Update: May 1st, 2023 - Praying for Stan and H


Short Update: 


• First, two friends of mine had life-threatening health issues last week. Please keep Stan Logwood and H Spees in your thoughts and prayers. 

• We’re beginning to address the stress we’ve been under for the past month. 

• I’m getting serious about the dispossession of the Boulder Creek home. 

• We remain thankful for our friends and their love and support. 


Longer Update: 


    Perhaps more importantly, last week I learned that two friends, Stan Logwood, and H Spees are both in critical condition due to health issues. Stan works with Live in Peace in East Palo Alto. His partner Heather Starnes and I have been co-laborers for many years. H Spees, whom I consider a mentor, has lived and served in Fresno for decades. Earlier in life he worked with the Civil Rights leaders John and Vera Mae Perkins in Mississippi. They both need prayers and positive energy.  As rough as the last month for us, what they are dealing with is infinitely worse. 

    The update from us sounds similar. We’re settling in. It’s not quite feeling like home yet, but it’s getting better due to Melissa’s hard work. The main issue I’m dealing with is the emotions of it all. I still have an acute sense of loss, grief, embarrassment, and regret for buying the house in Boulder Creek. I’m second-guessing a lot of my decisions. I know all the platitudes about the past being the past and that there is nothing I can do to change what has already happened. Intellectually I know that. Living it is more challenging. 

    As for the house in Boulder Creek. I’m still in information-gathering mode, but the simple fact remains. The cost of the repairs and the cost of rental for the time it would take for the repair is greater than the value of the equity in the home. In short, we’d be underwater. Practically, carrying the mortgage and rent at the same time isn’t possible. 

    The funny thing is that Able Works did foreclosure modification work during the Great Recession I know the process well. We saved literally hundreds of homes for low-income families. We’re now in the same situation as the families we served, albeit from a different cause. It’s a hard decision, but ultimately it’s a business decision. Essentially, we have an asset that went bad, and continuing to carry it doesn’t seem to make sense. I’m trying to make good decisions, so as to not exacerbate the situation. 

    We’re OK. Many have blessed us immensely. I’m ready to see what happens in the next season, as one is definitely coming to a close. 






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