for their traveling safety and that their adoption procedures in Hong Kong go very smooth. I am looking forward to meeting SunnyMay in person and to seeing the growing Young family - Party of 6!

Going to Cambodia!

One of my best pals, Chad Phillips, is a missionary in Cambodia. He and his family have been working working at Good News Baptist Church in Phnom Penh for almost 2 years now, and it is amazing to see how the Lord has blessed their ministry. I have often thought about trying to go and visit, and Chad and I had even mentioned the idea a few times, but no serious plans were ever made. That is - until the past couple of months!

About 5 weeks ago, I got a call from Chad telling me about some adjustments they were making to their furlough plans. They had an exciting ministry opportunity that would be coming about next summer, so they were going to reschedule their trip home before that date. Chad also began telling me about a project he wanted to do before he came home, and he wanted me to help him out. He was wanting to make a short video to kind of show his life and ministry there in Cambodia during their first term. Somehow in a few minutes he had talked me into trying to get to Cambodia ASAP and get this done.

Well, we worked out the details. I got my Passport and Plane tickets (which include 20 hours in the air, ughh!), I cleared my calendar during Thanksgiving (Turkey diet), and very soon I will be heading to Cambodia.

I am very excited about this opportunity, and humbled as well. Six weeks ago I never would have imagined that this would be possible. Please pray that the Lord would help me and protect me on this trip and that He will bless the work we do.

Cambodia Packages!

As we began to see the details come together that I would be able to go to Cambodia, I decided that I wanted to do a fundraiser to help pay for my trip and project. Chad was already working on some new things including a new website. I thought what better way to do a Cambodia trip fundraiser than to create a promotional packet to help promote this. Over the past few weeks I have ordered and created a few items and put them together into a cool Cambodia packet. I got a Pray for Cambodia T-Shirt made complete with Chad’s new website on it. There is also a wristband with the new website on it. I made a vinyl decal that you can put on your car or mirror to help you remember Cambodia. And finally, I made a tag to go along with the package. It has a picture of the Phillips family and some other info. What’s awesome is that my family members put all of these items together for me in a cool looking bundle! Check it out. 

If you would like to see more pics or even order one of these Cambodia Packages, check out my website Here.

The Living Fields

Lastly today, I wanted to mention Chad’s new website. It is not complete yet, but you can check it out at www.living-fields.com.

The name he chose for his website is very significant. A quick Google search of Cambodia will show you why. Probably the most notable event in their recent history is the brutal Khmer Rouge regime which ruled from 1975 to 1979. Thousands were murdered and even more died of disease and starvation. There are several burial sites within Cambodia that are simply know as “The Killing Fields.” While this is just a history lesson to most people, it is still very real in the minds of most Cambodians, including Chad and Linda’s family members.

The things associated with “The Killing Fields” makes the name of Chad’s new website overwhelmingly powerful. The darkness and death that came in Cambodia’s past will give way to the light and life that the Gospel brings to the Cambodian people. With Christ and laborers like my pal Chad, the future of Cambodia is “The Living Fields”.

DropBox - Sending Stuff Safe and Easy

I have had several pals asking me about using Dropbox lately, so I thought I would do a quick Blog post on my workflow for sending files on a Mac. At the end I will give some more info on why Dropbox is so very awesome, and why you need to sign up for a free account (Here) if you haven’t already. (Let me know if you would like to set up an account - if you refer a new user with Dropbox, both parties get an extra 500MB of storage.) Also, I have some cool Dropbox quick facts that may surprise you.

OK, So lets get started. Assuming you already have a Dropbox account setup, I am going to share with you the best way to send stuff quickly and safely over the inter-web. Most people just create a New Folder on their Dropbox account and then share that folder with other people via email invitation. While this is great for collaborative projects with several parties, it is not the best option if you just want to send some files.

For this example - Let’s say I took a bunch of Pics at a family get together, and I want to get everyone hi-res versions of them.

Why “Sharing Folders” is a Bad Habit

First of all, (this Is probably just a personal issue) I am a minimalist. Or at least I pretend to be, haha! Anyway, if you use Dropbox a lot, and you create and share a new folder for everything, you will quickly clutter up your Dropbox account. For example, If I took pics at several different family events I would find myself “Sharing” several different Dropbox folders, or with one big unorganized “Family” folder. Eventually, I would have a large mess on my hands. Also, I don’t want pictures from 5 years ago using up my free storage space on Dropbox.

Second, and more importantly, is Safety. Lets say you are sharing a folder with someone, and they get the files they need. Did you know that they will have access to that folder until you delete it? You may have worked on the project several months ago, forgotten about the folder, and then use it for something else. Everyone that was ever sharing that folder has continued access to that folder. Or let’s say you have several different shared folders, and in a hurry - or accidentally - you drop a very sensitive file into the wrong folder. Again, everyone will have access to that in your shared folder. With the Family get together example, Let’s just say Uncle Carl and Aunt Kate aren’t married any more. You don’t want to be sending him pics of “Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kate”. hahah!

Third, some files are just a pain. For example Video files. I have come to find that these are a real pain to send via Dropbox shared folders. The main thing is that Dropbox tries to play the video through your browser. If your Granny doesn’t have a really good internet connection, playback will be choppy and slow. And then she will complain to you about how her computer doesn’t work. Am I right or what?!

A Better (and Easier) Alternative - the Public Folder

(NOTE: If you do not see a “Public Folder”, you may have accidentally deleted it. No prob! just create a new folder and name it “Public”.)

Send compressed .ZIP files to your relatives, or anyone, following these steps. They don’t even need to have a Dropbox account.

Step 1:

Create a new folder on your desktop and name it “GrannysHouse_10.4.2012”

Step 2:

Put all the files inside that you want to share with people. Pictures, Videos, Documents, etc., etc.

Step 3:

Compress your folder into a .ZIP file (just right click and choose “Compress”)

Step 4:

Put the newly created .ZIP file into your Dropbox “Public” folder

Step 5:

You will see the blue spinning arrows, as the .ZIP file is uploading. When it turns into a green check you are ready to send a link.

Just right click on the .Zip file and choose “Copy Public Link”. Now you can go to your email and hit paste in the memo area. You will see a URL link to that Zip file.

Now you can send that email to anyone you want and they just need to click the link to download the Zip file. When they do download it, all they have to do is double click to uncompress the zip file back into a normal folder, full of all the goodies you wanted them to have.

Also, on your end, organization of your Public folder is quick and easy if you name your .zip files descriptively and delete files that are old.

Is DropBox King of the Cloud?

This is just one scenario, but I have found this process is great pretty much anytime I need to send large files quickly and easily. I worked in the Printing industry for years and have had to deal with the frustration of trying to send and receive large files. Logging onto FTP sites, passwords, file size limitations, etc, etc, all made the process a major headache. The need for Apps like DropBox is great and will only continue to grow. That being said, since I have been using DropBox other file storage and sharing Apps have been popping up like weeds. Some of them are startups like DropBox, but others are from companies you may have already heard of Google, Apple, or Microsoft. hahah! So yeah, the need for sending files through clouds is an ever changing market that has really just begun. I have very limited use with the others, so I can’t really make any suggestions about these apps. If you do a quick Google search like “DropBox alternatives”, you will find an abundance of comparisons between the major Apps. Some of the more popular ones are Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, Apple iCloud, Sugar Sync. Each offer similar services, but you may find one that fits your exact needs.

While I may change my mind in the future, the simplicity of Dropbox makes it an easy choice. The scenario I mentioned above cannot get any simpler, and it’s easy for computer beginners, like “Granny”, to just get the stuff they want.

Quick DropBox facts:

• Dropbox has more than 50 million users.
• People save one billion files to Dropbox every 48 hours.
• Dropbox is installed on 250 million different devices.
• Dropbox is offered in five languages: English, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese.
• Dropbox has paying customers in 175 countries.
• More than half of Dropbox users are from outside the U.S.
• People in over two million businesses are using Dropbox.

Links and References:

• Dropbox website
• set up Dropbox on your computer - Here
• DropBox artwork (drawings seen above - see more here)
• Recent CNET article comparing cloud services

-Also, just a side note. I was looking for a “king” image to put in the blog. Instead of using clip art, I found a logo that I made for my friend Jason King. If you need a cool logo, please, let me know. Working together we can reduce the worldwide use of bad clip art one project at a time. hahaha -

-tks -vh