First, a word about sales of my book. The
response has been far greater than I could have imagined. I've personally
packaged and shipped over 200 books in October. It's quite a chore. I had almost
90 orders pending when I got back from Chicago. Working a couple of hours every
night I've gotten that down to somewhere in the 40s. I'm happy about the sales,
but it's just about more than I can do. If I could package 15 a night (including
looking up people online and writing to them and all that), I'd be done in no
time. But orders are still coming in. It's kind of a two steps forward one back
situation.
So thank you.
However, I'm heading to Louisville right now to
spend the next four days
being trained to install water purification
systems through
Edge Outreach. E.O. is, in their own words,
"a faith-based nonprofit; training and sending people and organizations to take
integrated water solutions where they are most needed in the world." I'm going
through their training course in preparation for a trip to the Dominican
Republic in January. We'll be setting up water purification in a hospital that
doesn't have clean water. Hard to imagine such a thing, but it exists.
I first became aware of Edge through my friend
DE Adams. Long-time readers of rlp might remember that name. He is the musician
whose CD took George
out of this world in peace. I've rather caught the vision with these people.
Look, there are many things that need to be done in the world. Many ways to do
good. This is just one of them. Bringing clean water to places where it it
lacking is a very tangible way to make the world a better place. So I'm in.
My plan is to take pictures of the training and
blog about it every night while I'm in Louisville. I'll be
learning about the technology they use, and about water issues in general. I'll
be in training all day tomorrow and will post pics and information that night.
Same Saturday and Sunday.
So now that you know I'm on a mission of mercy,
you can't really complain about the book shipping delay right? Pretty sneaky of
me.
Okay I just left this page and checked. Orders
are back up to 53 pending. Dang! I mean, thanks. But dang. So for all of you who
have ordered since about the 8th. I need to ask for your patience. I'll be
unable to ship anything until I get back home on Monday. I really don't want to
start automating this and just shoving books in envelopes. When I get back I
should have enough time to get every ordered handled. And I have a whole load of
new goodies to pass out. Should bring a bunch back from Louisville too.
Recent goodies I've put in the books
include: Mexican money, gum, Wash Away Your Sins toweletes, guitar
fridge-magnet, San Antonio city map (sent to New Zealand), a 1994 Advent booklet
from Covenant, the manuscript to my Christmas story (I know, that was a little
impulsive to give that away. Every once in awhile I put something kind of
precious in a book), sugar packets from Krispy Kreme, a Don Stone guitar pick
(what, you don't know Don Stone??), and most recently, packets of candy corn. (I
was eating it while I was working, so...)
thanks,
rlp
