Fri 31 Aug 2007
How to Be an Effective Missionary
Posted by Andrew Mitry under Mission
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This past Sunday, Fr. Abraham Fam, a missionary priest in Zambia and close friend, shared with us on how to be an effective missionary.
Mission
Archived Posts from this Category
Fri 31 Aug 2007
We just finished combining the Mission Life Center website and blog into a single site that revolves around the blog. Previously we were using Joomla! for the main site and WordPress for the blog. Now the site is running entirely on WordPress. We also are using Flickr instead of Gallery for new photos.
We decided to go with a WordPress only site to allow for simple, straightforward content updates. Other than the main blog, we only needed a few static pages, which WordPress handles well. The new site has a cleaner layout that is easy to navigate and easy to update.
Thu 31 May 2007
A quick look at the tech behind the mission
Posted by Andrew Mitry under Mission, Web/Tech
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With all the buzz about the Coptic Mission, I thought I would take this chance to share a little about the their technology infrastructure. My wife, Sherry, and I have had the blessing of serving in the mission with His Grace Bishop Paul numerous times during the past eight years. In the fall of 2004, we got the opportunity to go to East Africa for an extended stay, during this time one of our major responsibilities was to establish the information technology infrastructure for the Coptic Hospital and Hope Center in Nairobi, Kenya.
Our goal was to setup a scalable network infrastructure from the ground up, the current setup consisted of only a few computers running Windows 98 and they weren’t networked. We needed to support five different buildings and about one hundred users to start with the expectation of rapid growth. Before leaving the United States, we packed up and sent over in a container one new server, a few used servers, several desktops, a 220V UPS, switches, server cabinet and a 45KW generator. We did get some funding from the US Agency for International Development to help cover costs.
When we got there, we trained the electricians on staff how to run and terminate CAT5E cabling. We purchased the cabling, jacks and patch panels locally. Within a few weeks (and after a lot of drilling, the buildings are all cement/block) we had most of the compound cabled. As that none of the building are more that 200ft apart, we used copper for the gigabit uplinks.
The mission had a lot of donated old hardware sitting in storage, so we brainstormed how we could effectively use that equipment. We decided to use Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP), specifically the K12 LTSP distribution. LTSP allowed us to use the old computers as dumb terminals and rely on the server for all the processing horsepower. We also could ship over small thin client computers rather than full desktops when additional client are needed.
K12 LTSP included most of the applications they needed, mainly OpenOffice.org and Firefox. Paul Kist, a developer from New York, came out and built a custom web based electronic medical record application running on LAMP for them.
The web based application was key as they expanded to multiple sites, they setup up satellite internet connections and were able to update the database using a web browser across an SSL connection without any advanced configuration necessary.
On a more recent note, we recently helped them launched CopticMission.org, running on Drupal 5. They perform all the content management from Kenya.
As President Bush mentioned in his speech, the Hope Center (and affiliated Hospital) has seen substantial growth in the past three years, God willing we can continue to scale the technology infrastructure along with it.
Thu 31 May 2007
Yesterday, President George W. Bush, in a speech on HIV/AIDS, praised the Coptic Hope Center in Nairobi, Kenya and thanked the director, His Grace Bishop Paul.
From the President’s speech…
“You know, one good example of this good work is supported by — that the U.S. supports is called the Coptic Hope Center in Nairobi, Kenya. Three years ago, the center had a staff of four people, and resources to treat no more than five HIV/AIDS patients a day. Today, the staff consists of 40 people and 10 volunteers who provide care and treatment services to over 6,000 people. I want to thank the Director of the Hope Center, Bishop Paul, who’s with us today. I want to thank you for being here. I want to thank you for your leadership and for your care for your fellow human beings.”
Play the video, the Coptic Hope Center is highlighted at 5:45, and the President takes pictures with the Bishop near the end.
The Hope Center is one of many projects belonging to the Coptic Mission in Africa which operates under the care of His Grace Bishop Paul.
Update: I was able to obtain additional pictures and higher quality footage.
Photo Album / DivX Video (78 MB) / QuickTime Video (205 MB) / DVD ISO (625 MB)
