Time To Connect

The clanking of metal bouncing over pavement caused me to brake, move from left to right & make a sudden stop on the shoulder of the newly widened Mexican highway.   As I prepared to get out of the car to check on the cause of the noise, one meter didn’t feel like a particularly safe space between me & the cars whizzing by.   But then continuing on wasn’t really an option either.   So, I said a quick prayer, took a deep breath & hopped out.   Well, that distressing noise was the result of the decorative bar across the bottom of the car coming loose at the back end, driver’s side, traffic side.   Every time I bent over to check how I was going to fix it, another car or semi caused me to question the sanity of what I was doing.   My prayer was short & to the point, not panicked but with a concern that comes when one is alone on a Mexican highway with no obvious solution to the problem.   “Please send someone to help me.   And please keep the traffic in their lane – prefer

  I had just moved into a different house.      It was a house with a few needed repairs which the landlords were less concerned about as soon as I moved in.      But… it was home.   This fixer-upper did have new paint, a new toilet & … new sounds.      One morning, I suddenly awoke thinking “Ahhh?   That’s not rain I’ve been listening to.”      Sure enough, the “rain” was pouring off my roof.   Having experienced this in other houses, I knew it was the tinaco (water tank) on the roof overflowing.      So, I got dressed & went out to turn off the water at the street.      I wandered the yard, got sandy slippers & drew blood hitting my head on a tree branch (no glasses & still dark) only to find that this house didn’t have a street level meter & shut off tap.      Huh… Now what?      Not only was it wasting water but the water was now covering my kitchen floor.      But, who does one call for help at 6:45 on a Sunday morning?      I called my Mexican brother who ofte

  Each year in December, I ask God for a word for the coming year.  Sometimes that word stays at the forefront of my mind all year long.  Other times it’s like a New Year’s Resolution that gets attention in January but gets forgotten a few weeks or months into the year.  The word for 2019 was “Hope” which I thought was an indication of a very positive year to come.  I soon discovered that it’s in the hard things that we need, search for & hold onto hope.  And I found that to be true through the year, as several people very dear to me passed away.  I learned that true hope is not found in circumstances in which I have little or no control, but in knowing God loves me, will never leave me & has a plan much deeper than that which I see.  Those lessons have continued to strengthen me in 2020. Choice – that seemed like a positive word to start 2020.   Freedom of choice is something we all cherish.   What would I be choosing?   Maybe a different car, a new route to Canada, a Bible