Social Entrepreneurship

I just discovered this site this morning. There are some good articles and links on social entrepreneurship.

Here are a couple of quotes I found from another site.

The job of a social entrepreneur is to recognize when a part of society is stuck and to provide new ways to get it unstuck. He or she finds what is not working and solves the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.

"Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people only see problems. They view the villagers as the solution, not the passive beneficiary. They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they're serving."

David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas

Bad, bad Robert

OK, so it's been a few weeks since I last blogged. I'm so ashamed. I do have a good excuse, though. My last three weeks have been very hectic. Here's the synopsis...

1. Went with several people from my church to Willow Creek's Leadership Summit, held via satellite at a church in Walnut Creek. It was a refreshing time, and I got to hear some really good speakers.
2. Went back to Tennessee to close on a house my friend Dax and I sold. We also put an offer on another house.
3. Built my first computer (I like challenges)
4. Was sick for a few days
5. Preached my first sermon at my church

We're also getting ready to really market the business. We've got ads going in the Belvedere/Tiburon newspaper in a couple of weeks, as well as the Marin Experess, and we're making some changes to our website. I feel like we're taking the plunge into this, and I'm not sure what the water's going to be like. Hopefully we'll remember how to swim!

Mandy starts teaching again tomorrow morning. She's going to be teaching Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and I'll be home with Adam. This morning Mandy was working in her room, and Mrs. Colt, one of the first grade teachers, gave her some letters that her kids had made Mandy on June 14, the day after Adam was born. I must include one of those letters here. It's from Danilo. (Mrs. Colt told all of the kids that Adam's full name was Adam Joshua).


Dear Mrs. Grisham I like your baby's name because it is a compound word and I think the baby's so little. From Danilo.

And I think I've redeemed myself with that!

Pictures

Adam is 11 weeks old today. Here are some new pictures.

More Pictures

Brian McLaren

Here's a PBS interview with Brian McLaren.

Firefox

I've recently started using the Mozilla Firefox browser. I actually like it a lot better than Internet Explorer. However, I just realized that it messes with my blog a little. If you use Firefox, you know what I mean. The pictures overlap a little. No problems like this with IE. I guess I'll just use both of them.

Crowded Now

This is worth reading every few days.

Crowded Now

In my world, with the children shouting
in my world; a taxi rank
jobs to do, no time to stop and question
in my world, of hurried love.

In my world; there is no tomorrow
in my world, only now
time demands more than I can offer
life crowds in to every pause

Oh Lord, still my heart
Oh Lord, still my heart
Oh Lord, still my heart
oh Lord God

In my world, where the customer is king
in my world: the boss who shouts
jobs to do, the in-tray's never empty
every hour: the working life

In my world; there is no tomorrow
in my world, only now
time demands more than I can offer
life crowds in to every pause

Oh Lord, still my heart
Oh Lord, still my heart
Oh Lord, still my heart
oh Lord God

in my world, days stretch out before me
in my world; the silence shouts
yesterday, when my day had purpose
yesterday, a memory

Oh Lord, still my heart
Oh Lord, still my heart
Oh Lord, still my heart
oh Lord God

In Your courts, you are high and lifted up
In Your courts, Majesty
In Your courts; truth and mercy mingle,
In Your courts, I bend the knee

Oh Lord, fill my heart
Oh Lord, fill my heart
Oh Lord, fill my heart
oh, Lord God.

Lord have mercy.

Caroline Ramsey

Freak accident

On Friday I brought my car into the shop for some preventative service. The mechanic said that I needed an alignment, but because I wanted to get some new tires anyway, said that I should wait on the alignment until after the new tires were on the car. At about 1:30 I headed to Union City (about 20 minutes away) to get some tires. I was going south on I-880 when, all of a sudden, the tread on my left front tire came off. In doing so, it ripped up quite a bit of my car. Thankfully, I was able to get over the shoulder without being hit by another car.

I called AAA. Forty-five minutes later we had a spare on the wheel, and he thought it would be ok to drive to a nearby tire place. After getting a new tire, I went straight to a body shop. The estimate he gave was $4600. I bought the car in January, 2004 for $5000. Sounds like my insurance will probably be totalling the car. Not sure yet what that will mean for us.