Friday, June 22, 2007

Shame on Scott

Its been three weeks! Three weeks since I last wrote a blog. That's just crazy. It only seems like yesterday that I had a discussion with at least one of our directors at Amor that I would need to write at least two (that's the minimum) blogs a week. I agreed. Ha. Three weeks later I am astounded. Can I promise I won't let that happen again? Better not, just in case. I might be traveling or something. Lousy excuse you say? Your are right. OK. Maybe you asked for it. Whether I have some good material or not I will blog at least twice a week. Ha, got you again.

So, to get you caught up... here are a few developments I am working on that might interest you.








SOUTH AFRICA
We had a little glitch with our planned trip for South Africa in the last couple weeks. I can't be too specific but it required us to begin expanding our thoughts about where in Africa we should go first. In addition to organizational challenges in South Africa, the cost to fly from the UK to South Africa is significantly higher that other central, much less, northern African countries. A meeting has been held in South Africa with our key contacts there to work out some of the support details. My hope, and dream, is that it will all get sorted out in the next week or so. There is still time for us to keep on track if we get things sorted out in the next couple week. The Wales, UK team, under Bill Hebner's guidance, is ready to pull the trigger on tickets for over 100 people. Expect to hear something from me as soon as I hear something.

The final thing on South Africa I would like to share it that contacts and developments in both South Africa and all over Africa are coming in like crazy. Bill is getting new contacts almost daily and there is rarely a day that goes by that someone calls me or talks with me about a new contact in Africa.

CANCUN CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
Our benefactor in Cancun, Gilberto, is busy getting the foundations for the classrooms built "off site". Yes, I did said, "off site". You would think that after over 27 years working in Mexico building homes I would know that you could build foundations "off site". But.... I didn't. Gilberto told me this recently and I was really confused. How can you possibly build a foundation or a slab for classrooms "off site". Well, it really is happening! All the foundations for the classrooms are going to be build in the main city of Cancun and then transported to the campus in the jungle. I am having a hard time envisioning this (part of the dilemma I face all the time since I am a "visual" person) but be prepared to hear more from me on this subject as I find out more from Gilberto. Transportable foundations? What will they think of next? Mobile homes? Oh yea, we already have those, don't we.

AMOR STORY
If you haven't already heard, I am taking the entire month of July to start writing the Amor Story. You may not see me at the office during July since I will be deep in a scholarly mode at my home office writing what I hope will be a wonderful story about how Amor Ministries has come about. I'm not at this immense task alone, thank goodness. Screen play writer and author, Dan Irving, has agreed to coach me in this endeavor. We will be talking and meeting periodically to discuss this book as well as several writing projects he is involved in. One of his current writing projects is about an organization started in the early 1900's in England called, TOC-H. There is an incredible connection with Amor and TOC-H that Gayla and I learned about from Dan. We had an even greater opportunity to learn about this connection when we traveled to England last year and stayed with the Executive Director of TOC-H. I will write more about this in future blogs as well as keep you informed on Dan's book about this very subject.

CAMP PROPERTIES
Two other projects greatly on my mind are the ongoing discussions and plans to buy land in Juarez, Mexico for our camping needs as well as the possibility of buying Rancho in Tijuana. Actually I should say that the later is "Tecate". I am always humored by the fact that the Tecate/Tijuana city borders run on the street just south of the barbed wire of Rancho. Steve Horrex says that Rancho is really in Tecate! You can walk under the barbed wire fence by the banyos and immediately enter into Tijuana. Steve and I are meeting with our board attorney tomorrow morning to discuss progress on both properties.

FAMILY CAMP
Yes, Family Camp directors Dean and Amy are here. The rest of the set up crew arrived yesterday. They are busy setting things up for all the family members to arrive this weekend. Gayla and I will be in Rancho next week working with Family Camp. I will be writing next week a lot about how things go with Family Camp. You should know by now that I am a high tech, gadget guy and I will be testing out a new USB wireless card from Sprint at Rancho next week. Yes, I already have one from Verizon but it does't work in Mexico. Sprint does! It even works in Cancun. So the testing begins at Rancho during Family camp. I'm not sure I will have good reception at Rancho since my Spring Treo doesn't get a signal there very often. Isn't is weired to think that Nextel gets one of the best signals at Rancho. Who would have thought that was possible?

Sorry it took so long to write another blog. I plan on doing you better in the future!








Scott's Current Favorite Phone-
Sprint Treo 700p

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