brandonandkatie.com

This coming weekend I’ll be preaching in Coffeyville, Kansas as Katie and I continue to look for more financial partners to make our work in Ukraine a reality. Katie suggested I preach on something similar to a class I had taught during our year in Ukraine back in 2008. It sounded like a good idea, and so yesterday morning before we headed to the building, I was going to upload those files from home so I could access them from the office.

But I couldn’t find the files anywhere on my computer. I searched all my hard drives and couldn’t find them. In fact, I couldn’t find anything that I had worked on during our year in Ukraine. All the studies I had done, all the classes I had taught and lessons I had preached—everything was simply gone. As the heavy feeling in my stomach began to set in, I realized that even all my original files of the book I had written while we were there were also gone. It was a very bad way to start the day.

What’s worse is that none of it made any sense. I had always been good about making sure all my files were backed up. The only thing I could figure is that in February when we got our new computer, I wiped a hard drive clean thinking that it was already backed up in another place and lost it. A very real weight of depression began to set in, and then I decided to check one more place: dropbox.com

Dropbox is a service I signed up for a few years ago that puts a folder on your computer and automatically backs up whatever is in that folder with any of your other computers that have it installed, as well as store a copy online. I had started using it to back up all my notes from Sunset, as well as other important text documents that I had created. I hadn’t used it since we got our new computer, but I was also pretty sure I hadn’t put my Ukraine files in there either.

I was wrong. They were all there and available for immediate download.

I share this tale as a warning for those who are very nonchalant about the things you keep on your computers. Are you ready to lose everything or are you intentional about your back ups? I think about how many ministers out there who are setting themselves up to lose all their sermons, classes, and study notes. How many lessons of yours are stored on one hard drive? How many pictures do you keep stored in one single place? If your computer was fried or stolen today, how much would you lose?

Dropbox is just one service of many, but make sure you’re proactive about this. I like Dropbox because of how easy it is to use, but for the past couple of years I have primarily been using Google Docs so that I can access and edit all my files from any computer (or smart phone) connected to the internet. (This comes in handy for those out-of-nowhere requests to speak.) Using online services isn’t very convenient for backing up your photos just yet (which can be expensive and slow depending on the file size), so make sure you’re copying your pictures to another hard drive, or burning them to a DVD.

Excuse the public service announcement, but I was just so relieved yesterday that I had backed up my important files online that I though I’d share the unexpected success story and maybe motivate some of you to do the same. If all your lessons are digital, back them up. If every picture of your children you’ve taken for the last few years is digital, make sure you’re making copies.

That’s all for today. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Facebook time.