A few weeks ago when shopping at the Hermitage Walmart, Donn wanted to buy the kind of wax one uses to seal jelly. When he asked a clerk where he could find Gulf Wax (the brand name), she replied, “In Sporting Goods.”

  As soon as she was out of earshot, Donn said, “Well, it’s obvious she doesn’t know what she’s talking about!” Since it’s impossible to tell whether one is saying “gulf” or “golf,” apparently, the woman thought the product was used to wax golf balls.

I added my two cent’s worth about where the wax might be, and we went on to check the canning department. We didn’t see any Gulf Wax, but the clerk working there said, “If we have it, this is where it would be. We must be out.”

We walked on and I said, “That lady didn’t even look at her magic black electronic device to be sure that’s where it would be. Let’s find another clerk and ask them to look it up.”

Soon another clerk appeared, and I asked, “Do you have a magic black electronic device?”

When he looked puzzled, I explained. Instead of pulling out his device, he said, “What are you looking for?”

When we explained what we wanted and where we had looked, he said, “Oh, if we have it that’s where it would be.”

The clerk made no move to look it up, and we walked away disappointed.  After we got into our car, I looked at Donn, shaking my head. “Not a single one of those clerks could be bothered to look up Gulf Wax on their magic device! Let’s go to the Customer Service desk in Greenville. Maybe they’ll look it up.”

When we explained what we were looking for at the Greenville Walmart, this clerk too was of the opinion that it would be in the canning section. But at last she pulled out her device and her expression changed. “It’s not in the canning department. It’s in Aisle 16, and it says you can pick it up today.”

Armed with this information, we walked to Aisle 16 with determined steps. Even when we didn’t find Gulf Wax immediately, we didn’t give up now that we knew this is where it was kept. Another woman shopper asked what we were looking for and when we told her, she pointed to a shelf much higher than we were looking.

Sure enough, there beside the boxes of Jello were boxes of Gulf Wax!  Donn was ecstatic that at last we’d found what he was looking for.

“You know, somehow I think there’s a devotional in this,” I told Donn as we walked to the check out. ”Not a single one of those first three clerks were willing to look up the information we needed even though they had the ability to do it. It makes me wonder how often we do the same thing.”

“What do you mean?” Donn questioned.

“Well, not that the Bible is a magic device, but as Christians we know it has the answers our unsaved friends and neighbors need. Yet so often as we see them struggling,  we fail to share the answers we’ve found in God’s Word.” I sighed. “Maybe because we’re afraid people will be offended or think we’re preaching at them.”

As I pondered this, I prayed that the Holy Spirit would help us to be more tuned in to the “random” conversations that spring up with family and friends so that we can hear the questions people are really asking, refer to the answers we’ve found in our magic black book, and offer them guidance that will help them find what they’re looking for.

September 23, 2023 / New Neighbor

Last Saturday as we approached our new neighbor/friend’s house, she looked up from her endless yard work and said, “I was just thinking about you folks. I was thinking it was about time for you to come by!’

 After a pleasant chat, we went on our way, and I wondered when God would give us more opportunities to talk about spiritual things with Jenny.

On Monday evening, we stopped again to chat. She opened up and told us some very personal things she hadn’t told us before. Then, we talked again about our shared experiences with breast cancer and she asked how my treatments were going.

Later, Jenny said, “I didn’t see you out walking on Sunday. You must have walked earlier or later than usual.”

I laughed. “We didn’t walk yesterday. I take a nap on Sunday afternoons, and sometimes I don’t feel like getting dressed to go out and walk later.”

She nodded. “Some days if my daughter is away, I don’t get dressed—just stay in my pajamas all day.”

“Oh, I was dressed on Sunday because we went to church in the morning, but then I put on lounging pajamas to have my nap and didn’t feel like getting dressed again.”

Jenny looked thoughtful. “I don’t go to church, but I used to go to church in England.”

Immediately attentive, I asked, “What church did you go to in England?”

“It was a Baptist Church, but the Baptist Church in England is different than the Baptist Churches here. “

“What did they teach you in the Baptist Church in England?“

 When Jenny gave some rather generic answers, I cut to the chase. “Did they teach you that you need to have a personal relationship with Christ?”

“Oh yes,” she said. “When I was eleven, I even went to see…oh, what was his name? The famous preacher who went around having meetings and huge crowds came to hear him?”

“Billy Graham?” Donn suggested.

“Yes, yes, Billy Graham. At the end of the meeting, everyone stood up and I decided I’d better stand up too.” She chuckled and added more details about that experience.

Jenny told us she had also gone to church with a friend in Hermitage but she didn’t like the pastor’s sermon. “He said we need to be good but he gave the impression that he thought we were being bad. My friend didn’t like his sermon either.”

She also didn’t like the fact that there was lots of singing and dancing at her friend’s church. She smiled and said, “You know how in England everything is quite proper.”

We told Jenny where we go to church and laughingly said, “There’s no dancing.” She said she would have to “try that out” some time, but then went on to say that in England, her church always sang hymns.

“Our church has a service that sings a lot of hymns but the one we attend sings contemporary worship songs, so you might not like that either,” I admitted.

Before we moved on, Jenny apologized for “telling us all her problems,” but told me, “If you’re ever having a bad time, you could come to my house and I’ll fix you a cup of tea like we do in England.”

I hugged her and told her I was very glad God had brought us together. “I have no doubt it was Him because this wasn’t our normal route until after my surgery and chemo.” 

We went on our way, thanking God for deepening our relationship with our new friend.

*Name has been changed.

   Father, give us opportunities and courage to ask questions and share words of hope and life that will help our friends and neighbors find what they really need.  Amen.

I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame,

And nothing satisfying there I found;

But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came,

Where springs of living water did abound.

John W. Peterson

Health Update

I got back the results of my Holter (heart) Monitor on my UPMC app and although I haven’t yet heard from my doctor, it looks like everything is normal or nothing to be concerned about. I will see the cardiologist again mid-October.

All during my chemo, the only writing I did was my blog. It seemed like I couldn’t focus on any of my other writing projects, but last Thursday, a week and two days after my last chemo treatment, I decided to try again. I was able to work on my projects with no problems. I’m so grateful because I’ve heard people talk about having problems with not being able to focus for a long time or even forever after having chemo.

Last Tuesday for the first time in 16 weeks, we didn’t go to New Castle for a treatment. I was delighted to be able to rejoin the prayer group at Fresh Grounds, the Christian Coffee House in our town, which meets on Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m. I’m thankful I can be there two out of every three weeks since I will continue to have Targeted Treatments every three weeks until May or June.

Thank you so much for your prayers!