Being Effective on Church Visitation.

Living in Buffalo, NY has its advantages. Lots of stores, lots of people, lots of things to do, and lots of ways to get lost. When I first arrived here in Buffalo, I carried a large spiral bound, 8" x 10" map book of Buffalo. When I had to pick up our seniors for their Thursday luncheon or make a bus call to some street I didn't now, I would refer to my map book and figure the best way to my destination. Many times the seniors themselves would tell me how to get to my next stop or what street to turn down. I may have been driving, but they were doing the directing. (There's gotta be a sermon in there somewhere!) Now I must admit it wasn't easy to look at my map book, but it only cost me about $10 bucks for the map and it had proven to be an ok way to find my way. Do you want to know where that map book is now? It sits inside a compartment in my mini van. I don't use it anymore. Why? Well its not because I've learned every street in Buffalo. I've gotten better knowing my way around, but still from time to time I need a little bit of help. In comes my Lifedrive and a mapping program called Mapopolis. This mapping program allows me to download maps by county. I've loaded Erie County on my Lifedrive and now I can easily find my way around Buffalo without a hitch. No more folder a map or pulling out a map book looking in the index finding the map code and page number and then finding that map code on that page number. Now, I have door to door directions to my location via my Lifedrive.
While I would love GPS, I just can't justify the cost of such a gadget right now. Using my PDA is the perfect alternative to being more effective when making visitation calls. I find the places I need to go quickly and easily using Mapopolis. Most importantly I don't get lost and waste my time. Quite often on visitation, I am looking up an addresses for myself or someone else with my PDA. It feels great knowing that I won't need to pull over and look at my map book. It always amazes me how much my PDA can help with making me a more effective pastor.

If you would like a cheaper GPS option you could look at Mapopolis's GPS Bundle or a Garmin iQue PDA.