What Goes Around

Today at church there was a new lady visiting.  She wore a suit.  She looked a bit nervous, always looking around.  She sat down, looked around, moved to a new suit, looked around.  Every so often she would move to a new area.  Finally she sat down on my row a few seats away from me.  I smiled.  During our church we have a welcome time where visitors stand and tell where they are from.  One of the regular guys introduced his guest, which happened to be the Honorable Diane Ablonczy, a Canadian member of Parliament.  Never heard of her.  It isn't unusual to have high ranking officials at church, like Ambassadors or others, but maybe this was the first time for a member of Parliament. The lady by me didn't stand and introduce herself.  Maybe she was shy.  But she looked around uncomfortably.  So I decided that when I got a chance, I would scoot over and ask if she was new.  I got my chance during the offering. ...

Yes, one time I went to a sporting goods store and tried to buy a gun.  I was at a point in my life that I needed some extra protection.  I was scared. A few days before my trip to the sporting goods store, I was sitting in my apartment alone just minding my own business when all of a sudden some thugs (or teenagers) starting kicking my door, trying to break in.  There were 4 or 5 of them as I recall.  I could see daylight through the door.  I quickly called 911 but then thought, "Is this an emergency?"  So I hung up.  I dialed again and hung up.  The group had left by then and were going down the street.  The 911 operator called me back.  I told her what had happened.  She told me to call the police.  I told her I didn't know the police number and didn't have a phone book, so could she give me the number.  She said, "No.  Call information.  And only call 911 if they are IN your house." I got the police phon...

I was feeling artsy yesterday.  I found an interesting painting that I thought I could do something similar to and so I gave it a try.  Here is a link to the painting  http://www.artistrising.com/products/388445/Pink-and-Brown.htm   and here is what I did I nailed it!

Today in our staff devotion time we were looking at a passage about the wondering in the wilderness for 40 years.  And someone brought up the idea of the training we go through.  It made me think of an event in my life that I haven't shared with people.  I think because of this event, I am able to understand a small, little bit of some of the things the girls in our home have gone through.  So even though i don't look at it with thankfulness, I can look at it as a situation that God redeemed. I had a boyfriend when I was 15 years old.  He was controlling and abusive.  Not anything like what the girls in our home have gone through, but in a way I can relate.  One day this boyfriend got angry.  He was angry at me for wanting to break-up with him.  He was angry at himself.  He was talking about killing himself.  He had to drive me home from his house since I wasn't able to drive yet.  As we drove, he was mad.  He pressed t...

I often times put myself in the place of judge.  I am critical.  I am judgmental.  I may even try to do the work of the Holy Spirit.  I guess I can put this on my list of things to work on.  So now if I go on about something I am judgmental about it really shows that I'm not working on this issue in my life.  But I really want to speak.  I want to tell you how people bug me.  I want to tell you about the wrongs in other peoples lives. I'm a minimalist (in my opinion anyway).  Although Steve pointed out today that I have a lot of bags/purses.  I was pointing out an item that he had a lot of and then he turned on me.  It is true.  I have a lot of bags.  People give me some of them or I have purchased them.  Several have broken zippers.  Many of them I don't use.  So why not get rid of them.  So today instead of posting about the people who are purchasing expensive, unnecessary items, I will go home...

I now know the smell of melting wires.  Kind of a fish smell.  I don't think I ever had a plug or wall socket melt in America, but for some reason I have had several incidents here just in the last couple of months. Today the electrician came to change the plug and the wall socket.  I had smelled the wire burning when we turned on the hot water heater but we needed hot water so we used it a little more then we should have.  But finally we decided it would be safer to not use it.  The electrician pulled out the wall socket and showed me how it was melted and burnt.  And then the plug of the water heater also was burnt.  So both had to be changed. Why is it that wall sockets melt here?  What is different?  Why does it happen so often?  Why do all our houses have bad wiring?  Don't the electricians care about the work they do? 

My name can be difficult for many people.  Young kids struggle with it.  Asians struggle with it.  Africans struggle with it.  And even Americans have struggled.  I don't know how many times I have been called Lisa, even by a cousin.  Even a man named Leslie looked at my nametag and called me Lisa.  For many Asians, the L and R are hard to say, so I become Resrie.  On the phone when I am asked by name by the Dominoes Pizza people, I just tell them my name is Laxmi, a name they will know.  But at the hospital the other day, I had a confusing conversation. When I tried to give blood, but couldn't (see post below), they looked at the form that I handed them and tried to say my name.  The problem is that the person who wrote my name down wrote it wrong to begin with.  Even though I spelled it out for them, they got it wrong.  Instead of Leslie, I had become Oeslie.  So the lady at the blood place didn't know how to pronounc...

I did not get to give blood today, but almost.  At the government hospital if someone has surgery then someone has to give blood on their part.  Not for the patient but for the hospital.  So I went to donate for a friend, but they said they would just give it to her for free and not take my blood.  I tried to convince them that I have great blood, but still they refused my blood. We got a call from our friend that he was at the emergency room with his wife and she would probably need surgery.  We went to see what was going on.  They had gone to the emergency room and were told to go to the women's area for the next step.  Only women are allowed in the women area so it was a good thing we came.  I went in with her to the waiting area and we were ushered in to the examining room.  She had had an ectopic pregnancy and a tube had ruptured.  So they were scheduling her surgery right away.  The poor thing was in a lot of pain.  Bu...