Prologue (or just a little note)
I wanted to use real names to honor the people who have been so kind to us, but then they might lose their reward in Heaven (Matt. 6:1-4). That reward will be far better than my puny recognition.
Using full names might also open people up to “friends” of ours popping up and saying, “Hi, I’m a friend of Paul Young, and I heard you have good hospitality. Mind if I stay a year?” (We have “friends” like that too, which makes the hospitable one all the sweeter.) We’d like to protect our dear friends from abuse of their kindness.
In Cape Town we live near some people who reportedly pride themselves on their begging skills. We discovered, the hard way, that if you give a bag of peanuts to one, he’s going to tell all his friends, “Hey, there’s a soft touch at number 57,” and they would come by the droves. We had cheerful troops of little boys on their way to the beach, toothless drunks, unwed mothers with children in tow, all not wanting to miss out on a freebie. Some hid bikes and cell phones out of sight in order to look more plausibly needy. Others invented fabulous tales of “triple pneumonia” and all kinds of family members in hospitals or in the grave. One was telling me how his parents were both in Victoria Hospital. I guess I wasn’t pulling out the funds quickly enough, because he inserted, “And, I have another story…” and went on to tell me another yarn.
How do we know they’re yarns? When we check, we come up empty. Paul went to the home of a mom whom we were told had been robbed, moved away, and died. She was fine! So we must either conclude there was a miraculous resurrection or someone lied.
Anyway, I wouldn’t wish people like this on our friends, so I will not give enough details about anyone for strangers to track them down.
Contents
1.100 Houses
2. 2nd Milers
3. Nearest and Dearest
4. Prophet’s Chambers
5. The Days were accomplished
6. Devotional Dilemmas
7. RV Days,
8. Saddle-sore
9. Funny: Merry Heart Houses
10. Time Would Fail Me
11. Sowing in Tears
I wanted to use real names to honor the people who have been so kind to us, but then they might lose their reward in Heaven (Matt. 6:1-4). That reward will be far better than my puny recognition.
Using full names might also open people up to “friends” of ours popping up and saying, “Hi, I’m a friend of Paul Young, and I heard you have good hospitality. Mind if I stay a year?” (We have “friends” like that too, which makes the hospitable one all the sweeter.) We’d like to protect our dear friends from abuse of their kindness.
In Cape Town we live near some people who reportedly pride themselves on their begging skills. We discovered, the hard way, that if you give a bag of peanuts to one, he’s going to tell all his friends, “Hey, there’s a soft touch at number 57,” and they would come by the droves. We had cheerful troops of little boys on their way to the beach, toothless drunks, unwed mothers with children in tow, all not wanting to miss out on a freebie. Some hid bikes and cell phones out of sight in order to look more plausibly needy. Others invented fabulous tales of “triple pneumonia” and all kinds of family members in hospitals or in the grave. One was telling me how his parents were both in Victoria Hospital. I guess I wasn’t pulling out the funds quickly enough, because he inserted, “And, I have another story…” and went on to tell me another yarn.
How do we know they’re yarns? When we check, we come up empty. Paul went to the home of a mom whom we were told had been robbed, moved away, and died. She was fine! So we must either conclude there was a miraculous resurrection or someone lied.
Anyway, I wouldn’t wish people like this on our friends, so I will not give enough details about anyone for strangers to track them down.
Contents
1.100 Houses
2. 2nd Milers
3. Nearest and Dearest
4. Prophet’s Chambers
5. The Days were accomplished
6. Devotional Dilemmas
7. RV Days,
8. Saddle-sore
9. Funny: Merry Heart Houses
10. Time Would Fail Me
11. Sowing in Tears
12. A Permanent Home
What a good idea to record these memories...
ReplyDeletehello. we are baptist missionaries in portugal. we are expecting a grandchild in October and are looking for a place tomstay close to washington dc foar a couple of weeks. long time, i know, but if anyone knows of a place, at least for part of the time, we would be grateful. approx Oct 12 thanks!
ReplyDeleteportfigs@yahoo.com
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