Author: herbert

WordPress: Error establishing a database connection

If this error message does not trigger a response from the monitoring service you use, you can create a file in the root folder and have the monitor check that specific file. I’ve been using StatusCake since 2017 or thereabouts. They send out warnings to…

That guy!

“Oh, that guy. Go pray for him.” As I sit and wait for the plane in Port Moresby, this thought happens in my head. It’s like having a conversation in my head but I don’t initiate it, and instead I’ve come to know this type…

2023

2023

Twenty twenty three brought us merry memories, giggely goofs, excruciating embarrassments, jolly jokes and many other awesome alliterations. If anything, I feel a bit as we’ve lived life according to Philippians 3:13; even now just before the end of the year, I’m thinking of an…

T. Kieboom: Character Panel

Kieboom’s Character traits of gifted children

T. Kieboom described the character traits of gifted people and grouped them in a “character panel” (Dutch: ZijnsLuik). Oftentimes, these characteristics are seen as character flaws (the usual nature/nurture debate). Be careful of “fixing” something that’s actually nature. More reading: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/news/feeling-different. W. Schollaart-Vogel, 2008, Faith…

Liberty, PNG, January 2023

The last two weeks of January meant that mission work looked mostly like pulling network cables through tight spots in an old ship. I was aboard the YWAM Ships vessel “Liberty”, which was in dry dock. That meant she was out of the water, getting…

Fall-off Rescue

Fall-Off Rescue

Krister and his classmates Alfred Kvendset, Even Grøntoft, Isak Brattgjerd, Lukas Hegge, Ruben Chiorean and Erik Nødtvedt Gilje, have been participating in a project where they built a company from scratch. Their idea: developing a device that registers when a motorcycle (or something similar) comes…

Prisme og lysbryting, av Science Photo Library, NTB . (https://ndla.no/article/19197). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Development of faith and spirituality over time

The theories of Fowler and Oser/Gmünder provide a framework for understanding the way in which individuals develop their faith and spirituality over time. In combination with Kieboom’s Character Panel, this gives a reference frame which I hope will give you increased understanding of how some…

2022

Oh, btw, here is a short description of some of our highlights of 2022: https://van.vliet.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/van-vliets-2022-english.pdf It was so good to have everyone in our family in one place. We even had everyone in one image. Not too shabby eh!? PS: If you noticed the image…

FastPanel

Turning off the firewall for FastPanel

FastPanel: A webserver panel that is loaded with all the usual, necessary and nice to have options. Free for now. Recommended too, see https://fastpanel.direct. So what to do when you’ve locked yourself out through its firewall? For CentOS, FastPanel uses iptables, so assuming you’ve still…

Footprints in the sand (norsk versjon)

En natt drømte jeg at jeg gikk langs stranden med Gud. Mange scener fra livet mitt vistes i himmelen ovenfor. Og for hver scene la jeg merke til fotspor i sanden. Noen ganger var det to sett med spor, andre ganger var det kun ett…

PayPal – recurring payments for a business account

The overview is pretty much impossible to find. Here’s the link which will take you to your own overview (once you logged on): https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/customerprofileweb?cmd=_manage-paylist

Prayerhands

Prayer and trust

Speaking with the one who created us, who also redeemed us, saved us, and guides us if we let him, that builds our relationship: me with Him and He with me. That speaking has many sides – we talked about worship, praise and thanksgiving on…

Unifi Access Point AC v2

The old UAP ACv2’s have reached End Of Life some time ago. However you can expect them to run just fine for a while longer. They will keep on functioning just fine alongside any newer equipment you might have, so if you’re running on a…

Netgear WNDR4300v1 as wireless bridge

Not enough time, but: 1. Get DD-WRT on it. 2. Do this: SETUP WAN: Disabled Local IP: statisk Gateway / Local DNS: IP of main router Assign WAN to switch: yup WIRELESS Client Bridge (Routed) Default GW: Manual Gateway: IP of main router SSID: As…

Kodi, Kore, NAS

This is not some strange mantra, but some “nerd”-setup where a NAS (Network Attached Storage) provides MP3 files to Kodi (an Open Source Home Theater manager) which runs on an old Jelly Bean Android (mobile phone); Kodi is then controlled through Kore (Kodi Remote app)…

How to fail effectively..

A friend of mine pointed me to this video: The way the singer takes the time to reassure the guitarist, resonated with me on a very deep level. I don’t think this clip was actually aired, as it would likely be outside the format, but…

Facilitating a small group

If you would like to periodically talk through what’s happened (looking back) and keep a eye on where you’re going (looking forward), the following structure might be beneficial.

Mele Kalikimaka

100% Hawaiian for Merry Christmas, since at least 1904. How so? Christmas, but every consonant must be followed by a vowel, so: Carisimasa, but C is not a letter, so: Karisimasa, but R is not a letter, so: Kalisimasa, but S is not a letter,…

Ungdom i Oppdrag

Ungdom i Oppdrag (ywam) er en organisasjon med apostolisk kall. Organisasjonen er ikke noe menighet og er heller ikke tenkt å være det. Noen tanker rundt det, etter et innlegg fra vår venn Raymond Billy som jobber ved YWAM Ships, Kona, Hawaii. Vi har vært…

Versio DNS gotcha

Versio is cheap. And, considering the price, solidly reliable. There are a few things to remember when it comes to their control panel, and how they setup DNS, combined with their web / reseller packages. From the overview in the control panel, choose a domain….

Windows Movie Maker on Windows 10: error 0x800c0006?

The famous Windows Movie Maker from back in the day (2012 actually) works brilliantly on Windows 10, even though it has been discontinued for some time now. There are a few details to be mindful of, if you want to install it. Windows Movie Maker…

Quarantining the Van Vliet family.

Yes, six weeks ago the thought never ever crossed our mind, but yes: we are now in self-quarantine. We thought it would be great to document this so you can see for yourself that we mean business :-). We’ve archived this post under ‘Everyday life’;…

One YWAM medical DTS outreach team

Organizing a DTS outreach

A Discipleship Training School consists of a lecture phase (3 months) and an outreach phase (2+ months). It is truly is a school of the heart, rather than the mind, and by now most students have gained a lot of insight in who they are:…

Feedback

Feedback?!

Feedback helps to identify and resolve differences between what is understood and what was aimed for. It is easy to mistake it for criticism (which is ambiguous in nature as that can be understood to express disapproval based on perceived mistakes, or to be a…

God Jul 2019

A merry, happy Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given … and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Aldiko - an ebook reader that understands .acsm files

A good e-reader for your Android or iPhone?

Are you looking for an e-book app that understands what an .acsm file is? Even allows you to read books without subscribing? Or are you just tired of Adobe’s Digital Edition app that looks so ancient it’s from before Android was even released?

Running and connecting to a local Minecraft server 1

Starting a local Minecraft server and connecting to it

Start Minecraft. You should see something like: Click on ‘Single player’. You should see something like: Select a world and click ‘Play Selected World’. Press Escape. You should see something like: Click ‘Open to LAN’. You should see something like: Click ‘Start LAN World’. You…

Tuktuk, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cambodia_tuk_tuk_2006.jpg, changes were made

Battambang

It has been quite a while since we posted here and truly a lot has happened. Most recent was us staffing the Medical DTS, a program at the University of the Nations, Hawaii, also known as YWAM Kona. We got to know the many students,…

World-changer

Declaration of a world-changer

TODAY, I will live honorably through my thoughts, actions and speech. I choose to be full of faith. I will serve before I demand, love instead of hate, and give before I take. TODAY, I choose to dedicate my life to prayer, and not only…

Patriot Gearbox

Setting up a (very old) Patriot GearBox

Imagine you’re looking for a print serve thingy that will enable you to wirelessly print on your (very) affordable Samsung XPress M2026 printer (or any other printer that doesn’t do wifi connections). Imagine you come across a very cheap Patriot GearBox that can do all…

Setting up Polycom IP331 to talk directly to Twilio

From this link: http://downloads.polycom.com/voice/voip/sip_sw_releases_matrix.html download the appropriate zip-file and unpack it; for me that meant the 3.3.5 combined ZIP-file. Get rid of the sound files and images as these will not be used by the Polycom IP331; if the phones already “speak” English, you can…

Superman

Worship, parenting and church

When I want to worship, I need to sing. Others, I’ve noticed, may wave flags, dance, create paintings, etc. But I feel I need to sing and my body agrees and supports this: even when I don’t feel like singing but I do so anyway,…

Work

Your work is important. But “what” isn’t nearly as important as “how”.

When we get together to worship God, we are easily aware that we are not alone in that, and that easily results in a unified focus and a godly response to His greatness. Aka worship. We can also be aware of what other might think…

Smiley face

Your friend is better than your idea of your friend

Faces are like keys. If you know a face, you know the person who owns that face. Seeing or just thinking of that person unlocks many of the things you know about that person: some of the good, some of the not so good… but…

Chandigarh

Poverty vs people in poverty

Some time ago I was in Chandigarh, India. I had a few days of meetings, just before Diwali: the feast of lights. It’s a bit like our Christmas, except of course it’s different. I also got to spend time with a fellow Ywammer, which was…

Prayerhands

To worship is to sing is to worship?

I don’t believe the saying “Show me your bookcase and I’ll know who you are” is actually true. Your book collection does show who you want to be. In some cases it’s also a display of your aspirations. Your music collection on the other hand?…

Sharing - categories

Sharing is caring

Sharing is caring as the saying goes. Nifty ways to get small talk going can be found on more and more tables every day, and this sure helps people to add some depth to their relationships.

Dropbox Logo (author=Dropbox)

List of files from DropBox

If you have a DropBox folder that you don’t synchronize to your own machines, for example when you have your backup routines send the files to DropBox only, you might run into a situation where it would be nice with an overview of what’s in…

Van-Vliet Facebook group

Facebook-gruppe ( <- Norwegian title, I finally realized)

We’ve come to realize that we don’t have enough time to experience all we do, then process and talk through things together, correcting and giving feedback, and then to also word it all in a nice blog post for the world – and you! –…

Merry Christmas 2017 van Vliet-family

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If we bumped into you this past year, we hope to meet you again in the coming. If we didn’t, we sure hope we will soon!

Jen and the Androids

Sowing..

Nobody operates in a vacuum. People have gone before you, and people will come after you. There is only one ‘first cause’ and so even inventors stand on the shoulders of us ‘lesser mortals’. This post is to thank people and it is also to…

Pining for the Pine Trees

1 Kor. 13:13 – Kjærligheten

Men nå blir de stående disse tre: tro, håp og kjærlighet. Men størst blant dem er kjærligheten. Du har sikkert hørt denne teksten en gang. Den har blitt brukt, misbrukt, overbrukt og latt være å bli brukt. Idag fikk den en ny mening.

#peopleofpoipet Dany Ly

Dany Ly

This is Dany. She is the owner of a cozy coffee cafe just around the corner called “Dream Coffee”. She’s a neighbor who speaks English really well. She even understands Chinese – which is likely true, I will take her word for it.

Bison

Læringsstrategi: BISON

BISON er navnet på en kjent læringsstrategi som kjapt gir en oversikt over en ny tekst. BISON er et akronym og står for fem hovedelementer ved en tekst: Bilder – Innledning – Sluttdel – Overskrifter – Nøkkelbegreper. Læringsstrategien kan kombineres med andre, f.eks. et tankekart…

Thai 100 Baht

Money, เงิน, លុយ

It’s sure funny, dealing with three kinds of currencies.

The neon lights of the casino district in Poipet, Cambodia

Jesus loves the little children

So we took at trip by night to check out the casino district of Poipet. It’s a colorful place, only partly because of all the neon light. Night markets are a thing in Cambodia and I am still not used to the concept. It’s an…

Monero

Blockchain

There used to be a time where I said: a Facebook like isn’t worth anything much. But right now, while you are reading this, you could be supporting us. Not by much, but by a very very very tiny bit. But tiny bits add up,…

The bum gun

The Bum Gun

Asia har bydd på mange nye opplevelser allerede for alle våre sanser. På godt og vondt pleier man vel si, men egentlig er det kun på godt sålangt. Vi oppdager sider av våre vaner som vi aldri ville tenkt på, men siden vi nå er…

Happy Christmas & A Merry New Year

Seriously. We hope your Christmas time is a happy time. May you be merry throughout the entire 2017!

The power of electrical power

Time is money, and money is power, and … etc. Fun to ponder when things won’t work.

Fail! Fail?

“Brother? Hey brother!” The woman calls me as I walk down Likana Lane. I hardly listen because I’m trying to find a parking spot for our car, and she’s clearly a person without a home – actually one without flipflops even.

How to reset a Polycom IP 330 phone to its factory settings

I am thinking that this blog post will be one of many. Pretty tech-stuff so not too interesting for most of y’all ya hear, but worth it’s proverbial weight in gold if you need to know how to reset a Polycom IP 330 or IP…

Like a buddhist celebrating Christmas

That’s what – I think – I felt like a bit, these last days. This is the second time we celebrated Thanksgiving in the US of A, and the depth of the event is evading me. Thankfulness is a great thing – I had to…

A thing called a free lunch

So much..

Today was a day with meetings sharing vision for the Pacific islands, getting a virtual instance on Amazon AWS in shape for OpenVBX, helping out in the kitchen ánd serving homeless people at the yearly Thanksgiving luncheon that was organized here, getting unwilling printers in…

Haiti etter ‘Matthew’

Du har kanskje fått med deg noen nyheter om orkanen Matthew, men med så mange andre relevante saker på forsidene til VG og Dagbladet kan det godt ha gått hus forbi deg. For mange familier på Haiti gjorde orkanen ikke det.

Hawaii and YWAM Ships

Just had a short phone conversation with one of my very best friends. We obviously hadn’t met or talked for way too long – and Norwegian vacations easily add to that. Somehow we managed to not tell him – and perhaps you as well –…

Herbert’s and Maria’s Instagram feed

Here our latest Instagram moments. Every day life can contain adventure if you let it / look for it / want it. Does going places help? I don’t know… you’re already someplace right?

Champignonstuing uten melk men med bacon og løk

Før jul snakket Krister og jeg om sjampinjongstuing. Jeg hadde tenkt å lage en sjampignonstuing rett etter julen men romjulen kom og gikk uten at det var noen som helst anledning. Så det ble dermed nedgradert til et nyttårsforsett.

Ghana: Safety first

We’ll go to Ghana for a while sometime soon, which means we all have to get our shots. Yellow fever, Hep A+B, Meningitis — scary diseases for sure, but physical health is paramount. It also triggered some thoughts about my virtual security. I go from…

Oppskrift: Noodle Soup med Kylling

Det var en mørk og stormfull aften og jeg hadde lyst på Noodle soup with chicken. En rett som fyller godt og smaker godt, tenkte jeg. Alle ingredienser kom vel fra Rema eller lignende, sett bort fra sesamfrø-oljen, men den trenger man strengt tatt ikke…

Oppskrift: Focaccia

Tenker jeg på Focaccia (uansett skrivefeil) så tenker jeg på Evie Keller – som introduserte konseptet. Jeg har desverre aldri fått hennes oppskrift helt til; oppskriften var visstnok supperrask og superenkel.. Uansett: når man blar i oppskriftsbøker er det fort gjort å prøve seg, når…

Matlaging – noen regler

En av de beste kokebøkene jeg har “lest” er skrevet av Nigel Slater. Han er en forfatter som lager mat, og en kokk som skriver. Boken heter ‘Appetite‘, og han har noen avsnitt som jeg kunne ha skrevet selv. Bortsett fra at jeg ikke er…

Trust and love

We heard Bertie Brits the other day. He spoke about trust and shared a few very interesting things. I do a horrible job at remembering Trust Between the serpent speaking and Adam & Eve eating from the tree, there was loss of trust. I won’t…

Sad vs angry

So here we were at the local supermarket. Maria and I had just paid for our stuff with our bank card and the guy at the counter laughed when I said out loud that the amount of 67,76 Euros was the same as our bank pin code. People…

The longings of the heart

François Botes spoke (and sang) about the longings of the heart at Kristen Tjeneste last week. A very interesting topic. I’ll list the topics he mentioned here. You’ll have to lookup the verses and wrap your thoughts around it yourself, or you can download his…

James 1

ISV: “From: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. To: The twelve tribes in the Dispersion. Greetings.” I didn’t get very far in James before my thoughts spread out far enough to stop and think them through. James is the…

Passion and Purpose

After a discussion with my friend this morning, I found my way to a website that kickstarted some thoughts about my passion – and purpose. It’s a bit much “me”-focused, but to identify my passion, that would seem to be necessary :-). The rough outcome…

The power of repetition: a walk around the mountain

Driving to a new place usually takes more time than driving back. So many new impressions and your mind has a lot to work with. Repeating the same route will initially bring confirmations “I’ve seen this before”, and eventually you’ll get bored bored bored. To…

A blessed Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas 2013 in Palau, and it’s quite the contrast with this year’s celebration. Very different, on a number of levels. Since we got back to Norway, a few things have happened. In no particular order: Marthe finished 10th grade with an A+ in…

#WeAreN

Det arabiske tegnet for N, ن, blir brukt av IS i Irak/Syria-området for å markere hvem som er Nazarene – kristen. I Mosul er det nå ingen kristne, Yazidi, eller Shia-muslimer igjen. De har blitt henrettet eller har flyktet, til Qaraqosh eller Sinjar. Etter at…

Angaur four

Hearing God’ voice In week 2 of our DTS in Kona, Donna Jordan taught about hearing God’s voice. It’s amazing when the infinite God who created the universe, also is the personal God who reaches out for me in love, and cares about me. Jesus talks…

Angaur One

Angaur is a very very small place. In total, some 100 people live here, which means the population is declining very fast (january 2014). The island itself is a beautiful place, but after the last typhoon, two years ago, many trees were toppled, houses destroyed,…

Angaur 2

We now have another pet. According to Matt it has approx. 36 hours of life left. At the most, he adds, but that is easy to find out. Time will tell. We will see, but it seems baby monkeys have a limited “use before” date….

Cockroaches the size of mice..

Disclaimer: This story is not for the faint hearted! Or at least.. well, you know, it’s fun anyway, so go ahead, but put your smily-glasses on! :-D

It’s a new day, a new year.

January first, 2014. A new year and we were among the first to experience it. Palau’s timezone is way ahead of Europe, and of Hawaii. Palauan local time 7 am meant it was still 2013 back home. Strange. Today, we were supposed to leave for…

Palau Four: Thanks for the fish.

Today we’re having a day off with the family. We promised the kids a day with dolphins, that is to say: the sea creatures, and not The Dolphins TM. When planning to go out on a trip like that, or any trip with the sun…

Palau Three: Christmas in Palau

After a full season with beautiful weather every day (thank you, state of Hawaii!), I anticipated Palau would offer even better weather, with an ocean breeze. Instead it offers rain. More rain. And more rain. And even more rain. Not entirely true, because today, when…

Lederskapsstil, gruppedynamikk

Oppstarten her i Palau her ikke vist seg være veldig enkel. Såklart: endring er aldri lett, og krever tid. Jo mer brått og stor en endring er, jo vanskeligere. For meg fra vest Europa 2013 betyr faktisk ikke omstendighetene like mye som jeg ville forutsett,…

Palau One: Prison ministry

Palau has one prison with both male and female inmates. At the moment there is only one female inmate, which is vey difficult for her. The inmates have a ‘storyboard’ thing going on: a traditional way of storytelling where they carve images in wood, paint…

Honolulu-stopover

Honolulu. Sunday, December 15th 2013. It’s 21.41 now, which means in just a few hours it will be December 16th. Nothing special. However, it’ll be December 17th in Palau by then. In just a few hours, too, we’ll be boarding a plane to Taiwan, and…

World view

Less than a month to go and things are still hugely interesting here. Not ‘even more so’, but on a different level. This week’s teaching is done by the amazing (drumroll…) Joseph Avakian. Yes, in a Christian environment it’s often not considered proper to call…

Belief Tree

The Belief Tree is a simple model that identifies the unseen assumptions we operate with in our lives. Let’s see if I can get down the basics of it in 5 minutes WITH you remembering something useful about it (let me know if that worked,…

Tippy Tap

Always something fun and practical going on with the guys from JusticeWater.org: Today we looked at the procedure of how to create a tippy tap.Kr

The Rus Pump

Appropiate Technology. Simply water. If you – like me – just LOVE the fusion of high-knowledge and low-tech… then you’ll most likely LOVE this article about the Rus Pump.

Culture and conflicts

“People from the south of Norway can be really mean: they lie to you in your face and then laugh at you,” somebody said to explain the difficulty she had with understanding irony.

Turning Point

Sist lørdag besøkte vi en happening med fokus på dåp, hos Turning Point Church i Victorville. Mye musikalsk talent, mye is, og mange (65!) som ble døpt.

Caninus Nervous Rex – aka Overconfidentii Vulgaris

Spoiler alert! Coyotes win, rabbits loose.

Jet lag

‘All the physical inconveniences with your body responding to the later timezone can be circumvented,’ they said, ‘by taking a later plane’. If it only were that easy :-).

A thing called a free lunch

Food for thought for foodies..

For mye poteter og ris går fint. For mye pasta ikke. Frosne erter er gode å ha i fryseboksen. Det er smart å ha litt pasta, parmesan og olivenolje i et skap. Laks med hvit vin er en måltid. Vinflasken er ikke en utfordring; korken…