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WITandWISDOM(tm) - August 28, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: If we're growing we're always going to be out of our comfort zone. - John Maxwell Source: Carol's Thought for Today, http://users.adelphia.net/~mrs.carol ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: A semi-truck driver travels the Southeastern states five days a week. As an active Christian, Tom Jenkins took this job assignment with a freight company so he would be home and able to attend church on weekends. Recently, this 45 year-old trucker was given a freight consignment just when his rig needed some urgent repairs. The company provided him with another truck, at the last moment, and loaded it for his run. Tom climbed into the driver’s seat, adjusted his mirrors and headed out on the Raleigh to Miami trip. In order to make this trip and be home on time, Tom was on the road at one AM when this incident occurred. On a lonely stretch of interstate, he reached for his radio and accidentally pushed the truck lights off! Every light was quenched, dashboard, cabin lights, headlights, and running lights. His first concern was being in a new truck, he was unfamiliar with the switches, and secondly, he was approaching a curve ahead without any lights to steer by. Tom, naturally, was beside himself with the unexpected torment of this sudden blackout. Just as Tom was fumbling around the dark cab and instrument panel for the switch, a fast moving car passed him. In the split seconds of that encounter, the passing cars headlights proved to be the illumination Tom needed to find his light button. Immediately, his lights were back on and the curve was mastered with no further difficulty. Today, in retelling his story, Tom is grateful to God for bringing him home alive. “I hadn’t seen another automobile for miles,” he said. “What was the probability that a car would pass a semi with no lights on, helping me both fix my problem and enabling me to keep those truck wheels on the road safely - and just at the right moment? I didn’t see that car coming, and it disappeared as quickly as it showed up.” “You know,” he added, “The dark of night alone in a truck cab is no longer lonely when God is ridding beside me.” As told by Tom Jenkins to Chaplain Moore Source: Chapnotes, mailto:xanmansa@chapnotes.org?Subject=Subscribe ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: A Dutch woman fell into an old grave after it collapsed while she was watering flowers at a cemetery. Monique Zuydendorp, 40, of Capelle aan de Ijssel was watering flowers on her uncle's grave in Schollevaar. Suddenly, a neighbouring grave subsided and Ms Zuydendorp fell in, landing on the coffin. The grave was that of a woman who had died in September 2005. "It was a horryfying experience," she told Algemeen Dagblad. Fortunately she was with a friend who, with other cemetery visitors, managed to pull her out of the grave. Ms Zuydendorp needed medical attention for bruises but says the emotional shock was the only lasting damage. The experience has confirmed one decision: "When the time comes, I want to be cremated," she said. Workers at the cemetery say the grave contained three coffins on top of each other and say one or more must have collapsed. Source: Ananova http://www.ananova.com ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: Today's Inspirational Thought Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything...... But they still bring a smile to your face When you push them down a flight of stairs. Submitted by Anita Bryant ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Erwin M. Soukup has compiled what he terms "The Seven Steps to Stagnation": 1. We've never done it that way before. 2. We're not ready for that. 3. We are doing all right without trying that. 4. We tried it once before. 5. We don't have money for that. 6. That's not our job. 7. Something like that can't work. Soukup admits that "there's probably an eighth step, but we've never looked it up before." (Martin E. Marty, "Context," April 15, 1985) Source: Preaching Now, http://www.preaching.com/newsletter/subscribe.html