Our Ministries Coordinator Karen's Message

July, 2005

Mark Twain once said “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.”

I like Mark Twain, because I thought wrinkles were a sign of getting older and it's not at all, its about smiling.  Have you ever laughed so hard that you cried?    I love summer not only because of the heat, but because its vacation time.  Gary and I have so many fond memories of when the girls were little and every August we would go to Hayward for a week with Roger and Dar and their four boys.  It was a week of swimming, fishing, eating and laughing way too much.    When you live in a cabin for a week there are different rules you need to follow, such as you have to be sure that the garbage can cover is on tight, because if it's not your going to be woken up in the middle of the night by momma bear and her cubs digging through the garbage looking for any left over goodies.    Then there is the over abundance of bats.  How does that nursery rhyme go "not a creature was stirring not even a mouse"? Everybody was sound asleep when all of a sudden we heard this blood curdling scream coming from the lower level (where the kids were sleeping), followed by kids running up the stairs, parents are flying out of their bedrooms, gathering up their loved ones and half expecting to see the Loch Ness monster.  No Loch Ness monster this time, just a scared, lonely bat looking for a place to sleep.    We knew we had to get the bat out of the cabin or else we would never get those kids back to bed.  The adults proceeded with a plan to send the bat back to the woods.  We didn't want the bat to get upstairs, so the plan was for Dar and me to take a blanket and hold it over the entry way so that the bat would have to stay downstairs.  Gary grabbed a tennis racquet and Roger grabbed a broom, and they were going to coax the bat to leave by the patio door.  Everybody assumed their position and the plan was activated.  There were a couple of details that were not counted on.  One being the ceiling fan was running at high speed and the bat had also come up with a plan on his own and it didn't match our plan.    So here's Roger and Gary with their equipment swinging at the bat, the bat is diving first at them and decides to head for the fan, at which time Gary is hollering at the top of his lungs at me to shut the fan off.  Well not only could I not find the switch to the fan, Dar and I were laughing so hard at the sight of two grown men in their pajamas with a broom and racquet chasing after a bat who has no intention of going outside, that we dropped the blanket.  Lucky for us the bat didn't go upstairs and decided that it was in his best interest to go outside where it was safer and not so insane.    Laughter, it does the heart good.  God didn't give us the gift of smiles to keep hidden; He gave it to us to share with each other.  It's ok to think of fond memories and smile to ourselves.  It's even ok to laugh out loud or to laugh in church when Pastor Russ tells one of his jokes.    My sister once said I can always find Karen, just listen for her goofy laugh. Smile, God is.

Hugs and Prayers,

Karen Your Ministries Coordinator

Not for Publication