Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd tell the story of my Thanksgiving adventure. No doubt this will be a long post. Enter at your own peril.

This story begins a week earlier at the Friday staff meeting. It was your typical staff meeting with all of the usual updates. Then we switched topics to Thanksgiving. Yay, Thanksgiving! Everyone went around and volunteered for different food items. I like Thanksgiving, so it was fun to talk about it and build up the anticipation in my mind for my first Romanian Thanksgiving.

Then the following things were said:

Someone: "This is an American holiday."

Me: nodding.

Someone: "We should have an American be in charge of everything."

Me: nodding.

Everyone: Turning to look at me.

Someone: "Mike, you're in charge of everything."

Me: nodding......wait what??

It makes sense that an American should be in charge of an American holiday, but you have to be careful when you're one of only two Americans in the room. As a writer, I should have recognized the foreshadowing, but meetings kill my brain sometimes, so I was only partially paying attention.

My response: "Yeah, I could probably do that."

Someone: "Good. By the way, everyone should feel freedom to invite one or two people."

Me: nodding, not realizing that if 20 people all invite 2 people, that means I'm throwing a party for 60 people. Not everyone invited 2 people, but with the invitees and the Medias team being in town, it turned out to be about 60 people anyways.

So the meeting ended, and now I have this ticking time bomb in my head ticking away until it explodes on Thursday the 24th. Except instead of tick, tick, tick, it's going Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving... I did my best to ignore it for the weekend, especially considering that it was my birthday on Saturday. :) (I should do a birthday blog.)

Then Monday comes and I decide to jump in full swing. My tasks for the day include putting together a food list of everything that everyone is supposed to cook, putting together a guest list of everyone that is supposed to show up, and clearing out and cleaning the room we're going to use.

The food list was easy, we mostly decided all of that at the staff meeting. I just had to organize the notes that were taken. The clearing and cleaning was easy. A few people helped me move things out of the room, and then I vaccuumed the rest. Putting together the guest list was a little more...interesting.

I went around and talked to everyone to figure out if they were inviting anyone. I didn't keep a running total, but my note pad was becoming full of names and +1's. Finally someone asked me what the total was and I added it up. "Ummm, 57 people." The person I was talking with responded appropriately with, "Wow, that's a lot." Yes it is. It was decided that there was no more room at the inn, and if Mary and Joseph showed up on a donkey, we would be Biblical and tell them they had to stay outside with the animals.

Tuesday was a shopping day. I went around and gathered shopping lists. I had a list of things that I needed, a list of things that Emma needed, a list of things that Gabi needed, and a list of things that the base needed. Four lists. One trip. Efficiency!

We get to the mall and get everything we need, except when we get to the turkeys they are really expensive. Phone calls were made, questions were asked, the internet was searched. Decision: Turkeys are cheaper at a different store! We'll go there!

We grabbed the heavy groceries, piled into a taxi and went to a different store. I waited in the front of the store with the groceries while the girls went in and shopped for turkeys. It was fun to people watch as everyone walked by me. I was a fly on the wall, and even though I was surrounded by a pile of groceries at my feet, hanging out in the most heavily trafficked area of the store, nobody ever looked at me. Is that a cultural thing that you don't look at strangers in Romania? I stare at strangers all the time, and in California, sometimes they stare back.

I'm starting to get tired. At this point we've been shopping for a couple hours. The girls get back with one turkey. It was cheaper, but it was also the only turkey in the entire store. Back to the first store! Ug.

We find a cool taxi driver that will take us to the first store, and wait out front while we run in and get the first turkeys we were looking at. So we had three expensive turkeys and one cheap turkey (which was actually better quality than the expensive ones because it was all natural). Cost savings on the one cheaper turkey: about 24 lei. Cost of extra taxi rides used to get those savings: about 20 lei. So, we did save some money, but what was supposed to be an efficient, four list, one shop, trip, turned into a less than efficient, four list, three shops, trip.

Wednesday is cooking day for a few people. I'm in charge of making apple cider which takes all of 5 minutes to prepare the ingredients (read: take them out of the package and dump them into a pot), and 10 minutes to heat up. So I decide to procrastinate until Thursday with that.

I run around and confirm the entire guest list with everyone and make sure that all unconfirmed guests are actually going to show up. Of course you know that they all are. I'm not that lucky that this project would suddenly get easier by having people not show up.

Another shopping trip also happened. I know we bought bread, but I don't remember what else we bought on that trip. We had so many shopping trips that they are all blurred together in my head. I think we also bought some food for Dan, and some decorative napkins and ribbon. I had to do some convincing about the color choice of the decorative napkins.

Me: "Let's get orange and brown."

Someone with better taste than me: "How about blue?"

Me: "I understand that blue is prettier, but orange and brown are the traditional colors. I'm the American, you have to agree with me."

Then we stopped by the decorative ribbon place. The plan was to put the ribbon on the tables to add some color and design. It turned out really nice, but I think we bought too much ribbon.

Someone with better taste than me: "How much ribbon should we get?"

Me: "Well, we have 6 tables to decorate."

Someone with better taste, but less math skills than me: "How about 40 meters?"

Me: "Wait, how big is a meter? Isn't that going to be a lot?"

Someone with better taste, but less math skills than me: "It'll be fine, and it's only 5 lei."

Me: "Okay, if it's that cheap, let's go for it."

She hands me the money, and goes off to do something while I wait for the poor girl running the decorative ribbon booth to count out 40 meters of ribbon. She gets back about five minutes later and the poor girl is still counting out lengths of ribbon a meter long each. A small pile of ribbon grows at her feet.

Poor decorative ribbon girl: "That'll be 20 lei."

Someone with better taste than me, but less math skills than me: "20? Can you check your math?"

Poor decorative ribbon girl: Pulls out a calculator, and double checks the result with her coworker. "20 lei."

Someone with better taste than me, but less math skills: pulls out an extra 15 lei and pays for the ribbon. "Woops, I guess .5 lei per meter times 40 meters is not 5 lei."

Me: "Yeah, it's not."

If I had known that that was the price per meter, I could have corrected her when she first handed me the money, but ribbon discussion conversational skills aren't addressed in my "Learn Romanian" book until chapter 5, and I didn't understand what they were saying.

We head out of the mall deciding that our red ribbon, which was intended to go along with our orange napkins and brown napkins, will also go along nicely with every green thing we have when Christmas comes around. So it's okay that we have too much because we can use it later.

When we get back, I start devoting some brain power to solve the query: "How will everyone fit in the room we planned to use?" I scour the area and find three tables and six dts desks. The six desks will turn into three tables when you put two of them together. So that means we have six tables. If I put ten chairs at each table that will be enough seating for everyone. I reenacted my scouring, except for this sequel instead of tables, I searched for chairs. Adding up every chair I could find, we had 60 chairs. Success! And for the thrilling conclusion to this scouring trilogy, I did some more scouring for a few more tables to put the food and drinks on. I picked out three good ones, and considered the problem solved.

Thursday came. The party officially starts at 4.

I get up, eat a quick breakfast and head to Thursday worship. Someone tells me that it's cancelled today. I'm thankful for the extra time, but I wonder why I don't get these memos. Instead I read my Bible, I answer some emails, and I post on Facebook what I'm thankful for.

Okay, it's 10am and it's time to start getting ready. I have 6 hours so it shouldn't be a problem to set up the classroom, and get everything done in that time. I start bringing over chairs to the classroom, and have some people help me bring tables over.

Problem #1: Some of the chairs I selected are not good enough. I need to take them all out and replace them with the chairs that have been sitting outside, and all have a thick layer of dirt on them.

Solution #1: I do it. I remove all of the bad chairs, about 12, and clean off 12 chairs from outside, and bring them in.

Problem #2: The chairs from outside are not all set to the same height. Alex needs to help me adjust them with a mysterious chair adjusting tool that only he knows about, apparently.

Problem #3: Alex is gone. He went with Oana to her class, and he won't be back until 5.

Solution #2 & #3: I put the tall chairs at the adult tables and the small chairs at the kids table.

Problem #4: I can't move in all of the DTS desks until the DTS is done using them at 1:30.

Solution #4: I show up at 1:30 and have all of them help me carry all their desks (and chairs) over to the feast room in the white house.

Problem #5: I start arranging the desks and tables, but apparently I'm doing it all wrong. Instead of a perpendicular/parallel pattern I was going for, they all need to be angled.

Solution #5: I angle some tables, but I can't angle them all because they won't fit.

Problem #6: I have some tables angled and some not, and someone with better fashion sense, but less spacial reasoning tells me that my arrangement is ugly. They all need to be angled.

Solution #6: I angle them all in spite of the fact that there's not really room any more to walk between them.

Problem #7: It was suggested to me that I make seating arrangements for everyone so that the shy people that don't know many people will be able to sit with people they know.

Solution #7: Ignored that suggestion. People are smart enough to sit with their friends.

Problem #8: There's not room to walk in between the tables.

Solution #8: Ignore the suggestions that created problems #5 and #6 and go with my original design to have some tables parallel the wall and some perpendicular.

Problem #9: I'm squeezing too many chairs around each table. This meal needs to be one of extravagance and luxury where everyone has plenty of elbow room.

Solution #9: Ignored that problem. It's more important that people show up and have places to sit, than it is for them to have room for their precious elbows.

Problem #10: Hallway leading into the room is dirty.

Solution #10: Delegated to someone else.

Problem #11: Tables for food and drinks are not really working out.

Solution #11: Replace them with different tables.

By now the room is pretty much arranged. While I'm stressing over furniture, a team of skilled females were busy decorating the things that I wasn't moving around every five minutes. Now I can leave the room and go do other things. I head to the kitchen. Probably not a wise thing in hindsight, since the kitchen is the epicenter of all problems on Thanksgiving Day.

Problem #12: Turkey juices need to be collected from two different turkeys so that gravy can be made. It is suggested that I go talk to Twila.

Solution #12: I go talk to Twila.

Problem #13: She is locked out of the House of Joy, and also informs me that she isn't in charge of gravy. It is suggested that I talk to Gabi.

I run back to the kitchen, and find keys. By the way, you can always tell how stressed I am by how fast I'm walking. At this point I'm power walking and considering moving to a steady jog.

Problem #14: Dave needs me to check on his turkey in the House of Joy.

Solution #13 & #14: I run back to the House of Joy, give Twila the keys, and check on the turkey. It's been carved and is just warming up in the oven, but it's not quite warm yet. I tell this to Dave and also find Gabi.

Problem #15: Gabi tells me that it's not her job to do gravy. It is suggested I talk to Dave.

Solution #15: I talk to Dave.

Problem #16: Dave tells me that it's not his job to do gravy, and suggests I talk to Twila.

Solution #16: This thing has become recursive so I run away and ignore all gravy related issues for the rest of the night.

Problem #17: Sound system needs to be set up, with the projector and laptop. It is suggested that I find Ovi.

Solution #17: Find Ovi, and send him to go help set it up.

Problem #18: There's nothing to put the projector on.

Problem #19: There's no laptop to hook up to the projector.

Solution #18 & #19: Screw it, we won't use a projector and laptop.

Problem #20: I need to get dressed and make my cider.

Partial Solution #20: I get dressed. Cider will have to wait.

Problem #21: I don't know how to use a scarf.

Solution #21: Whatever, it's a scarf. You just wrap it around your neck a few times.

Problem #22: People are arriving and food needs to be taken over to the white house.

Solution #22: Delegated.

Problem #23: I need to stop running around like a mad man so that I can help introduce the meal.

Solution #23: Delegated.

It's time to start and everyone seems happy, and no one is complaining about the table set up, or a lack of elbow room. I take a picture with my camera of this successful moment and decide to stand at the back of the room and rest a bit while they go through indrocucing the guests and giving a bit of background to the history of Thanksgiving.

Problem #24: I don't think there's going to be enough food. There are six full tables of people and only one full table of food.

Solution #24: Delegated to God.

People get up and get their food. I snap some photos. Everyone is happy.

Problem #25: I don't have a place to sit. I would find an empty chair and make some new friends, but there are literally no empty chairs. There were 55 chairs in the room, and it seems I was off by one chair.

Problem #26: We need knives to carve the uncarved turkeys.

Problem #27: We need matches to light the candles.

Solution #25 & #26 & #27: I go and find a chair, knives, and matches and bring them all back.

Problem #26: I need to get myself some food.

Partial Solution #26: I fill up a plate for myself and sit down to eat it, but I'm interrupted.

Problem #27: Someone hands me a plate with food and turkey bones and plastic forks on it and says that I need to find a "bag" for it.

Solution #27: I put the whole thing in a plastic bag assuming they want to save it for leftovers. I bring it back to the person and they tell me that when they said, "I need to find a bag for it" what they meant was, "I need to throw it all away." I toss the whole thing in the trash.

Solution #26: I eat my food.

Everyone else is finished with their food and moving on to desserts, but I'm just starting to enjoy my meal. That's okay though. I'm at the kids table, and they have all left to go play so I have lots of space.

Problem #28: Trash can is full.

Solution #28: I take out the trash and replace the bag.

I go back to finish my meal.

Problem #29: There is a giant crowd around the desserts and there might not be any left when I finally finish my meal.

Solution #29: Hahaha, not enough desserts. That's funny. By the time I got over to the desserts, there were tons left.

Problem #30: There's not a lot of room left in my stomach for dessert after filling a plate 12 inches in diameter with food and eating it all.

Solution #30: Delegated to my intestines.

After dessert, it was time to hang out and talk. I didn't do that. Instead, I sat in a chair and watched other people talk. I was tired.

Problem #31: Trash was full again.

Solution #31: Take out trash again.

Most people were gone by 8:30 with full stomachs and smiles on their faces. The few that were left kept chatting, and some were gathered around the food table to snack on some leftovers. I took a picture of the first official leftover turkey sandwich as someone was making it.

Problem #32: It's time to clean up, and I'm tired.

Solution #32: Ignore it until other people start cleaning.

Eventually we start mobilizing, and a good collective effort is made. First we have about ten people cleaning. I help move food and drinks into the kitchen where people are washing dishes and consolidating food into containers. Then we have about eight people cleaning. We finish moving all the food over to the kitchen.

Problem #33: What about all the tables and chairs? Should we move all of them back to their spots?

Solution #33: No. We'll do it tomorrow.

Then we have about four people cleaning. I help dry the dishes that people are washing. Then we have two people cleaning and me. I help put foil on all the leftovers.

Problem #34: There's not room in all of our 5 refridgerators for all the leftovers. (The space is already being used by people's personal, non-Thanksgiving food.)

Solution #34: Cram it in, even if it doesn't fit.

Problem #35: It's 9:30 and my brain finally dies from exhaustion.

I sit down on the steps leading into the kitchen and just sort of stare at Timmy and Coco, the wonder women, as they scrub every countertop, clean the entire stove, sweep everything, and mop everything. By 10pm, they're done and the kitchen is spotless.

Ovi walks in, "Want to watch a movie?"

Me: "pohgpjapomvwe"

Ovi: "Okay, we're starting in ten minutes."

I watched the movie, "Ghost Writer" and I'd like to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that the cause of this was a lack of a functioning brain, but I could not figure out why the movie was supposed to be interesting. At the end they revealed the big twist, and I couldn't figure out why it was important to the plot.

After the movie, I went up to my bedroom, and climbed into my bed. Ovi came in behind me apologizing for being loud and needing the lights on for a minute. I said it was okay because I planned on being asleep in approximately 5.78 seconds. He started walking over to the light switch to turn it off and I honestly don't remember him turning off the lights. I was asleep before he got there. It was 12:30am.

Overall, I think everything was a huge success! And I'm extremely thankful for everyone that helped me set up, helped cook food, helped clean up, and helped do things that I don't even know about.

PS, I never did make my apple cider.

My Weekend

Friday I had my first staff meeting. It was long, but it was nice. At the staff meeting we did some planning for the House of Joy reunion that was happening on Saturday. 50 girls and 20 kids were planning on showing up. "So, who should be in charge of the kids?" "Mike's good with kids, sign him up." Well, yeah, but those are all English speaking kids. A few other people volunteered and we had a team of five. Five against 20 is not that bad. I used to do one against 10 when I was in charge of the 4 year olds at my church. I wasn't really nervous about that. The thing that made me nervous was that we had to entertain them for 6 hours. I don't know about you, but I can only handle so much of the "let's all dogpile on Mike" game.

Overall, it went pretty well. We had a bunch of stuff planned, but it basically boiled down to just letting them play outside. My favorite little girl, I think her name was Emma, played on the swings with me for an hour.

"Something in Romanian."

"You want to play on the swings?"

"Something in Romanian."

"Okay." I lifted her up into the swing.

"Something in Romanian."

"You want me to spin you?"

"Something in Romanian."

"And swing you at the same time?"

"Something in Romanian."

"Okay, here goes."

*Screams of elation.*

I don't know what she was saying, but I must have guessed correctly. Another game that one little girl decided to play was the "Tell Mike she loves him while she kisses whatever part of his arm is nearest her mouth." I like this game, and if more girls want to play it, I'm not opposed.

Then, once we were done with the kids it was time to head to the three hour conference. We set up our table and prepared to talk to anyone that might be interested in a DTS. Woops, we forgot chairs, so we had to stand the whole time. Sunday was day two of the conference with three more hours of standing.

I woke up Monday, and learned an interesting thing. 27 year old backs were not designed to do that much stuff without proper exercise. My back and legs were so sore, that I just stayed in bed until noon. I'm starting to feel better, but there was a period there where I was praying for the Rapture. "Just do it Jesus. My old body is broken. I need a new one."

Week Off

Today I learned why nobody has given me anything to do yet. They want to give me a week so that I can adjust to things. That's a pretty smart idea, except that it takes me about that long to get used to doing nothing. When they start giving me things to do, I'm going to be used to the nothing.

I also learned that according to a common Romanian phrase, if you really want to ingest the knowledge contained in a book, you should lie on it with your belly. Haha. :)

I made it!

I had zero issues with flights. My flight from LAX to Munich was spent watching Super 8, and trying to sleep. (It didn't happen.) Then I spent three hours in Munich sleeping on the chairs while I waited for my flight. Then I flew to Cluj where friends were waiting for me. I loved how uneventful it was.

Yesterday was more exciting. I went shopping by myself. I was surprised at how familiar everything felt. I found everything I needed, and even got a taxi for myself back to the base. Yay, I'm in Romania.

Everyone

Friend to me: "Everyone should do a DTS at some point in their lives."

Me, thinking to myself: "You're biased. People say that about lots of things."

...

Then I went to Romania to take part in the DTS in Cluj.

...

Me to everyone: "Everyone should do a DTS at some point in their lives."

How do I begin to explain this to you? Let's start with me. I grew up in the church. When I was five, I was in Sunday school, and the teacher marked out a circle on the floor in masking tape. "Step into the circle if you want to accept Jesus into your heart." I stepped in, and never looked back. I'll be 28 in a couple of months, which means I've been a Christian for 23 years. I've read my Bible cover to cover. I've heard thousands of sermons from dozens of pastors. I went to Westmont college, which very nearly requires all students to minor in religious studies. I walked into my DTS with the attitude saying, "I already know everything. What can they possibly teach me?" Maybe that's the attitude that you have.

Over the course of the twelve week lecture phase, 80-90% of the material covered was new to me! People say that you can spend a lifetime with God, and always be learning new things. Phrases like that don't really hit you until you experience them for yourself. Many times during the lecture phase I found myself asking questions like, "Why haven't I heard anyone preach the kingdom message before if Jesus talks about it more than anything else? Why haven't I studied the Holy Spirit that deeply before? Up to this point, why hasn't anyone been able to explain Jesus' authority in such a way that would make me shudder?"

Mark 4:41

And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the waves obey Him!"

So yeah, if you're thinking that a DTS is not for you, then stop thinking that! DTS's are for everyone! :)

Now comes the tricky part. How do you actually go and do a DTS? Five months is a long time to try and convince your boss that you need to take off. Maybe you have a new born and you can't exactly pick up and go to a foreign country so easily. There are DTS's all over the world, including some as local as Los Angeles, but that doesn't make it any easier for some people.

I was in that situation. I was working in a human resources job for two years. Our company had some major layoffs, but I survived all of that. I didn't feel very important, but it would seem they thought otherwise when they gave me a raise in the midst of a limping economy. There was really no way I could tell my boss that I needed to leave for five months to go to Romania for a discipleship training school. I also couldn't just outright quit my job because there was no telling when I'd find another one. I wanted to go, but it seemed I was stuck. So, I prayed.

My situation was different, but I prayed a prayer similar to the one King Jehoshaphat prayed in 2 Chronicles 20:12. "God, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you."

I forget how long it was before I heard an answer, but one day my boss called me into a meeting. He likes to have regular meetings with me to see how I'm doing, and hear about what I'm working on. They're generally a good thing, and the title of this meeting when I got the email about it was something like Redefining Job Description. I walked into the meeting feeling good. My mish mash job where I'm asked to do a little bit of everything will get a bit more focused. There will be less times when I have nothing to do followed by times when I have too much to do. It will be more even.

I sat down at the meeting. "We're going to have to let you go." Well God, that's certainly one way to answer my prayer. I guess I'm going to Romania.

Maybe you have both the time and money to do a DTS, maybe you have neither the time nor the money. Pray about it. If you're even a little interested, check out the website, or read through the questions on the application, or watch the video.

DTS's are for everyone, and since you are a subset of the group 'everyone', that means that DTS's are for you! :)

The day it started to rain

Metaphorically for myself, but literally for Noah.

(If you are into this sort of thing, check out the sermon on Noah that my pastor did when going through the Life of Faith series. http://realitycarpinteria.com/thelifeoffaith/)

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Noah? Everyone on Earth is partying and doing their own thing. There's no churches, or support groups, or small remnant of Christians. It's just Noah and his family. Then God tells him to do something crazy. At least, it would have sounded crazy to me. God was going to send this thing called rain, and He wanted him to build something called a boat? It had never rained before, and they were hundreds of miles from a body of water big enough for a boat that size, so no one had ever built a boat before. But he faithfully worked on that boat for 120 years. The things that people must have said to him.

I love the way my pastor describes it from the 39-41 minute mark in the video. If you don't want to watch a whole hour long sermon, check out that section.

I just imagine the day that it finally started to rain as a wonderful day. (Then later terrifying.) That was the day that God's word proved true. That was the day that all that hard work finally paid off.

A while back, I heard a call from God. I set out to start working towards that. Some days were good, but most were not. I'm a perfectionist, and I hate failure, and it was hard for me to deal with not being able to raise enough money to answer God's call. I started to wonder if I heard correctly. Did God really call me to Romania? When would God's promise to provide prove true? When would the rain come?

A friend of mine from Romania told me about how God blessed all her supporters. I wanted to believe her, but I didn't. Then last night, I was talking with some good friends of mine. They told me a quick story about when they bought their house. They borrowed some money from their family, and were working to pay them back. Somewhat unexpectedly, the person to whom the debt was owed decided to cancel the debt! I don't know how much it was, but my friends decided to use the extra room in their budget to support me very generously.

For the first time since I started fund raising, I can picture myself going to Romania. Once I sell my car I'll be nearly there. For the first time I can see God's promise to provide for me. I can see the rain.

The goal I'm about to reach is my minimum goal. With it I can eat, sleep, pay my bills, and do ministry. If I got more money, it would go towards, health/dental insurance, the occasional book to read, tithing, and likely supporting other missionaries that are trying to raise support to do exactly what I'm trying to do.

I'm getting excited! I'll be around for at least another month or two, but I don't think much longer than that.

Rich Young Ruler

Matthew 19:16-30

Mark 10:17-31

Luke 18:18-30

When the staff in Romania first asked me to pray about joining them on staff, this story was the first one that caused me to start seriously considering it. (The story that finally convinced me was the one I mentioned in my support letter about the Titanic.) I went to church, and this story was preached. It was in english during an international service. I found myself relating so much to that rich young ruler.

Sometimes I'll even have that same conversation with Jesus. "I've been good. I haven't killed anyone lately. I haven't stolen any cars. What else do you want me to do, Jesus?" "Sell everything you own, and follow me." In my context the follow me refers to going to Romania. The trouble is, that even if I sell everything, it still won't get me there.

In order to reach my minimum monthly support goal I still need $685 per month in supporters, or $16,440 (2 years). Even if I sold my car, tv, surround sound system, gaming system, and games for twice what they're worth, it wouldn't cover it, and people aren't going to buy those things for twice what they're worth. The rest of my possessions aren't worth anything, just some old clothes and yearbooks. I really don't see how I can possibly raise enough money to get back to Romania...

If Jesus has a different perspective using His Heavenly wisdom that supersedes my Earthly wisdom, He certainly hasn't told me about it yet.