A big thank you!

I just want to send a big thank you out to all of you who helped provide for this family. They are very grateful and feel very loved. Thank you Dustin, Chris, Angie, John, Kara, Greg, Jennifer, Barry, Kate, Sarah, Patrick, Mark, Lindsay, Jen, Brooke, Marie, Emily, Tara, Jeff, Bryan, Andy, Maria, Tobias, Carrie, Bob, Barb, Jon, and Good Works for your generosity. Your contributions have helped get this family off to a good start in their new home. They've still got a long road ahead, so keep them in your prayers.

Helping our Neighbor

I've become friends with a family that I met in a homeless shelter in Atlanta last summer. They recently moved to Columbus, Ohio, and they just moved into their new apartment yesterday. She's a single mom with an 11-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy. The mom is starting a job training program, but their resources are very limited right now. They are in need of everything that one might need to live independently in an apartment including the following:

plates, bowls, silverware, drinking glasses, pots, pans, knives, beds (3), pillows, sheets, blankets, towels, can opener, kitchen utensils, lamps, couch, chairs, dining room table and chairs, alarm clocks (3), broom/dust pan, mop, kitchen trash can, dressers, hangers, TV, iron/ironing board, and shower curtains (2).

Basically, if you need it to sleep, eat or sit, they need it. They are moving in with just a few suitcases of belongings. The kids are also in need of the following for school:

bookbags, paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners, notebook paper, art supply box (for pencils and such), ink pens, hand sanitizer and travel tissues.

Please consider donating any of these items in new or gently used condition. I will be taking a trip up, leaving from Athens on Feb 17, but I'll need to load on Thursday night. Space may be limited on this first trip, but I plan to take a trailer up on Feb 25th if I have large items like furniture. If I get beds by the 17th, I'll see if I can get a trailer right away. Please reply to this post if you can help. You can email helpout@vorkavich.com to arrange for pickup and delivery of your donation. Arrangements will also be made for donations received from the Columbus area.

Red

Read Bono marketing his red badge of virtue, then tell us what you think of Bono's new scheme. Seems to me he's onto something big, or at least Red. I might just wait for the Red iPod to be released before upgrading my Shuffle.

The Dark Island

I've been reading again - an odd thing that I seem to be doing more of instead of less. I just finished The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. As the Dawn Treader is approaching a great Darkness in the sea, the Captain has decided they dare not go into the Darkness. "But what manner of use would it be plowing through that blackness?" asked Drinian. Then perhaps the best answer I've ever heard to the question, "what use is it?" "Use?" replied Reepicheep. "Use, Captain? If by use you mean filling our bellies or our purses, I confess it will be of no use at all. So far as I know we did not set sail to look for things useful but to seek honor and adventure. And here is a great adventure as ever I heard of, and here, if we turn back, no little impeachment of all our honors."