Discounts to Kill For

I ate a lot of food yesterday. And it was good food. Turkey, dressing, potatoes, green bean casserole, some pie... mmmm, yum. I love Thanksgiving.

But today is a day that has always perplexed me, irritated me, and sometimes downright angered me. Allow me to voice my outrage today. I just read a news article describing a tragedy, and a tragedy that, in my opinion, is the a consequence of something that represents a much larger problem than this individual circumstance.

A 34 year old man, Walmart employee, was trampled to death when unruly customers broke down the store doors, stampeding to beat everybody else to the best deals on items they obviously desperately need. What was this man's name? Did he have a family, a wife? How many kids did he have, and what were there ages. How do you explain this to a kid?

"I'm sorry to tell you this little Susie, but your Daddy was trampled to death but your selfish neighbors, and because they all were thinking of nobody else but themselves, you will never see your daddy again. He won't be there to comfort you when you cry. He won't be there to congradulate you at your high school and college graduations. He won't be there to walk you down the aisle and give you away to your groom. Your children will never know their Grandfather." All because keeping an extra $50 dollars in their pockets was more important to a mob of surburban shoppers than a man's life.

Can you see where greed is leading our nation?

Give a Guy a break

An old man nearly brought to tears. A gang of teenagers laughing, excited, and enjoying themselves. It may not be quite what you think.

Last weekend we hosted youth groups from two different churches and two different communities. Everything they did while they were here exposed them to some facet of God's heart for the nations and our call to missions. Meals eaten reflected the need of world hunger. Games were played in which students tried their hand at Bible smuggling. It was a great weekend, the students were wonderful to work with, and they learned a lot about missions and gained a fresh perspective and passion for it.

But the climax of our time came Saturday night at dinner, when our neighbor, Guy, stood and shared his appreciation for what they had done for him. An elderly man in his 80s, living alone, and for 5 hours on Saturday we took his house by storm: raking, cleaning, and cutting down brush. And we had a blast doing it. Then we invited him to join us for dinner.

I will conclude with his own words, in a letter he wrote to us...
"I didn't know that I have ever believed in miracles before but I certainly do now... I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked out at nine and saw about twenty kids all ready to work and believe me, work they did.
"That was all truly a miracle from our Maker."

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