It started out as a weird day, and it just kept right on going that way! Yesterday was such a strange, blessed, confusing, wonderful day! It started right away with me, because for the first time in I don't know how long, I did not do the usual, and stay up til the wee hours, but went to bed fairly early,Tuesday night, right after I took my pills,and my snack settled.Then, three hours later, as is my norm, I did get up and visit Mrs. Murphy, but then, instead of staying up and blogging, I ignored all the distracting promptings, and turned around and went right back to bed! For one, I was still very tired,and for two, I knew that Sherry would be here early...that was the plan, and that I wouldn't have a chance to have much in the way of a nap throughout the coming day.I briefly considered taking my bath and washing my hair then, but knew I would be too tired to follow through with the styling, so, why bother? When I finally arose later, I had slept an additional four or five hours, (very, very odd for me) so I had had roughly eight hours sleep! So far, so good.Joan arrived at the appointed time, and started the dishes, and then Yon son came draggy-tail'n in, eyes at half-mast,and I knew he wouldn't be up for long, so I eschewed the whole ham-egg& cheese croissants, in favor of oatmeal,(or was it Cheerios?) and instead sent Joan up the hill to pick up my prescriptions,and my paper products...thank goodness she knows the drill,and I don't have to explain to her about good bath tissue, verses slabs of wood, and that paper towels means ONLY Viva.Paper plates on the other hand, can be bought anywhere,and the cheaper the better as far as I am concerned.So, Breakfast was over, Joan comes back about the time I get the peck on the cheek, and the "I'm going to bed" thing from Yon son.Just about that time, Joan herself realized she had bought me the wrong Viva. She got the plain white "three different size" things, when she knows I hate them, and so that was set aside with the sales receipt,still in the bag, to be replaced today.So, her time was up,and I signed her out, and Yon son ran me a bath, and went on to bed,and now alone, I made my trembling way into the bubbling bathtub. This all sounds far easier than it is, since I have all sorts of restrictions and appliances just to help me do this.But, basically, it were so.So, there I am, sinking into a whirlpool of frothy warm bubbles, trying to relax and enjoy what used to be one of my greatest joys on earth, which has now turned into a trial I must put myself through, simply to be clean.Getting in is a struggle, so I have two sets of handrails to help accomplish both the entry and the dismount,and, if there are two pieces of grit under my behind, it feels like sitting on sandpaper, so no relaxation there, plus, all the time I am sitting in that hard porcelain tub, my back is screaming with pain! But, it hurts to be clean as well as beautiful, so, oh well. I cannot stand not being clean.So anyway, there I am, sud-sing up my hair, and the phone rings.Now, normally, I take the phone in the bathroom with me, in case I get into trouble, but Yon son's bedroom shares a wall with the bathroom, and it is right next to the tub,so this time I outsmarted myself, thinking if I had a problem, I could just beat on the wall, and wake him up. It never occurred to me someone might call. Not when everyone who knows us, including his office, knows we sleep days.So, not only was the phone ringing,but the voice announcement was saying,(in my voice)" Fifi cab calling!" Now, before I go on, I must explain something.Fifi is NOT the name of the cab company.The Joke is, the boss named the company after her dog, and isn't it lucky, as Yon son says, that it is what it is.She has a little Scottie dog.Good thing it's not a poodle, or he would be driving for FIFI cab! But after three or four rings, the messenger service picks up, and so I continued to shampoo, rinse,and then condition my hair. About the time I was actually bathing, and the conditioner was ready to be rinsed out,The phone begins to ring again.Again the cab office announcement.That is when I got concerned.This was more than an idle call, for clarification of some paper work,or even asking Yon to come work that night. This was urgent.So, off goes the whirlpool, I rinse my hair again, and finish up my bath, and in ten minutes or so, I am able to traverse the dismount,and climb gaspingly into my head-towel, bathrobe and slippers, grab my fresh outfit, and stumble into my chair, wheel to the phone,and punch up the message.It's the day dispatcher, calling because a friend of a friend has called him with an urgent message for us.Two names automatically leap to mind, and then a third, who might be dead! So, I called Yon son. He comes stumbling out, and once he gets his eyes open,and his brain in gear, I tell him what I know, and he calls dispatch.Mogwi's friend, Gerri, hasn't heard from her in 35 days,and thinks she is dead! So I call Mogwi,and it is busy.Knowing her,she only has the one line,and no answering machine or messenger service, or voice mail, so either her phone is out of service, off the hook, or she is talking.And, there is no other way to tell, but just to keep calling.So, while Yon goes back to bed,and I work on my hair and other grooming, I stop every once in a while and call. All day, I keep calling.Finally, I am dressed, hair done, face moisturized and eyes on,and have done the fruit center piece,and am working on the flower arrangement,when it hits me. I should call Gerri and let her know I am working on it, but just to have faith, because this is not unusual for Mogwi.I am in the middle of this message, because she does have an answering machine, when it hits me how strange it is to have to leave this message, for a nun! Now, she had known Mogwi when we met her.She ought to know how she is.She will go anywhere she takes a notion to, at the drop of a hat,leaving no notice with anyone.She will stay up for several hours, straight through a day or two,and then drop, and sleep for two or three days.She has scads of animals, any one of which could, and would be able to, take the phone off the hook,and she wouldn't be wise to it, until she wanted to make a call.She is fun, thoughtful, and generous to a fault, but she still, is a bit of a ditz! Yon and I have been through this scenario with Mogwi several times before,and finally got so frantic, we called the police,and begged them to go over and make sure she is alive! She responded by calling, angry, and informed us that we are never, ever to do that again! They scared her to death, and before it was all over, the animal welfare league,and social services all got involved,and she nearly lost her house and all her pets,and got sent to a nursing home! If I am dead, I'm dead! There is nothing you can do about it then, so don't do that again,because If I'm not dead, my life will be ruined! She said. So, keeping that in mind, we went on with our lives, but I still have to keep calling. The tubbing /phone thing happened about 11:00 a.m. I put the last touches on the flower arrangement, tucking in the last yellow tulip along with the bridal wreath, babies breath, mums and carns,around 1:30. Sherry had to come very early, and was due to be dropped off about 2:30, so there just wasn't time for a nap, so I stayed up,took my noontime pills,and puttered around, played with Teddy, fed the fish,and got caught up on "Days"and "Passions"(Good grief!), watched out the back door,(No Sherry) called Mogwi,(still busy)and visited Mrs. Murphy about 7 times. My thoughts were so caught up and scattered, like leaves before a gusty wind,that I knew there was no way I was going to be able to blog.The little man in the file room of my brain was running around in distracted circles,and if he couldn't keep things straight, what hope had I ? So distracted, that I am sure I ate lunch, but I have no idea what it was.Maybe an orange.Maybe orange sherbet. Who knows,who cares? The point was, nobody but Yon and I were where we were supposed to be,and it was getting later and later, and nobody was calling,and nobody was answering,and nobody was coming.So, finally about 4 O'clock, Yon son gets up,and Sherry arrives,and suddenly we are thrown into a flurry of activity, because Sherry expected to catch up to us on the game, I have to punch up the computer,and get the game set up for her,and last minute decisions have to be made about dinner, because Bible study starts at seven,and we like to be done with dinner by that time.So, I am setting about selecting what goes into the salad,and getting set up to chop veggies, and find the big salad bowl, and Yon is making his list for the store, and he goes, and comes back,and I am dividing my time between Jeopardy! and the salad,and Sherry,and calling Mogwi,and at the last minute too, I remember we have a whole fresh container of mushrooms to throw in with the pork chops, and so I get to chop them too,and setting up the bowls of snacks, like Cheetos and Doritos and Frito's,and along the way, I know I popped a regular Lay's potato chip in my mouth,but nearly all of them made the trek to the dining room, so Sherry would have something to munch on while she played.Before I knew it, the salad was made,and while the pork chops and mushroom gravy simmered on the stove, we joined hands and prayed a blessing on our food and all in our house,but about the time we said amen, the fire fell.Sherry and I raised our heads and opened our eyes, but Yon son was still on his feet, eyes closed, hands raised to God,and praying.Then he looked at us,and through tear filled eyes, he giggled,and said, " Do you feel that?" Oh, yes. We felt it alright.The presence of God was all over all three of us.It lingered through the salad, even though we talked of other things, it was still there. He was still there.By the time we had finished our salads, we still had not had dinner,and it was time for Bible study, so I did what I usually did. I dropped everything,and away I went to punch up the site,and get the Bibles out, and set them around the table,and yon son plated up the dinner,and brought our plates to the dining room table.And then,the most beautiful words, to me, ever spoken, were said by Jimmy." If you have your bibles tonight,turn with me please to the book of Job,chapter 1 verse 6 thru 12,picking up where we left off last week,but first, let's go before the throne..." and then when we prayed to bless the actual meal, Jimmy was in prayer on the screen.Gone were all other considerations and concerns. The word was our focus.We ate, but it was a bite here and a bite there, more interested in following Jimmy's exegesis of the word, than on the perfectly prepared, delicious food.We finished our dinner quickly,and set the plates aside,delving into God's relationship with Satan,and theirs with Job.As Jimmy began to preach,Yon son began to shout, That's right! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Praise God! And I believe the presence of the Lord was intensified with each word of praise issuing forth from Yon son's lips. I could tell that something was going on then, because even though we are given to praising God throughout the day, and during preaching under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, this was different. This was in response to a building presence, that had descended upon us during the earlier blessing,and had never left us, but the major emphasis of which, seemed to be settling upon Yon son.The more Jimmy brought out the background of Job, and warmed to his subject, the more excited Yon son became,but not obtrusively so.We were not being distracted from our study, rather, it was being enhanced. There was no grand-standing here, no bid for our attention,I assure you.In fact, I have gone over this in my mind,and listened to the tape from last night, and I still cannot tell you when the moment was that Yon prayed through...but pray through he did.Suddenly, he was on his feet, hands in the air,eyes closed,and praying to God in a soft voice,and I don't even know when that happened.Although, there was that slightly annoying moment when the phone rang,and my first thought was, Now, who would be calling during Bible study? But it was Yon son's wife,and she was on her way, and was there in time to see and rejoice when Yon son prayed through,and got the magnificent baptism in the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking with other tongues,and we were all lifted up at the sight and the sound! Believe me, it was real. Anyone, no matter how jaded or how much of a skeptic they might be, had they been in my dining room last night, and had seen and heard Yon son as he was suddenly yielded to the in-filling of the Holy Spirit would know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it's real! The whole room was charged with the spirit. Goosebumps, thrills running through us all, and Yon son simply standing there, arms outstretched to the Lord, weeping,and verbalizing his conversation to the Lord, deep sobs breaking from him as the glory broke his heart,and cast out all manner of stumbling blocks from his spirit, ( I assume,since that is what happened to me) so far out of touch with all else but the touch of the Lord, that when the doorbell rang, he didn't even hear it, so Sherry answered the door,and it was Yon's wife.Sherry came back, Wifey came in,and instantly assessed the situation, and didn't even try to address him, or us, but stood there, transfixed,as was Sherry.They said nothing beyond,"He's got it." Or words to that effect, and he alternated between praising God and thanking him for his unutterable gift, and speaking in tongues, or using his prayer language, as they ..er...we call it.I was the only one who had something to say.Not on purpose, and certainly not to break in, or get Yon's attention, but once you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, when you hear someone speaking in tongues, you can't help it, yours just comes bursting forth too! I don't know how long that went on, but at last I did notice the Internet service was over, and shut down, and went on to other things we wanted to do.But, not at that point.I just closed out the windows media player,and shut down the recording relay system,and stopped the tape.Finally, Yon came out of it,and opened his eyes,and saw his wife was here,and went directly to her, eyes red-rimmed, cheeks wet,and beaming with joy, he took her into his arms and greeted her, like I have never seen him greet her before.Sherry looked at me, and I looked at Sherry. "Well!"Sherry said." I do believe the Lord is taking a hand in that situation as well!" I nodded." And me without my fan."We looked back,and they were still kissing,and he was nuzzling her neck.Said I," I shall avert my eyes at the proper moment." We looked again, and she was giggling, and he still wasn't letting her go." The moment has come..." I went on, and we both averted our eyes.No, it wasn't anything nasty.It was sweet.It was true loving affection between husband and wife, and they kissed,and giggled,and nuzzled, and laughed,and then he was tickling her,and they both laughed, and held on to each other and blushed.In those next few moments, as wonderful and Christ-like as Yon son is, it became apparent that there had been a change in that man,now that he has had such a profound experience with the Lord.While Sherry and I set up the game,Yon went ahead and took the remnants from our meal to the kitchen, turned on some music and began to straighten up from his cooking,and when his wife heard the songs he was singing, she began to sing too,and left us and went into the kitchen, where they worked side by side,and sang the whole time, in between kisses and giggles.
What did they sing? " Why don't you let down your nets, way down in the water, there's a blessing there that you cannot contain..."
There was way more to the evening than that, where we laughed and played a silly ball tossing game with little launchers, and we even went on to watch a movie,full of humor and love and song and blessings,but one by one, we all finally crashed,but this post is already huge! Suffice it to say, I'll have to write more later!
OUI?
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