Urban Onramps

Here’s two-year-old Micah at the Santa Monica Pier, last Friday.

Flo from our Harambee staff got married a few weeks back. She is married to Curtis. They are a great couple. I’ve got a photo around here somewhere… I’ll find it and post it.

Ernie from the Harambee community is now up at Jubilee Christian School, taking a different and much better path for his life. We raised the entire amount that was needed for him to get his start, and nearly all of it came via this blog. So many thanks to you, my friends, for helping a teenager who needed a hand up.

Ok, faithful friends - one final switch. I’m back doing my primary blogging here at urbanonramps.com. It’s here from now on. For those accessing this blog via RSS, check the various RSS links in the sidebar (under my photo).

I signed a deal with Regal Books to expand my study guide, Urban and Multiethnic Outreach. My manuscript is due on December 1. Kafi told me to make a plan to write chunk of the thing every week. I’m pumped and looking forward to knocking it out. I’m hoping it is available for the 2008 CCDA conference that takes place in Miami that October.

Well, I sent in my passport application on Monday. Problem is, it’s taking forever for people to get their passports, and I fly out of the country on August 24. I paid for expedited service and two-way express shipping. But we’ll see. They told me to check in on August 10. And if there is no sign of progress, I’ve got to make an appointment to stand in the long passport line in downtown LA.

I didn’t quite plan it this way, but I’m moving around a fair amount in August. Right now I’m in New York City. My wife, the kids and I flew in on American Airlines last night (4pm departure from LAX, 1230am arrival). Tomorrow I take a train to Philadelphia, where I’ll meet some friends and also cross the river (is that right?) and speak at Urban Promise in Camden. Kafi and I return home on Monday. The kids will stay behind with the family for a couple more weeks. One day later I hop a plane for Colorado, where I’ll be doing an intensive seminar at the NASS conference. While there I’m hoping to meet up with a bunch of friends and associates, including Nydia from Compassion, Dianne from Discipleship Journal, James from Knowtown, and hopefully more. Jay Hein, director of the White House Faith-based Office, is one of the keynote speakers, so I hope to see him at the hotel. I come home, then the weekend of Aug. 18-19 I’m scheduled to do a couple of things in San Diego. I’ll do a Saturday workshop at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego, then I preach the following day at all three of their services. A few days after that I take off for Singapore, where I’ll attend the World Vision Trienniel (what I call a triumph of good governance). All that just came together. When I get an opportunity at a church, I nearly always take it, because it’s a possible connection for Harambee. Anyway, I still like traveling, though I’m sure there will come a day when I won’t be happy to move around so much.

This USA Today story turned me on to something that’s been around for a while, Amazon Prime. $79 a year for unlimited two-day shipping. I gotta check in with the wife to see how much we have paid in shipping fees. I bet we could save by using Prime.