Since the pope’s death, the activity on our website (lifeteen.com) has increased twenty percent. So I’ve worked hard all week to keep the site fresh and relevant so those people keep coming back. It’s an exciting time, but it’s becoming painfully obvious that I need the help of another full-time staff person and two more interns.

I canceled my snowboarding trip to Tahoe that was scheduled for next week. When I filled in speaking dates on my calendar, I realized I only have three weekends off before I hit a non-stop travel in the summer. It’s not until the fall that it slows down and I have any more weekends off. If I expect to finish any personal projects, I cannot afford to fill up a weekend with a trip out of town. I mean, I have a gangster-looking ’54 Chevy in my garage that I’ve hardly driven ten miles in the year that I’ve owned it. I’m too busy!

It’s been exciting to hear all the news coverage about Pope John Paul II. As much as people have loved to hate him for political reasons, every media mouth is forced to reconcile with the fact that he was a giant of a man. How else can you explain the millions of people who traveled across Europe to see his body?

In the last week, three people have told me things about lifeteen.com that have made me feel good. The first one was from Randy, the VP of Life Teen. He said, “The website is so cool, it makes all of us look better.” I loved hearing this because my goal since the beginning was to set a high standard for all the divisions of our ministry. Randy had just come back from lunch at a resort to consider holding our conferences there. The resort staff explained to him that they’d done some research about Life Teen, and went to our website to see what we were about. One person on staff said, “We spent an hour on lifeteen.com. I know it’s meant for teenagers, but; it’s interesting to adults too.” Awesome!;

The most flattering thing someone can tell a web designer is that you came onto their site, clicked around–and keep clicking around. It takes tremendous amount of work to make a site usable and familiar to first-time visitors. Then to fill that structure with interesting content is another challenge. When you accomplish both, then you know you have succeeded.

My friend Chris is a Youth Minister hear in town and he said, “It’s my homepage. I don’t have to go to other sites to find out news or anything, because all I need is right there. I love just spending time clicking around in the morning, even though it’s officially work.” I keep our visitors informed on world news, interesting perspectives, and funny or uplifting stories that are being covered by the media. It’s important that teenagers are challenged to know what’s going on outside of their town.

So yes, it’s been a busy busy week. We have tomorrow off in honor of the pope’s funeral. I think I’m going to Tivo the funeral tonight and watch it tomorrow.