An Inspiring Story

Audrey is a former co-worker of mine. She is a woman of great faith and great conviction. Over the past couple months she has been a God-sent mentor for me as I have struggled with some decisions in my life.

When the primaries started she was an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton, but once the primaries were over she fully got on board with Obama's campaign, and has even been volunteering some of her time to make phone calls.

This morning she sent me this email, and I just wanted to share it with you because I know the struggle ex-convicts that are trying to live a good and honest life face. Richmond is my home now, and I am proud that such a touching story came out of the streets where I live.

Audrey's story: "I can't get this out of my head so I thought I would share this story. It is short and it is another affirmation that Obama has a heart for the American people no matter where they come from.

Yesterday, I heard a most wonderful story from a man by the name of Tommie Cox. Tommie is a 60 year old African American man who spent about 30 years in prison. He was released last year and entered a so-called training program in the Richmond community. Tommie is a member of my church and a small group of us had been working with Tommie to help him find employment. Over the past two weeks I have been meeting with Tommie advising him on how to fill out applications and dealing with his job search.

As many of you know, on Wednesday, Barack Obama was in Richmond at the Coliseum. It was packed to capacity 13,000 plus. There were over 7,000 waiting outside. Tommie said that he went to the Coliseum, arrived early so that he could get a good standing position to see and hear Obama. When Obama finally began to make his way to the podium, the crowd reached out their hands to touch him. Obama found his hand shaking Tommie's hand. Within that short time, Tommie told Barack Obama that he was an ex-offender, spent 30 years in prison and needed employment. Obama told him that his campaign could offer him short-term employment at $9.00 per hour and the Senator told him to report to the Obama Headquarters. Tommie said that Obama also told him that the $9.00 wasn't much but would hold him until he gets what he wanted. Someone with the Senator then gave Tommie the location of the headquarters so that he could report for orientation and employment.

At 12:00 noon yesterday, Tommie was scheduled to report for work. When I checked on Tommie at about 2:00 p.m., Tommie was employed, he was out canvassing and knocking on doors with an Obama supporter and partner.

I know that some people find these kind of stories hard to believe but I Believe in God, our Creator, who has given Obama ability, skill and all the he needs to lead us into a new era. I Believe! I Believe in Obama! Only God can orchestrate such wonderful things--out of 20,000 people, Tommie, an ex-offender who is struggling to get on his feet, touched one of the most powerful and compassionate African American men in the world. This is the kind of President that I want, the table has been set, all we have to do is partake by Voting. Grace and Peace to Barack Obama and his household! Blessings to you and your household."

One more on the Candidates

I got this in my email about the candidates' educational backgrounds. It is very interesting.

Barack Obama:Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Jurist Doctor (J.D.)

John McCain:United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.

Obama in Richmond!

Today Obama was in Richmond for a rally.

The rally was suppose to start at 12:00, so we got downtown at 9:15 and stood in line for about an hour in the freezing cold. It was great that we got there early because they had so many people come out that they turned people away. Even with that the coliseum was packed, about 12,000 people.

He was so inspiring. He challenged people to take responsibility for the current crisis. Not just blame our problems on the government, but take responsibility for the things we have caused ourselves. We have our own part to play in improving our children's education by being there to turn off the TV and help them with their homework. We have to take responsibility for the energy we consume, the cars we choose to buy, and the lights we choose to not turn off. He made me feel more than ever that I have a part to play in making this a better country and a better world.
It is nice to know that I still make a difference.

Cake - Week 5

This week I decided to be a bit ambitious with my cake since it was my last class. I designed a vineyard as an ode to my in-laws who live close to the Napa Valley.The house is made of chocolate cake. It was very hard to shape, but it was worth it. I tried to create a vine going up the side of the house with some flowers on the side. That did not come out exactly the way I envisioned it, but it looks ok.There is a little mount that come up from the cake with these little green bursts that are meant to look like a row of planted goodies (maybe cabbages).
Here is the aerial view. You can see the pond that is in there.
I put a gold fish in the pond. Thankfully Trevan has this rake that he got at the Pastor/Teacher Convention this weekend. It was a great prop to add to the cake.
So it comes to an end. My class was a lot of fun and I do not regret the many hours I have spent baking cakes and making icing. If you ever get a chance to take a class you should do it. In addition to learning great techniques for decorating your cakes, you also get great ideas from your classmates.

Cake - Week 4

Here is last weeks cake. Trevan and I were gone all weekend to the Potomac Conference Pastor-Teacher Convention and I totally forgot to post pictures.

This cake is meant to be a bit of a painting. Flower blossoms coming out of a basket like in some artsy paintings. I have a very ambitious design for my last cake. Tomorrow will be my last cake and I am very happy and sad to come to the end of this journey.

Tomorrow is also my birthday, so I get to make a cake for myself!

Cake - Week 3

This is my cake this week. It is much smaller and I put a lot of flowers on the top. I was just trying to practice my roses. Next week I will try to decorate it with a bit more purpose.

The actual cake is a butter pecan cake with chocolate syrup and walnuts middle.

I especially like the border with the little dots on the top of the starts.

Cake - Week 2

Here is my cake from this week. We are learning to make roses, and since mine are far from perfect, I decided to play with color to make them more interesting. It is a double layer chocolate cake with strawberry jam filling.

Setting the Record Straight

Someone posted this on Trevan's myspace page, and I think it is a brilliant comparison of the facts. Let's think about who is really ready to lead this country. We cannot afford to make the mistake of electing the wrong person again.

I'm a little confused.Let me see if I have this straight ...
* If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents,you're "exotic, different." * Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow , Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

*Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer,become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review,create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive and first in line behind a man in his eighth decade.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress,and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age-appropriate sex education,including the proper use of birth control, you are erodingthe fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up aposition in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Cake - Week 1

The new adventure in my life is cake decorating. That's right, I started a class last week and this is my first cake. Not terribly impressive, but let's hope that it gets better in the weeks to come.

Congratulations Roger!!

I'm Back!

I am back in the United States, but I wanted to tell you a bit more about my trip to Switzerland.

On the final Friday I was there it was Swiss National Day. We had fondue for dinner.Then we headed up the mountain to a huge bonfire in celebration of the holiday. This was the view as we walked up to the bonfire. A bit of rain was falling and a beautiful rainbow draped the sky.

When we got to the town hall we followed a brass band to the bonfire.There were two boys that were carrying a huge cake. It is a town tradition.


This is the bonfire. It was about 8 feet tall.
Every so often a cloud would drift by the mountain and we would be surrounded by the cloud. It looked like smoke, but it was really cool and moist. It was very cool!This was a wonderful experience of the holidays in another country. Later than night we went back to the town hall and hung out with the very drunk villagers. They were dancing and singing and eating. Just having a great time!

More Pictures

I was finally able to take some pictures outside. We had been working so hard that it had been days since I had left the house.

This is a picture of Christie and I in the tipi the GID folks set up.
This pictures was taken right outside my room actually, and it is Christie, Rashad and myself.
This picture was taken yesterday when we went down to Vevey and took the boat back to Montreaux. The guys with me in the picture from left to right are Ian, Muaz and Rashad.

I am meeting people from all over the world. Even in our team of coordinators we have people from 12 different countries. I will post more information on that later...