Video about Culture Shock

Fernanda Vielma from Venezuela sent me this video about culture shock.  It is worth watching.  It lasts about 5 minutes.  After watching it, pray, Here am I Lord, Send Me.

 

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=db57c47adfbbefebf9dc

 

Dr. Rodney White

Investing in Futures, Inc.
"Coaching and Equipping the Next Generation"
PO Box 6451
Lakeland, Florida 33807

www.investinginfutures.org

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Long Island, Bahamas

Pastor James Fox of Long Island, Bahamas has been on the waiting list for computers for a long time.  I sent word to him that I finally had his order ready.  He jumped on the next plane, flew over, rented a Budget Truck, we loaded it, and the last of saw of him, he was on his way to the Lakeland Revival and then on to Fort Lauderdale to put the computers on a ship for the Bahamas.  He had a husband and wife team, the Red's, traveling with him.  They work with Maritime Ministries on Long Island.

 

He has several projects he will be doing with the computers including giving some to a high school on Long Island that has 500 students and only 3 computers for the students to use.  But the project I thought was the most creative is that he is going to take 6 or 8 computers and put them in a school bus and make a mobile learning center.  The school bus has a generator, so he will travel from place to place using the mobile learning center as an evangelism tool.  Isn't that creative!  Pastor Fox, my hat is off to you.  It was a delight for Investing in Futures, Inc. to give you 50 computer systems today.  Glory!

 

Dr. Rodney White

Investing in Futures, Inc.
"Coaching and Equipping the Next Generation"
PO Box 6451
Lakeland, Florida 33807

www.investinginfutures.org

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1000 marbles

1000 Marbles

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.  Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.  What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net.  Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.  He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much.  Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet.  It's too bad you missed your daughter's "dance recital " he continued. "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.  The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

"Now then,  I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of  Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.  So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had.  I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."

"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band.  This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"
                          
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.

A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.

And so, as one smart bear once said..."If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." - Winnie the Pooh.

 

Dr. Rodney White

Investing in Futures, Inc.
"Coaching and Equipping the Next Generation"
PO Box 6451
Lakeland, Florida 33807

www.investinginfutures.org

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Letter carriers annual food drive

Today was May 10, the annual food drive for the letter carriers of America.  Dr. Johnny Strickland received a phone call from the Tampa Bay Harvest asking if they could use our warehouse for all the food that would be collected in the Tampa Bay Area.  They were expecting about 20 tractor trailer loads of food from all over the Tampa area.  Tampa has always been generous in its giving.  There is normally about 72 million pounds of food given to this food drive all across America and Tampa Bay normally gives 5 million pounds of that 72.  So this food drive is a big event, not only for the postal workers, but for those ministries involved in giving out food.

 

Vance and I took our 16 foot box truck and worked Route 6 today.  We met at the warehouse at 8:00 a.m. and began meeting letter carriers at different points all over our route to let them empty their postal trucks into our truck to make room for them to pick up more food.  Then we met them all back at the main post office on our route and collectively, the letter carriers had picked up seven more pallets of food.  It was awesome.  Vance and I arrived back at the warehouse tonight about 5:30 but then got sent back out to another route to pick up four more pallets of food because their truck was too full.  We finally left the warehouse about 7:00 tonight and trucks were still pulling into the warehouse. This coming week, all the food will be sorted and sent out to the various ministries involved in food ministry. 

 

It was a great honor to be a part of such an undertaking and also a great honor to have our warehouse used as the central hub for this huge operation.  God is good.  May I say a special thank you to everyone who left food in that little brown bag for the letter carrier to pick up today.  Collectively, you all did a super job.  Thank you so much.

 

 

Dr. Rodney White

Investing in Futures, Inc.
"Coaching and Equipping the Next Generation"
PO Box 6451
Lakeland, Florida 33807

www.investinginfutures.org

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