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WITandWISDOM(tm) - July 12, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "Don't celebrate closing a sale, celebrate opening a relationship." - Patricia Fripp Source: Beliefnet From the Masters, http://www.beliefnet.com/user/newsletter_choose.asp ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: The Yugoslav government in 1957 permitted visitors to bring in only articles for their personal use. Anything new or anything in quantity was suspect because of the black market thriving all over the country. Printed material especially was liable to be confiscated at the border, no matter how small the quantity, because coming from out of the country, it was regarded as foreign propaganda. Now here I was with car and luggage literally bulging with tracts, Bibles, and portions of Bibles. How was I to get them past the border guard? And so, for the first of many times, I said the Prayer of God's Smuggler: "Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture that I want to take to Your children across this border. When You were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see." And so, armed with this prayer, I started the motor and drove up to the barrier. The two guards appeared both startled and pleased to see me. I wondered how much business came their way. From the way they stared at my passport, it might have been the first Dutch one they had ever seen. There were just a few formalities to attend to, they assured me in German, and I could be on my way. One of the guards began poking around in my camping gear. In the corners and folds of my sleeping bag and tent were boxes of tracts. "Lord, make those seeing eyes blind." "Do you have anything to declare?" "Well, I have my money and a wristwatch and a camera. . . ." The other guard was looking inside the VW. He asked me to take out a suitcase. I knew that there were tracts scattered through my clothing. "Of course, sir," I said. I pulled the front seat forward and dragged the suitcase out. I placed it on the ground and opened the lid. The guard lifted the shirts that lay on top. Beneath them, and now in plain sight, was a pile of tracts in two different Yugoslavian languages, Croatian and Slovene. How was God going to handle this situation? "It seems dry for this time of year," I said to the other guard, and without looking at the fellow who was inspecting the suitcase, I fell into a conversation about the weather. I told him about my own homeland and how it was always wet on the polders. Finally, when I could stand the suspense no longer, I looked behind me. The first guard wasn't even glancing at the suitcase. He was listening to our conversation. When I turned around he caught himself and looked up. "Well, then, do you have anything else to declare?" "Only 'small' things," I said. The tracts were small after all. "We won't bother with them," said the guard. He nodded to me that I could close the suitcase and with a little salute handed me back my passport. Open Doors, Brother Andrew with John & Elizabeth Sherrill, The Narrow Road, Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 2001, p. 150-152. http://isbn.nu/0800758382 Source: Illustrator, http://www.answers2prayer.org ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: The good folk at Merriam-Webster Dictionary have compiled a list of "Favorite Top Ten" words that are not in the dictionary, following a very unofficial and unscientific survey of its web site visitors. Here's the list: "Snirt." Dirty snow, usually seen at the edge of the road or parking lots. "Slickery." A wet, icy surface that is slick and slippery. "Phonecrastinate." Putting off answering the phone until the Caller ID information comes up. "Gription." Friction that grabs; as in, "my car needs new tires because the old ones have lost their gription." "Cognitive Displaysia." That feeling you get - before you even leave the house - that you're going to forget something and remember what it was once you're on the highway. "Chillax." Relax, chill. Take it easy. "Woot." An description of an exclamation of excitement. As in, "she let out with a woot." "Confuzzled." Confused and puzzled. "Ginormous." Bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous. Submitted by B.B. ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: A Christian farmer spent the day in the city. In a restaurant for his meal, he sat near a group of young men. After he bowed his head to give thanks for his food, one of the young men thought he would embarrass the old gentleman. "Hey, farmer, does everyone do that out where you live?" The old man calmly replied, "No, son, the pigs don't!" Source: Illustrations, http://www.cybersaltlists.org ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Top 5 Foods Men Crave Pizza Deli sandwiches/burgers Nuts Chips Chocolate (cream pie and cake) Top 5 Foods Women Crave Chocolate (candy, ice cream, fudge topping) Other candy Cake Chips Cookies From a survey by Catherine Christie and Susan Mitchell for “I’d Kill for a Cookie,” (Penguin Putman) Source: Copyright © March 2002, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved., http://www.readersdigest.com/ |
