Refering to a specific form from a custom function declared in a module.

[jcavard]

Hi! I'm doing a custom function that will change the text on the menuItem on the frmMDI form. Hi have this:

Module _mod
    Public parent As frmMDI
 
 
 
    Function loadLanguageString(ByVal lang)
 
        ' create a connection string 
        Dim strConn As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
                                "Data Source=C:\Documents and Settings\jeanca.DSD-LAN\Desktop\Signs PRO\Signs PRO\signspro.mdb"
        Dim conn As OleDbConnection = New OleDbConnection
 
 
        conn.ConnectionString = strConn
 
        ' set the string table to load
        Dim tblString As String
        If lang = "FRENCH" Then
            tblString = "tbl_french_string"
        ElseIf lang = "ENGLISH" Then
            tblString = "tbl_english_string"
        End If
 
        ' create a data adapter 
        Dim da As OleDbDataAdapter = New OleDbDataAdapter("Select * from " & tblString, conn)
 
        ' create a new dataset 
        Dim ds As DataSet = New DataSet
 
        ' fill dataset 
        da.Fill(ds, "string")
 
 
        ' write dataset contents to an xml file by calling WriteXml method 
 
        [COLOR=Sienna]parent.MenuItem1.Text = ds.Tables("string").Rows(0).Item(2)[/COLOR]
    End Function

but I get an error when I refer to parent at the last line: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

anyone can help? where should I declare the form so I can refer to them everywhere???