Racism: I was working at Starbucks this morning and man I was into it. I don't think I've gotten as much done in 2 hours in a long long time. I guess the two african-american women talking at a table near me noticed because one of them asked me what I was working on so hard for such a long time. I explained to her I was a church planter in the area and I was working on a timeline to submit for friday. She told me where she went to church and gave me her opinion on what church was all about. She was a great lady and our conversation that followed was very good, it even drug in the other lady sitting with her. One of the most interesting topics that came up was racism in the church. She is the one that brought it up and was explaining to me that her church at one point was 100% black and white people were not welcome. She said one of the largest struggles her current pastor has had is teaching the elderly in the congregation that their racism will not be tolerated. She told me about some success in this area and it was just eye opening to me. It felt great that she would open up about such a typically taboo subject.

Name: I'm sick of calling people and getting a generic voicemail. "you have reached 757-988-4356..." At that point I hang up. If you won't take 5 minutes to set up your voice mail account I'm not taking 30 seconds to leave you a message. I want to be reassured it's you. Tell me your name, tell me something funny, witty or just plain stupid, tell me you're glad I called and that you want me to have a good day. I tell you back in my day...