One Christmas Card...

This is something I just posted on my Facebook page and thought that I should go ahead and put it on the blog as well.  I would be very grateful if you would share this with others you may know who might want to  participate in this simple yet very special ministry.  

I have a HUGE favor to ask of all my Facebook friends.  You know how at this time of year you always hear about someone who is battling cancer who would like to receive Christmas cards?  Well, I have just found out that the wife of a guy I went to high school with (yes, that was years ago!) has Stage 3 colon cancer.  Mike had asked his daughter to send a Christmas card to Cynthia as they don't think she is going to make it see next year's Christmas.  The daughter has ended up making a FB page called One Christmas Card (you can check it out and read the story yourself) and is asking for folks to just send Cynthia a card.  She is NOT asking for donations or gifts or anything other than for a Christmas card to be sent to Cynthia.  Could you maybe do this?  What a wonderful gift you would give to someone you don't even know...and we know Christmas is all about giving!  It doesn't even have to be a new or fancy card...but if you could do this, I would be so grateful.  Jim and I are going to try to send a card from here and hope it gets to her on time.  I am going to give you her mailing address...oh, and she doesn't seem to know why she's getting all these cards so please don't mention that Mike's daughter is behind this.  Also, if you don't want to sign your names, you can do it anonymously or even sign it with Mike's name!  Isn't this a beautiful and simple way (as well as inexpensive) for everyone to come together to bring a little bit of joy to someone's life?  Thank you so much!!!
Her name and address are:

Cynthia Flaherty
274 North Fish Haven Road
Lake Ozark, MO
65049  

I believe that I know and love some of the most generous and kind-hearted friends on the face of this earth and so I am looking forward to knowing that Cynthia is going to have an inundation of Christmas cards...please remember to pray for Cynthia before you mail the card and if God should bring her to your mind at other times, I know that Mike and Cynthia would appreciate your prayers of intercession on their behalf.

Aaargh!!! Cranky over car repairs....

Car repairs make me cranky!  Or maybe it's the need for car repairs that makes me cranky.  Or...maybe it's the car repairs that never got repaired that make me cranky.  Or maybe...it's figuring up how much we've spent on car repairs that had been completed, that remain to be completed and that were just completed today.  Whatever...I'm a little cranky tonight and the majority of the crankiness centers around our vehicle and all those who have been associated with it the last three months!  Maybe that's why I've not gone anywhere the last two days...cranky missionaries aren't what any of us want to be - or see!   :)

As of tonight, the car's a/c appears to be fixed. The other repairs still remain to be re-repaired by the mechanic who supposedly repaired them in the first place!  And the billfold is empty.  Guess what we are getting each other for Christmas this year...and our birthdays and our anniversary?!  At least I won't have to spend any money on wrapping paper...and I suppose we've helped do our part in making a couple of car mechanics' holiday season a little brighter.  Just doesn't feel like a particularly great way to start our first week back...

Looks like we'll have to wait until next week to try to get back to the first mechanic's place to have him work on the car again.  We got a call tonight from Susanna saying that Kenneth has an appointment at La Mascota early in the morning so we won't be able to do anything more with the car's issues tomorrow.  And I'm thinking we probably are going to miss our pot-luck Christmas dinner at our pastor's house as tomorrow will most likely be a long day and I won't have time to fix anything when we get home...plus, we'll most likely be tired and sticky after a day at the hospital and in the neighborhood. 

I'm looking forward to getting past these rough patches in re-acclimating to life here.  Three months in the States and I'm conditioned to expect things to go pretty much as scheduled and for people to do what they say they will do.  I have to remember I'm in the Land of Nothing-Goes-as-Planned and living in the City of Good-Intentions-But-Not-So-Hot-Follow-Through!  Saying it's a quick and easy adjustment is a stretch for someone who loves to plan their work and then expects to work their plan!  

These are just minor irritants in and of themselves...I think it's when they're hitting one after the other like falling dominoes that my frustration level grows.  

I don't want to end this on a negative note so let me just say how terrific the weather has been the last two days!  Beautiful skies, lovely breezes and daytime temps in the mid to upper 80s with night time temperatures down in the mid 60s!  Glorious!!!  And...there's always next week to look forward to now, isn't there?