Cell Phone vs. Bible

Cell Phone vs. Bible

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phones.
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it
What if we flipped through it several times a day
What if we used it to receive messages from the text
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it
What if we gave it to kids as gifts
What if we used it as we traveled
What if we used it in case of an emergency
What if we upgraded it to get the latest version
Something to make you say hmmmmm, and where is my Bible?

Outreach Experience

My hubby summed up Saturday's experience in two words: Culture Shock.

Our outreach group sat up in a small field just a couple blocks north of downtown Muncie. We were at the site of an elementary school that had long ago been torn down. We were smack dab in the middle of a fairly poor neighborhood. Unsupervised children in the streets.

We grilled hotdogs on a tiny table top grill. We offered chips, snacks and cold drinks, for free, with the hot dogs. We lost count of how many hot dogs we gave out. Our pastor and another man walked the neighborhood streets, handing out our church cards and inviting people to come over to our little group for a hot dog. Entire families came. Poor, tired and sad looking families. Some wanted to talk a lot, some didn't talk at all and didn't lift their heads. Some came back two or three times, still clearly hungry. Some were really dirty. Some were crippled. Some wanted prayer right then. There were people covered in piercings and tattoos. I heard one of our group say, "That pregnant lady we just served, isn't she that prostitute that we talked to before?"

Wow.

My husband, who has never lived in town, was shocked just being in a neighborhood with close houses and the streets full of kids and people and traffic. Both of us are shy people and taking that first step to talking to someone is hard for both of us. But, the Bible says that we must offer our coat to someone who is cold, a cup of cold water to someone who is thirsty and that when we do it to the least in this world, we've done it to Him. And, that's all I need to know to take that first step in talking to someone that I might not be able to relate to, but that I know need Him.

Today in East Central Indiana....

....It's hotter than blue blazes, whatever that means! LOL
It's 93* with 50 MPH wind. Kind of feels like a desert around here. I SO want my swimming pool put up, but it's out in the shed, with Sammie the Snake. lol
I've been making goodies tonight. We're going to do an outreach Saturday afternoon in the inner city parks in Muncie. We'll be setting up a grill, offering free hotdogs, chips, drinks and snacks to any one who wants some. Our youth group has done this before and say it's very eye-opening. They met people that said what we were giving them to eat was all they would eat for that day. That is so sad. Muncie has quite a homeless population and it's heart breaking. Anyway, this will be Fred and my first time doing this and I'm so excited! We'll be having a special service at church Friday night to learn more about this type of outreach and to pray for our efforts on Saturday.
I'll keep you posted!

Pay it forward

This letter to the editor was in our local paper on Monday. I think it is worth sharing!

"On May 29, I experienced something that has never happened to me before. I was at Wal-Mart on McGalliard with my significant other, our son, my sister-in-law and her new baby. We were at the checkout line when a young woman came up to us and asked us if she could pay for our groceries. We were speechless and really did not know what to say. We asked what the catch was. and she explained she was being nice. She walked up and paid $136 and some change for our items. She handed us the receipt and walked away. We knew her name because it was on the receipt, Danielle Wright.
Danielle started "pay it forward" that day. We went to lunch and bought the two people behind us lunch. They in return, told us that they would buy someone's lunch tomorrow. When we got home we told our two older boys what had happened and that the stranger had actually bought them two shirts. The boys went next door and mowed the neighbors yard. We talked to the neighbor later and told him why we did it and he thanked us because his mower was broken. He was in the process of fixing the mower and told us that he was going to mow his neighbors, yard the next day while they were on their honeymoon.
If someone presents you with a Random Act of Kindness, thank them and pass it on. This was an experience that we will never forget."

How awesome is that?? The Muncie newspaper tends to print, in my opinion, lots of negative stories and to see this in the paper really got to me!
Tonight, we were at Wal-mart picking up some things for our church's youth group. Fred was paying and I wandered down to a check-out several aisles over to talk to a friend. There was a man in that aisle in one of those motorized wheelchairs. He was trying to get all his groceries out of the big basket on front of the wheelchair. Without even thinking, I asked if I could help him and he accepted. I put all his groceries on the belt for him and then loaded them all back into his basket. He thanked me over and over. Right then, Fred walked over and it turns out that he knew the guy I'd been helping! He is one of Fred's patients at the pharmacy. He shook Fred's hand and told him what a help I'd been. Walking out, Fred told me what a nice man that guy was and that he'd been given a hard row to hoe, as far as health problems and wasn't very well.
It wasn't a big thing, not like paying $136 for someone's groceries, but it feels so good to help someone out.
I challenge you to do the same...Today!! I'd love to hear your stories too!

Sammy

Whenever Fred sees a snake, he always comes to get me to kill it! He's so funny...he's terribly afraid of snakes.
Last week, he went out to the shed to look for our fishing poles and tackle box and came right back in the house-bringing a shovel into the kitchen. He said, "I've found the fishing stuff, but I also found something else!!" So, he hands me the shovel and out we go. The snake is laying wedged in the boards on the ramp that lead up into the shed. It had been coiled up in the shed, Fred said. The snake wasn't very big-16 or 17 inches long. Fred said we MUST kill it because it WILL get bigger!! LOL. I've got the shovel so he goes for the hoe. The snake just wasn't in a good spot to kill, wedged down between the boards. It got tired of us staring at it and finally went under the shed. The next day, Fred went back out to the shed for something else, opened the door and guess who was laying coiled up in there? By now, I've given our resident snake a name...Sammy.
Last year, we had one in our swimming pool as we were taking it down and I'm surprised Fred didn't chop the pool to bits, trying to kill the snake! It got out in the yard and Fred went running to his truck to slam the door shut "CAUSE THE SNAKE MIGHT GET IN MY TRUCK!!!!" LOL!!!!! You could hear him yelling for a country mile!! And, have you ever seen a snake say, "Hmmm, there's Chevy truck parked over there in the yard, I think I'll mosey right on over and see if I can't hitch a ride!" LOL
Hopefully, Sammy's eating up the mice and bugs and stuff that I really hate! ;)

Church Sign

There's a church nearby that always has a catchy saying on its sign. During the days before and after the Super Bowl win for the Indianapolis Colts this year, the church sign said, "Even Jesus rode a colt to victory". Recently, the sign read, "Even Jesus has a fish story" and today, I noticed the sign said, "Stop, drop and roll won't work in hell!"

Memorial Weekend

We spent Memorial Day at my mom's in Bloomington (2 hours south), helping her sort through and pack up her belongings. She'll be moving in July and I'm so happy for her!! She's moving to a newly built place that's for seniors and it looks fantastic! She currently lives in a place that's filled with drugs and prostitution; with young girls who have multiple children and so on. Mom stands for what is right and honest, so that makes her very unpopular where she currently lives. She's had her car vandalized a few times, marijuana planted in her flower garden and many other things. Moving day can't come soon enough!!
My sister and her hubby happened to stop by mom's while we were there, so that was a lot of fun!! My 92 year old Grandpa was there as well. My sister, her hubby, Fred & I went out for lunch to a local BBQ place where paper towel holders are mounted on the wall above each table and you drink sweet tea from canning jars. Yum!
It's going to take many more trips to mom's to finish packing her stuff. We also filled the dining room with yard sale stuff, so there's lots of work to do there yet.