Post 110 A Day in the Country
Hello All,
I slept in the loft room of their log cabin home again and had forgotten the way the eaves sound when they creak in the night and the train that rumbles over the trestles West of the house.
There was a sleepy kitty on the porch and a big yellow lab named Daisy who has really good manners; does not jump on people nor bark the heck out of everything that moves.
My friend showed me the pictures and told me the stories that happened in an astounding week that she spent as a surgical nurse in Haiti, volunteering her time with a combined team from Lexington, KY.
There were no church donations and no corporate sponsorship. This team was a team of professionals that on their own, quietly gathered and said "Let's do it".
They repaired an arm of a woman that had been broken in two places for nine years! I saw the "before" and "after" pictures myself. The patient's joy, just a few days after the procedure, was palpable in the picture. She was overcome, no interpretation required.
The surgeries took place in a school where there was filtered water; trickled from a shower head, and cots made up as "post-op". No viewing box for X-ray analysis; holding it up to the window was "standard operating procedure".
Some local parents somehow made an astounding $10 a month which provided their child with a school uniform, books and one meal of rice with vegetable broth on it. For many, this would be the only meal they had, every day.
However, for the others, no money means no schooling. There are lakes of raw sewage, no electricity, no toothbrushes or personal care items, not enough food and water. Tent cities, a family of five on one little motorcycle. Picture Dad driving, child in the middle, mom on the back, a kid hanging off each side.
So what happened to the billions of dollars in world-wide aide and supplies that were sent? Better look in the pockets of some of our favorite disaster charities. The disaster, is that the money never reaches who we think it is intended for. In fairness, we know that any business has "administrative" and "operational" costs but if you simply type in Worst Charities in America into a search engine, you will be surprised at what comes up.
Not here to bash, just to state that there is always a need for God in the land of living, a need of love, a need of compassion and teaching, of the basic necessities.
My friend gave me a bracelet that represented a purchase from a local woman who was allowed to spread her wares on a blanket at the school; a school parent, so that she could perhaps sell something to the foreigners who came to help, in order to keep her child in school.
The intricate wrapping and construction of the beads and cording of the bracelet was noticed by my college-aged daughter when I saw her. I gave it to her, along with the story of the person who made it so when she climbs into a car of her own to go to a pizza throwing job and to her college classes, she can think outside of her own box.
When she was 12, I took her to a town event where I was volunteering. With great reluctance, she used a hand-held clicker counter to tally the number of event entrants while I took entry fees at the gate.
At 14, I took her with me to these same country friends I stayed with this weekend, who were helping others to bale hay. I handed daughter dear a pair of gloves and when she asked WHY do I have to do this? I replied "Because it is the right thing to do". The farm owners were in their late 60's at the time, they needed help, we were available so we rolled up our sleeves and went to work.
At 15, I took her to get a food handler's license so that she could earn her first official pay check from peeling eggs and rolling silverware in a restaurant.
At 15, I took her to get a food handler's license so that she could earn her first official pay check from peeling eggs and rolling silverware in a restaurant.
She does not remember it of course, but her indoctrination to "it's the right thing to do" started when she was a toddler when I gave her socks to match out of the dryer, wash cloths to fold, toys to put away, spoons to go on the table, water play as a way of washing dishes.
As a divorced parent, my style of parenting and privilege-giving is quite different than her father's but in the end, all children, even if they always share a household with both parents, come away with attributes; good and not so good, from each parent.
It has always been my hope that while God wants us to enjoy all good things He has to give us and make available to us, there is also a responsibility of giving back and plain old w-o-r-k to be learned. These are the things I had always hoped that my children would be installed with from me and my lifestyle.
For those who have much, much is required. The balance is up to you to decide and what to do with it and when.
My friend did an honorable thing in that week, to Haiti, the team did. Gave hope, promoted healing in more than just the physical body.
There are tiny reminders of thankfulness for the greatness that we have all around us in the birds and blooms and in the seeds going into the ground for gardens and farms.
Hold that seed and it contains life in your hands, not only life in itself; everything after its kind, but it holds your life also. It holds food for your table or for lots of tables, which in turn, holds the culture around you in it.
No water equals no bringing forth the life in the seed to your house or to anyone elses.
Just wanted to bring out that seed tray of thankfulness again. We have constant reminders. Water the scripture somebody else has scattered, help it to grow in someone's life, maybe your own!
Saw a eucalyptus tree in my travels to South Carolina last week.
I have not seen one outside of California, was not aware that they grew in the Carolinas. They are commonly used in dried floral arrangements and have a very strong aroma. If you like it, you will like it a lot, but if you don't, it's likely an annoyance like all those blasted pots of scented stuff people have in their houses and stores that automatically spray stuff every 15 minutes. Yikes, I hate those things.
I have not seen one outside of California, was not aware that they grew in the Carolinas. They are commonly used in dried floral arrangements and have a very strong aroma. If you like it, you will like it a lot, but if you don't, it's likely an annoyance like all those blasted pots of scented stuff people have in their houses and stores that automatically spray stuff every 15 minutes. Yikes, I hate those things.
I will be working around the country place here in TN for the next week or so. Today, we went and got straw, slung it up on the truck bed and brought it home for the garden (check for ticks, check for ticks!) My garden babies I brought from Kentucky are poking up their little heads.
Pray for those people who cross your mind, there is a reason you had that thought. A friend, HG, needs prayer from anyone reading this. She has a fight going on and as a reminder, I corinthians 15:26, God does not need anyone to leave here prematurely, we can't do anything for him or anyone else, if we do.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
So next time you hear somebody say that "God needs a rose petal in heaven" bring this scripture to mind. Somebody has the wrong idea.
Until next time, plant and water the garden of your heart. When you get weeds in it, pull them out, let in more light. You know, when you don't actively look at a garden and pull up the weeds, before you know it, they choke out the good stuff.
How does that happen when all you planted was good stuff? Keep watching the door of your heart and have a sweet sleep.
Pray for those people who cross your mind, there is a reason you had that thought. A friend, HG, needs prayer from anyone reading this. She has a fight going on and as a reminder, I corinthians 15:26, God does not need anyone to leave here prematurely, we can't do anything for him or anyone else, if we do.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
So next time you hear somebody say that "God needs a rose petal in heaven" bring this scripture to mind. Somebody has the wrong idea.
Until next time, plant and water the garden of your heart. When you get weeds in it, pull them out, let in more light. You know, when you don't actively look at a garden and pull up the weeds, before you know it, they choke out the good stuff.
How does that happen when all you planted was good stuff? Keep watching the door of your heart and have a sweet sleep.
