I have had the privilege of having Richard Pollette as a friend of mine since November of 1995. This is when I first arrived in Americus, Georgia and started my first stint as a volunteer at once was the international headquarters of Habitat for Humanity. Between 1995 and 2000, I spent about two years as a volunteer with HFHI in three to six month long periods. Most of the time was during the winter when I wanted to be off the road.

During one winter period, I worked in the print shop helping out Richard get all of the receipts out. I've stuffed hundreds of envelopes by hand while Richard stuffed twenty or more trays of envelopes each day by machine. Part of my job was to come in late at night a get out all of the receipts for the next day done using three printers. This was a challenge especially when I had to put in a new box of receipts.

Richard is a character. He can be quiet one time and then rattling off one-line jokes or singing a song loud. Sometimes, he lets out his strange sense of humor but I've sort of got used to it by now. He likes everything from mythology to politics to religion to science fiction films. Sometimes when I kid him, his face gets as red or redder than his red hair. He is so much into politics that Richard has become a peace activist. The above picture was taken at a peace rally held in Washington, D.C. several years ago. The thing that he is a holding up is a plastic egg that had been filled with pebbles and is shaken as a noise maker.

When I went full-time on the road as a servant evangelist back in 2001, I needed a place to stay especially during the wintermonths. There was no option to go back to HFHI as a volunteer because of some personal reasons. Richard has been my gracious host in two locations around Americus for the past five years. I usually stay with him two or three months at a time but I try to help him out by keeping his condo clean and doing odd maintenance jobs for him. Richard has pretty well become a younger brother to me (closer than what my real younger brother was). We have about a five year difference in ages.The one thing that I need to do is try and stop him in asking if I want a BLT sandwich since he knows I can't eat pork since I'm kosher. Other than that, he is a great guy to be around.