7 Quick Takes Friday #65

See more 7 Quick Takes Friday contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

This has been a much better week than last week. I spent most of it visiting our Georgia site, where I could visit with daughter Lizzie; then today, I got to go to my deputy's retirement ceremony and after that to share dinner with a friend from Uzbekistan.

More important, though, were the God moments that pervaded this week. Seven of them are shared below.

1. This week as I have traveled to and from Georgia, I have been reading an interesting book: The Overcomer's Anointing by Barbara Yoder. In spite of the strangeness (to me) of the title, the book has turned out to be enlightening. I purchased it in order to learn more about spiritual warfare in order to help a friehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnd who is in the throes of a dark night of the soul. Yoder's take on the dark night is that this is a period of transformation, that God uses such a period before transforming many things, including the creation of the earth. Although this is indeed in keeping with the works of St. John of the Cross, Yoder's book is more accessible than Dark Night of the Soul.



2. I was accompanied to/from Georgia by a colleague, Sue. We were a little concerned that she did not have a confirmed seat on the flight back. Apparently, the plane had been oversold by seven people. It was important that we travel together because Donnie was picking us up in San Francisco (more than an hour away), and Sue, who lives yet another hour south, was planning to come home with me and stay overnight, then continue home. Not arriving with me would really complicate matters. Luckily, volunteers appeared to give up seats, and she got the third one. Whew! We happily clambered into the plane where I found that my seat, alas, was non-reclining, in the last row (aisle, at least), and right in front of the toilet. I figured it was going to be a long 5.5 hours, but had accepted the reality of the situation, telling myself that someone had to be in that seat and it might as well be me, when the person in the middle seat appeared and asked if I would change seats with his friend who was seated in a B seat in row 20. I concurred -- after all, who wants to separate friends? I figured a middle (B) reclining seat was no worse than an aisle non-reclining seat. Imagine my surprise when I found out that 20B was in the exit row -- and there was no A seat. Was God rewarding me for accepting my lot to begin with and being willing to help out a stranger in the second place? I wonder... (In any event, it was a late evening flight, and I reclined the seat, donned an attitude of gratitude, stretched out, and slept the whole way home!)



3. Once home, it was nearly morning, but I got a few hours of sleep, then quickly looked through the mail that had arrived during the week. One was a note from the new formation director at the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO). He will be replacing Goliath. Yes! His note revealed that there would be a place now for God in our formation. Yes!




4. When Sue arose in morning, she took one look out our window at the view of our town and valley and remarked that we are close to heaven here. We are indeed. She agreed that not only the house was a blessing but also that there is likely a reason we are supposed to have it because everything was so "right" about getting it, including the price, which was considerably lower than the house is worth and exactly in the price range that we could afford and were looking for. For that reason, we had no trouble getting a VA loan, and I had, surprisingly, no trouble finding my 1978 (!!) VA certificate of eligibility.



5. I always go to Mass on Friday -- well, almost always. Sometimes events intervene. Today I was going to be late, so I decided to skip Mass. At that point, my admin assistant appeared in my office, reminding me that Mass was starting. I commented that I did not have time to arrive before Mass began, and she commented, "God understands if you are late." I was briefly contemplating whether or not to go when a colleague's admin assistant popped in and made the same comment! Considering that God might be sending me a message, I decided to go. I am glad I did. The rest of the day is always better when I do.




6. My deputy retired today. I will miss him. He brought a spiritual flavor to all our interactions. (A Roman Catholic like me, he wants to study theology in his retirement, and when he showed up three years ago, I knew God had sent him to me.) True to style, his parting remarks left us spiritually rejuvenated -- this in an organization that insists on the separation of church and state.




7. This week I had another go-round with God's credit card. I had not intended to use it for a personal purchase, but I really got stuck two weeks ago. We had to get a special bed for Donnie, who has been unable to sleep in our current bed because of his sleep apnea, gout, and infected leg. He needed an adjustable bed, and those are very expensive, especially one that we can share. We found an appropriate bed in San Jose. I assumed that we would be able to get the bed on credit, but the cost of the bed was such that the company would only allow half the cost to be put on its credit. Stuck there and having God's credit card with me that would easily handle the other half, I hesitated, sighed, then handed it over. Well, as in the past when I have used the card, God changed matters. The company sent a second credit account in the mail this week. Donnie called today and asked what that meant and was told that we can transfer the amount we put on God's credit card to this second credit account and there would be no interest charged as long as we paid off the account on time (in three years). Wow! It seems quite clear that God intends to keep God's credit card open for God's needs, not mine. This is the second time I have been given a new credit card to which to transfer a balance. Unreal!




I wish you a pleasant weekend!

7 Quick Takes Friday #58

See more 7 Quick Takes Friday contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

1. This week has been emotionally dominated by a conference where I had to make a presentation, for which I felt unprepared. Each day, as the conference approached, made me more nervous. I was certain my boss had selected the most wrong person to do this particular presentation. Worst, none of the support technology was working. I had to take a tech specialist with me, tie back to tech specialists in our California office, and get some help from the hotel tech specialists. Still, up until a few minutes before the conference, nothing seemed to be working. My topic? The advantages of modern technology! A prayer and a day later, all was over, and the result was unexpected. Everything worked, and the conference was abuzz with the content of the presentation. The person who followed me called it “spectacular.” I know it had nothing to do with me, so I later presented award coins to the tech specialists who provided the support. It was their work that created the fascination.

2. On Saturday, I encountered an unexpected situation where I ended up reluctantly using God’s credit card to pay for Donnie’s new computer. He had a chance to get 25% off on a new laptop, which he desperately needed since his desktop stopped work a couple of weeks ago and his current laptop is ten years old. He was dead in the water when it came to doing his work, which is graphics consulting. It turned out that he was several hundred dollars short, and the only credit card that had that much money available on it was God’s credit card. I was very reluctant to use it. I do not use it for personal needs, but if we did not use it at this point, Donnie would be without work for a while since we could not afford the regular price and the special deal was available only on Saturday. Sighing, I agreed to use God’s credit card, feeling considerably guilty about it and hoping that we, too, might be considered worthy of God’s financial help. I mentally calculated the length of time it would take me to pay off the card, and that did not reassure me at all. Then I went to the post office, and in the mail box was a new credit card from USAA, offered because I had spent eight years in the military years ago. The credit line was the same as on God’s credit card, and I would be able to transfer the balance without any interest for a year on Monday. I have now activated the card, and God has his card back. That is pretty stunning: God rescued His credit card from my illicit use! I know now that I must keep that card clear for God’s purposes—and people in need are sent my way routinely. If I had had any doubt that this particular credit card belongs to Him (I did not), that doubt would have been entirely erased on Saturday.

3. The conference took place in Yorktown, Virginia, and one of my senior managers also attended. His daughter is a sophomore at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. She gave us a tour of the campus and of colonial Williamsburg. It was a very relaxing and educational visit. I had no idea that William and Mary was the second oldest college in the USA, nor that the main building, still standing, had been burned three times as a result of war action in this country. We finished our walk and left town with the smell of honeysuckle still with us.

4. After the conference, the senior manager and I flew to Nashville to visit one of our offices over the state border in Kentucky. We had a lovely dinner in Clarksville, TN, on the Columbia River at a café called The Black Horse, well known for its good beers. More interesting, though, was the drenching thunderstorm that barraged us while we were at a meeting earlier that day. Such storms almost never occur in California. In fact, in 1998, I remember with some mirth the broadcast of the local weatherman who explained thunder and lightning to listeners after a number of frightened people had called in and asked for an explanation of the “electricity in the sky.”

5. As has happened so often in the past, I spent Mother’s day in the air, en route to the technology conference. The kids all called and sent e-cards. The best gift I received, however, was that my Blackberry stopped working at midnight, just hours before I had to leave, so I have been incommunicado with my office all week. I will probably have 4000+ e-mails waiting upon return, but this week has been blessedly quiet, without the normal 700 or so messages per day that I usually get.

6. I have been finding pennies unexpectedly on this trip. The first one appeared under my feet on the plane. I did not notice it getting on the plane, but there it was when I was getting off the plane. The second one I found on the floor of the cupboard of the hotel in which I stayed while at the conference. The third one was in the bin I picked up for running my computer through the security screening at the airport when leaving from the conference. Three pennies does not a trend make, but if I find a fourth, I am definitely going to wonder about the significance of them.

7. We had quite a scare this week. Our cat, Intrepid, got into the laundry room, which is off limits to the cats, and was happily chomping down on the house warming plant, a black lily, that a friend had given us. Treps is quite a plant devourer, so we do not keep any plants in the house. This one was with us only temporarily until we could find a better home for it and, we thought, securely locked away. Donnie looked up black lilies online and found that they are toxic for cats. Yet, Treps was not showing any side effects. So, he decided to watch him closely over the next 24 hours. I decided to put the matter in God’s hands. Treps was a rescued feral kitten who was starving in Jordan when his mother died and brought to us by one of the professors who found him in his garden, squawking about not wanting to die. We nursed him into good health, and he formed a very strong bond with Donnie. Every night he and Donnie fall asleep together, with Treps sleeping on top of Donnie. He is only four years old—too young to die. We have had too little time with him. The outcome? Treps survived his ingestion of the poisonous plant, thank God! Literally.

The Unusual Power of God's Credit Card

note: image copyright Katrin Wegmann (www.katrinwegmann.de)

Monday evening Old Mission held a penance service, and I picked up, Rosie, the widow of my recently deceased friend, Jack, who has difficulty walking. Getting to confession is a difficult task for her, so she welcomed this evening opportunity.

As I drove up to her house in the country outside our small town afterward, we saw a tow truck with a vehicle on it, blocking her driveway. She recognized the vehicle as belonging to her unemployed grandson, who lives with her.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "They are repossessing his car. I know he has been having difficulty making car payments. Now he will have no way to get a job."

Rosie also comes to our Tuesday prayer group, and she had been praying for the last few weeks for her grandson, Gary, who had recently lost his job and was experiencing some financial difficulties, including having to move out of his apartment, the reason he was living with her. She had also been praying that George would come to faith.

We found a place nearby to park and got out of the car. I took out Rosie's walker. Gary approached Rosie as she started to walk toward the house.

"Grandma," he asked in a whisper, "Can you help me? My car broke down in a city two hours away where I had gone for a job interview and needed to be towed back here. I think I can fix it, but the tow truck owner won't leave the car unless I pay the towing fee."

"How much?" she asked.

"$185," Gary said, flinching, knowing that Rosie would be angry, mainly because she did not have that kind of money.

"I don't know what to tell you or what to do," she said. "I don't have that much, not here and not in the bank."

Gary was crestfallen -- and worried. "He will have to take the car back with him, then," he said. "I don't know what to do, either."

Having overheard this conversation in spite of Gary's attempt to keep it private, I asked, "Will he take a credit card?"http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

"Yes, he will," answered Gary, "but I don't have a credit card."

"Well, I do," I told him. "I have God's credit card, and it can handle $185."

"Are you sure??" He was stunned.

"I am sure," I told him. "That is the purpose of this card. God will make sure it gets paid off."

With great gratitude, Gary accepted the offer. I sent Rosie into the house, it being cold outside, while Gary, the tow truck driver, and I handled the transaction. Gary thanked me several times, and then I left.

The greater thanks came today, however. Our prayer group gathered at my house for our monthly spiritual movie night. (We watched Gospel Road.) After the movie, we spent some time together, as usual, in prayer, including praying for intentions that had been shared with us.

Rosie had a special intention. "Gary knew I was coming here tonight," she said, "and asked us to pray for his job search to be successful."

Doris, who was on transportation duty for Rosie today, was surprised. "Gary? Really? I thought he did not believe."

"Well," said Rosie, "something seems to have changed."

Yes, indeed, there is something special about God's credit card.

Pakistan Redux

What I had planned to write about yesterday was not spirituality and the workplace but rather something I did on the weekend (other than spending nearly two full days painting fiesta booths for Old Mission Church), but apparently there was a need for yesterday's topic. So, that done, I am now back to the topic I had originally planned for yesterday.

It took a few days, but on the weekend I finally was able to make it over to a nearby city where there is a Western Union office to send Wajeeha a cash infusion from God's credit card. Now, there are three important pieces of information in the sentence that I just wrote: Wajeeha, Western Union, God's credit card. Each has a background and life of its own that may not make a lot of sense concatenated in the way I have concatenated them in this particular sentence unless you have been following this blog and remember some of my older posts. So, for assistance, let me provide the background and some new information for each of these.

Wajeeha. Given the rampant corruption in the Pakistan government and the loss to individuals within the government of much of the foreign aid coming there to help people affected negatively by the recent floods, Wajeeha, a young lady with whom I became acquainted nearly two years ago, and her classmates at the university in Karachi, an unaffected area, are making a pilgrimage to help their countrymen, one family and one homestead at a time. I promised to send her some money to help with her project. A little bit goes a long way there. (I did send some money; she got it immediately; she and her friends were able to buy clothes for some of the families who had lost their homes and everything they own. It is a great motivation to help when you have a direct, on-the-ground connection to the hands abroad doing the work together with your funds, as limited as they might be.)

Western Union. When I got to Western Union, I planned to send a set amount of money to Wajeeha and her friends. I had also saved aside dollars to use to pay the transfer fee, which can be quite high. I planned on about $60, based on my previous experience with Western Union. After all the personal information was entered, I asked the fee. The clerk astonished me with her reply, "You are sending money to Pakistan; there is no fee for Pakistan." It turns out that this is Western Union's way of helping with flood recovery. On the bottom of the Western Union customer receipt appear the following words:

Western Union expresses its deepest sadness to its valued consumers who have loved ones affected by the recent floods in Pakistan. We have waived our money transfer fee to Pakistan from 8/12/2010 to 9/12/2010.

I told several people at work, and they are now scrambling to gather as much money as they can to send to their relatives in the flooded regions before September 12. I hope that the waiving of the fee will encourage others who can afford to do so to send monetary help now rather than waiting.

God's credit card. I have posted information about God's credit card many times in the past. This credit card seems to have a life of its own. The last time I used God's credit card, about a month ago, the $500 that I spent on behalf of our prayer group to help a couple in need of divine intervention in their financial life was repaid within a week by volunteer donations from each of us within the group (20%), two individual donations from within the group from money that had fallen into their hands (50%), and unexpected sources of income (30%). That is the way it works with God's credit card. God puts someone in need in front of me. I use the card. It gets paid off immediately by money I did not have and would not normally have but that appears out of nowhere, and the card is ready to use again. In some months, the need arises multiple times. What is fascinating now is that within my prayer group, people are treating God's credit card as our group's credit card to help God's people. It is no longer mine alone. An interesting phenomenon, to say the least. We have used it for individuals in need who come to the attention of any one of us. Then we all contribute whatever we can afford to help pay it off, and the rest of the money comes from sources only God knows. The amazing thing is that the sources are always there, and the card is always paid off. I sent $300 to Pakistan on Sunday; I did not have the money to spare, but the card did. On Monday, a friend gave me $20 that she had saved up to help with Pakistan and told me to use it to help pay off God's credit card. This morning, I deposited another $175 in cash that came from an unexpected cash source, with another $50 from the same source promised tomorrow, unrelated to God's credit card but definitely appropriate for "spending" it to pay down the card. I also got an automatic deposit of $30 from the distributor of my books for some Internet sales last month, not a fortune, but here I am, three days later, just $25 from paying off God's credit card for the money used for Pakistan, and certainly I could donate the $25 from my salary easily, making the card immediately available for re-use, perhaps even for another infusion into Pakistan if God's will for such were to become clear. As I said above and have said every time I use that card -- AMAZING! With those kinds of experiences, it is easy to have full trust that God will take care of anything and everything.

And that is the post I had planned to run yesterday.

Come Along on a Journey to Help Pakistan One Family at a Time

Perhaps a few years ago, many people would not have been able to place Pakistan on a map -- well, those of us who were around when Bangladesh (East Pakistan) ran into trouble in the 1970s might have been able to put two and two together. Pakistan, however, was rarely in the news, at least in the regions where I lived, until right after 9/11 when the US needed help from that country. Now that country needs help from the USA -- and from the rest of the world, from you, from me, from anyone with a heart. Perhaps people gave all they had to Haiti; perhaps Pakistan is too far, too Eastern, too foreign for those of us living in the West. Whatever the reason, assistance from the West, which usually comes through for people in dire need, has not been as forthcoming in this instance, a place and time when help is needed in an overwhelming amount: 16 million Pakistanis are suffering from the devastation caused by the floods. (Help, of course, is needed and welcomed from everywhere and anywhere. Readers of this blog come from 109 different countries, including Pakistan. I hope that among you, there will be people who can help.)

Among the readers of Blest Atheist, the blog that preceded 100th Lamb, was Wajeeha, a young acquaintance of mine from Karachi, Pakistan. She and I mainly communicate via FaceBook. Over time, I have come to feel like she is just another of my children, and I am proud of what she is doing, both in college and in her current plan to help her country. A college student, living in an area unaffected by the flood but nonetheless concerned with the lack of help coming to the families stranded, impoverished, and left starving by the floods, she and her college classmates are taking matters into their hands and trying to help the people of Pakistan one family at a time. I asked her to write a post about her journey, and so I will let her tell it in her own words:

I, Wajeeha Asrar Siddiqui, with some friends and colleagues of mine have started the effort to help those who are affected by flood in Pakistan. We are collecting funds in this regard and have decided to take up the charge of everything under our own control. As prior we had trusted some government official with our money but there is nothing come to name of progress and God knows where the money gone. Now, we have decided to do everything by our own.

We are up for the task of rehabilitation for the people of Besham, Kohistan and connected districts. Our main motto is not to just provide them with food. The main motto is to let those back to their normal lives with all their respect and dignity. We are up to help those people without let them feel inferior to other members of the society.

We have aim to help those with food, water and clothing at first and then with books, raw material and space to practice and sale their handicrafts. People in those regions are masters of handicrafts. As we are already having Ramadan here so, the very first thing that is needed is drinking water and then food.

We would leave from Karachi to Besham and beyond by the end of August 2010. Our first target is to help 2000 families. An average cost of drinking water, food and clothing of a family for a month is around $150 - $200. We still need hands to join in and help us making our targets possible.

As we do not have much time left I request all those you’re seeking to help to send us their donations in cash. As the fact is, transferring of cash would take less time as compare to transferring of good. For all those who are looking forward to help can reach me by email ID: Wajeeha.thewonderful@gmail.com. (Money needs to be transferred via bank transfer or Western Union, so those wanting to help will need to contact Wajeeha and get the information to do so. I am reluctant to put this kind of information on a public site.)

You can also reach our representative in Besham, Engr. Said Mehmood (s.mehmood@crspk.org) who is working with Catholic Relief Services to help all those who are affected by flood.

I promised her some help from God's credit card now that it is paid off once again (see God's Crazy Math -- it took only two days for money to appear to pay it off), but that has a credit limit (probably a fortunate thing). Won't you help, too? Even a couple of dollars can make a difference. Given the exchange rate and the cost-of-living difference, a little can go a long way. I will ask Wajeeha to report on her journey periodically when time and electronic resources permit. Let's measure the compassion of the blogosphere with Pakistan as a criterion!

God's Crazy Math

Although most of my bi-weekly salary is already spoken for before it arrives by bills, children’s needs, and routine living expenses, I do make donations to those causes to which I am led. A couple of years ago, I began sending $10/week to one cause only. Tt was all I could afford on my tight budget, or so I thought. Once I began the routine donation, it became possible to double it, then double it again, and again. I am now up to $210/week with that donation. I have also been able to add other donations to which I have been subsequently led: $110/week for donation #2, $20/week for #3, $15/week for #4, $12.50/week for #5, and $7.50 a week for #6. Each started out as a $10 weekly donation, then grew a dollar or two at a time until the older ones became sizable.

No, I did not win any lotteries, and I have no idea where the money comes from. It just comes, and I am certain that as a result, the lower donation amounts will increase in the same ways that the larger ones did. Before anyone thinks that I am simply being humble about my riches, let me confirm that my salary alone would not cover these donations. These are God’s causes, however, and God covers them through many small financial surprises, such as being able to use per diem to provide $1000 for the children of Palomar, Colombia. I save pennies, and God turns them into dollars. I share dollars, and God multiplies them multiple-fold. From out of nowhere come unexpected bonuses, a higher-than-normal (i.e. higher than the cost of living) salary increase, unexpectedly good royalties, and, when gaps appear, a paid consultation that appears without my seeking it through a phone call from someone whom I may or may not know in need of my professional expertise. I empty the coffers. God replenishes them to a fuller level than before.

Similarly, a financial dilemma with the IRS left me $11K in the hole with nary a cent in savings in late 2006. God not only took care of that but gave me more –- enough to pay the tax accountant and donate $400 to a retreat center struggling to rebuild after a fire. I figured that the extra money belonged to God and so found a way to return it to God through the retreat center.

It’s the same way with God’s credit card, about which I have blogged on several occasions. The latest need was $500. Last week, on Saturday, I put $500 on the card for a couple in need, figuring that I could expect $50 in immediate return from others wanting to help out. On Monday, I got $90 in donations from others wanting to help. I turned around on Tuesday and charged $82.50 to the card in order to secure frequent-flyer miles help the sister of a friend and her two children escape from an abusive husband. The friend paid back the $82.50 and added $118 to help pay off God’s credit card balance from the earlier charge. The rest will come. I have learned to trust God’s crazy math.

P.S. I just have to add this note for anyone who reads this post again or later: the rest of the money to pay off the credit card came the next day after I received the $118! Yippee! Now I have money for someone else in need.

7 Quick Takes Friday #34

I'm ba-a-a-ck! I missed participating in last week's 7 Quick Takes Friday because I was at a four-day contemplative prayer retreat. Thanks to Jennifer Fulwiler for hosting the 7 Quick Takes meme at Conversion Diary.

1. The best part of this past week is the four-day contemplative prayer retreat on Franciscan spirituality that I attended at the St. Francis Retreat Center. I usually spend nights at home during retreats at the center since I am a local. However, Fr. Kevin, who led this retreat (my first retreat with Fr. Kevin, and I would certainly sign up right away for any others he might offer), wanted us all to spend our nights at the center even if we lived only five minutes away, like me. It was a wise request. Being there round-the-clock put me in a wonderful frame of mind, without being distracted by the various kinds of little (and sometimes not so little) things that come up at home.

2. Sunday afternoon, following the last Mass of the retreat, I hurried down the hill to lunch at Jardines, my favorite Mexican restaurant, with a friend who is an administrator at the University of California system (we have multiple universities here: Berkeley, UCLA, UC at San Diego, and more) and several of her colleagues. After lunch, we returned to my house to talk about a project that they are working on. Essentially, they wanted me to brainstorm next steps with them. It turned out that they had based their project in large part on one of my books, so brainstorming next steps was simple for me albeit not for them. Two days later I got a note from the admin assistant. They are paying me an honorarium for that afternoon. Wow! I had only thought that I was helping out my friend and was very happy to receive a free lunch as payment. I have no idea how much, but I am in need of some money to pay off God's credit card for recent use and, just like it always happens, here comes some money from out of nowhere to do that!

3. Ah, Monday! Back to work! A day stuffed with meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. Yep, that would be about right -- four meetings. One of them, however, was very enjoyable. I conduct a leadership meeting for junior and senior leaders every other Monday. Right now, we are reading a fun book that reflects my management practices: First, Break All the Rules. If you are a manager or leader of any sort, I highly recommend the book to you. It is even fun to read. For me, even more enjoyable is listening to the discussions and watching especially the junior managers grow in wisdom and expertise. Mentoring the younger generation in this way is one of the perks of my job.

4. Monday night had an unexpectedly beautiful ending. I hurried home because I did not know if my prayer group co-leader was in town, and I did not want to be late. Of course, he had my key, but that did not matter because the convent always has an extra key. Sr. M came over just as I was driving up. Neither of us was present at the last meeting (I was in Washington, DC), so we did not know whom to expect. Well, no one showed up. So, after some minutes of catching up on each other's activities, Sr. Maria and I spent a long time in prayer together. It was one of those special moments, filled with grace, that one cannot plan but for which I am always grateful.

5. This has been a week of visitors. Some weeks are like that. They are often a nice break in the preparation of documents, answering of enotes, and scads of staff meetings. This week I was delighted to have a few minutes to welcome back one of our employees who works in Saudi Arabia and was back visiting family. We had two visits by teams from Washington-based organizations, both of which wanted to pick my brain and those of one or another of my center or division directors. Then, over came my boss's boss, who is rarely in my directorate, to rehearse for a very high-level visitor from Washington. He was very happy with what my directorate proposed to present. Whew! Then, less than two hours later, I received a call to tell me that the visitor would not be coming, at least not now. Even more whew! The best visitor, though, was a name that showed up on my calendar -- my admin keeps my calendar for me, so there are sometimes surprises for me -- at the last minute on Thursday for lunch. It was a colleague from another directorate. A native of Yemen, he has spent time in Jordan, and we meet periodically over lunch to reminisce about a place that is easily adopted as a second home. What a wonderful, relaxing interlude -- after which I hurried to the bank to wire transfer money to Lizzie who had accidentally overdrawn her account. I guess kids never grow up; they just get bigger! (To be fair, though, Lizzie usually does an excellent job of managing her limited finances.)

6. Recently, I started studying my 18th language. On Thursday, one of my employees who speaks that language natively, offered to give me a 30-minute lesson (and to continue with more lessons next week and in August). Now, I have three-and-a-half hours under my belt. We were able to communicate about myself, profession, and family. Today, she contacted me to change the time. We went back and forth several times and finally decided that we would have to wait until next week to meet. We did it all in her language. I was quite pleased at such progress, especially since the "research" (which I don't quite believe) insists that anyone over the age of 40 will have trouble learning a foreign language. I am well past that age, and I am learning in each hour the amount that textbooks expect most students to learn in a week. So, there, Mr. Researcher, put that in your pipe and smoke it! Don't count grandmothers out of any picture!!

7. I have recently discovered that Mass is offered twice a week at noon at a little, near-by chapel. Unfortunately, I have been too busy to attend on a regular basis. This week, however, perhaps under the influence of the retreat last weekend, I realized that this is not a condition, but a choice. I do not have to be too busy. So, I marked "do not schedule" at those hours on my calendar ad infinitum so that my admin assistant would not fill in anything and I could be "unbusy." I have been able to make both Masses this week (today, even, I ended up as lector), and those days have had a magical feel to them, likely because I had my priorities in order on those days.

I am looking forward to a great weekend, beginning with Shane's birthday celebration tomorrow. I hope your weekend will be exciting and enjoyable, as well!

The Ticket

On Monday, one of the members in my prayer group told me of someone, a certain Jose, who has been mostly unemployed this year, who needed a plane ticket for Texas (from California) this coming weekend! I have offered my frequent flyers miles from time to time, but this time would be quite a challenge. It is a holiday weekend, and it was a last-minute ticket. I knew I would not have been asked had it not been important, but could the airlines help?

I called the Premier Executive line for United's elite flyers. The agent on the other end was very pleasant. She found one flight only from San Jose and one flight from San Francisco. Then she volunteered that both required the same number of FF miles; however, for those miles the flight from San Jose was first class and left a tad bit later although still very early in the morning and the one from San Francisco was economy and really early. Well, that was a no-brainer, especially since San Jose is the closer airport.

The agent patiently entered all the "gift" information for Jose and sent him a copy of the itinerary. Then she charged me the required $35 for the telephonic, last-minute transaction. I used God's credit card to pay for it.

Later, my friend called and said that Jose had noticed the charge on the itinerary. Should she pay it, she asked, or would he be charged at the airport. Neither, I explained. I had used God's credit card to pay for it, and I was certain that the money would appear before the card payment was due.

Then I settled down to work on bills since it was pay day. As I worked through the budget, I found a $35 bill that I had planned to pay this pay day but for some reason that I had not caught, it was already paid! I think it is fair to count those found dollars as payment for the $35 I owe on God's credit card.

My only comment: well, that did not take long! I think my friend Omar is correct -- God spoils me in not making me wait!

Oh, and one other comment: I love having this credit card; it has given me many opportunities to help people that I could not otherwise have done!

God's Credit Card to the Rescue - Again

"Go dancing tonight," the doctor told me yesterday afternoon at the end of my appointment. Yes, he wanted some more tests, but in general he agrees with me that I have been blessed with better health than my attention to taking care of myself deserves. So, I went dancing. Well, not literally dancing, but the effect was the same.

Donnie and I decided to grab a Subway sandwich and take it back home to San Ignatio (which has no fast food joints). We had some new movies from Netflix that had arrived in the mail and decided that after a hard week we deserved a relaxing evening. And that is just what we did -- after taking care of one of God's children.

When we arrived at Subway, we encountered a girl in her early twenties who asked us for a dollar. Well, being a mother, I have to know some things from kids in their twenties.

"What do you need it for?" I asked.

"Food," she replied.

Ah, in that case, I had a better solution that a dollar bill. I handed her one of my $10 McDonald cards. She could buy a couple meals with that. She thanked me and seemed sincere about it. Hollister has a 22% unemployment rate right now, so there are many hungry people looking for help.

AS Donnie and I stood in line, we had second thoughts. McDonald's was on the other side of town, and here we were at a place selling FOOD. For heaven's sake, we could buy her a meal on the spot and not make her trek somewhere else. Then she would have the card for a meal the next day.

So, I went back outside to talk to the young lady. She had started to walk off, ostensibly to go to McDonald's. "Excuse me," I called after her. "What's your name?"

She approached me. "Mary," she answered. Now there's a name that makes you think twice!

"Well, Mary, would you let us buy you a meal?" I asked.

She agreed with a wide smile, and in we went. We talked a little about the kinds of sandwiches we wanted while waiting in line, and she seemed a little awkward. That made sense, I thought. She did not know us. However, the real reason soon came to light.

"I don't know how to ask this," she started, then continued. "I feel guilty about accepting a meal for myself and then going home to my family who are also hungry. I was trying to collect money to buy food for them all. Could I get something for them, too?"

"How many of them are there?" I asked.

"Six," she responded. "Two children, my mother, my sister, and my brother-in-law, besides me."

"Okay," I told her. "We can manage that." Of course, we could manage that. I had God's credit card with me. ( I had originally set up a $250 credit card to carry with me for those times I ran into people needing help when I was without cash. The credit line on that account has been raised without my request to $500, then to $750, then to $4500. Yikes! I wonder if God has a big spending request pending for me. Not to worry; every time I have used the card for someone God has put in my path, within a month the amount of money needed to pay off the card has dropped into my lap. I run a zero balance on it.) So, here we were, God's credit card where it always is -- in my pocket, and a young lady in need of six meals.

Mary excused herself briefly to use the bathroom. The lady in front of us in line had overheard everything and suggested that we save money by getting three footlongs that were cut in half. That way it would only be $15 and would still be enough for six people. I considered it briefly and decided to leave that decision to God. It was, after all, His credit card.

Mary came back just in time to order. She immediately asked for four footlongs and two children's meals. As she darted back and forth between the person handling the bread and meat and the person handling the toppings, I remembered so many times doing the same thing with our kids. Sometimes, I had ordered as many as ten, depending upon who was home at the time. It was always quite an experience for the sandwich makers when my family came to dinner or I stopped by to bring them home. I got involved in the information passing to the sandwich makers, helping Mary. What joy! What fun! It was just like the old days, and for a brief few minutes, through Mary, it was like being back with my kids in younger years.

Finally done, we packed up all the sandwiches, chips, drinks, and headed out the door. "How far do you have to walk?" I asked Mary, eyeing her multiple bags.

"Oh, I live nearby," she said. "Near the dollar store."

"That's more than a mile away!" I protested. "We will drive you."

So, we drove her there, talking along the way about her family, current situation, boyfriend -- and the, yikes, fact that she might be pregnant.

"Okay," Donnie, now the dad again, brought up. "How are you going to feed the baby?"

"Well, if I am pregnant, my boyfriend has agreed to pay for the baby and get married. He has a job."

That seems like a backward way to do things, but I guess the modern days are different from the days in which we grew up. Nonetheless, both Donnie and I slipped right back into the parent role, discussing the implications of these kinds of things. She seemed to accept that even though we are not her parents. Somehow, it just all seemed so natural.

All too soon, we arrived and let her out. She started to walk away, then set down her bags and came back to me, as I was about to get back into the car after helping her with the bags. She reached out and gave me a big hug and smile. "Thanks," she said. And that was it.

Yesterday, I followed the doctor's orders. I went dancing -- but not in the literal sense.


From H2Helper, one of my other blogs.

God's Credit Card

note: image copyright Katrin Wegmann (www.katrinwegmann.de)

I imagine the title of this particular posting sounds a bit odd, but perhaps a little explanation will make it seem more reasonable. Several months ago, I blohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifgged about a nagging little concern that I had in the case of people asking for handouts in a post called, "The Art of Panhandling and the Act of Giving." My concern at that time was the thought of giving to people who did not really need the money or to people who were going to use it to make their condition worse (e.g., buying alcohol with it). Over time, both from bloggers' comments to that post and my subsequent reading and discussion with others, I have come to the conclusion that true giving is separated from dictating what a person does with the gift. So, that dilemma for me has been resolved.

There arose another dilemma, though. I do not carry money with me very often because I have so often been mugged and I do not need to because we are a plastic society, pretty much worldwide these days. So, when a panhandler or a person clearly in need has crossed my path, I have often not been able to help (although I would have otherwise been in a position to help). And so, I would ask God to give me another chance to help -- and I would blow it again because once again I would have only plastic with me. And then I would ask for another chance and blow that one and on and on.

On one of those occasions when I was apologizing for losing yet another opportunity to help one of God's people in need and "explaining" (obviously, a superfluous act) that given my plastic-only habit, I am not in much of a position to help anyone, into my head popped the concept that God can use plastic, too. And so I got God a credit card.

It was one of those card offers for a small credit line: $500. One can, with time, increase it as the bank and the customer build a relationship, but $500 seems to be quite an appropriate limit. I never end up putting that much on the card, and with that limit I cannot possibly get in over my head, at least not for long. Nothttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif that this could possibly be a worry because God always provides for me in such cases. So, God and I have this deal now. I reserve this card for His purposes. When He puts someone in need in my path, I pay with His card. (Of course, I can use my other cards, too, but they are usually maxed out, so having a card exclusively for God's purposes is very helpful.)

Here are a couple of recent examples of how God has used His card:

(1) I met a man in the parking lot of our local grocery store. He was on his way from Ohio to southern California to move in with his daughter, his luck having run out in Ohio. He was traveling by motorcycle, which requires less gas, and he had enough gas to make it to where he was going, but he had run out of food money the day before and was hungry. He asked for a couple of dollars for a doughnut and coffee. He thought that would carry him through the remaining six hours of his trip. I told him I had no cash but I did have a "special" credit card and if he would pick out what he wanted, not limited to a doughnut and coffee, for lunch and for the road, I would pay for it. So, he did, very judiciously. At the same time, I picked up some strawberries for dessert for dinner for Donnie and me. They were on sale: buy one, get one free. (This kind of surprising sale, just at the right moment, happens so regularly now that I would be surprised if it did not happen.) So, I gave the free strawberries to the hungry man; obviously, the sale was intended for him. As for paying off the credit card bill, the amount was so minor that it was no problem at all; I was able to include it in our food budget for the month without crimping our style, simple as our style tends to be.

(2) A couple of nights ago, about the time that the town was rolling up its sidewalks, I dashed to the grocery store to pick up some supper, our food supplies having become somewhat depleted while I was traveling. There, a young couple came up to me, the girl crying, saying that they were completely out of gas, no one would help them out, and that they were only two hours away from their destination. They looked younger than my kids, and it turns out that they were only 19, traveling across country for the first time to see some childhood friends. They begged for just one gallon of gas, enough to get to a town with more people where they might be able to get more aggregate help. I told them that I had no cash and explained about my special credit card. Asking them to follow me to our only gas station, I used the credit card to fill up their tank. They were ever so grateful -- and extremely relieved. The cost? $36. The next day, one of our church members saw me at daily mass (only when I am in town and can get off work, I go, so it is not all that often, unfortunately). This church member told me that she really needed two copies of my book immediately. (I keep 8-10 books on hand at all times, just in case, and I get them at author's discount.) Once she had paid me for the books and I had ordered the replacements at author's discount, my "profit" was exactly $36, just enough to pay the credit card bill.

So, I ask you: Is there any doubt that God is using "His" credit card?