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WITandWISDOM(tm) - March 27, 2001 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." - Andre Gide (1869-1951), Writer Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright 2000, www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Elizabeth Pilenko grew up in a wealthy, aristocratic Russian home at the beginning of the twentieth century. Her church had taught her about Jesus, but she could not reconcile the riches of the church with the thousands of people who died of starvation and exposure each winter. At 18, as a student of the University of St. Petersburg, she learned of plans for the Communist revolution, but after the overthrow of the czar, she became disillusioned and fled to France. In the midst of poverty and sorrow in Paris, Elizabeth turned to God, and the Holy Spirit began to write a beautiful letter of love on her heart. Soon she returned to the religion of her childhood and became a nun of the Russian Orthodox Church, changing her name to Mother Maria. Mother Maria was eventually able to raise enough money to open a small hospital in Paris, where she cared for orphans and the critically ill. After the Nazis occupied France during World War II, Mother Maria began hiding Jews in her hospital and was eventually discovered and arrested by the Gestapo. Sentenced to Ravensbruck women's concentration camp, Mother Maria was given many opportunities to minister in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. Very few women lived through the fearfully inhumane conditions at Ravensbruck, where reportedly more than 95,000 women, including Corrie ten Boom's sister, Betsie, died. "One day in 1945, when women prisoners were being lined up outside the gas chamber for the fate they had come to know, a young girl began screaming with fear. As two guards moved threateningly toward her, mother Maria ran forward and put her arms around the girl's shoulders. Then she said ‘Don't be afraid. Look, I shall come with you'" (One Who Believed, p. 14). While Mother Maria's captors said her death was a mistake, we read with wonder the letter of love that the Holy Spirit wrote on a Russian nun's heart. By Garrie F. Williams, "Welcome, Holy Spirit," Copyright (c) 1994 ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: The worst part of being a missionary is the language. You're unable to communicate or understand the most basic aspects of life, from "Where's the bathroom?" to "How much do you want for that mango?" In no time at all, you feel like the stupidest person on the face of the earth, such as when I told the yard boy, "Remember, I am garbage" instead of "Remember to take out my garbage." (I guess it was a tacit admission to being white trash.) Although I didn't do any preaching in Haiti, I did try to share the gospel with a number of people. The first conversation I had along those lines went like this: "If you accept Jesus Christ, he will take away your dogs." "My dogs? I don't have any dogs." "Everyone has dogs, ma'am. But when Jesus forgives them, it's though you never had a dog your entire life." Bill Smith, an Assemblies of God missionary I worked with in Haiti, told me he once had instructed an entire church that if anyone wanted to become followers of Christ, they should signify it by raising their legs into the air and coming forward on their hands. Lots of puzzled looks, very little response to the altar call. But the all time most embarrassing gaffe has to go to Dale Preiser, another AoG missionary I met who turned red when I mentioned this to him at a church dinner. The word Dale had wanted to use on this occasion was "mambo," a voodoo priestess. Instead he said "mamba," and gave several impassioned sermons up and down Highway One about the dangers of Christians returning to voodoo and shipwrecking their faith and the faith of others by using peanut butter. (I'm told people were very open to this teaching, and sales of peanut butter plummeted wherever Dale went.) Submitted by David Learn via the Forum www.delphi.com Source: Monday Fodder dgaufaaa@iohk.com?subject=Subscribe_Monday_Fodder ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: Albert Einstein once admitted that figuring out his U.S. income tax was beyond him - he had to go to a tax consultant. "This is too difficult for a mathematician," said Einstein. "It takes a philosopher." Source: Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, Copyright (c) Economic Press, Inc., www.epinc.com ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: A BETTER DRAG & DROP Ever notice how sometimes when you want to copy something from one folder to the next, Windows likes to create a shortcut instead? (This is especially true for things like program executables). Well, there's a better way! If you drag an item with the RIGHT mouse button, rather then the left, you will be presented with a menu when you release the item. From this menu, you can choose to copy, move, create a shortcut, or cancel. Source: Diversions Digest www.worldstart.com/diversions.htm |