A New Beginning

The day has dawned with a bright blue sky and a freshness to the air that is electric. It is the day after a cleansing rain and there is something mystical about the shadows that the trees cast across the dew strewn lawns. The streets are all dry, but the parking lot still has traces of rain water in the parking spaces. There is a lone white bird that is walking along the curb looking for worms in the morning light.

My commute this morning was disrupted by an overturned big rig that spilled fuel onto the roadway on the major thoroughfare that I use to cross town from Roseville to Rancho Cordova. Luckily, I sensed that there was a problem and cut over to a side street before getting caught in traffic. I was able to slip around the logjam and get into the office close to my regular arrival time of 7:10 a.m. Cora, our typist, has been promoted to an Underwriter Assistant position and she was not here this morning when I arrived. She worked an alternate schedule of 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, but will be assisting the two ladies in Modesto and I assumed was changing her schedule to at least 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, but she rolled in at 7:30 and had forgot to set her clocks ahead. I asked her to check with the gals in Modesto to see what schedule they want her to work as she is their conduit to the Sacramento office. We have our new typist....or more correctly, our Technical Services Rep I beginning this morning. Her hire is a bit of a coup for me as she is graduating from Sacramento State University next month with a degree in Insurance. I was skeptical of hiring her at such an entry level position, but she wants to learn the insurance job from square one. My goal would be to quickly move her up the food change with the ultimate goal of making her an Underwriter within 4 years. I could see her in an Assistant Underwriter position by year end as we continue to grow. I was able to pay her about 15% more than the position called for because of her degree.

The Sacramento office had our best month since I joined in 2003 and we beat our budget by 30% in March. I took the staff out on Thursday and we celebrated the results at a big lunch at Chevys. I have a great staff and Anthony, my former assistant, is already writing new business in his first month. He was so proud to point out that he was ahead of me as of Friday. Bear in mind it was April 1st and he is still my de facto assistant. He had booked his premiums while my renewals sat waiting his touch. I truly want him to experience early success as it will motivate him for the tough months and weeks ahead.

We had a missionary from India visit us yesterday. He is a third generation Christian born in India. Bear in mind that India is a country of 1.6 Billion people and less than 2% of the population is Christian. He had some very interesting facts to share, the most alarming is that the Islamic religion is growing ten times faster than the Christian faith and at it's current growth rate will be the world's largest religion by the year 2015. He also told us that the name Osama Bin Laden is known by almost 90% of the world's population, but only 70% of the world's population has ever heard the name Jesus Christ. It is appalling and although his call was for additional funding for the world's misiionaries, his points were hammered home in his message. We need to be World Christians insrtead of American Christians.

We had a nice relaxing weekend. I was supposed to play golf, but my friend, Mel is from the Phillipines. He called Wednesday and invited me to play golf on Saturday. I said, "Sure, what time?" He said, "Well, I don't have a time, why don't you set something up?" I said, "No. If you want to play, set up a time and let me know when." Mel is a great guy, but comes from a very privileged existence in the Phillipines and I have to try to retrain him in how we do things here in the US of A. He called me late Friday and asked if I'd set up a time. I told him, "No. You were supposed to make us a time." He said he'd look into it and let me know. He called me Saturday at noon and said he couldn't find anything and we'd play next weekend. No kidding. Perhaps he'll learn. Perhaps not. We play on Thursday at a Country Club in town with his boss and then again on Saturday in our Masters tournament. We will have dinner at Mel and Cora's on Saturday night and the boys are invited. They are becoming Americanized.

Darla and I firmed up our Airline travel to Hawaii last week before the latest increases due to fuel prices. We fly out of San Francisco on Sunday June 12th and have a direct flight to Lihue in Kauia. We will stay in San Francisco at the Best Western in Milbrae. They will keep our car for the ten days we are gone and the cost with the room is just $125. We will also stay over on Wednesday the 22nd when we return as we get into SF at 9:00 PM. The cost for that night's stay is only $79. It is exciting as it feels real now. We leave in about nine weeks and it will be a great vacation. I'm just a little sad that neither Darla's folks nor Dad and Shirley could join us. We'll have to plan a trip perhaps late Summer up to Vancouver.

Darla called me on Friday and told me that she had a special mandatory meeting that she HAD to attend at work during our vacation and wouldn't be able to go with us. I didn't fall for her little April Fool's joke, but only because I had just called a meeting to announce that the girls in Modesto had quit. Cora was telling everyone that and they didn't believe her until she cajoled me into calling a special meeting to announce that they had decided not to run the Service office. I made a big deal about how rude it was of them and how telling me on April 1st was the kicker. Everyone laughed and Cora got the biggest kick out of the ruse.

The boys have decided to be baptized this week at their High School life group. The were both christened as infants, but the Bible says that we must announce our decision as Christians and be baptized in the faith. They have decided that they want Darla's Dad, Earl, to baptize them and will call him tonight to see if he will do it. I'm sure Earl will be touched and perhaps humbled that the boys look to him as their example of a Christian man. The boys have really ramped up their involvement in the church and I'm proud of them.

Well, work is a constant and I need to get at it. I hope your week is full of family, friends, laughter and you look to the Lord for your decisions in life. Ciao.