To: Mac Almond, Sheila J. McGriff, Juanita L. Brown, Charles W. Rutherford, Barbara A. Sykes, Kenneth E. Stutzman, Jr. Johnnie M. Dodson, Chauncey Stumpter, Anonymous (Libra/Goat) and Jared N. Moore
From: Michael E. Porter
Membership List On Web: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddn3r8c7_80gsz3h5
Date: November 11, 2007
Re: 22nd Update.
THE OLD FISHERMAN
Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of
upstairs rooms to out-patients at the Clinic.
One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the
door I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller
than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled
body.
But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and
raw. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see
if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning
from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning."
He told me he'd been hunting for a room since
success; no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face. I know it
looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments..."
For a moment I hesitated, but his
next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the
porch. My bus leaves early in the morning." I told him we would find him a
bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper.
When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us. "No thank you.
I have plenty." And he held up a brown paper bag.
When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with
him a few minutes. It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had
an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a
living to sup! port hi s daughter, her five children and her husband, who was
hopelessly crippled from a back injury.
He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence
was prefaced with thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no
pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer.
He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.
At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I
got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded, and the little man
was out on the porch.
He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly,
as if asking a great favor, he said, Could I please come back and stay the
next time I have a treatment? I won't put you out a bit. I can sleep fine
in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel
at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to
mind." I told him he was welcome to come again.
And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning.
As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had
ever seen. He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that
they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at
time he had to get up in order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time
that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.
Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special
delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale,
every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail
these and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.
When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a
comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. "Did
you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose
roomers by putting up such people!"
Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice but, oh! If only they could
have known him, perhaps their illness would have been easier to bear.
I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him
we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with
gratitude to God.
Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As she showed
me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden
chrysanthemum, bursting with
blooms but to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented,
rusty bucket. I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in
the loveliest container I had!"
My friend changed my mind "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and
knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind
starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can put
it out in the garden."
She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was
imagining just such a scene in heaven. "There's an especially beautiful
one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old
fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body."
All this happened long ago -- and now, in God's garden, how tall this
lovely soul must stand.
The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the
outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Friends are very special. They make you smile and encourage you to
succeed. They lend an ear and they share a word of praise. Show your
friends how much you care.
You know this group is down to one number. And I still have hopes that we will win, because all we need is one number. But not last night, we had nothing.
What we have won so far:
| Amount Won | Date Won | Running Total |
| | | |
| | | |
Mac’s spreadsheet is up and ready for viewing: http://tinyurl.com/2pjdut
Your next drawing is on
Shares in this game were priced at $20.00, and we had 9 shares issued. Here is what the pay out would be, it we win
| Shares purchased | Amount you could win. |
| .5 | $2,527,777.77 |
| 1 | $5,055,555.55 |
Game Announcements
1. Lotto
2. Mega Millions Lottery Pool – Game 39 – Cost is $10.00 per share. This game starts on
Love Story
I will seek and find you. .
I shall take you to bed and have my way with you
I will make you ache, shake & sweat until you moan & groan.
I will make you beg for mercy, beg for me to stop.
I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I'm finished with you.
And, when I am finished, you will be weak for days.
All my love,
The Flu
Now, get your mind out of the gutter and go get your flu shot!
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