In America...

This weekend, Marie and I were in Texas to do some work with our move to Marshall. We had some business with the Presbytery, we had some business with the Realtor, and (best of all) we had dinner with the congregation in Marshall. It was a delightful weekend with people who are very important to us.

On Friday night after the Presbytery meeting we met up with Rick and Teri Brooks. Rick is the pastor of St. Mark Presbyterian in West Dallas and Teri works at UT Dallas. Well, on Saturday, we went to lunch with Rick and Teri and Rick's folks Dick and Dot, while there, we ran into this guy:

If you know the story or watched the video, you would know Igor got his own 7-Eleven franchise. His store is in Richardson, Texas, right next door to where we ate lunch on Saturday afternoon. When we got there, he was running around all over the store making sure everything was as neat as a pin. He was cleaning glass and he even held the door for us greeting us as we came though his door.

Let me tell you, his store was the cleanest convenience store on the face of the earth, having worked at a gas station and a convenience store, I know how hard it is to keep clean and his store was clean enough to eat off the floors.

Igor, my wife Marie and I give you our best (and about eight bucks) and I hope you have a wonderful life. You're living the American dream. You come from Kazakhstan with $50 in your pocket, a driving work ethic, and a dream. Congratulations on your dream coming true.

I say "coming" because Igor knows his dream has just begun, he also knows about the hard work it takes to keep it going. If he didn't, he wouldn't be cleaning glass on a Saturday afternoon in the sun and heat of North Dallas. God bless.