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Company Financial Statements: Comparisons in Different Databases
Students are often confused when viewing company financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement) in different databases. The reason being, that the values displayed, for the same company, often don't match.
Commercial vs Educational Emphasis
This confusion is understandable. Surely values for the same company, for the same statement, should be identical? In explaining this apparent anomaly, the primary purpose of specialised financial databases needs to be appreciated. That is, to provide data/information to allow analysis of many types of securities – different classes of assets, such as Equities – or companies.
The key user groups are within business and commerce. However, there is sufficient useful content, to also be of value to educational establishments, and therefore students – but business users have priority.
For example, when seeking to gauge the relative performance of two or more companies, from different countries, with different accounting standards, there is a clear logic in being able to compare on a like-with-like basis. Therefore, when looking at a value in an Income Statement, for example, it would be clear which company had superior performance. To compare companies otherwise, the so-called apples with oranges analogy, lacks transparency and is ineffective.
Hence, the evolution of common methods for calculating accounting values in different databases, to ease comparisons between companies. Bloomberg Professional and Thomson ONE.com databases both reflect this need, but use different terminology. A look at a company example is instructive.
Bloomberg Professional – Financial Analysis [FA]
The Income Statement ('I/S') for Tesco PLC, a UK supermarket group, is set out below, using the Financial Analysis function, within Bloomberg Professional.
Note that the tab towards the top left: 'Adjusted', is highlighted in blue. This is the default view, meaning this is how data is normally displayed for financial statements in Bloomberg Professional. Therefore, companies from different countries can be compared on a like-with-like basis, when the same currency is selected (top right of screen). In the example above, this is set to GBP, or Great Britain Pounds.
Another option is also highlighted – the 'As Reported' tab. This selection would display values from the company's official annual report and accounts.
Thomson ONE.com – Reuters Fundamentals
The Income Statement for Tesco PLC is displayed again, using Thomson ONE.com database: drop down menu selection:
Company Overviews – Fundamentals – Reuters Fundamentals
The 'Report Format' option on the left, gives the choice of 'Company Specific' (official values – annual report and accounts) and 'Standardised'. When the 'Standardised' view has been selected and 'Update View' clicked on, the drop down menu to choose a common currency become available, thus allowing like-with-like comparisons, between different companies.
The ability to quickly search for companies within databases such as Bloomberg Professional or Thomson ONE.com is an effective means to locate company financial statements and take advantage of like-with-like comparisons.
When viewing financial statements within databases, the realisation that a company's annual report and accounts is the ultimate (official) source, represented by 'As Reported' in Bloomberg Professional and 'Company Specific' in Thomson ONE.com, can help to avoid confusion for students, in conducting company analysis.
Bloomberg Professional and Thomson ONE.com are databases available to current students and staff of The University of Manchester.
Top 10 Companies
A student recently asked the following: 'how do I get a list of the top 10 companies in the pharmaceuticals area?'.
What 'top 10' means, or is meant to mean, is a little fuzzy…could this be ordering by turnover (sales), number of employees, earnings per share or other measure? Upon further questioning, the size of the company, represented by Market Capitalization, was deemed acceptable. In addition to this, the relative position of a specified company (Glaxosmithkline: GSK-LN) was queried.
Thomson ONE.com
One possible approach is to search for the specified company and see what options then present themselves. By typing the company name or ticker code (GSK-LN) in the search box at the top left of the screen, it is possible to select the appropriate option from those displayed. This gives a Company Overview screen to start.
By selecting the 'Comparables' screen, a number of related companies are displayed. To reach this screen, use the drop-down menus at the top of the page:
Company Views – Fundamentals – Comparables
Whilst this gives a list of related entries in the sense that they are pharmaceutical companies, it is not clear if these represent the 'top 10'. To do so, a measure would have to be targeted, such as Market Capitalization, using the 'Equity Screener' feature. This can be reached from:
Screening & Analysis – Companies – Company Screener
By entering 'Pharmaceuticals' within the Business Description field and 'greater than or equal to 5000' within the Latest Market Cap ($Mil) field [Stock & Earnings Criteria section], then clicking on the 'Search' button, this gives 66 results.
Selecting the column title ('Market Cap') orders the companies by this field's values. The Excel icon allows data export.
The data displayed within Excel:
Glaxosmithkline appears at number 6 in the results. A particular concern with this list may relate to how precisely 'Pharmaceuticals' matches with companies which are so classified. For example, 3M, which appears at number 5 on the list, makes many varied products, and isn't primarily thought of as a pharmaceutical company. Another alternative is to try features within other databases – for example, Bloomberg Professional.
The first function which suggests itself is 'Relative Valuation' (RV), which would seem to provide a similar role to 'Comparables' within Thomson ONE.com. Enter the following on the Command Line:
GSK LN F8/Equity RV
Another potential choice would be to use the Equity Screening function (EQS). This allows companies to be selected according to the Sectors (or sub-sectors) to which they are assigned. There are a number of other categories which can be used to refine a search, if so desired.
By selecting 'Pharmaceuticals', then 'Update', the number of results are shown. In this case 1,146 companies:
By clicking on 'Results', a listing is displayed, sorted by the default data field – Market Cap(italization). The currency is not clear at first sight. However, by hovering the mouse pointer over the column title (Market Cap), a pop up box confirms details: Currency: GBP, representing Great Britain Pounds.
Glaxosmithkline appears at number 10 in this listing. Interestingly, 3M doesn't appear within the top 21, reflecting the earlier comment on categorisation of companies in different databases.
So, Equity Screening within Bloomberg Professional and Screening & Analysis within Thomson ONE.com databases have provided a listing of companies sorted by Market Capitalization and represent a reasonable solution to what was initially a difficult question to address.
Thomson ONE.com (from Thomson Reuters) and Bloomberg Professional are available to current students and staff of The University of Manchester.
Related posts include:
Company Employee Data Using Different Databases: [24 February 2016], and
Company and Industry Comparisons: [10 July 2015].
Company Employee Data Using Different Databases
How many employees work for a company?
This would appear to be a simple question. But perhaps not…
Although the company in question will have a more exacting answer as to values at any particular point in time, this would be considered commercially sensitive information. Therefore, values are typically made available at a single point in time, such as the end of the company's reporting period. This is then accessible via a number of business databases.
Unfortunately, if you look in different databases, you tend to get different answers – for example, looking at Tesco PLC, which is a publicly quoted UK company, a number of values are specified depending on the database consulted:
Bloomberg Professional
This shows 386,086 employees and helpfully specifies a date point of 28 February 2015, but displayed in US date format [02/28/15]. This reflects Tesco's reporting period dates – essentially the start of March to the end of February.
Thomson ONE.com
This gives a different value [506,984] but specifies the same date – the end of the reporting period.
Datastream (Thomson Reuters)
The datatype is 'WC07011 – Employees' and the definition notes: Employees represents the number of both full time and part time employees of the company. It excludes: Seasonal employees, Emergency employees. Footnotes: D. Average employees. This gives a value of 506,984.
This specifies a value of 386,086.
Capital IQ
When searching for Tesco PLC, the 'Number of Employees' is stated as: 517,802.
Company Annual Report
Perhaps one way to obtain clarity is to look in the 'Tesco Annual Report and Financial Statements 2015', accessible through Thomson Research or PI Navigator databases, for example.
Page 20, shows the following breakdown, for a total of 517,802 (220,257 + 297,545).
If you were to stop at this point in the Annual Report, you would miss further details. Hence, on page 100, there are additional details:
This helps to show which values the various databases have selected. Thus, Capital IQ has used the combined values [220,257 + 297,545 = 517,802] from page 20 of the Annual Report, in contrast to the other databases.
Thomson ONE.com/Datastream have used the 'Average Number of Employees' measure [506,984] and Bloomberg/Fame have used the 'Average Number of Full-Time Equivalents' [386,086] for 2015 – that is, the end of the reporting period, specifically 28 February 2015.
The lesson to be drawn when using data from a particular database – always quote the source, to ensure clarity and remove uncertainty. In the case of Employee data, the company's Annual Report is the ultimate source.
However, the difference in total values between page 20 [517,802 (220,257 + 297,545)] and those quoted on page 100 [506,984 and 386,086] is a mystery. Specifying a page number in your reference is therefore recommended!
Bloomberg Professional, Datastream, Thomson ONE.com, Thomson Research, Fame and Capital IQ are databases available to current students and staff of The University of Manchester.
Company Results by Geographical Location
The ability to locate results by geographical location can be troublesome when having to consult multiple copies of a company's Annual Report & Accounts.
Using a business database can make this task quicker and easier.
Thomson ONE.com
To get the best out of this database, it is useful to know that it is designed to work with the Internet Explorer browser.
In addition, it is advisable to select 'Compatibility View Settings' from the tools menu (represented by the 'cog' icon, then 'Add' and 'Close') to ensure all options display correctly.
Company Search
Type in the company name in the search box at the top left of the screen and select:
Next, click on 'Full Summary' from the Company Overview screen.
From the Financial Reports page displayed, it is possible to reveal more search options by selecting the small icon towards the upper right of the screen.
Search Selections
With the 'Summary' tab selected at the top of the search screen, the Report categories available include Annual Key Items, Interim Key Items, Interim Key Items TTM, Business Segment and Geographic Segment.
For 'Geographic Segment' this means that data ('Measure' options: Sales, Assets, Capital Expenditure, Depreciation and Operating Income) are available for those areas in which results are reported, for a given year. In the case of Tesco PLC for Fiscal Period 2015* above (looking at data for the 12 months to 28 February 2015, displayed in US date format: 02/28/2015), this includes the UK, Asia and Rest of Europe.
Repeat the process for each year by selecting a new year and clicking on the 'OK' button to display data.
Whole Company Results – Multiple Years
For individual financial statements, select the appropriate tab at the top of the screen. These include Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement, with (Report type 'Annual' showing) data for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or All years.
Data Definitions
Clicking on the small square icon at the end of an item in the financial statement being viewed will provide a pop-up window with a definition. For example, in the Income Statement for Tesco PLC above, 'Operating Income' is defined.
*Fiscal Period: the period a company uses for accounting purposes – reporting results. In the case of Tesco PLC, March to the end of February.
Using business databases with Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows
Last month saw the release of the latest version of Microsoft's ubiquitous Office suite for Windows, named version 2016. It brings new features and a design more in line with that of versions of Office released for iOS and Android. Many students beginning their studies this month will arrive at university with this version of Excel on their computers.
This is not a concern for users of the most specialist financial databases at The University of Manchester Library as the databases are installed on cluster PCs which will remain on Windows 7 with Office 2010; it may become a matter of concern for those at other institutions who are responsible for PC updates in the coming months.
I have run a few tests installing Thomson Reuters Datastream Advance for Office, Capital IQ Office Plug-in and Thomson Reuters Spreadsheet Link on Windows 7 and Windows 10 systems with Office 2016, specifically to check if their Excel add-ins work correctly. (I was not able to test Bloomberg due to its more limited restrictions.)
Datastream in Excel 2010: The version of Datastream that is most used at The University of Manchester is Datastream Advance for Office (DAO), officially supported by Office 2007 and 2010 32-bit versions and no newer. (There is a version for 64-bit Office which I have not tested, called Datastream for Office (DFO), and a Datastream charting add-in, also not tested.)
Datastream in Excel 2013: Although Office 2013 is not officially supported for DAO, I managed to install it on a Windows 10 32-bit tablet and got a Request Table to work. (Tip: save the Request Table document the first time it asks you to, otherwise you will get into trouble with macro-enabled filetypes later.) I have seen the previous version of DAO, designed for Office 2003, working with Office 2013 32-bit on Windows 8.1 64-bit (sorry, screen shot not available).
Datastream in Excel 2016: Although Office 2016 is also not officially supported for DAO, I managed to install it on a Windows 7 32-bit PC and got a Request Table to work. I could not install it on a Windows 10 64-bit PC, using Office 2010 or Office 2016; it gave error messages such as "Compile error in hidden module: AFOHelp".
In summary: Datastream works for me in Office 2016 with Windows 7 32-bit and possibly in some other situations but more testing is required.
Capital IQ
I had a mixed but unsuccessful experience using the Capital IQ Office Plug-in. On a Windows 10 PC where I had already installed the software to use with Office 2010, running the Excel add-in on Excel 2016 would let me load the Capital IQ ribbon tab, access the template library, but it would not download any real data. I tried the usual troubleshooting methods but could not get the data to work.
When I tried to install Capital IQ Office Plug-in on Windows 7 where Office 2016 was installed, I got an error message that I could not work around: "Unsupported Office Version". I guess Office 2016 is too far ahead of Office 2003 for it to recognise, even though I had Office 2010 installed as well.
I have not tried to contact their help desk yet; perhaps there will be a newer version released to address this. I am hopeful for this with Capital IQ; there will not be an update for either of these Thomson Reuters products tested today.
Thomson Reuters Spreadsheet Link
Unfortunately I was unable to run Thomson Reuters Spreadsheet Link (TRSL) in Office 2016. It is not officially supported in anything newer than Office 2010 so I was not expecting it to start working again in Office 2016, but running on the Windows 10 PC Office 2010 showed part of the Excel add-in loading; perhaps it had worked on that same PC a few months earlier.
When I tried to install TRSL on a Windows 7 PC with Office 2016 installed, I got a message like with Capital IQ, stopping the installation from taking place at all. In short, it doesn't work.
Many of the archive specialist database platforms that researchers use are dependent on old and ageing pieces of software. It is asking a lot to expect software written over five years ago to continue working in successive releases of the Windows operating system, and an even harder challenge to make it work within multiple Office environments on each of those platforms. Sometimes these old applications would require major redevelopment to work, sometimes just a tiny tweak. If that tiny tweak requires a disbanded team and development environment to be resurrected, it's just as unlikely to be fixed as a major job. Sadly, the Thomson Reuters Excel add-ins fall into one of these categories. We will have to wait until Eikon is ready for wider use in education, hopefully before the Windows 7 operating system reaches the end of its life for receiving security updates in January 2020.
See also: Using business databases with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10
Using business databases with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10
The newly released Windows 10 is a currently a free upgrade from Windows 7 and Windows 8.x. It claims to "transform the way you work and play" amongst other things. It also marks the launch of a new web browser Microsoft Edge, replacing the 20-year old Internet Explorer (IE). Edge is a great move forward for web developers and hopefully will be preferred by end users but, as always, change comes at a cost; the many legacy web-based platforms that were built for IE 6 or later may not work. Fortunately, IE 11 is still available for the sake of compatibility, but is using Windows 10 and multiple web browsers a smooth ride?
How compatible are our business databases with Windows 10?
Some of the specialist financial and business databases that The University of Manchester subscribes to have been tested below.
Not compatible with Microsoft Edge:
ThomsonONE.com and Thomson Research
These two reputable products are widely used but they are built on old technology (old by web development standards). They were already limited to work on Internet Explorer only in Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1.
ThomsonONE.com shows a blank screen if loaded in Microsoft Edge.
Thomson Research will load but some of the dialog windows do not work in Microsoft Edge.
Solution: Click in the new Search box next to the Start button (bottom left of the screen), type "Internet Explorer" and open the old browser. From here, go to the Library website and find ThomsonONE.com in the usual way. (Note, if you try the option to "Open with Internet Explorer" from within Edge may not work for this website.)
Compatible with Microsoft Edge:
So far, I have found that all out other web-based specialist databases are compatible with Microsoft Edge.
Please comment below this post if you find otherwise! I will update this post as necessary.
A later post on Business Research Plus will explore databases that use Microsoft Office 2016 and Windows 10.
Insider trading
Definition of Insider Trading (from Investopedia):
The buying or selling of a security by someone who has access to material, nonpublic information about the security.
Companies in any country
Use ThomsonONE.com
- Search for the company you want.
- Click on the Company Analysis > Ownership folder, and select Insider Holdings or Insider Transactions report.
- Click "Click here for full history" for historic holdings (older than 24 months).
Use Capital IQ
- Search for the company you want.
- On the long menu down the left, choose Investors > Public Ownership, then the Insider Trading tab.
- Only the last 12 months are available.
Use Bloomberg (available in the Finance Zone and Precinct Library)
- Try Bloomberg function PHDC for a specific company (e.g. VOD LN <F8> PHDC <GO>) and select Insiders, sorted by size.
- You can also look up the biographies of executies/directors (BIO) and then choose Reported Holdings.
- For stocks that have experienced the most purchases and sales by insiders, type: INSD and hit Go. Use the fields at the top of the screen to select country, time period, type of transaction. Click on a stock to display a graph of its historical prices with date of insider transactions.
- For more info, type: insider and hit the green Help key <F1>.
Companies in the U.S. only
Use WRDS
- Choose Thomson Reuters database, and then Insiders Data. Search by company ticker. Check the variables you want in your report.
- Insider filings with the U.S. SEC are available through Edgar. Enter your company name or ticker symbol or CIK and Include Ownership forms.
- Insider transactions are available by issuer and reporting owner. Take a look at the website SecForm4.Com
Current and historical company annual reports
Company websites
For current annual reports, a company's website is often the quickest and easiest option.
Databases that The University of Manchester subscribes to:
- PI Navigator: Include Annuals / 10K / 20-F (Company Reports and Accounts) in search criteria or select Perfect Filings tab and include Document Type UK Annual Reports or similar depending on your search.
- Mergent Archives: Select Search Mergent Achives for annual report search
- Thomson Research: Quick Company Search: and Content Profile, Filings
- Thomson ONE.com: Annual reports are under Filings tab
Annual reports websites
Try EDGAR for reports filed with US SEC.
Historical stock prices
There are several possible sources; see The University of Manchester Library's Share Price Information Guide.
Subscription specialist financial databases
ThomsonONE.com (online, mainly active companies):
- In the yellow top-left area Symbol/Name, search for the company by name or ticker.
- In the main horizontal menu, choose Company Views > Price Chart.
- Specify the desired time period and frequency. Add any other criteria such as another company or index.
- Click Go to redraw the chart.
- To download the data, click the Excel icon at the top.
- Alternatively, you can use the Thomson Reuters Spreadsheet Link Excel add-in, available at the Library Finance Zone.
- Time series request, default datatype for equities(stocks) P(adjusted closing price), others e.g. UP (unadjusted price) also available.
- Select company: search by name and select or type company Bloomberg ticker and hit EQUITY key (e.g. MSFT US [EQUITY] for Microsoft).
- Type HP and hit Go for Historical Prices.
- OR type GP and hit Go for Graph Prices and then copy and paste data into Excel.
Market specific sources
- CRSP for US stocks, available through WRDS
- LSPD (London Share Price Database) monthly prices for London Stock Exchange
Online sources
Often only active companies and less flexible than subscription databases.
- Yahoo Finance Enter your stock symbol and select historical prices
Further Information
- UPenn Lippincott's Stock Prices Research Guide.


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Terms & Condition
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subset: commoncrawl


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THE Sunday Post's psychic, June Field, recently rubbed shoulders with football's great and good at the FIFA Awards in London.
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11/23/18 12:00 AMUkrAgroConsult World Agriculture
Consulting Agency
The fortunes of US soybean growers and the US-China trade war could affect Australian wheat growers, according to the latest analysis.
Rabobank analyst Cheryl Kalisch Gordon said there was likely to be a lot more wheat being grown internationally next year, which could eventually weigh on Australian prices.
"Right now, the expectation is we'll find the reduction on global prices about 20 cents or 10 per cent from current levels," Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
"I expect it would be a bit softer than that for local prices, purely because we're looking into 2019 and not a great outlook for new season grain in 2019."
The US-China trade war could affect the Australian producers because US soybean farmers could grow more wheat.
China has slapped a 25 per cent tariff on imports of soybeans from the US, which has left the US farmers struggling to sell their product on the world stage.
"You've seen wheat prices move up 20 per cent over the past 12 months, you've seen soy bean prices move down about 15 per cent, so a lot of farmers will be looking at whether they can plant wheat next year, rather than soy beans," Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
"If an El Nino {weather pattern} does transpire — which for North America is a positive in their Great Plains area because it delivers more rain — that is going to be a burden on the global-wheat balance sheet."
Ms Gordon expects Australian wheat prices to be higher than international prices due to the drought.
Australia's total winter crop production in 2018-19 is forecast to fall by 12 per cent to 33.2 million tonnes, compared to 2017-18.
"This coming 12 months we would expect Australian grain prices to continue to trade well over the international prices, due almost entirely to the very tight balance sheet we have here in Australia," Ms Kalish Gordon said.
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Hey – can we talk?
Interior design language or furniture language doesn't usually come tumbling out of the average person's mouth. There's no real use for it in everyday conversation. When the time arrives to purchase furniture is when that vocabulary becomes, not only a handy tool, but a time saver.
Today I am going to help you know the lingo!
I am going to keep it simple and I am going to stick to sofa styles.
Classic in looks and largest in selection:
These pieces may have: Skirts, nail head trim, rolled arms, fringe, tufted backs, lots of throw pillows, opulent fabrics, including leathers. Terms you might hear to describe the look: Tuscany style, Heirloom, French Country, Old World, Old English, Men's Club, Cottage, Library, Rustic or Elegant, etc. The most wonderful thing about Traditional is the range and scope of flexibility available to the consumer.
It can be incredibly boring or rich and sassy!
These pieces are a bit more stream-limed. The style leans toward a modern look without really committing to it. The word, itself, is telling you that the style is transitioning between traditional and contemporary. Terms you might hear to describe this look: Urban, Fresh, Lifestyle, Casual, Michigan Avenue, Global,Young, Relaxed, Inviting, Clean lines and nothing fussy.
These sofas mean business and probably have set of ear buds resting on a cushion!
CONTEMPORARYThese audacious pieces are recognizable by their simplicity of design. The lines are low in profile, unencumbered and gutsy.
Common terms describing a contemporary sofa: Modern, Ultra-modern, Soho Loft, Stark, Industrial, Strong, High Tech, Retro, Mid Century Modern, Funky, Architectural, and, are you ready for this? Classic.
Hope you now have a better working vocabulary for distinguishing and naming styles of upholstery. The same lingo holds up for bedroom furniture, dining rooms, media rooms, and well, you get the drift, right?!
To give honors: the top two photos are sofas from Bradington Young and the contemporary piece is from American Leather.
Available at Phelan's
Now get out there and talk the talk!
Dianne Ross
Interior Designer/Phelan's Interiors


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JOHNSON CITY – East Tennessee State University's College of Public Health has received accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), becoming the first school in Tennessee, and the only one in central Appalachia, to earn that designation.
The university received an accreditation term of five years, the maximum available to a newly accredited College of Public Health. CEPH is the only organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit public health schools and programs, and ETSU is now one of only 43 universities nationwide with a CEPH-accredited College of Public Health.
"This is an exciting day for East Tennessee State University and an accomplishment our entire region can take pride in, because CEPH accreditation is a national distinction," said ETSU President Dr. Paul E. Stanton Jr. "The commitment by our university to public health education goes back more than five decades, and those efforts have enjoyed great support from the community through those years. Because of that history, the College of Public Health is especially representative of the special connection that exists between ETSU and the region we serve.
"I offer congratulations to our dean, Dr. Randy Wykoff, Dr. Wilsie Bishop, the College of Public Health faculty and staff, and our students on a job well done."
This watershed accomplishment of the present is an echo of the past, when visionary leaders and faculty members at ETSU emphasized public health education even when the field was in its formative stages and fewer universities nationwide offered the field of study. ETSU traces the beginnings of its public health program back to 1949.
"The College of Public Health is a benchmark that brings national prestige not only to the university itself but also the area in which we live," said Bishop, vice president for Health Affairs and university chief operating officer. She formerly served as dean of the College of Public and Allied Health for 10 years. "Public health education is more relevant than ever because it empowers people to bring about positive change to health problems on a large scale, and our state needs to make strides in overall health."
The United Health Foundation ranks Tennessee 47th overall in state health rankings.
"Our state isn't where it needs to be in terms of overall health," Wykoff said, "and public health education is one of the primary tools to change our health for the better. Recognition of that is one factor that has driven our faculty, staff and students to make the ETSU College of Public Health the best college it can be. Part of being the best we can be is earning CEPH accreditation, but it doesn't end there. We look forward to continuing to work with other colleges at ETSU and with the many outstanding public health programs in other parts of Tennessee to make a difference."
Wykoff said the federal government may take CEPH accreditation into account when determining which colleges receive grants for study and research. These extramural funds are crucial building blocks for growing the College of Public Health and improving community health.
Wykoff emphasized that longstanding efforts by Stanton and Bishop were key to bringing accreditation efforts to fruition. The college that Bishop formerly led as dean split into two colleges in 2007, creating the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, under the direction of Dean Nancy Scherer, and the College of Public Health.
"This is really a natural progression of a longstanding commitment by the university to improve the health of the region," Wykoff said. "Full accreditation is reflective of the tremendous leadership of our faculty and staff, and the input from our students, alumni, employers and community leaders was necessary to make it happen. Dr. Stanton and Dr. Bishop, along with many others at ETSU, have been working for years to make this day happen. This could not have happened without their leadership."
The College of Public Health offers a broad spectrum of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs, with academic areas that include biostatistics, community health, epidemiology, environmental health and health services administration, as well as the Department of Health Sciences, which encompasses microbiology, anatomy and physiology. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently surveyed economic forecasters, business analysts and academic experts to identify five "emerging fields of study" for higher education, and public health was one of them.
CEPH accreditation is the culmination of an intensive process that began more than three years ago when the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission gave ETSU permission to move forward with its application. The preparation was guided by an accreditation steering committee led by Dr. Amal Khoury, interim chair of the Department of Health Services Administration in the College of Public Health, with input from five faculty-led working groups and four community advisory groups, as well as students, alumni, employers and community leaders.
"The process won't end now," Wykoff said, "as the five-year term includes interim reporting requirements to CEPH, which is a normal provision for new members. In many ways, this is a milestone but also a stepping stone. It's a milestone in ETSU's 50-year history of serving the community through public health. It's a stepping stone, too, because it takes us to the next level. But this is one of those necessary but not sufficient things. I look forward to working with everyone here at ETSU and with people throughout the community to allow this college to have the greatest influence possible on the health status of this region."


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Advent Calender for Knitters
Check out this advent calender for knitters.
You ask in wonder,"where did you find this?" I reply, "Ravelry, of course." Ravelry ROCKS!
Staye tuned, I'll try to post picture of our handmade (kid made) Advent Calender tomorrow.
3 responses
That is cool. I'm going to do one of the projects if one inspires me – I tried cheating but they wouldn't let me open other days!
December 5, 2007 at 2:18 am
O.K. Now you have me hooked… Very cool. I have to now check it everyday. I think I may have to try out Ravelry. Is it open to anyone now?
December 8, 2007 at 8:26 am


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(Warning: If you don't want to see how to barbecue a whole lamb, do not watch this video.)
If you've ever wondered how to barbecue a whole lamb on a spit, here is a YouTube video that I made of my father-in-law cooking a lamb on a custom-built rotisserie grill. He is a Greek man who learned how to barbecue a lamb when he was a child. He has loved barbecue and grilling for basically his whole life and has consistently barbecued lambs on Greek Easter and on other holidays. I created this YouTube video back in July of 2009 and, to date, it has received more than 95,000 views on a former youTube channel. I just moved this video over to the LifewithGrilling youTube channel so the view counts starts from scratch..
We are looking forward to having another lamb in a few days for a July 4th celebration in this same location as seen in this video. It has been a tradition and this whole process between putting the lamb on the spit to the end of the cooking process takes about 5-6 hours but, during this time, we always are slicing off pieces as appetizers as you will see in the video. You'll eventually hear some great Greek music too!
(If you are at all squeamish about viewing a whole lamb, please do not watch this video.)
There is nothing like lamb on a barbecue grill. Charcoal grilling a lamb yields spectacular results! If you've wondered how to cook lamb on a spit, hopefully you enjoyed this tutorial. My father-in-law had this barbecue grill fashioned with an automated rotisserie so this is the ultimate in rotisserie cooking but you can do a similar thing on a smaller scale with a leg of lamb. I hope you enjoyed this video as so many others have in the past! Please share the love below by sharing this video or leave a comment!


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I would not, could not, in a Citadel.
I could not, would not, with someone so magical.
I will not eat them with an elf.
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them at Northrend or here.
I will not eat them in Azeroth anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham!
I do not like them, Lich King–I–am!
While Dr. Seuss may never have imaged his work being set to the poststructuralist lamentings of an evil-incarnate Paladin, they time is quickly arriving in which your character will sit down and have his last meal in Outlands.
For me, I'm going to be enjoying what's left of my Spicy Crawdad. I built up a large supply of the stuff six or so months ago. I think I've only used about half of it, so there'll be plenty to eat while leveling through Northrend.
But on Wednesday evening when I group up with my friends of Eldre'Thalas for the last time to grind that final bit of Honor Hold rep I need to get exalted (sorry if you didn't know we were doing this guys), I'll be eat my spicy crawdad.
My last meal seems a bit fishy.
Breakfast Topic: What will your last meal be?
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I would not, could not, in a Citadel.


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What a Difference a Year Can Make
We are under 48 hours from holding our twin daughters in our arms and I have so many thoughts and emotions swirling inside. I am…
In Awe
In Love Already
Feeling unprepared
Feeling prepared as we'll ever be
It has been quite a journey to get to this point.
It feels so long and somehow rather quick in hindsight.
Suddenly it's now the end and it's the beginning all in one.
One thing I've been marveling at in the last week or so is where we were at this time last year compared to where we are today.
August 1, 2014 – After the months of testing, consultations, switching insurance, trying acupuncture in the meantime, severely altering my diet, and waiting on the right timing, we did our first self-administered injection in our first round of IVF treatments. It was a terrible hour long process, where almost everything went wrong and I sat there wondering, how in the world will we ever do this…
August 4, 2015 (Tuesday of this week) – We will welcome our daughters into the world and everything will change, forever. Our daughters that we were not sure we'd ever have. Almost exactly a year to the day since that awful, first injection.
One takeaway for me from this story is that we have no idea what God has in store for us. What His plans are for our future. To remember how we were feeling this time last year and seeing how He worked out His specific plan for us.
What a difference a year can make.
And this is so true – in so many areas of life, for so many people.
For the person waiting on a job, a house, a move, an adoption, a relationship, a diagnosis…
God has a plan. And even though we may experience some pretty low times of desperation or questioning, we can look to how God has worked in our lives and in the lives of loved ones we know, and be reassured that there is a next chapter in our story. It may be one we never imagined, but His plans are far better than ours can ever be.
Today, I am grateful and marveling at how our lives have completely changed from where we were a year ago, and we never could have predicted how it would turn out.
What are you waiting for today? Trust that God does have a plan. And that His plans are perfect.
How have you seen this play out in your own life?
When Worry Steals My Joy
The past several months have been quite a wild ride, as partially evidenced by my complete lack of writing. But there's one post that I've had in my head for months & have struggled to make the time to get it "on paper". It's overdue and it's now time.
I will admit that there have been plenty of times over the last many months where I have struggled to maintain my joy at the complete miracle that God has blessed us with. Consuming thoughts about logistics and "how in the world are we going to make this work" take over and won't let go.
The day we went to the doctor to find out how many babies we had growing inside of me was, of course, quite memorable. We had chosen to put in two embryos in that IVF round and we knew we were around 7 weeks pregnant, but we didn't know with how many. So as the ultrasound tech is performing the scan with our doctor watching over the monitor, they find a cute little gummy bear looking thing, complete with a tiny, little heart beat. Wow! They're checking it out and making sure everything looks good, and I get up the courage to ask "are we just seeing one?" "Looks like it" our doctor replies. Cason & I exchange smiles, and probably semi-relieved glances… Amazing. Our prayers have been answered… But then… she moves the wand in a bit of a different direction… "Oh, there's the other one!"…
We were, of course, overjoyed that we were finally pregnant. Especially after what felt like such a challenging journey. And we were obviously totally aware that twins was a very real possibility (though the percentages weren't nearly as high as you might think).
But what happened in that moment, and for weeks afterwards (and still often creeps in now), were the overwhelming thoughts that go something like this:
- Twins? I don't know how to care for 1 baby; how are we going to care for 2?
- Can I even hold 2 babies at once?
- How does feeding/sleeping/loading them in a car/going anywhere work?
- Do you even know how much daycare for 2 costs? How in the world are we going to make that work? Will we both continue to work? Does that even make any sense at all? Could we even attempt to make ends meet in any of these scenarios?
- How much more stuff do we need to buy when it's twins? 2 cribs, 2 car seats, a double stroller…? How many diapers and bottles and wipes? How in the world are we going to be able to afford all of that?
- Where will we live? How can we fit 2 cribs and all of that baby stuff in the same room?
I became so consumed with trying to figure out the logistics and the life scenarios and the impending costs, that it kind of consumed my thoughts (and my sleep). The worry would steal my joy. I'm slightly ashamed to say that in a time where we should have felt on top of the world and praising God continually for what He had done for us, I was bogged down with worry and anxiety. And I feel so guilty about that too. After the journey we went through, and all of the couples I know who are going through similar struggles and would do anything to be pregnant.
But that's our human frailty isn't it? And a universal problem that we all struggle with a various times. To get consumed with doubt and anxiety over how things will work out. To have a really hard time trusting that God has us right where He wants us and that He WILL supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19).
And then of course there's Matthew 6:25-34 about not worrying about tomorrow…
Here we are months later and we've seen God answer the "where will we live" question. He has blessed us with a beautiful townhouse in a great location and we praise Him for that. And we can say out loud that we know He will provide for the rest of our needs in due time. That's not to say it won't be hard, but He will take care of us, and in the process, He'll continue to sanctify us and keep us on our knees in dependence on Him. That's the beauty in the brokenness.
Another way to help me push back those overwhelming thoughts of anxiety and worry is to recount the tremendous and miraculous ways that God has provided for us in the past. For anyone facing a similar struggle with worry (no matter what the circumstances are), I encourage you to do the same.
Psalm 9:1 says: "I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds."
You can stop reading here and go recount some of the amazing ways God has showed up for you, or if you want, you're welcome to continue reading one of those stories that I hold onto now for us.
We know that God had His hand in every step of this journey for us – in bringing us our precious twin girls. One of those stories that I need to continually remember is in how He provided for us financially through it all. Infertility treatments are quite expensive and there aren't many insurance plans that cover everything.
The cadillac of insurance plans that we switched to covered a good portion of the procedures, office visits, and super basic medications like the 1 antibiotic pill you take the night before a procedure. However, it covered nothing of the really expensive injection medications, of which you need a lot of in one round of IVF. One injection can cost hundreds of dollars and you're often doing multiple injections every day for about 10-14 days in a row. It's like liquid gold going into your body every time. Talk about pressure!
We went through 2 partial IVF rounds (that we stopped mid-cycle because I wasn't responding well enough) and 2 full IVF rounds. That's A LOT of shots. We purchased a big batch to start with. Our nurse at the clinic would then occasionally give us a couple here or there that someone else had turned in because that person had success and didn't need them anymore.
As we were in our 2nd or 3rd round and were about 48 hours away from having to order another really large, really expensive batch of shots, our miracle happened…
A little backstory: Emily & I were in the same church youth group but hadn't seen each other for around 10 years. My mom & Emily's mom currently work at the same elementary school. As people often do, my parents & her parents would often say "we should get together for dinner" and then not actually make it happen. One day they finally set a date.
Emily was supposed to be out with a friend that night, but the friend uncharacteristically canceled on her, so she ended up being home too on that particular evening and joined them for dinner.
I come up in conversation ("how's Karen doing these day"). Emily works at the main office of the clinic we're going to and emphatically tells my mom to have me contact her. That she'd love to help us in any way that she can. Specifically to have me tell her which medications I'm on.
Mom delivers the message to me that night or the next morning. I send Emily an email, including the list of medications. Within an hour she writes me back and essentially says – ok, I've already rounded up 4 of these, 5 of these, and 5 of these for you. Give me a little more time and I can get some more. I read this at work and tears just start streaming down my face.
Her office is a good hour from me, without accounting for DC area traffic. How am I going to get these from her before the weekend when we need them? It just so happens that at IJM, we're having our quarterly prayer retreat that Friday at a church halfway between where I live and she works. And we always end prayer retreats by 3pm. Her office closes at 4:00.
After the retreat wraps up, I make a dash for it (rush hour starts at 3 on Fridays!) and get to her office right before closing time. Like my fertility angel from above, she comes out carrying 3 large bags full of medication to just give us. Thousands of dollars worth. The tears go streaming down my face again.
I haven't seen Emily in about 10 years. Our parents just happened to finally make their dinner plans for that particular week. Emily just happened to be home that night. It just so happened to be about 48 hours before I would have to place an order for more shots and I just happened to have our prayer retreat that Friday, allowing me to get to her in time.
Only God.
That batch of shots, and another one smaller batch she got us later, allowed us to get through the next rounds that we did. After we found out we were pregnant we even had some left over and were able to bless another friend by passing them on to her!
God used Emily as a big piece of our miracle, and even as a piece of someone else's!
So this is a story for us to remember. To lean on when the worry creeps in. It's a big part of how God has brought us this far. He provided, through Emily, for us during a very challenging time. He made it possible to get our girls. We must trust that He will continue to provide, for all of our needs.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
God has given us our miracle(s)!
"With God all things are possible." – Matthew 19:26
I am a bit at a loss for words. How can I do a post like this justice and adequately give due glory to God? I can't… I still can't believe that this is a real post that I get to type. But let's see if I can put some words together. It might be a little disjointed.
It's been more than two years since we started trying to get pregnant and a year since we started down the "infertility" road. After being told last spring that we had a 1% chance of getting pregnant naturally, I clung to the idea that my God is a God of the 1%. He is the God of the impossible. If He choses, He can make it happen. We just didn't know, in His sovereign plan, if He would choose to do it. There were many days where I didn't think it would ever happen.
He has taken us down quite a journey, especially over the last 6 months of seeking treatment. Four months in a row of attempted IVF cycles will do a number to your emotions.
As I typed out my last post, about how God had to take me to a place of brokenness to really start to find a hunger for Him, we were in the midst of our 4th attempt. (Only our 2nd where we were actually able to do an egg retrieval & embryo transfer.) We made it all the way to the embryo transfer and were in the excruciatingly long 2-week wait before the pregnancy test as I hit publish on that last one.
God knew the journey He had to take us on. For some reasons we see now and others we'll never know.
Because of my previous response (or lack of response) to treatment — including the one unsuccessful IVF round where we had one embryo to transfer — we decided to transfer 2 embryos this time around. We took the risk.
We found out we were pregnant before Christmas and were able to share the news with both of our families as we saw them in person over the holidays. It was the best and only present we needed, and a welcome miracle at the end of a hard year on both sides.
This past Friday, we went for our first ultrasound where they discovered that it is, in fact, twins. (For about two minutes we thought there was only one, but the second one was hiding a bit!) Both decided to stick around! We saw two tiny miracle hearts beating, at only 7.5 weeks. Wow.
We are so grateful and also quite overwhelmed! Twins! How in the world are we going to handle twins? There are so many logistics to figure out in the next several months.
As we continue on this new phase of our journey, we will lean on some of the lessons that God has taught us over the recent past. Both are possible blog posts that still need to be written:
1. We are not in control. Only God is. We could attempt to take matters into our own hands — I tried acupuncture, a special fertility diet for 6 months, 4 months of medical treatment where we could try the exact same combination and my body would respond differently every time — but it is only God who has any control over the outcome. It's all in His hands.
2. God provides. We've experienced this in not having any idea how we were going to pay for such expensive procedures and medications. But month after month, God provided, in amazing ways. I know He will continue to do so.
Okay, I have 2 quips that I have to randomly fit in:
1. You all prayed too hard and God sure did answer — twins! 🙂
2. I guess we're making up for lost time and trying to catch up.
And a serious note. For some reason, God has chosen to answer our prayers. I'll never understand why. Why He has chosen to answer this one, but there are so many couples going through similar journeys and who haven't gotten their hearts' desire. I remain extremely sensitive to others who are walking this difficult road. And I don't want to trigger anyone else's sadness. The infertility journey is one that will forever mark who I am and I don't think that will change.
As of today, we are only 8 weeks along. It is obviously still early and I am not naive to think "we've made it". But we also couldn't wait any longer to share the news of these two tiny miracles with you all. So many people have been praying for us and supporting us. We are so grateful for you! Would you please join us in praising God for these two lives and also praying for their continued health and development?
And maybe kick in a prayer for our wisdom and decision making about the future? We sure do have a lot to figure out! We have many more opportunities on the horizon for us to desperately lean on God in all things.
"I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." -Psalm 9:1-2
Photos are by Stacey Michelle Photography.
The Beauty in the Brokenness
October was hard. Really hard. On the personal and family side of things. A month that started with a lot of hope, felt like it crashed and burned quickly.
After a disappointing, failed first round of fertility treatment in August, we started a second round of treatment and hefty meds in September. This time we actually made it all the way through an IVF cycle (which is no walk in the park, but those are details for another day). It was like holding my breath every single day. But after making it to an embryo transfer, I was filled with so much hope, thinking "this could finally be it". Almost 2 years later.
Then life came crashing in at once. My mom started chemotherapy for breast cancer. Two days later my grandma passed away. Two days after the funeral, we go in for our long-awaited pregnancy blood test. (It's an excruciatingly long wait from the day of the transfer to when you can take the actual test. It feels like forever.) We got the call later that afternoon that it was negative.
I haven't been very acquainted with grief and mourning in my sheltered life. But I became acquainted quickly. I didn't even have a name to put on our own personal situation. It wasn't a miscarriage because it was never a clinical pregnancy. But if we believe that life begins at conception (and we do), then it was a life lost. We have a picture of our 3-day old embryo that they gave us, before they transferred it back in. It's a little 8-celled miracle. It still sits on my dresser, partly because I'm just not sure what to do with it now. But that was a life. I do believe we have a child in heaven now.
A week later, we plunged back into another treatment cycle, anxious to keep the momentum going. But after a week of pills and shots and every other day doctor's appointments, my body just wasn't responding and we decided the best thing to do was to cancel the cycle. Talk about dashed hopes and feelings of "this is just never going to happen." I had to have a talk with my doctor about if and how to move forward. That same day, my uncle died…
I had some straight up bouts of "ugly crying" that weekend. And moping around, and crying again. It was a tough couple of weeks and it just was too much. I learned about grief and feelings of brokenness. And I learned that I just needed to stop and figure out how I, personally, needed to deal with it. And that it was okay to feel how I felt.
Getting to the point of this story, if I had written this post when I first thought about it, it would have been very different. I was going to call it "A Time to Mourn". There's nothing wrong with that, but thanks be to God, the story didn't stop there.
I was so glad to turn the page on October. I've never been happier for a new month to come.
November then turned into a big month of healing and growth for me. It's hard to summarize, but I think that God had to take me to a place of brokenness to really start to find a hunger for Him.
"I will gladly rejoice because of Your gracious love,
because You recognized the sadness of my affliction.
You felt deep compassion when You saw the pains of my soul."
Psalm 31:7 (The Voice)
I started devouring a couple of great books. The un-ironically similar Bittersweet and Every Bitter Thing is Sweet. Both exactly what I needed to read and worthy of their own posts. I started diving into different scriptures and finding that I had a hunger to know more of who God is. With refreshingly nothing to do with my circumstances. My circumstances were what helped drive me to this place, but I wasn't looking up passages solely on hope and waiting anymore. I found a craving just to know Him better. I dove into Scriptures on the attributes of God, what He says about Himself, and His promises to us.
I found myself giving thanks to God despite, within and because of my circumstances. One particular devotion on SheReadsTruth.com ("Give Thanks in Sorrow") struck me with this perfectly phrased message:
"God doesn't ask us to silence our sorrow in favor of thanksgiving. Rather, He uses our sorrow to proclaim a type of thanksgiving we wouldn't be able to express otherwise… Extracted from all earthly attachments, void of trimmings and trumpets sounding, sorrow is a connection to Christ and our need for Him in its purest form…"
I love that.
God doesn't ask us to toss our grief and sorrow aside. To sugar coat it and forget it. He wants us to turn to Him in the midst of it. He hurts when we hurt. And it's in the brokenness that we find a new dimension of Him that we wouldn't know otherwise.
We learn about the Abba Father who wants us to climb into His lap and bring everything to Him – our hurts, our wants, our questions, our cries for healing and peace. This is the God that I've been discovering over the last several weeks. I've found myself praising Him for bringing me through this time of sorrow because it brought me to this place with Him that I wouldn't know otherwise. And it's a sweet place to be.
It IS the beauty in the brokenness.
* * *
A Joyful Confidence
Thank you all so much for the outpouring of support, encouragement, and prayers from my last post, where I opened up about our journey through infertility. I wasn't quite sure if many people would read it, or what reactions might be. But I was blown away. I do hope these posts can be – at the same time – authentic, open, informative, God glorifying, and encouraging to those going through any sort of trial.
In the spirit of remaining authentic and vulnerable (since I don't have everything together), I will tell you there have been some hard days. If I had written these posts in May or June, they might have been a bit more raw. There were a couple days in June where I think I got a taste of what depression might feel like. It only lasted a couple days luckily. I was definitely not myself.
It can be challenging when it seems like everyone around you is pregnant and your Facebook feed is full of birth announcements and gender reveals. Or so much worse, when you hear stories at work of children who are pregnant as a result of the unspeakable abuse they have suffered. It seems so backwards and unjust. It's hard.
At IJM, we have quarterly all-staff prayer retreats (a phenomenal perk for which I am so grateful). At our June retreat, Nancy Ortberg was our speaker. She is an amazing example of someone who can at once be open, raw, incredibly God honoring and full of practical wisdom. In the midst of sharing with us some of her life's trials, she dropped a piece of wisdom that I picked up and have clutched like a treasure ever since. She said:
"Trials are a test of our joyful confidence in God."
Read that again slowly…
Trials are a test of our joyful confidence. In God. Despite our circumstances. In the midst of trials. Knowing, believing, clinging to the hope and truth that God's plans are best. Even when we don't understand it or feel it. Trials are an opportunity to show where our hope really lies.
Similarly, and perfectly complementary, in a Tim Keller sermon that I keep going back to called "Peace – Overcoming Anxiety", he said:
- Peace is confidence and trust in God's good and wise control of your life.
- Joy is a buoyancy. It's unsinkable. It's a focus on the unchanging privileges we have in God.
Peace and an unsinkable joyful confidence. This has become a prayer for myself and one I've had others praying for me too. That I would maintain a joyful confidence and a peace, despite our circumstances. Despite what our feelings of the day would like to dictate.
God has definitely answered that prayer and I am so grateful. We are actually in a pretty good place right now. We knew God started answering that prayer for peace and a joyful confidence when we walked out of the doctor's office in late June with our medical plan of action (after months of waiting for insurance to work out so we could start doing something) and we actually felt really light and carefree crossing the parking lot back to our car. How many people leave a fertility clinic practically skipping and laughing to their car? I knew it was strange… Only God.
And we've experienced relative peace… through some pretty brutal medical treatment involving 2 weeks a month of self-administered shots, 3 times a day… Only God.
I don't know what next month will bring, but I'm learning to lean on Him for each and every day. That's really all I can do. And quite honestly, that's not a bad place to be.
"Don't run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them; if you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure." ~James 1:2-3 (The Voice)
How do you find peace and joy in the midst of trials? What are some Bible verses that you turn to in those hard times?
Our "Something"
Everyone is dealing with something. It struck me one morning as I was getting off the metro a couple months ago. People were coming and going from all directions. I had just ridden my 5 stops in a bit of a distracted fog. A funk really. But stepping off the metro, I realized that I was bracing myself. Putting on a happy face, ready to walk into work again like everything was wonderful.
And if that's what I was doing (me, someone who has the strength of positivity) I wondered how many people around me were doing the same thing. Or who didn't even have the strength that day to try. Everyone is dealing with something.
For us, that "something" has been and continues to be a battle against infertility. There, I said it. Ripped off like a bandaid. We've gone public. Completely exposed.
Such a taboo and vulnerable subject. And I'm tired of it being that way. It's become core to who I am now and no matter our outcome, I think it will always be a piece of me.
I've sort of wanted to blog about our journey for the last several months for a couple reasons:
- Infertility actually affects 1 in 8 couples. I want to break the stigma and help people understand how common it is and how many people around you are probably dealing with it too. And possibly help you understand what they're going through.
- To encourage others who are in the same journey. I've heard it said that infertility carries the same weight as a cancer diagnosis, as far as emotional trauma goes. It is a hard and lonely road and I want others to know that they're not alone. I want to encourage others to reach out to their support networks or others dealing with it too.
- So that God can be glorified. I know that if we have to go through this, that one of the purposes is so that God can use it to His glory. And He can't be glorified if we don't share what He has done (& is doing).
- To share (& process) some of the lessons that we've been learning through it all that really are applicable to everyone, regardless of your exact circumstances. Like lesson #1: "Everyone is dealing with something".
I've been held back from sharing publicly by fear of being too vulnerable. Not sure if I wanted everyone to know our business. (Our inner circle of friends and family have been journeying with us for months.) But I'm feeling even more compelled by the reasons above and it's time I give in.
As for our journey, we've been "trying" for 2 years. Journeying and struggling through "infertility" (as a label) for the last 9 months or so. Currently going through medical treatment, which is no walk in the park. It has been a roller coaster. So many ups and downs. Sometimes by the hour. Certainly by the day, week, and month. If I'm going to lay it all out there, I've struggled with feeling rocked to the core of my identity, with feeling incredibly alone, with feeling traces of hopelessness, and of course, with wondering "why us". We've also been drawn closer to God and to each other. We've had the great opportunity to encourage and be encouraged by others we know going through this too. We've experienced the tremendous blessing of an amazing support network. We've seen God move in some mighty ways and have learned some really valuable lessons.
Everyone is dealing with something – a loved one battling cancer, conflict in a marriage, chronic migraines, feelings of loneliness, a miscarriage, unemployment, a personal financial crisis… something.
A simple, but profound lesson that I'm grateful to have fully realized. It has helped me view people with more kindness and empathy. In a world of social media where we choose which are the best pieces of ourselves to post publicly. Where we constantly compare ourselves to someone else's highlights (but not the lowlights). And in a society where we put on our happy face and answer "I'm good, how are you?" without thinking twice. We just don't know what others are struggling with.
It has made me want to be kinder to the cashier at the store, to greet the man always handing out papers at my metro stop, to give drivers on the road the benefit of the doubt (I know that's a hard one!). To realize and remember that the person next to you is probably dealing with something hard too. We might as well choose joy and try to spread it to others.
As for our current struggle:
"I watch in hope for the Lord. I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me." ~Micah 7:7
More to come soon…
So what were we actually doing in Uganda?
I have been terribly negligent at blogging. For various reasons, I've found it very difficult to sit down and write since returning from Uganda. But here we go with post #2. If you didn't read the first post, take a minute to read that, as it provides the introduction to what I'm about to write about.
The piece of the puzzle that our volunteer team was in Uganda to help with was in working to change the systems – specifically in the area of court reform. If we can help the courts run more efficiently, we can more quickly get justice for more widows & orphans who are victims of land grabbing.
I regularly hear of stories where a case file has gone missing (in many of the offices around the world where we work). Sometimes suspicious activity is to blame for a missing file and sometimes it's the case of archive rooms that look like the below picture. This can delay a case for months at a time, significantly delaying justice and restoration for the victim. It causes a lot of work for the IJM team who travels to every hearing only to find it canceled and it causes continued heartache and pain for the widow who is suffering. And after this past week, I can now understand how they go missing. Take a look again at this picture (that I posted before leaving):
In asking one of the IJM staff on the legal team in Kampala how often a missing case file affects the cases they're working on in Uganda, the answer was "regularly".
Amazingly, IJM has built up the trust & credibility with the local government and court officials that they welcomed the opportunity to have us bring volunteers to help organize these case files (while the criminal court was in recess in August). So we brought in volunteers from different churches who were willing to sacrifice their time & money to fly to Africa to go work really hard in a very unglamorous job. They heard of a need and said send me.
It was a very abnormal mission/service trip.
Before the team got there, IJM staff had worked extremely hard to empty the above pictured archive room down into 2 court rooms, into mountainous piles by overarching case work type. In the process they had to clean off and deal with mouse and bat droppings, terrible amounts of built up dust, dirt, & debris. They had to fumigate, rip out shelves, paint, and rebuild new shelves.
So here are some pictures of the piles that were waiting for us when we arrived:
It was pretty overwhelming to walk in and see what awaited us. I heard it was 60,000 case files! We knew it was a rather impossible task. But we also knew that God was doing amazing things through IJM in Uganda and He could work amazing things through us on this trip.
Long story short, the team was awesome. The original plan was to work Tuesday-Friday, roughly 9-5pm. Because the need was so great, and much more tedious than originally estimated, they team ended up asking if they could work until 9pm or so most nights (the courthouse staff strung lights up around the courtyard where we were working so we could see after dark). They also gave up their free time, fun activity on Saturday morning (an ATV tour) in order to get another 4 or so hours of work done before having to fly out that evening. They were so hardworking, and so joyful doing it. It was a privilege to be with them.
Here's a bit of what the process looked like:
As I mentioned before, the volunteers were awesome. So joyful and diligent in the work. Gary Haugen talks about the work of justice being "long and boring". It's the unglamorous side of justice. Not the rescue operations, but the hundreds of hours our staff spends driving to and from court cases, or in this case, the dozens of hours spent tediously pouring over tens of thousands of files. But it makes a huge difference for the one widow we're trying to help. Earlier in the week, we split the group into two and went out into the countryside where each group had the tremendous blessing of meeting one of the women we have helped (or are in the process of helping). It was a touching experience that made the work so much more real & impacting. (I'll write about it in a later post.) But the team was very inspired by the experience & hung up the below sign:
So after hundreds of man hours spent handling tens of thousands of files, we didn't get it all done in that week. But we got what we deemed the most important portion (and the work did get finished by another team after we left). And that Friday night & Saturday morning, we unloaded as many boxes as possible into the revamped archive room. Scroll back up to the before picture for a second…
And then check out this after picture. We never thought files could look so beautiful!
I've skimmed over a lot of details here, but that is the gist. It was a long week of tedious work, but it sets up the court for much better efficiency, and helps our IJM legal team better serve so many more widows and orphans who truly need someone to fight for them.
Next (& soon) I will write about the absolute joy of getting to spend time with the IJM Kampala staff and about the touching experience meeting a woman our staff is walking alongside on the path to justice and restoration.
So I turned 30 on August 6th. Help me celebrate by donating to my IJM FreedomMaker campaign. I set the audacious goal to raise $3000 (100% of which goes to IJM). So far we're up over $2,300, but the campaign ends on August 30. Let's make an impact together.
Back from Uganda
I am back from Uganda. In a nutshell, it was an amazing week.
I had really good intentions of blogging along the way… but then life happened. I learned quickly that a wifi connection was hard to come by in Uganda, even when the hotel said "they're working on it" & "it should be working again soon". Three days later and still no internet… Then there were the nights that, after a very full day, it took 2 hours to get our dinner, and afterwards I was way too exhausted to function well (let alone write). And finally, our days were so packed that there were only 10 minutes here or there on sporadic days to check in with the world, when there was functioning internet.
So here I am, arriving back at home, jet-lagged but with a full heart.
Where to start…
IJM in Kampala, Uganda works to secure justice for widows & orphans who are victims of property grabbing. A quick typical story – a woman's husband dies and shortly thereafter (if not at the funeral itself) a relative from the husband's side (a brother or uncle, or sometimes a neighbor) will swoop in and threaten her and her children with violence, claiming her land for themselves. They might destroy her crops, threaten her children with machetes, or push the house in on them while they sleep. She has nowhere to go, no one to fight for her, and she and her children (who are extremely poor to start with) are left with absolutely nothing. No shelter, no crops, no livelihood.
It is a very unfamiliar story to those of us living in the west. But this is her terrifying reality.
In a three year period from 2005 to 2007, 30% of the widows and orphans surveyed in IJM's project area had become victims of property grabbing when their husband or parent died.
But this week, I met the heroes who are saying "not on my watch". The IJM staff who stand up beside her and say "we are going to fight for you and we are not going away". They are a group of truly remarkable people.
In a simplified description, IJM seeks to secure her land for her, to hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes, to stand beside her in the process of restoration & empowerment, and to change the systems in place so that this crime doesn't happen anymore.
Incredibly, since 2008 IJM has brought relief to well over 650 victims of property grabbing crimes. (That number is almost a year old too.)
So, what were we doing there?
The piece of the puzzle that our volunteer team was there to help with was in working to change the systems – specifically in the area of court reform. If we can help the courts run more efficiently, we can more quickly get justice for more victims.
Along the way, I was specifically seeking a chance to interact with our staff, to learn from them to better understand the work being done in Uganda. As a marketer, if I can better understand the work, I can help communicate the story more effectively.
In the coming days I'll write about our adventures at the court house, reflections from spending time with the IJM staff, from going to a rural Ugandan church, and maybe most notably, I'll share with you the story of meeting one of the incredibly strong widows we are still in the process of walking alongside.
By the way, I'm turning 30 on Tuesday. Help me celebrate by donating to my IJM FreedomMaker campaign. I set the audacious goal to raise $3000 (100% of which goes to IJM). Let's make an impact together!
I'm going to Uganda!
Tomorrow, I leave for Uganda. Is this actually happening? Uganda.
This will be my first time to Africa. A whole new continent. A whole new world to explore. It's been over a year since my last big international adventure. And as anyone who has traveled much internationally can attest, it becomes a bit addicting. Travel really is good for the soul.
This will also be my first time visiting an IJM field office. Something straight off of my bucket list. In Uganda, in general, IJM fights for widows & orphans who have been victims of land grabbing. Check out my post Freedom Friday: Caring for Widows to learn more about this amazing work.
So the trip is here, but I can still hardly believe it. I just learned I'd be going a month ago and these last 4 weeks have gone by in a total blur.
Are you ready for the fun-to-explain part? The overall purpose of the trip is to take some volunteers from wonderful church partners of ours and go organize the paperwork in the archive room of the High Court of Jinja.
Why would anyone even need to do that? Why would the government of Uganda let a group of Americans come ruffle through their official papers? And what good will that accomplish?
All are excellent questions. I'll answer all of these in future posts, so you'll just have to keep coming back!
In addition to that official and original purpose of the trip, I also have some marketing objectives to cover, and will also have the privilege of getting some good, quality time with the IJM staff in our Kampala office. The real heroes who are out there changing lives.
For now, please do really go check out the earlier post Freedom Friday: Caring for Widows and learn more about the incredible work IJM is doing in Uganda.
Oh, and did I mention, below is what the archive room in the High Court of Jinja looks like. Yup, that's what we're up against… It's going to be quite an adventure! But definitely making a tangible impact we'll be able to see!
Also, I'm turning 30 two days after I return! This year, I wanted to do something to make a bigger impact, so I started an IJM FreedomMaker birthday campaign with the audacious goal of raising $3,000 in honor of turning 30. 100% of funds raise go to fund IJM's work. Will you please consider joining me & helping change some lives?


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S And A Water Cooled Chiller For 20kw Router Hsd Spindle - Chinaprice: 971.00 Dollar US$
S&A water cooled chiller for 20kw router hsd spindle
S&A CW-6000 water cooled chiller has 3000W cooling capacity with ±0.5℃ stability, it is fit for 20kw router hsd spindle.It has 2 temperature control modes as constant temperature and intelligent temperature control. Under intelligent mode, the water temperature is adjusted according to ambient temperature. Multiple alarm functions: compressor time-delay protection, compressor overcurrent protection, water flow alarm and over high / low temperature alarm.
S&A chillers have passed ISO, CE, RoHS and REACH approvals and the warranty is 2 years.
Water chiller parameter:
Voltage:110V-220V; Frequency: 50/60Hz; Refrigerant: R-22 / R-410a
Pump power: 0.05KW/0.1KW/0.37~0.75KW; Tank capacity:15L
Max. lift:10M/25M/28~53M; Max. flow: 13L/min- 70L/min
N.W: 60Kgs; G.W: 70Kgs;
Dimension : 67 X 47 X 89 cm (L X W X H); Packing dimension: 74 X 60 X 109 cm(L X W X H)
About S&A Brand
S&A produces more than 60000 units of industrial chillers by year, we always insist on"Quality First" in design and production.
"S&A" and "TEYU" have been enjoying high reputation among hundreds of manufacturers which are from both at home and abroad, and export rate reaches above 60%.
SKYPE: teyuchiller
Company Contact:
- Posted By: GUANGZHOU TEYU ELECTROMECHANICAL CO., LTD
- Phone: 86-20-89301885
- Address: No.50, Zhongchuang Road, Zhongcun town, Panyu District, Guangzhou, China, Guangzhou, Guangzhou, China
- Email:
- Website: http://www.teyuchiller.com
Published date: September 23, 2016 -
- Business Description: Guangzhou Teyu Electromechanical Co., Ltd. was established in 2002, which specializes in developing, producing and selling industrial chillers for more than 14 years with annual output of 60, 000 units of water chiller. We has a dedicated R&D, quality inspection team and production base, a total 14000 squaremeters production plant located in Panyu District in Guangzhou, becoming the largest manufacturer of small power industrial chiller in China. By always adhere to "Quality First, Strive for Excellence" business philosophy of design and production, brands "S&A" and "TEYU" have achieved the trust from hundreds of domestic and foreign manufacturers, product export ratio reaching over 60%. Teyu refrigeration technology is leading in industrial refrigeration field with CW series product having become industry standard products and known as "industrial refrigeration expert"
With thermolysis type and refrigeration type industrial chillers as the core of production, and dozens of CW series chiller as unique feature of professional brand, we produce and design chillers in accordance with modern laser equipment characteristics and requirements using energy-efficient and precise intelligent temperature control technology.
Our chillers are mainly applied in professional fields such as high-power industrial laser machinery, water-cooled high speed spindle, precision optics mechanism, laboratory apparatus, etc. And it's used in industries of costume, shoes making, advertisement, printing, marking, mould, glasses, chemical and toys and so on. It is mostly exported to USA, Canada, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, Dubai, Israel, India, Philippine, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea and Taiwan, etc. We provide corollary equipment and technical support to more than one thousand domestic and international factories.
We implement a standardized modern enterprise management mode to product green product and have passed the ISO9001 international quality management system certification, CE and RoHS certification. As a professional industrial refrigeration equipment brands, we provide high quality service, not only paying attention to service-oriented attitude, but more to service levels from the whole process of product selection, ordering to after-sales service. S&A always satisfies your requirements by "professional quality, hard service".
Since January 2016, the warranty period of S&A chiller has extended to 2 years.
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We've written this learning programme to help you understand the health issues which are specific to men, or more likely to occur in men; and to help you improve the services that you offer to men to engage them in the health care system.
On completion of all aspects of this programme you should be able to:
On your computer: You can open this programme as a PDF in your web browser. We recommend that you download and save it to your computer and view it through Adobe Reader.
On your tablet device: If you would like to view this programme on your tablet device you can download the PDF and open it within a free PDF reader app. We have tested this type of programme in a few apps and found that it works in the Adobe Reader app on Android and Apple devices and the PDF Reader app on Apple devices.


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Another instalment of the hottest Anything Goes Mixshow on the planet playing the best in soca, top 40, dancehall, hip hop + more. The ultimate musical mix. #ItsNotAJoke
The ultimate musical mix. The Anything Goes Mixshow from Power 95 (Grenada) April 8th 2016 featuring new music from Drake ("One Dance" & "Pop Style"), Kanye West, Sia & Sean Paul, Konshens, Aluna Goerge, Fifth Harmony, Major Lazer, Hypasounds, Lyrikal, Machel Montano + more! Turn it all the way up! #ItsNotAJoke


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Greater Manchester Housing Providers are committed to driving change in the role social value plays in supporting social outcomes across Greater Manchester.
The group has achieved a wide range of benefits across Greater Manchester, showing that social housing providers go beyond simply providing homes where people can live. The outcomes of the 'social value' work are not just felt by those living in social housing but also by the wider community, business' in the region, and the economy more generally.
What is Social Value?
Social Value is "the benefit to the community from a commissioning/procurement process over and above the direct purchasing of goods, services and outcomes" –The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
We have committed to working collaboratively to embed and increase the social value that we create collectively through our supply chains.
GM Housing providers are working together delivering social value across the region. The data below is based on the 2018/19 financial year and is a baseline position which will be developed and reported on annually.
The housing providers contributing to this baseline assessment are:
- Northwards Housing
- One Manchester
- Jigsaw
- Onwards Homes
- Southway Housing Trust
- Bolton At Home
- Equity Housing Group
- ForViva
- Wythenshawe Community Housing Group
- Irwell Valley Homes
- Salix Homes
- Rochdale Boroughwide Housing
- Stockport Homes
- Trafford Housing Trust
- Great Places Housing Group


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A common mistake a lot of people make is thinking that marketing automation software is essentially a tool for email marketing. While it's true that its origins are form there, what we're referring to is a totally different kind of beast.
According to Wikipedia, Marketing automation refers to software platforms designed for marketing departments and organizations to automate repetitive tasks. Marketing departments, consultants and part-time marketing employees benefit by specifying criteria and outcomes for tasks and processes that are then interpreted, stored and executed by software, which increases efficiency and reduces human error. Originally focused on email marketing automation, marketing automation refers to a broad range of automation and analytic tools for marketing.
So how does this benefit your small business?
When it became clear that some 93% of B2B buyers are using the search engines to begin their buying process, it was incumbent upon businesses to find a method to simplify the inbound marketing process, as well as make it far easier and less time consuming to look after. Marketing automation software is the tool which makes this happen, allowing marketers to more easily manage every aspect of your lead generation process. Software like this will get traffic to your site, it will start them down the buying process with offers and relevant emails and other content. It can also segment your leads by source, interests and any other criteria.
How this works is the systems have set up a complex series of rules to trigger action items, whether it's a particular offer, more content, email follow-up or other action. This allows marketers to deliver exactly what the visitor is looking to get at any given time. Deciding if your small business can benefit from marketing automation software is really a question of resources and commitment. After the decision has been made, a dedication to keeping the content funnel filled, along with managing the automation workflow is necessary.
One example software is Office Autopilot which is a higher end marketing software with fantastic features.
If maintaining all the tasks you have to do in your business is becoming an issue, or if you are looking to scale your business, then marketing automation software could be right for you. Check into it today!