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WITandWISDOM(tm) - December 20, 2000 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant. - Helen Keller Source: www2.bc.edu/~boweran/quotes.html via http://www.witandwisdom.org Submitted by Jay W. Cook ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: THE TABLECLOTH Submitted by Pastor Rob Reid The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in urban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve. They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. and on Dec. 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On Dec 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sunk when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 6 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, hand-made, ivory colored, crochet table cloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church. By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "Where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crochet into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job. What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike? He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a concentration camp. He never saw his wife or his home again for all the 35 years in between. The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine. Source: Reader's Digest, Copyright (c) December 1954, http:www.readersdigest.com (The authenticity of this story is unproven. For more information visit: http://www.snopes.com/glurge/tableclo.htm Submitted by: Steve Neufeld, Desmond Daly, Susan Giovannoni, Carol Blum, VA Kennedy, Marquett Easton, Alice Bryan, Rosie Laduca ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: (Try singing this to the tune that goes "Sleighbells ring, are you listenin'") WELCOME TO THE E-MAIL WONDERLAND Another "ping", Are you listenin'? The puter screen, Is a glistenin'. With icons so bright, They light up the night, Welcome to the e-mail wonderland! Gone away, Are the hall talks. Here to stay, Is the IN-BOX. Flagged "urgent, please read!", And "answer with speed!". Welcome to the e-mail wonderland! In the morning e-mails start to add up. No lunch today cause messages abound. Just click away and hope the server stays up. You can't do your job if it goes down. 10 P.M., You're not tired. The caffeine, Has got you wired. The day's not complete, Till the last delete, Welcome to the e-mail wonderland! In the morning e-mails start to add up, No lunch today cause messages abound. Just click away and hope the server stays up. You can't do your job if it goes down. Until you, Are retired, The same old grind, It is required. You'll face unafraid, That message parade. Welcome to the e-mail wonderland Source: Clean Hewmor, clean-hewmor- subscribe@welovegod.org via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: "Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever." Source: Awesome Quotes, www.coolnewsletters.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: The nut of the wine palm, a native of the tropics, takes as long as three years to sprout and sometimes does not sprout at all. Various methods have been tried to decrease the sprouting time. It has been found, for instance, that if the seed is immersed in water until it swells and then is dried, it will never germinate. But if it is subjected to freezing cold for a couple of days, then thawed by pouring boiling water over it, then immersed in water for 10 hours, it will sprout in a few short months. By Donald E. and Vesta W. Mansell, "Sure As The Dawn" Copyright (c) 1993 via http://www.witandwisdom.org |