Suite Life

In the middle of class today, a cell phone rang. Now, that's not too unusual. Every high school student has a cell phone, and most adults carry cell phones. And, even where I work, which is an institution teaching English to adult immigrants and refugees, most of our students carry cell phones.
Cell phone etiquette is often a topic of discussion here between students and teachers. Periodically a phone will ring and a student will blurt out, "Africa calling. I talk now." The teacher then directs the student out into the hall, to complete the transcontinental connection.
But today, the ringing phone just tickled my funny bone. The ring tone seemed so out of character for the setting. The ring tone was Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies Theme" from "The Nutcracker Suite". The bearer of the cell phone, can speak and understand only a few words of English.
I didn't have a chance to ask her why she had chosen that particular ring tone? Did she just enjoy the music? Was she familiar with "The Nutcracker". Were fairies or dancing toys part of her native culture? I'll probably never know.

Great and all knowing God. You challenge our simple minds with all sorts of conundrums. Life is such a delicious cornucopia of experiences. We thank you for all of our experiences and surprises. Your blessings abound.

In The Eye of the Beholder

Photographic images can be deceiving. Every photo, taken of me recently, portrays someone who doesn't resemble the image I have of myself.
Once, perhaps not so long ago, I was a young woman. My hair was dark. I could see without wearing bifocals. My face was unlined. I was actually five foot three. That remains the image I have of myself. But, when I view a current picture of myself.........well, I see someone quite different.
This week, I needed to mail off a recent photo of myself and I just couldn't choose one that I could live with. Every one I found was a photograph of some little old lady!
So, I asked my husband to choose one. I know that our 40 plus years together makes him extremely biased in his view of me, but he understands my issues. I trust him to make me look as good as I possibly can.

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV)
Praise the Lord.

Ask and you shall receive.

I was sincerely blessed yesterday with the gift of 61 bottles of dish soap. Several weeks back, in this blogspot, I explained the need for liquid dish soap at my place of work. Well, lo and behold one of our local churches heard the plea, realized the need and took action.
This amazing congregation (with the help of its very creative pastor) held a Dish Soap Sunday Ingathering. I understand they used some of their pre-teens to demonstrate the sizes and colors of bottles, much to the delight of their Sunday attendees. The congregation was charged! They brought in the bottles. Now, we can supply 61 households (that's probably about 305 people) with a whole lot of clean!
Believe me, this is not a big church. It's not a wealthy church. But, by their actions, they have proved that they are God's Church.

All powerful Lord. We can serve you in so many ways. Allow us to keep our eyes and ears open to your people's many needs. Every one of us has the ability to do mission. Even when we think that we are sorely lacking in our abilities, we can help someone with something. Help us to seek out that need.
We praise your holy name.