It was a long trip, crossing the border 3 times. See, they turned me around twice due to the load I was carrying (books) but it exceeded the dollar allowance for not having a broker clear the load. So I needed to get a broker, and by the time I made it to the commercial port (the first crossing wasn’t commercial…) the broker didn’t have enough time to process the load. So I headed back up to Cranbrook for the night to come down the next day. Other than that, it was a great trip.
Today, I drove the truck w/ a small load to Canada. We are having our annual Bible Camp, and so all of us are supposed to go. But Russ' doctor didn't let him go, and Rachel wasn't feeling well, so they didn't come. It's too bad, and we'll miss them, but what can you do.
The trip was uneventful, just a little snow. It was a nice drive - little traffic, and decent weather.
Another reason for driving the truck is that I'm planning on hauling about 1,100 books back down to ID with me when I leave here. Not a full load by any means, but too much for the car. We are trying to get our old stock to run out at the same time, so when the new cover comes out, both offices will at least be close for the change.
I called in dell.com for some tech support today. I received a computer (bought refurbished) that had 3g memory listed twice. I didn’t know what the box had inside, but thought possibly there was 6g, so I looked inside when it came, and it was full (4 slots) of 3g total. So I called in just asking what is usually done in this situation. I was transferred ten times before getting help, lasting oh, about 45 min. You know the drill, each time “May I have your order number” “For verification purposes, what is your full name?”... I talked to Rachel, Indira, Hersh, Nihal, Pavin, Ranbhir, Sanjeev, Mara and finally Joaquin. But I retained my sanity through it all, and since the box will only work w/ 4g, they agreed to send another 2g and I’ll send 1g back, giving me a total of 4. Was it worth it? I don’t know. But I do appreciate those companies out there that have local support, hiring local people, instead of farming overseas—and think Dell should reconsider. Again.
If anyone's had my mom's cinnamon bread, you know it's a tough act to follow. Here's my second attempt, and it turned out ok. The first attempt was back in June, and that was ok too, but had too much cinnamon inside. This time there wasn't enough. But I did stab my loaf before letting it rise in the pan, to help let the air out that accumulates in between the layers, which seemed to work just wonderfully.
One, however, was an attempt on creating a vertical layered loaf. This would have worked, had I rolled the seam to the bottom. Instead, being on top, it cut loose and that was the end of that. Tastes, good, though.
The cut loaves look rough, but that's because it was cut hot. You know how it goes.
All-in-all, it was a wonderful rainy day project.
It is good to hear positive things about projects that you have worked on. I must admit, I don't know much of how the products I've help build have helped others, (many of you helped me help build these products--we all have a part in this) simply because it's probably not really thought of to write the producers. We have sold around 5,000 bible study lessons -- in the DVD video sets (which is good I think, considering we haven't really marketed them yet.) The other day, a story came in that was very encouraging to me:
StoryTime: “Just thought I would encourage you with some news of The Stranger DVD course in the UK prisons. I am a chaplain in one of the high security prisons here in England. Over my 13 years in the prison ministry I have used every course that is available. In November of 2007 I began using the Stranger course. As far as I am aware this is the first time it has been used in a UK prison. I have to say that the Lord began to work immediately. Over the last months the Lord has saved a number of men in most remarkable ways and they are living to prove the reality of their conversion. I cannot tell you all the individual stories but be assured the Lord has honoured your exercise here and is working in a wonderful way. I can honestly say that the course is by far the most effective and scriptural course I have ever see, both outside and inside prison. We have also used it amongst the local population around our church building.”
As many of you are prayer or financial partners in my ministry, I want to pass on to you my “thanks” as well as the “thanks” contained in the above email. I couldn't do what I do without people behind supporting and praying, and I thank you.
I thought I would write a little about what I do here at GoodSeed:
It's a little overwhelming at times, and we are still looking for help. But there isn't a dull moment, that's for sure. Thank you for your prayers for wisdom!
As I type, data is being transferred back to my NAS box. This is a huge relief to me, because 3 months ago, I heard the news that our server wasn't responding, and in essence, was dead. Not too much of a problem if there was a good backup in place, but at the time I thought I was pretty secure, and didn't have that. Thus started a long process of trying to learn how to recover the data from a 7 drive, RAID 5, 2 tb system. Much took place between now and then, and it took several computers, some reformatted (even a couple times) specifically for the data recovery process, extra hard drives (at least (9) 1tb drives used) to move, shuffle and work the data. Very time consuming process, as it does take hours to transfer that much data (sometimes it was necessary just to reconfigure hardware.)
But God is good, and allowed us to recover most, if not all, of the data. I thank Him for allowing this to come to be. It is an answer to prayer, and want to give Him thanks for it all.
I'm not totally out of the woods yet, as I have yet to implement my backup system (it's waiting on hardware right now, but I do have 3 copies of my data once the current transfer finishes.)
And, on this last trip home from CT, my car turned 100,000. That's 45,000 miles I've put on it in the past 2.5 years. (Not bad, considering I currently live 1 mile away from work, and ride my bike most of the time.) It's been a huge blessing and am thankful for being able to get around as well as I have been. Thank you to those of you that help make it a possibility.
Left Monday morning at around 4:30 am, and arrived Wed evening, at around 6:00 pm. I could have made it sooner, but spent a few hours w/ Joe in Milwaukee. It was a great trip, but a little quick—wish I had more time to stop and see more things. But needed to get back to the office and back to work. Actually need a vacation now after this trip.
Today started out at Fred’s—trying to finish things up before leaving. It is still my plan to leave Monday morning, though there isn’t much time before leaving, and I have a lot to do before then. Like roof and shoot a wedding and process images, etc. But it all worked out in the end. It was a very nice day, a little chilly, but a wonderful time for sure.
Today was pretty special. My brother wanted to fly to NYC for some hours and whatnot. So I was able to go, Dunk was the instructor. We flew to the TapenZee Bridge, down the Hudson, then turned around and came back up. On the way home, we swung over to Long Island to see what that looked like.
After, Dunk had another job looking for a million dollar submarine that got lost in the Thames. Guess I better not say more than that. Other than they didn't find it. He then came over to Fred's and helped out, which was a big help.
I had to leave early (again) but this time it was to go to the rehearsal, and dinner after.
Been working the roofing job all week, and still not finished. Yet. Broke early again to go for dinner at David’s—a family spread that my mom cooked up for everyone. Stuffed cabbage, lasagna, chicken. ribs, shrimp, kielbasa, apple pie, cheesecake, and more that I can’t remember, but I know it was good.
Roofing again at Fred’s then quite early (5:00) to go shoot Jeb and Bethany and their kids…
Today was working on Fred’s roof, and then to Sam and Jen’s for supper. They delivered the shingles today, which we were able to get delivered on the roof. Saved a lot of work being able to do that.
Sure was good to hang out at church again, seeing so many people that I have not seen for a while.
Didn’t take too many pictures, but a couple did surface.
James 1:5
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
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