Thank you

Well, someone(s) must have prayed for me in response to my post last week when I said I felt discouraged and in a fog. Thank you for your prayers!

That afternoon two good things happened: First, I got a follow-up call from a friend, Jeff. Being self-employed, he was working frantically on a project. What had him bogged down was he needed to transcribe some material he had on cassette tapes. He does not enjoy that and was having trouble plodding through it--on top of all the other things on his "to do" list. Well, I happen to enjoy transcribing, typesetting and any other project in which I can learn and earn at the same time. So I spent Thursday and Friday transcribing his tapes. That would have been a pleasant break from my routine by itself. But he also paid me for it! So: a double blessing. (If you or someone you know needs some transcribing done, get in touch with me. I can do it quickly and accurately.)

That same afternoon (Wednesday), I got a call back from a mission agency (www.rimi.org) that focuses on bringing the message of Christ to people from India--both in their home country and around the world. For all intents and purposes, that conversation cemented the decision to go to India for a 2-week ministry trip at the end of October. My contact is sending me material about the trip, costs and schedule, as well as modules that they want someone to teach. So we'll see what the info packet contains and see where I can fit in with their ministry.

Saturday, bw and I went to the Grand Floral Parade, the highlight of Portland's Rose Festival. The weather forcasters kept saying the rain (a virtual tradition for this parade) would hold off until the afternoon--after the parade concluded. Maybe a few drops toward the end, but most of the parade was supposed to be dry, albeit cloudy. Not! It was already sprinkling on our way into the city. Fortunately, we had purchased tickets to watch the parade from the comfortable (read: "DRY") confines of the Memorial Coliseum. You can see the pics I took by going to: http://community.webshots.com/user/culbered. I have more than 20 photo albums there. But the most recent one is titled "Oregon things to do" and it should be at the top of the list of my albums. Let me know if you visit there. They have a place to enter comments on their website. Or you can drop me a line here in the comments section below.

Thank you again for your prayers!