Yea, I kind of went into hiding. sorry. photo by yahoo
Hey Ya’ll,
I saw a friend at work last night. It had been a long time since we last saw each other, something like five days. It seemed like forever, anyway it was his time to walk out of the building to go on his trip and he asked me if I had stopped writing, I didn’t even know that he was a reader of the words I put here. I told him that I had been busy and he gave me that look, you know that look. The look when the words and actions don’t really match. So, you all can thank your lucky stars, that he busted my chops a little last night.
Tom was really not impressed. photo from yahoo
So, what I have been doing? That is a long and complicated answer. Last November, I was invited to join a small group of men who were doing to do a one-year, intense journey of leadership, Bible study and personal growth called Joshua’s Men. After, I asked my friend Matt if he had the right guy I checked my calendar and it was clear. Or so I thought, how tough could it be so I said yes. Eight months into the study, I am whipped. We read a different book every month and then have a project to go along with it and we have a study guide to complete and all that is before the self-assessment questions and other associated readings.
Reading eight books in eight months is hard. Over the last twenty years, I might have really read eight books. And those eight books were all fiction. And those eight books didn’t have a study guide attached to them. And those eight books didn’t have a monthly five-hour meeting to discuss the readings and complete the homework attached to them. And those eight books didn’t have a regular accountability meeting with one of the other men in the study.
Now this is a truth. I’m going to steal it and make it my own because it is awesome. photo from yahoo, meme from now on, rob
To make matters much worse, I didn’t realize what a slime ball I was until I started reading these books on spirituality, accountability, leadership, vision and planning for the next step in life, leading your family, how to give a presentation and this month is about money. Each month, I keep trying to tap out and call “no mas” but my guys just shake their heads no and give me another book. In February, we did a three day fast as our special project. If you have never fasted, I will give you the cliff note version. You get really hungry and then you begin to notice that every commercial on television is a food commercial. Then when you go for a drive, you realize how many restaurants there are in your local Mayberry town. Then you stay inside and shelter in place hoping that it will pass, then you realize that your family still wants to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. If I learned anything from the three day fast it is that, we as American’s, like to eat to excess and that is probably why we are all overweight. After the fast, I spent all of March grazing like a cow. If I saw it, I ate it. Then the grazing continued into April, May, June, July and now August. I keep thinking that I should go back and do some one-day fasts, because they were actually enjoyable. But I can’t make myself do it, yet.
That was me driving to the dinner when we broke the fast. photo from yahoo.
That still doesn’t explain, why I haven’t been keeping you all up to date on here. So here is reason number two, in April we read a book called Visioneering by Andy Staley. If you find yourself stuck in a rut or not sure what the purpose of the next few years of your like should be, then I highly recommend this book. In fact, I gave it away to all the high school graduates in our world this year. I bet they would have rather have had the money. I know I would have. Anyway, I was deep into the book, somewhere between page 6 and 10 when a thought popped into my mind. It was about Haiti and an idea of how to transform their country from where they are now, into a viable nation. I know this thought is crazy talk, and I am not sure I even want to continue to write about it on here but the thought that came into my head made perfect sense and it was a four-step process with each of the intermediate steps in-between.
I was talking to a friend about it and he described it like driving down the highway in a driving rain storm where you can’t see ten feet in front of the car and then you go under a bridge that blocks the rain. Suddenly, you can see clearly. That clear moment passes as soon as you go back into the rain, but you can’t forget what just happened. That is where I am right now. I have had five or six meetings with people who have actually been to Haiti (I never have been there) and I’m putting the plans in place to start a non-profit organization that will exist to bring the thought that popped into my head into reality. If you are a person who prays, this would be a good time to throw out a prayer for me and this crazy thought.
Not sure if stopping under the bridge counts but at least they are dry. photo from yahoo
The end of June I was going to work and I was thinking about Haiti and the organization that I am going to start. I really feel compelled to make this organization 100% self-funded. I don’t want to have to ask for money because the thought that I had was that it would be taken care of. That is what I was thinking about and how I could raise some serious cash, because the final two steps will require some real money. I put the thought away deep in the back of my mind and went to back to the regular thoughts that normally populate the space between my ears, you know food. Literally, six hours later, I was talking to a friend and he told me about an opportunity to start a side business operating a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). Just two years ago, a different friend and I talked about doing it but it wasn’t the right time. Now is the right time. I called that friend and he said yes. We called another friend and he was in so we are starting a UAV company called ioverflight. We are not up and running yet, but we hope to be going on 1 Sep. My goal is going to be to divert the vast majority of my share of the money we earn through ioverflight into the Haiti project.
None of this is an accident. The very morning before my friend asked me to join the men’s group, I was thinking that I needed a challenge in life, which led to the fast and then the thoughts about Haiti, which led to the idea to start the business and then my friend last night telling me I need to write something on here because I have been neglectful of you guys. The more that I read and the more I think about my place in the world, the more that I realize that none of this has been an accident. Lots of words come to mind as I write them down, but the two that keep popping up are blessed and humbled. I will take some more good thoughts and prayers here. Ten years ago, next month, I drove out the front gate for the last time as a member of the United States military. I was full of hate and raging with anger at the world. Today, I am just over 50% love and peace. It is not an accident that I am a work in progress and moving in a much more healthy direction.
So that is where I have been the last few months. By the way, the complete and total re-write of the novel is almost complete. It has a lot of issues to fix but it feels better the fourth time I have written it. I would like to have it to the editor lady in November. I say that because that will be the one-year mark from her reading the last one that totally sucked. Her words, not mine.
I can’t promise that I will write very often over the rest of the year. But I will, because I do really enjoy totally dumping my mind out onto all of you. For me, it is a total and complete emptying of the things that keep me from focusing on the next task. I would like to say that I will transform to shorter articles, but I can’t seem to keep this under fifteen hundred words (this article is 1597 and counting). The only thing short about me is my height.
I think I fit the profile of a steely-eyes drone pilot. photo by yahoo
Until then, I will keep you updated on the status of ioverflight, Haiti and the novel. I might give you an update on the status of the Joshua’s Men group. If I come across some great nugget of wisdom, I will let you know. Until then, I my daily Bible readings, a short 172-page book on money to read in the next two weeks, a weekly Bible study to lead, a monthly Bible class to teach at Church, kids that need a Dad, a wife that needs her husband and a full-time job to do so that I can do what I really like to do.
Eat!
It just ain’t right. photo by yahoo
Until next time, keep on rockin
Hey Y’all,
I know I have not been around much since the new year started. That was something I anticipated as I have taken on a new project for this year. That project takes two to three weeks of my monthly free time so something had to be cut back and this was the first thing cut. There have been other cut but they happened behind the curtain.
This week, my wife is on a medical mission trip to Haiti with fifteen others from our area. Most go to our church but several don’t. For those that don’t know, my wife is a RN and works in our local Mayberry hospital in the Intensive Care Unit. She has seen things and done things that quite frankly scare me. But I am a chicken, so that isn’t much of a shock.
Yesterday, in Haiti a little girl showed up with a urgent need. This girl was suffering from a condition that was full blown and it was something that my wife had never experienced in her twenty plus years of nursing. She had read about it, studied it, she was almost positive she knew what it was when the girl was carried into the clinic and we have friends who had kids with this condition but it always treated. But my wife was so taken back by this girl’s condition that she reached out to her contacts back home as a confirmation of what she was looking at. The doctors and other nurses on the mission trip were doing the same thing. No one wanted to be wrong. I will put pictures at the bottom of the article. Don’t look if you don’t want to see. The girl is nine months old and has a severe case of Hydrocephalus which is a condition in which there is an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) within the brain.[1] This typically causes increased pressure inside the skull.[1]
That definition came from Wikipedia. About 2 newborns in 1000 have this condition. In the US and other modern nations, it is identified very quickly, treated immediately and has a hugely successful rate of cure. In newborns, they wear a specially made bicycle helmet that helps the skull grow properly after a couple of years they can jump motorcycles, snowboard, and do WWE dives head first off the roof with no danger to their brain. Well not any additional danger than any other kid.
This little girl was being seen for the first time by the doctors from my wife’s medical mission team when they came to her village for the first time. The doctors are working trying to figure out how to get her to Miami or another US children’s hospital for surgery or how to bring a neurosurgeon and their special equipment to tap into her head and drain the fluid.
Here is what I would like to ask from you guys. If you are a believing Christian, toss out a couple of prayers for this girl, for her family, for the doctors and the immigration agents of both Haiti and the United States so that she can get into the proper medical treatment as soon as possible.
If you are of another believing religion, please throw out a prayer or meditation to your supreme Deity asking for the same things.
If you are antagonistic, call out to the either and send this little girl your warmest thoughts, your best wishes and do the same for the medical professionals.
If you are an atheist, please send out good vibrations to her and to the people trying to extend this child’s life.
I really don’t care what you believe or don’t believe because this has nothing to do with belief or conversion. This has everything to do with the human condition. It has everything to do with those who have more and those who don’t. Somewhere lost in the political discourse, I think we have forgotten what it means to be trapped in an environment where there is no clean water, a lack of food, no sanitation services, substandard living conditions and no access to health care. This has nothing to do with insurance, this has everything to do with finding a trained professional who can stick a needle into this 9 month old girl’s head and drain the fluid that is killing her.
WARNING: I am going to put some pictures of this girl up. I think that they are very disturbing. Don’t look if you don’t want to know. All I am asking is that you pray happy thoughts for this girl.
I am going to sign off here. I don’t think it matters what you choose to believe or how you feel about others. To see these images, tears me up. I am sure that I am not the only one. Thanks for reading, praying, thinking, meditating, and sending your good thoughts to this girl. Maybe collectively, we can encourage everyone in the chain of events to do what is right for her.
Until Next Time, Keep on Rockin.
LAST CHANCE…
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Hey Y’all,
Over the weekend, my I-Pad was hacked once again. I know several of you got multiple e-mails from me asking you to download a game called Bowmasters. Unfortunately, we have covered this ground before. A couple months ago, two rough and rowdy kids stole my I-Pad from me, they hacked my account and sent out the messages.
Here is a picture of the criminals.
Criminal One and Two. Looks like life south of the border hasn’t affected them too much. photo from rob akers
When I was hacked Sunday, I went straight to the police. It has been confirmed that these two criminals have been deported and could not possibly committed this crime. Exhausted from searching for the new criminals, I came across some evidence that indicates there may be crime wave in my sleepy, little, Mayberry Town.
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Yes, that is my snow dusting the front step. That little criminal went into my house, hacked my I-Pad and left without taking the shoes that always sit next to the front door. photo from rob akers
I don’t know what you think about who this might be, but I promise you that I will find the dad of that kid. Anyone who sends their son out in the snow with no shoes, is a poor example of a parent.
Obviously the mastermind of the operation. It doesn’t look like snow there. It might take two months for me to find him. I will be looking for the guy with ugly feet. photo from rob akers
Until next time, keep on rockin.
robakers 