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Friday, February 10, 2006

When you're a five-year-old girl, going dark places alone can be pretty scary. When my wife was that age, she lived in the country and she had this long, often dark, road that she walked to get to the school bus. Part of the way, there was a grandma, and then a neighbor who watched and waved at her as long as she was in sight. See, it was that last stretch that was the problem. Trees covering that road, making it dark on the sunniest day, and the sounds in the woods that reminded her of the wild critters that lived in their area. She told me how, "There was one thing that got me through that stretch every day. I sang this little song, 'Jesus loves me, this I know.'"

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

It was Valentine's Day and it turned out to be a milestone day in my relationship with the girl I considered to be the best catch in our class. I knew she had been seriously dating someone else for quite a while, and I had to plan my moves very shrewdly, you see, or I'd scare her off. So, we had what we both called this "brother/sister" relationship. Oh, sure I wanted it to be more, but at least I could spend some time with her this way without scaring her off. Well, one day I'd had enough of this platonic relationship stuff. She was actually bringing a Valentine's cake up to some radio staff at our college and I happened to be there. We got into a pretty intense discussion there, standing by the water fountain, I remember. And finally I blurted out what I'd been feeling for a long time, "I'm sick and tired of just being your 'brother'. I want it to be much more!" There it was - all or nothing. And what happened? I married the girl! (This is the part where the audience cheers.)

Monday, February 6, 2006

I thought she was the cutest little thing in junior high. She didn't think I was the cutest little thing in junior high, though. See, I decided to make an all-or-nothing play for her. I went downtown and I spent all my allowance money on this necklace for her; the finest rhinestones you have ever seen. Then I wrote this eloquently mushy note to go with it and I sealed them both in an envelope which I proceeded to hand her one day as she passed by my desk in study hall. The next day, she passed by my desk again, and I looked down and there was a familiar looking envelope with the note and the necklace in it. Ouch!

Friday, February 3, 2006

I couldn't just sit down and start using your personal computer. Of course, you couldn't just sit down and start using mine either. If you work in an office, changes are they make sure they can have access to the company computer that you use. Your computer, my computer, your company's computer are all protected from any funny business by something called a password. I can't get into my computer without typing in my password. Would you like to know what it is? It's... a secret.

Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Connie was in the campus outreach club I ran near her high school. In some ways, she was a typical teenager. In other ways, her life was very different from her peers. Every morning about 5:00 A.M. - while her peers were still sound asleep - Connie was at the local ice skating rink, practicing. And when her friends were all enjoying their summer off, well, she was in Colorado in a rigorous training program for ice skaters. A few years later, we were in Holland, teaching a European youth workers conference. As I was in our bungalow, preparing for the next meeting, I had the TV on in the background, with a telecast of the Winter Olympics going. I wasn't paying much attention because the commentary was in Dutch, and my Dutch is slightly limited. But suddenly I heard a name I recognized - Connie's name. I looked up in time to see her on the screen, proudly representing her country in the quest for Olympic glory. Well, I knew how she got there.

Monday, January 30, 2006

When you see how cute our three-year-old granddaughter is, it's hard to believe she's actually related to me. But she really is our little princess. I started calling my daughter "Princess" when she was just a baby, and I've never stopped. But I can't help calling our granddaughter that, as well, and she loves princesses. In fact, she's got a princess skirt and top and tiara that she likes to wear around the house sometimes. She looks like Cinderella at the ball. When she answers the phone, I'll say, "Hi, Princess." And sometimes she'll say, "I'm not a princess!" Then, I have been told, she actually runs the phone like a scanner over the jeans and the shirt that she's wearing. I'm supposed to be able to see what she's showing me with the phone. When I ask her why she's not a princess, she lets me know a clear-cut reason, "I'm not wearing my princess clothes."

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

It was enough to shut a girl up for years to come - when it comes to talking about her relationship with Jesus, that is. One day in high school, God laid it on my wife's heart - who, of course, wasn't my wife yet - to share Christ with one of her fellow band members. Roger was a drummer. In my experience, drummers are usually cut from a little different piece of cloth than everybody else, and Roger was no exception. He was a wild and crazy guy with a mouth to match. But one day my wife got up the courage to rise above her shyness and tell him about her Savior. Roger didn't exactly fall to his knees in the band room and repent. In fact, he said, "Well, if you're going to heaven, I want to go to the other place!"

Friday, January 20, 2006

Gal - that's the name of our missionary friends' dog. She and they have lived on a Native American reservation. Most reservation dogs (they actually call them rez dogs) are pretty aggressive. They'll meet you whether you want to meet them or not. But Gal is different. As soon as she sees anyone approaching, she heads for cover. If you try to befriend her, she just cowers in a corner and trembles. It's pitiful! We asked our friends why Gal was so withdrawn. It's actually a pretty sad story. She'd been abused as a puppy by her former owner, and anytime anyone got close, she was afraid they would hurt her like those other people had.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

We were just beginning the process of building our Ministry Headquarters. At that point, all that was on the field was the footings for the building and a barn that was on the property. Volunteers were in the process of renovating and weatherproofing that old barn for storage when some friends donated a truckload of office furniture to our ministry. It would be a few days before we could bring that furniture into the barn, so we had to leave it next to the barn, which meant it had to be covered to protect it, of course.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

When I was in college, there were certain times of the year when there was a huge crowd of guys jammed into my little room. One was when my mother or my girlfriend had sent homemade cookies. Somehow, everyone knows when those arrive, and then your popularity suddenly skyrockets, of course. But the busiest time in my room was before mid-terms and final exams. One simple reason: I had the notes. I always scoped it out this way. You have to be in class anyway, and you have to learn all this eventually. Right? Why not make the most of the class time, get good notes, learn all you can while the teacher's presenting it. That system worked pretty well for me. It's not that I was particularly smart. Maybe I was just smart enough to realize that it pays to listen and record it when someone's teaching you something!

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