Richard:

We went to Milwaukee this weekend for John P. Kee's Victory in Praise convention's recording. It was really good. There were many dignitaries there: John P. Kee, El Debarge, Bobby Jones, Ben Tankard, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, and Hezekiah Walker. They sang about 18 songs. It was, needless to say, a very long concert. It didn't even start until 8:30 and it ended at 3:00 in the morning. Can you imagine? The choir was huge and really good. There were a lot of really good looking people at this convention. Oh yeah! The Lord is so fantabulous. It is so great to be encouraged and have your faith encouraged. I prayed last Friday that the Lord would bless me with the money to get to Houston, absolutely believing that I would have it. Two e-mails, a choir request and a phone call later, and only 5 days, I have $160.00 for this trip. Not only can I pay my way, I can pay my bus fare back to Chicago, pay Jason's gas and toll expenses, be fed and have money left over to bless someone else on the trip. HALLELUJAH!!! The Lord is tremendous. This whole thing has also afforded me more than one opportunity to be a witness and step out there for God to use me. This lady at work gave me $40 and I was going to just let it slide that she didn't give me a prayer request. Before I knew it, I was asking her what it was. She shyly told me that she was concerned about her two daughters who have epilepsy. I told her that I believe in the power of prayer and that the Lord is going to move. I put His reputation on the line and I know He is going to bless and get the glory out of this thing. I'm so excited I can't stand it. No fear or lack of boldness can get in my way. Nothing shall stand before those who fear and love God . . NOTHING!  Praise God!!

I just got this thing at work. Apparently, Gary Bauer is running for president. That scares me. Not that he would EVER win, but it concerns me when white fundamentalist evangelicals try to turn the country into a theocracy. While I agree with their stand on abortion, I worry on the rest of it. These are the same people who thought that God said blacks should be slaves, that blacks should not marry whites, and that blacks should be segregated from white people. I have a hard time entrusting the running of the laws and execution of those laws to their judgement of God's word. They've been wrong too many times. This is the bizarro world we live in and this is why the whole homosexuality thing is so challenging. When people can clearly and definitively interpret the Bible to mean these things as relates to black folks . . . who are only different from white people because we have more melanin in our system, how much more wrong might they be when they read it to define the ramification of people's emotional/sexual existence. Challenging.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. You are so right. No matter how fancy the place or hotel that you go to, there is no place like home. I'm off to sleep in my own bed!

- C