WOO HOO Kiefer Sutherland!!

Hi y'all!

Friday evening (2/24) when I got home, I found an envelope had been slid underneath my door. I picked it up and looked at it. Seeing the code "K.S." on it, I knew that meant that it was from Kiefer Sutherland a/k/a Jack Bauer on 24. What a lift it gave me to see this hottie had signed and returned the pictures I sent him. I had had a tough day at work - we had some problems right at the end of the day.

Then Saturday (2/25) I got another surprise - retired Dallas Cowboy Jay Novacek (#84) had signed and sent back the trading card I sent him. He now has a ranch in Brady, Nebraska and he included his business card.

My co-worker Kathy scanned these for me. :) :)

Today...

Today isn't too bad - the wether has moderated a little. It's still overcast and dreary looking outside; I think there may be the possibility of rain moving in.

Bob will go to lunch at 2:00 p.m. today - I'm not sure what time I'm going. Vicki is out sick today - so says her voice mail.

Otherwise, nothing to share at this time.

Evangelism Explosion - Tuesday 2/21/2006

EE Report - You Won't Believe This One!!

Dot is absolutely correct when she says "you won't believe this one"!! It was a wild but wonderful night for Evangelism Explosion - not too chilly and there was no inclement weather (at least where my team was).


Donny, Mary and I went to an apartment complex in Ridgeland with the plan of doing door-to-door religious surveys.


We first met Manuel - who seemed hesitant to talk with us at first - especially when Donny was asking him personal questions - such as where he was from, etc. Later we talked as we moved the vehicle to another area and decided he might be in the US illegally and was unsure of whether we might really be INS folks. None of us are, by the way. Manuel is Catholic and he doesn't speak English very well plus none of us speak Spanish - so there were communication difficulties. We basically got nowhere with him as a result, so we moved on.


Then we met Charles. He had just moved to Jackson from Baton Rouge. It's unclear to me why he moved. I think he may have family in the area. When he said he had come from Baton Rouge, I pointed out my LSU necklace. Charles said he was a Southern University fan. But - he and I connected that way. We asked him the diagnostic questions and then went on to try to share the Gospel with him, but he said that it wasn't a good time and asked if we could return later. We said we would, thanked him and said we would return next week.


Then we moved the vehicle and when we got out, Donny passed a few EE tracts out to passersby. We were looking for a group of apartments that Donny and Mary hadn't been to previously, and found a set. The door we knocked on (at random) opened to us - after we identified ourselves, of course. There we met Kisha - a senior at Tougaloo College. She moved to Jackson from Cleveland, MS. Donny asked her the diagnostic questions, which revealed to us that she was lost, so we asked for permission to share the Gospel with her and it was given. After going through the presentation via a tag team effort, Donny asked if she would like to accept Christ and she said yes. So we led her through the time of commitment and she prayed to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior. Then we got the information for followup purposes and left some materials with her.


When you read Dot's notes below, it just might blow you away. It did me and I was there at report back time! I was shocked to learn that the total number of professions of faith were higher than Mary and I had counted.


Now - here's Dot's notes:


Twenty-three people prayed to receive Christ tonight! What a night!!


While our most important focus is on training our trainees to share Jesus, when someone wants to pray to receive Christ, we are, of course, thrilled!


Tonight Terri took her trainees, Jamie and Freddy, to the McDonald's at UMC. They were going to witness to four people who were there for supper because they had a family member in the hospital. Before they began to share the Gospel, these four asked them to please wait a few minutes until the rest of their family arrived, so that they might hear it too. Well, it turned out to be a family group of 15 people. They were all members of Baptist churches, but no one could answer the diagnostic questions correctly. After the Gospel presentation, all 15 of them wanted to pray to receive Christ!


This team also later visited with "Mattie" at UMC McDonald's. Mattie was lost and searching and also prayed to receive Christ.


Vic and his team, Diann and Guy, led "Gloria" to Jesus tonight. She is a Catholic from Colombia, South America.


Ken S. and his team, Chris and Beth, led "Tonya" a 26-year old graduate of MSU to Jesus. They met her as they went door-to-door in an apartment complex. She is looking for a job and is also a potential church member for us.


Bob W. and his team, Chris and Karen B., led "Steve and Emily" to Jesus tonight!


Team members Donny L., Mary B., and PJ met "Kisha" as they went door-to-door. Kisha is a senior in college and was lost. After hearing the Gospel, she prayed to receive Christ!


Bob T. and his team, Ed and Connie, met Nate as they went door-to-door. Nate was lost but accepted Jesus tonight. He is single and about 30 years old. They are hoping to meet him for church on Sunday.


Several of the other teams were either doing follow-ups with new Christians from last week's visits or planting seeds in new places.


I know you can see the urgency and importance we feel for becoming equipped to share our faith. There are so many people right here in our city who do not know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. The harvest is so plentiful and our church needs to be busy equipping as many people to share the Good News. We are living in such uncertain times and people need the Lord.


This is not just a Tuesday evening event. Tuesday evening is just our training time, but we are to be on the alert everyday of the week, for whomever God puts in our path to hear His Word.


Our trainees are working so hard and are doing beautifully. Please do continue to pray for them as their memory work continues to grow.


"God does not give us a spirit of timidity...but of power and love and self- discipline."
2 Timothy 1:7

TUESDAY - WHAT A DAY!!

Tuesday - what a day!!

When I got home yesterday, I found the Donnie Allison signed card and photo among my mail.

Then I connected with Chris - she provided me with 2 Nevada state quarters and I gave 1 to Vicki when I met up with her after work so she could drop me at Church on her way out of town.

I think I'll create a separate post for EE...

MyPoints

I thought I'd share with you that I'm a member of this neat website called mypoints.com - it's set up so that you can earn points towards a lot of really cool stuff. I'm a fairly new member, so I don't have a lot of points just yet, but I'm looking forward to when I can redeem them for gift cards from my favorite stores. They send me e-mails all the time with opportunities to earn points. Even if I'm not interested in the particular offer, I'll usually visit the site just to accumulate the points, but there have been offers that I've been interested in and I plan to visit and make purchases.

Go check it out and see what you think!

Well - hey, the weekend's almost here...

Yep - the weekend's almost here again! But, this time they say here in Jackson that we're supposed to have a cold spell.- with the temperatures in the 30's both Saturday and Sunday. Cold rain is forecast for Saturday and icing is a potential issue for North Mississippi. I guess I'll stay indoors for most of the weekend except when I venture out to go to Church.

Till Monday....

Woo-Hoo -- Donnie Allison!

Janice sent me an e-mail with this attached - that's the Press Pass "Legends" card of Donnie on the left and the man himself sitting at Bev's kitchen table on the right affixing the signature on the card. She hasn't mailed the card and photo to me yet - but she will sometime very soon.

Just wanted to share this!

The Weekend/Today

Well - the weeknd went fairly well - except that it was cold here - colder than what Jacksonians are used to. I was told in Sunday school that we actually had flurries to fall Saturday evening. I didn't see them - though I tried to look a couple of times.

Saturday - not much of anything happened other than that I did laundry and the usual chores. Sunday evening after Church I went with Etta Mae and we worked on CEF stuff on her computer - but had some problems and I've got an e-mail in for expert help on some of the software.

Today Mr. Gates is in a much more civil mood than he was last week after the problem he and I had. The whole thing was stupid to begin with. I went to my luncheon today and he will go to his - I won't dare jeopardize him doing that again!

I have something up my sleeve besides my arm with regard to Valentine's Day tomorrow - something that I, as the Employee Club President, will do for everyone in the agency - members and non-members alike. Can't say what it is or it might spoil the surprise.

The luncheon was great - we really enjoyed the speaker - she did a great job - talked about love relationshhips and how none of your other relationships will be right if your relationship with God isn't right to begin with.

Well - I suppose this is it for the present time...

Thursday night

I dropped a package to a friend of mine in the maildrop box on the corner before going home. Then, when I went home, I went over to Chris' before goiong up to my apartment. Little Prince Romeo was cutting up - he wanted me to walk him - so finally Chris and I attached the leash to his collar and I set off with him. He and I had a good long walk - exercised both of us actually! In the lobby he had to stop and visit with Harold - another resident - both going out and coming back in.

After visitng with Chris awhile, I said I would like to go to Wendy's to pick up dinner and so Chris handed me the keys to her car. She didn't want anything nor did she want to ride along. I went down to Wendy's and found it was busy - the Dixie Nationals Rodeo is in town and across the street at the Coliseum.

I returned home and parked Chris' car, then returned her keys and finally got up to my apartment. I also talked with Aunt Ruby and she said they won't be coming this weekend since incelement weather is forecast and Landon doesn't need to get out in that. Her phone had been out of order for several days.

I read and made some additional headway on Walking The Bible by Bruce Feiler before going to bed. Then I called Etta Mae and Chris. Etta Mae and I might get together this weekend if the weather isn't too bad.

This morning my brother called me to get some info he needed for his passport application. I gave it to him - he said he was sure I would know it and that's why he called me.

Vicki is out of the office today - sick I think - since she was going in that direction yesterday.

This is it for now...

Last night and Today

Good afternoon - it's just past 12:30 p.m. in my time zone. It's just Purvis and me in the "house" at the present time.

Last night Michele dropped me off at Church for the Evangelism Explosion kickoff meeting. There was a crowd - Debbie had warned me that we had a lot of new faces. Well we had some 50 or so people in attendance - about double last semester. My ex-fiancee (William) showed up and registered. He has done EE preveiously, so he's qualified to be a trainer like I am. Since he hadn't preregistered, Debbie was unable to warn me that he would be participating this semester.

I participated in a demonstration of the Gospel presentation last night with Dot, Vic and Ken S. as the EE team. I played the part of the lost person/prospect. They told me I did a great job playing the prospect - well I called Aunt Fran and asked that she and Uncle Pete pray for us about the demonstration. They did and God calmed my nerves and blocked out the fact that there were 50 or so people watching. I think another reason was that I know the presentation well enough that I knew what was coming next and so I was able to concentrate on Dot and Vic (Ken S. is somewhat of a wannabe comedian) and responded with them conversationally. I wouldn't look at Ken S. because I knew if I did I would lose it (my concentration).

Afterwards Mary gave me a ride home - it was around 9:00 p.m. I brought home the papers from the night plus a copy of the group photo from last semester taken at Eric and Tree's home. I'll post it on my refrigerator later. I put some of my favorite pictures on there - with the magnets I collect holding them on.

Bob is still acting rather childish after what happened yesterday. He chose to stay and wait for me to return instead of asking the bosses to hold down the fort for those few minutes. I'm certain he did it on purpose - so it would give him a reason to stir up something and try to get me in trouble. Why he would want to do that I don't know.

This morning Purvis asked me what time I wanted lunch and I said 11:00 a.m. - no, I'd rather 11:30 a.m., and he said that 11:00 a.m.would work better, so I said okay. I called Chris and told her that I could go to lunch at 11:00 a.m. and I would come and get her then. She said okay. As I left to go to lunch, Bob called my name and told me that on Tuesdays he goes to lunch at 11:45 a.m. I just looked at him and said okay and walked out.

I went over and got Chris and she had me to drive - we went down to the post office so she could mail her tax forms. After that, we made a trip to CVS so that I could pick up my potassium prescription. Then we came back and at Sterling, Chris got out and opened the gate with her card and I pulled through and into the parking lot and parked her car, then went to meet her and return her keys.

I was back to work before 12:00 p.m. so I was not late getting back today either. Bob didn't say a word to me, he just got up and walked out. I assumed he was going to lunch. That is downright childish of him - to refuse to communicate business things with me.

I'll continue at a later time...

Overnight and Today

Last night it was cool and damp; this morning the sun was out and the rain had finally exited the area. I talked with Janice for a while last night and then settled on the couch and watched 24 with Kiefer Sutherland. It was another great episode. After that I went to bed.

This morning I came in to work, carrying, in addition to my briefcase, 2 large bubble mailers - one addressed to Kiefer Sutherland and the other to Josh Tuerner. Inside each was a document/photo mailer addressed back to me and in Kiefer's was 2 pictures printed off the Internet and a letter requesting that he sign and return them; in Josh's was a copy of HomeLife with him on the cover and a letter asking that he sign and return it to me.

About 11:00 a.m. I went over and got Chris' car keys and went down to my Credit Union to take care of some business, then I went to the post office and got the packages to Kiefer and Josh in the mail - postage applied to the SASE mailers (back to me) and to the outside bubble mailers. I also got a book of 2006 Olympic Winter Games stamps - in the 39 cent denomination. They were nice looking.

From there I went and made a bill payment and then went to Popeye's for lunch - picked it up and brought it back. I didn't get back quickly enough for Bob to go to his Men's Luncheon - well he could've gone as UJ, Steve and Purvis were here and would've held down the fort for 15 minuts or less. He just wanted an excuse to nurse a grudge against me or soemthing. I tried to apologize but he didn't want to hear it, so I just backed off and I've not spoken to him since.

Tonight is Evangelism Explosion and Michele said she will drop me off at Church for it. It's really just an orientation time and since this is my third semester, I really don't need to go, but I plan to anyway so I can check out who's doing EE this semester and get a team roster and whatever else.

Oh - I received the Jason Campbell autograph request back in the mail yesterday - bad address - so I looked up on the NFL site and got the correct address for the Redskins and resent it this morning. Maybe I'll have some luck with the different address.

This is it for now...

The Weekend!

Well the weekend is over once again...the Pittsburgh Steelers have prevailed. I know my friend Carol's husband Bill is elated as he's a huge Steelers fan.

In Friday's mail I received football cards back signed by Daryl "Moose" Johnston and David Lafleur. Both are retired Dallas Cowboys and David is also a former LSU Tiger.

Friday night Allison swung by and picked me up - we made a trip to Madison to attend the Bible Study with Mark Byrd at David and Elizabeth's home. After Mark spoke, we had a real nice dinner and time of fellowship. Allison dropped me off about 10:30 p.m.

Saturday I did 2 loads of laundry and also came over to the Center to use a land-line phone to call Cingular and have my new LG C2000 camera phone activated. Then Chris and I went to the post office and to Krystal for lunch.

Sunday I went to Church and then came home and hung out and waited for the Super Bowl - I was rooting for the Steelers because of Bill, but would've been just as happy had the Seahawks won - first-timers...

This is it for now...

Friday - heck of a day already...

Here we go already - and it's just now 10:00 a.m. The Clark Building has been the vitim of a power failure this morning. Sterling was partially affected by it, but everything seemed okay when I left to come in to work. The microwave was blinking so I reset the time on it - otherwise things didn't seem to be bothered. I did note that my hair dryer didn't seem to be working at it's full regular power.

This morning I have checked the FedEx tracking link for the Cingular package I'm expecting in today - and as of just now it says that the package is still at the FedEx facility in Richland, rather than being out on a truck for delivery. I'll check again later and see what the status is. And, I'll check when I go home for lunch.

Earlier this morning I did an online search and found a shareware checkbook program that came highly recommended and downloaded and set it up. Then I entered my Credit Union information up to the present. It's got an icon on my desktop for easy access. I'll have to try and remember to lock my desktop everytime I step away from it for any length of time. I'm not sure if I'll keep using it or not - this is a demo version and I'll have to pay for the unlimited version. I'm not sure what I'll do - keep it or delete it.

This is all I have for now.

Thursday...errands and stuff

It's 12:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. I got back from lunch a few minutes ago and thought I'd post an update...

I called Cingular Wireless again this morning, as overnight I realized I had questions about the changes I made to my account yesterday. I talked with a Customer Service Representative and he cleared up my confusion and then suggested that I drop the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. calls - I had been paying $7 extra per month for the privilege of having my nights and weekends start at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. With over 3K in rollover minutes, he said I didn't need that right now. So, I authorized him to drop it off. And, while we were discussing things, I asked about getting my bill paid - told him I had changed banks and didn't have my new debit card yet. Well - I went ahead and paid the bill as a bank draft on my CU checking account so as to stop the auto pay attached to my former account - so the computer wouldn't attempt to draft it out of that account and cause an NSF fee or something like that.

I checked online and found that my new flip cell phone was picked up by FedEx and arrived at their Memphis facility overnight. It should be here in Jackson and delivered to me tomorrow sometime. I forgot to tell Jean, the building manager, when I went home at lunch, that I'm expecting a package from Cingular to be delivered tomorrow by FedEx. I'll tell her or Lena (the housekeeper) this evening. Jean signs for almost every package that comes in anyway.

I went home - well actually over to see Chris - and while in there, I stopped in Jean's office and dropped off my February, 2006 rent check. Then I went to see Chris and got her car keys. I drove down to the Credit Union and made a deposit, then went over to the post office to get a money order to pay a bill - I could pay it either online or by money order. I decided to pay it via money order. I had some other things to mail while there - now all that's taken care of.

Then, when I was done at the post office, I went down to CVS Pharmacy - at Chris' request. She had ordered a refill of a prescription and since she still can't drive because of her foot surgery, she asked me to go pick it up and gave me a check made out to CVS and signed, but the amount was blank. She called them to let them know I was coming to pick it up for her - they know me as I do business there too.

While I was in the store, Chris called to see where I was - she was hoping to catch me before I had left the pharmacy to come back home. She wanted me to pick something else up for her - a couple of packs of 90 minute cassette tapes. I found and got them and then went to get the prescription and also some things I wanted. I paid for my stuff, then paid for Chris' stuff, then discovered they had 12 packs of certain soft drinks on sale 3 for $8 and so I got 3 of them at that price.

When I returned to the apartment building, I went and parked and hauled everything inside and then went out to Chris' with her stuff. After a few minutes, I went up to my apartment and unloaded the drinks and brought the other stuff I got back to work. I was a little late, but that was okay...

Claude and Allan are in the house and Purvis is at lunch; otherwise, it's quiet around here. I may try to read this afternoon if I have sufficient downtime. The book I'm still working on is Walking the Bible: A Journey By Land Through The Five Books Of Moses by Bruce Feiler. I'm enjoying it - it's a very good book, it's just taking a while to get through.

This is it for now...

Wednesday evening

Here I am again - it's almost 5:30 by the clock on my desk phone. I'm more or less home alone here in the Center. Little John is still rambling about but otherwise the rest of the crowd are gone. I'm waiting on the relief guys to come in at 7:00 p.m.

I set up a new e-mail address yesterday and finsihed the address book today, then printed a copy of it. I'm about done using my Yahoo addresses due to all the spam I get in them. This address will be guarded and not used for sign-up things.

I received an e-mail from Cingular confirming my order and now it's a matter of waiting on it to arrive. I showed Steve the phone on the Cingular site and he liked it - it's a camera phone. I won't use it for that very much since it will cost extra to use it for that purpose - downloading or sending photos, that is.

Not much else for today - this will be it...

Well I Did It!

I had been unhappy with the bank I've been a customer of for 4 1/2 years for quite some time. Today I finally took the step to fix that. I went to the Credit Union where I'm already a member and opened a checking account with them and transferred money into the account. I was using Chris' car - I drove down to the Credit Union and took care of that and then drove across the street to the Post Office to get stamps while I was in the area since I will be in need of them before long.

When I got back to the apartment complex and went to return Chris' keys, Romeo was cutting up like he wanted to be walked, so I asked Chris if she wanted me to walk him. Instead, she asked me to take her to the vet to get some antibiotics for the cats and Romeo. We went over there and then returned to the apartment complex and after I did a couple of things, I came on in to work. I got with our payroll officer and made the change with her so that next month my paycheck will go to either my new CU account or to me in a paper check.

I also called Cingular about my cellular account and wound up getting a new phone for free and the same plan as I had for less money. They're shipping me the phone and I ought to have it in the next few days - by the middle of next week - FedEx is the carrier.

Not much else is going on for now - this will do it for the present time. I'll be working till 7 p.m. tonight, so I may blog some more this evening.