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Welcome Welcome to Chalet Eagle. Please come in. We are glad that you have come. Please have a seat and allow us to explain a little about who we are and what we are. If after the introduction you would like to look around a bit, that's fine. If you would like to stay longer, we would be honored to have you as our guest. If you have any questions or comments or suggestions please feel free to share them with us. There is my personal e-mail address at the bottom of this page. If you need to leave at anytime, please feel free to do that. The gate is always open. We will always be here. Just ring the bell. Now let's go through the introduction. The Worldview By Which We Live When you become a Christian we believe that it includes all of life all of the time. As Jesus has taught us from the Old Testament, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:28-34 is one reference). Our Christian life is not just to be a Sunday morning experience. It should be something that lives and breaths through us and around us 24/7. Or as Francis Schaeffer put it, "The Lordship of Christ should be over all of our life, not just those things we call religious." We do that by growing as Jesus did, "...in wisdom and stature, and in the sight of God and man" (Luke 2:52). Also, as we grow we stand, Ever Vigilant, like the watchman in Ezekiel 33:1-11, 19. For our hope is in the living God, and through Him we "will mount up with wings like eagles" (Isaiah 40:31). And as we "fly" through the blessings and the trials of life, we will see more and more that by His grace, and His grace alone, we are actually flying "under the shadow of the Almighty...safely abiding under His wings" (Psalm 91). For like it is written on the currency of the nation of which the eagle is also a symbol, "In God We trust." So like Joshua, the soldier of Israel, we also say, "...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15b).These are a few of the key principles or foundation blocks for the core values of Chalet Eagle. Our Prayer For You It is our prayer that by opening up our lives to you like a book, as we are trying to do here, it will in some way help you or someone else who is also trying to live the Christian life. In other words, by our being "public" or "transparent" with our lives as much as possible, we are reaching out to others and saying, "You are not alone. We are experiencing many of the same things as you are. Together, through the love of Jesus Christ, maybe we can help each other." For some reason He has directed you here, and we presume that it is for good and not for evil. May God richly bless you and keep you, and please remember to thank Him for those blessings, whether in this place or in other parts of your life. For as it has been written by the writer of Proverbs, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths." Do you have any questions, comments, or suggestions at this point? If so, please use the email address listed below. If not, let's move on. The Basic Chalet Eagle Structure When you came in the front gate (homepage) of the Chalet Eagle world (website) you saw the main directory (vertical navigation bar). When you open any of the doors (click on the buttons) you will find that they lead to several major areas that make up our world (our day-to-day Christian lives). These major areas are where we are growing "in wisdom (intellectual life) and stature (physical life), and in the sight of God (spiritual life) and man (social life)." It is also where we are intertwined with the visible part of what is called The Church, visible and invisible, where Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord. We are His offspring, adopted members of the family of God, and citizens through His grace of His kingdom. When you open the door to Home & Family you will find where our individual lives come together in the most basic of God's structure for Man, the family. Chalet Eagle is our version of home & family both in real space and cyberspace. The next door is where our Christian family expands from the personal into the areas of School & Work. When you open this door you will find that Philadelphia Biblical University (PBU) is where we go to school and where we also work. The third door is Church. It is where we are intertwined with the visible part of what is called The Church, visible and invisible, where Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord. We are His offspring, adopted members of the family of God, and citizens through His grace of His kingdom. You will see several churches listed. One reason for that is that we are a multicultural family with involvement in both the English speaking world and the Korean speaking world. We are also at different stages of family development which explains the multiple churches from both languages. The fourth door is where our Christian family expands, again from the personal, into more parts of our extended Christian family into what we generally call Organizations. Cybershelter is an e-mail discussion list and web site ministry within a multi-family Christian community that extends beyond Pennsylvania, the state where we live, and even beyond the borders of the United States of which we are citizens. Chalet Eagle is one of those families. It is where we discuss our lives and the issues of the day with the world. It is a global Christian fellowship in cyberspace. Chalet Eagle is also a military family with a rich multigenerational heritage of honorable service to our country. Therefore we have real relationships with other veterans, relationships that are ongoing and still developing. That explains 5th Maintenance Battalion who served in Vietnam. It also explains the newest organization of which the family has become a part, Veterans of Foreign Wars. The fifth door is Blogging. Writing words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, opinions, and stories is an ever expanding world in cyberspace. Chalet Eagle is developing a voice in that world. Currently there are three blogs. The names of those blogs speak for themselves. The Blogging Resource Center page (BRC), from which they are linked, also includes an Archives of past blogs, current writing Projects, and a links page of local and national Columnists who are regular sources of information and opinion. The sixth door is Discussion Lists. Where blogging is like reading a newspaper where readers may or may not interact with the writer through comments, discussion lists are where more active conversations take place in cyberspace. Discussion lists can be set up by their owners to be private, semi-private, or open to the general public. Chalet Eagle is currently the owner, co-owner, or subscriber to several lists that are linked from the Discussion Lists page. The seventh door is Current Reading. Living in cyberspace involves constant study, constant exploration of what is out there. But there needs to be a balance, a marriage if you will, of the tried and true with this world of virtual reality. Pluralism is rampant, some good and some not so good. But this pluralism causes you, if you have not noticed yet, to make choices. For a family that has chosen a version of the Christian worldview as a basic structure for life, a daily reading of the Bible is a logical and true method of worship, something for the whole self - intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social. Then with that comes a study of the culture where that basic Bible reading will be applied from day to day. This may include a reading of something quite Christian along with something that just might be quite the opposite, mixed in with a good dose of a daily newspaper, where that tension of good and not so good always exists. The eighth and final major door is Legacy Library. No man is an island. No man can reasonably live just unto oneself. History, especially God's history is a continuing story passed down from generation to generation. We each walk a path where some things are accomplished and other things are not accomplished. It has been said, "History repeats itself. Has to. Nobody listens." To a certain extent that is true. Our wars are a classic example of that. But history is also the water that causes the tree of living to go on. Each of us has a rich heritage. Each of us has a legacy to pass on to the next generation. That is the essence of Legacy Library. In some instances it will only be interesting to some of the extended Chalet Eagle family. But hopefully, there will also be other things that are helpful to those who are farther away from the roots of that particular tree. For after all, mankind in the overall picture of life, and The Church, as the circle gets smaller, is in one sense one big forest that God has created. But in another sense it is also a huge flock of sheep for which Jesus Christ has been chosen as The Good Shepherd. That story, His Story, is always unfolding and is always standing head and shoulders above all other stories. The other two doors that you see on the directory by the front gate are what you generally find in any type of building (website) in cyberspace (the internet). The Help room (help section) answers some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that guests may have. The Website Directory is a more detailed version of the front gate directory, listing the many different buildings (websites and sub websites, the floors of each (sub website sections), and the rooms or areas on those floors (web pages). Another Way of Seeing Now, if this whole structure above has been described in a way that is confusing or complicated, then think of it in another way. This website, named Chalet Eagle, is a filing cabinet on the internet. The first drawer is Home & Family. The second drawer is School & Work. The third drawer is Organizations, and so on and so on. Each one of the drawers is organized into major sections and each of those sections has individual files. The internet and a personal website can be an excellent place where you can keep track of most all the things that make up your personal life, the life of your family, and the life that you are involved in outside the home. You can even keep some parts closed to the general public, a Classified Document section if you will. Does all that make better sense? I hope so. One more area to cover and then we're through with the introduction. Credentials It is not really by choice that these few words about Credentials are included here. We would hope that the guests that come to Chalet Eagle would just take each page, each room they explore, at face value. But some require some kind of identity, something that tells them quickly that what they are looking at has been created by someone who has some kind of knowledge, some level of expertise in some field of endeavor that has earned some kind of recognition. If there is a better way we could have written this section on Credentials, please let us know. We are surely open for suggestions. In any case, for those who may need to be shown some kind of credentials as to why they should spend their time here as our guest, please go to the section by the same name in Legacy Library. A Philosophy of Website Development This website, with all of its various sub websites, has been in development since 1998. It has been intentionally developed in the simplest way possible, using relatively simple website software programs and even simpler graphics programs that are either free or that just about anyone can purchase. We are not professional website developers. We are a Christian family who is reaching out to you and saying, "Here is a way that you can reach out to the world and make a difference. It's really not that hard." Now, if you have any questions, suggestions or comments about the Chalet Eagle website or even life in general, please feel free to talk to (write to) the undersigned at alwinger1@gmail.com. We really are looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you for taking the time to listen (read) :-) In the Lamb, Allan L. Winger
© 2011 by Chalet Eagle |
