I'm a pastor in the United Methodist Church. This evening, I drove 1.5 hours to Richmond, VA to meet with our Bishop, the Bishop of the East Africa Conference, our Conference Missions Director, another pastor, and one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Sounds exciting, right? Read on.

The point of our meeting was to see how can we help to rebuild Southern Sudan, which has been ravaged by five decades of civil war. We explored ways to provide college scholarships for Sudanese women and men in Virginia, so that if/when the return to Southern Sudan, they will be equipped for the work facing their communities. We also looked at ways to build primary and secondary schools in Southern Sudan, while looking at ways to develop peace and reconciliation resources for this land where they people have known nothing but was for so long.

As I type this, my wife of nearly ten years is asleep beside me, and my daughter is asleep across the hall. I didn't get to spend the evening with my Valentines, but I hope and pray that in some way, what I/we was/were able to do tonight will help change lives, here and in Africa, for the better.

After a decade with the PalmOS, including using the Kyocera 7135, Treo 650, and then a very brief foray with the Centro, I picked up and Blackberry 8703e on eBay. So far I love it. Very stable, syncs easily with gCal, has incredible battery life, built-in GPS, and a very good keyboard. I believe this is the platform I'll be with for a long, long time.

Now if I could just learn to stop tapping the screen...

[Edited at March 12, 2008 23:34:54 PM.]

I have GMail mobile for my Blackberry. I would use it all the time if Google would let me change my reply to: address without adding that annoying "on behalf of" tagline.