Following is a sweet story from my email inbox. It was originally written by Howard C. Schade for the December 1954 issue of Reader's Digest. It is a great story of mystery, hope and providence to share before right Christmas.
The story is told of a brand new pastor and his wife, that arrived in suburban Brooklyn in early October excited about their opportunity to reopen a church. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve. They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, and whatnot. And on Dec 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished.
On Dec 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.
On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.
By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder and hangers to put the tablecloth up as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was as white as a sheet.
"Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained how he had found it at the flea market. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were her initials, and she had made this tablecloth 16 years before, in Austria. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, feeling that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve! The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving.
The man asked him where he had gotten the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike? He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again.
The pastor asked him if the man would allow him to take him for a short ride. They drove to Staten Island, to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
"Humor is just another defense against the universe." -Mel Brooks
The story is told of a brand new pastor and his wife, that arrived in suburban Brooklyn in early October excited about their opportunity to reopen a church. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve. They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, and whatnot. And on Dec 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished.
A few weeks ago I heard someone say about another person "I love them but I do not like them!" 
“We only have what we give.” -Isabel Allende
My top three Christmas movies in no particular order ...
During November I shared each day (well almost every day) about the things that I am thankful for at my other bog, An Eye for Redemption. Thought that I might share a few excerpts here from those thankful thoughts.
Seventeen years before John F. Kennedy became the 35th president of the United States - in the early morning of August 2, 1943, to be exact - a PT or Motor Torpedo Boat under his command was rammed and sliced in half by a Japanese destroyer in the waters of Blackett Strait, in the Solomon Islands. Kennedy's wartime career had been unremarkable to that point. He had shown a talent for scrounging the occasional loaf of bread or haunch of New Zealand mutton for his crew, he had nearly destroyed a refuelling dock in his rush to be the first PT boat returning from overnight patrols, and he was a congenial and businesslike commander of his tiny boat with its crew of twelve. The PT boats were the terriers of the Pacific Fleet, yapping at the enemy's heels but rarely getting the chance for heroics, and PT109 was no exception. 
I was a season ticket holder in the late 90s and absolutely loved the winning atmosphere in Arrowhead Stadium back then - even though we never really made it far in the playoffs (when we got there). Those winning days gave way to the mediocre ones of the past ten years. Last year the team hit an all-time low when they lost fourteen of their sixteen games.
“Eating, and hospitality in general, is a communion, and any meal worth attending by yourself is improved by the multiples of those with whom it is shared.” -Jesse Browner
I went to see this film that I had greatly anticipated with a young lady who's company I have had the pleasure to share a few times recently. I was very enthusiastic in promoting it to her, being confident that I was offering some quality movie entertainment, having read the book years ago and loving it. In fact, I read the whole series that Card created back in the late 70's and 80's. Unfortunately, I was let down by the movie's excessive melodrama during the first half of the film. In fact, I was a little embarrassed at the weak performance by Harrison Ford and most of the child actors. Throughout the first 1/2 to 3/5ths of the film. I felt I was leading myself into giving her the impression that I didn't know what a good Sci Fi movie looked like. 
Just heard that Blockbuster Video is closing all of it's stores in the USA. The news caused me to flash back to the days before Netflix. You remember those days. The times before streaming videos and Red Box dispensing machines. Memories of trips in the car on weekend nights to get the latest VCR and hoping that it was not sold out. And then there was the Nintendo games that the kids always wanted to rent. It seems like just a few years ago. Fond memories of a simpler time in my life.
"If I am anxiously striving to make myself feel certain that all my beliefs are true, fearfully avoiding anything that might cause me to doubt them, and fearfully suppressing any doubts that I may already be experiencing, doesn’t this indicate that I am not getting my core need for love, worth, and security from the God who is revealed on the cross? " -Greg Boyd, Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty
Which Star Wars Actor Became Enormously Wealthy Off The Film’s Royalties?
According to an article titled "Study shows eating Bacon will make you live Longer" ...
One of my blogging friends posted recently about how she wanted to use a Blogspot name that is not available because it was used many years ago and is now defunct. It reminded me of how many of my friends gave me the business when I moved to Kansas City, Missouri in June, 2010. They said that I could no longer be known as Kansas Bob simply because I no longer lived in Kansas.
