If I can ever get that cloning process perfected I can make a lot more money in my life/lives.
The mattress company I’ve been driving for took the entire week of July 4th off. As in they shut the entire factory down. That meant I didn’t have anything to deliver that week unless it was made by Friday of the previous week.
Fortunately the Apainter Paul had some big jobs come in that he needed my help with. So my budget is still intact. I’m the closest thing to cloning himself that he’s come up with. Somehow that doesn’t sound fair.
Anyway, now that the mattresses are back to being made there’s a backload of orders from the stores that stayed open and sold more of the product that wasn’t for a week. I hope that makes sense.
The dispatcher wanted me to finish my run that went from Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas to Missouri and back in time for me to go back into Arkansas before Friday evening.
I said, “Things will have to run extremely smooth for that to take place.”
Well, my deliveries ran as smoothly as I could have asked for…until my final stop said they could’t take my delivery until Friday morning. They were just too backed up taking in appliances to have room for mattresses.
Fortunately the dispatcher already lined up another driver for that multi-day run. But, now he wanted me back in time to deliver a local drop on Friday.
That didn’t happen.
So there I sat, 3:30 Thursday afternoon, with nothing to do until 9:00 Friday morning in Springfield, Missouri.
So what’s a guy to do? I pulled out a book I’ve been working through so God and I could have a good old fashioned get together.
The book in question is titled Improving Your Serve. No, it has nothing to do with tennis.
It’s the one book I insisted not be thrown out during any of the crazy moves that Barb and I endured.
It made such an impact on me the first time I read it I decided I would pull it out at least once every ten years so I could revisit the thoughts in it.
I chose years that end in nine simply because I graduated high school in 1979. Chuck Swindoll’s classic is still impacting me these many decades later.
With the crazy, unpredictable schedule I have reading a book quickly is out of the question. I’m just over half way through this one in July.
I had before me the two chapters that work through the Beatitudes. Oh, yeah, I didn’t expect to digest this as fast food. Savoring every morsel is what this called for and time was now on my side.
What stopped me in my tracks the most this go round was Chuck’s definition of mercy. It’s seeing things through someone else’s eyes.
I thought about my friends in Uganda, one of the poorest countries on the planet. Mike runs an orphanage. JP runs a school that needs to start an orphanage and a women’s program.
I only thought I grew up poor compared to what these folks endure. We had food to eat because we lived on a farm.
A basic, staple meal in Uganda consists of porridge. Porridge consists of corn flour and water…and perhaps a dash of sugar if they can find any.
Some days they have to do without even that.
I’ve sent money to Mike when I can, which isn’t often enough.
JP said he had folks who said they’d give money to him if he had a PayPal account to show he’s legitimate. The only problem with that is PayPal doesn’t do business in Uganda, one of the poorest countries on the planet.
I couldn’t help but feel JP’s shoes on my feet with people wanting to help but they’re to leery of being frauded by an African claiming poverty.
Is I watched through JP’s eyes I saw children crying for food and a place to stay safe. An education is a luxury that’s too much to expect.
They rent a shack of rotting boards for their school. It’s dusty in the dry season and has running water across the floors in the rainy season.
JP was hanging on to the knot at the end of his rope by his fingernails. He was doing all he could from his end. He needed some help in America.
I suddenly felt like Peter and John saying, “silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.”
I made a website so I could have an email to create a PayPal account for the Ugandan nonprofit called SHALOM: Samaritan’s Hope and Love of Mercy.
It wasn’t long after the account was open that donations came pouring in.
Teachers were paid. Rent was paid. Government mandated tests were purchased. Sewing machines were obtained for the women to learn a trade.
Hope returned because I showed mercy to people I have never met in person.
That’s God’s love in action.
More work needs to be done. Land is being offered to the school by a grandfather of some of the students.
All they need is $4,000 to begin their escape from the tyranny of their landlord who won’t fix anything while charging too much.
People have promised bricks, poles and sweat equity to make it all happen in Uganda.
I’m waiting for either the family farm to sell or financial help from someone else who’ll see things through Ugandan eyes.
Here’s the PayPal link: PayPal
Any amount will go directly to the work in Uganda. I even cover the PayPal expenses for each donation and pay to send it there.
Your donation is not tax deductible at this time. That will require a nonprofit status in America. That will require a board of at least five people to begin it.
Will four more folks see through Ugandan eyes to help?
I’ll see you later. Wade
