A Beautiful Christmas Love Story.

You may have read it previously under a different title. A True Story
told & retold so as to give Glory & Eternal  Praise to God  for His
work done in a mysterious way ! This version is elaborated with lace
of X'Mas..... in His presence,  "Emmanuel"....God be with us.

Knowing one's strong faith in Him, He's even prepared to answer before
one's asked; in this case 35 years earlier, the 'Key' to reunion of
the old couple..

Beautiful story.... makes you understand that things happen for a reason.

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first
ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn , arrived in early
October excited about their opportunities 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, etc, and
on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On
December 19, a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and
lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over 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, ivory colored, 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, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth 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
like a sheet.. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that
tablecloth?"
The pastor explained. 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 the initials of the woman, and she had made this
tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just
gotten the Tablecloth. 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. He 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, 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.

W hat 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 got 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 all the 35
years in between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little
ride. They drove to Staten Island and 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.

True Story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid, "Who says God does not work
in mysterious ways.. I asked the Lord to bless you as I prayed for you
today, to guide you and protect you as you go along your way. His love
is always with you, His promises are true, and when we give Him all
our
cares you know He will see us through.

So when the road you're traveling on seems difficult at best.. Just
remember I'm here praying and God will do the rest. Pass this on to
those you want God to bless and don't forget to send it back to the
one who asked God to bless you first.

When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God
is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is
simply
say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.

Father, God, bless all my friends and family in what ever it is that
You know they may be needing this day! May their life be full of your
peace,
prosperity and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship
with you. Amen."

Short Story - Two Invisible Pockets

Two Invisible Pockets

A grandfather is telling a story to his grandson.

Grandfather said:
"We all have 2 invisible pockets; one in front and one behind our
body. So what are the 2 pockets contain?"
"The front packet contains other people's mistakes, weaknesses"
"The packet behind contains our weaknesses and mistakes."
"So when we lower our head, we only see other peoples' mistakes and
weaknesses. That's why we can only see other people's wrongs, mistakes
and weaknesses easily whereas ours will be always behind us."

Grandson think a while and he said:"Then we should have 2 mirrors, one
behind and one in front so that we can see our mistakes and
weaknesses."

In life, we need to have reflection on our behavior and action and it
is not only one mirror but you need 2 mirror to do it.

#LifeQuotes- Don't Follow The Follower

Processionary caterpillars travel in long, undulating lines, one creature behind the other. Jean Hanri Fabre, the French entomologist, once lead a group of these caterpillars onto the rim of a large flowerpot so that the leader of the procession found himself nose to tail with the last caterpillar in the procession, forming a circle without end or beginning.

Through sheer force of habit and, of course, instinct, the ring of caterpillars circled the flowerpot for seven days and seven nights, until they died from exhaustion and starvation. An ample supply of food was close at hand and plainly visible, but it was outside the range of the circle, so the caterpillars continued along the beaten path.

People often behave in a similar way. Habit patterns and ways of thinking become deeply established, and it seems easier and more comforting to follow them than to cope with change, even when that change may represent freedom, achievement, and success.

If someone shouts, "Fire!" it is automatic to blindly follow the crowd, and many thousands have needlessly died because of it. How many stop to ask themselves: Is this really the best way out of here?

So many people "miss the boat" because it's easier and more comforting to follow - to follow without questioning the qualifications of the people just ahead - than to do some independent thinking and checking.

A hard thing for most people to fully understand is that people in such numbers can be so wrong, like the caterpillars going around and around the edge of the flowerpot, with life and food just a short distance away. If most people are living that way, it must be right, they think. But a little checking will reveal that throughout all recorded history the majority of mankind has an unbroken record of being wrong about most things, especially important things. For a time we thought the earth was flat and later we thought the sun, stars, and planets traveled around the Earth. Both ideas are now considered ridiculous, but at the time they were believed and defended by the vast majority of followers. In the hindsight of history we must have looked like those caterpillars blindly following the follower out of habit rather than stepping out of line to look for the truth.

It's difficult for people to come to the understanding that only a small minority of people ever really get the word about life, about living abundantly and successfully. Success in the important departments of life seldom comes naturally, no more naturally than success at anything - a musical instrument, sports, fly-fishing, tennis, golf, business, marriage, parenthood.

But for some reason most people wait passively for success to come to them - like the caterpillars going around in circles, waiting for sustenance, following nose to tail - living as other people are living in the unspoken, tacit assumption that other people know how to live successfully.

It's a good idea to step out of the line every once in a while and look around to see if the line is going where we want it to go. If it is not, it might be time for a new leader and a new direction.

For those who have tried repeatedly to break a habit of some kind, only to repeatedly fail, Mary Pickford said, "Falling is not failing, unless you fail to get up." Most people who finally win the battle over a habit they have wanted to change have done so only after repeated failures. And it's the same with most things.

The breaking of a long-time habit does seem like the end of the road at the time - the complete cessation of enjoyment. Suddenly dropping the habit so fills our minds with the desire for the old habitual way that, for a while, it seems there will no longer be any peace, any sort of enjoyment. But that's not true. New habits form in a surprisingly short time, and a whole new world opens up to us.

So, if you've been trying to start in a new direction, you might do well to remember the advice of Mary Pickford: breaking an old habit isn't the end of the road; it's just a bend in the road. And falling isn't failing, unless you don't get up.

Earl Nightingale
From The Essence of Success

Who's Driving Your Bus?

If we think about our own lives as being a journey on a bus, surrounded by a great variety of people, all with particular positions on our bus that relate to where they fit into our lives. Some are right there next to us; some behind us; some in front of us... but all are important in playing some role in how we are "positioned" in their lives, and they in ours.

As I write this I am reminded of the movie "Speed" with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves - where they were all on a bus being controlled by a maniac demanding a ransom. The truth is that all too often our lives can be like that; out of control, with someone else doing the driving. A fearful situation? Of course it is!

The brutal truth is that so many people are living-out that nightmare bus-ride right now! Out of control - and don't know what they can do about it.
OK, now you've got the scene in your mind. In order to get some perspective on our own lives, we need to move to the back seat of the bus for a while, and become the observer of what is really going on.
We need to observe who the most significant people are, and how they are positioned in our lives.

Are they standing over us because they feel superior? Are they moving forward in their own lives and leaving us behind? Are they falling behind us because we've chosen to move forward?

So now we are faced with an important question, "Who's driving your bus"?

Is it someone from your past who has dominated you and what you do, even though they may not still be present in your life now? Are they taking you where you want to go? Do you feel like you would like to the bus to stop and let you off? Now here comes the challenge...

From this rear seat of observation, we need to start to move closer to the driver's seat. It doesn't matter how long this takes, and it doesn't matter how much we are challenged by the people who may be trying to block our progress forward. We have to do this for ourselves... starting right now!
Our goal is to be in the driver's seat of our own lives!

It is inevitable that we are going to be challenged, and that's when we need courage!

Yes - we will all take different lengths of time to move forward... that's when we need persistence, and patience with ourselves!

Most certainly we will feel daunted at times by this process... that's when we need to have determination!

We are going to have to ask people to vacate their seats (which can possibly be their dominant positions in our lives) so that we can move forward towards that front seat we wish to occupy. We are going to have to sit in the middle of the bus at times while we learn to muster more courage and determination to move forward again. This is all part of the process, so stick with it because this is all for YOU!

During this process of moving forward we must remain conscious of where the bus is now, and think about where we really want to take it once we're up front, and in control.

One very important point! At no stage in this process do we tread on someone if they get in our way (as we move forward), simply step around them and move on.

OK - you've made it! You have asked the driver to step aside and let you have your turn, and now you're in the seat. It's all up to you now!

If you're not too sure of what to do and how to do it, just stop and park for a while. It doesn't matter what you do and how long it takes, because this is your game now - so play it your way!

Get crystal clear on where you choose to take your bus now, and very clear on who you wish to accompany you on this new journey. The rest is a process of trusting your own judgement and decisions.

Good luck... and always remember - "What other people do or say is their stuff; how we react is our stuff."



©Phil Evans - People Stuff T - 2005
Phil Evans is a Motivator, Business Coach, Life Coach and Inspirational Writer based in Australia. You can visit his website at: www.peoplestuff.com.au or feel free to email Phil with your comments on his story at: phil@peoplestuff.com.au