It is September 17, 2012 and I have failed to make the updates here that I planned. And, today, I do not yet have a photograph that I would like to post with the page but I will find one soon and update this page with it. Chance encounters sometimes turn in to opportunities to give a Bible to one of our service men or women.
I have been working with Jay and Susan Hurt and others to bring about the 50th reunion for my Pawhuska High School class of 1962 and as we went along, I spent small sums of money on it. I bought stamps, a file for record keeping, a plastic box to hold envelopes, envelopes, business cards, several things along that line. And I had intended all along to leave what I spent on the table for the reunion so that proceeds would be donated to the Pawhuska Educational Trust Fund (and I may have its title incorrect). Last week, the Hurts insisted on settling money with me and returned to me $280.00 which I tried to get them to keep but, well, they were very insistent and said that I could use the money for my vacation to Santa Fe. I did not feel right keeping the money as it was never my intention. So, I decided to invest in Bibles. I had $280.00 plus $20.00 that John Main had paid me for a few photographs I had printed of him, and I told him I could not charge him, a long time friend of so many years, but I would accept a donation for Bibles. With that, I had $300.00 plus the donation that a gentleman in Tulsa makes plus my $100.00 so we soon had $500.00. I took the money to my financial organization and deposited it in the account for Bibles. When I specified the account, the young lady waiting on me asked, politely, "May I ask, (raising her brow), do you give Bibles to the military?" "Yes," I replied, "We give military Bibles to Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, the whole smear across the board." She then told me that she knew of a unit in Afghanistan who would like to receive Bibles. I got her name, e-mail and told her how to find my blog here on the Bibles and I went to Ruth's Christian Book store up the road in the Washington Park Mall. I ordered thirty Soldier's Bibles with the intent to take them to the larger recruiting station in Tulsa, as I have done now for some seventy Bibles. I was just thinking that this delivery would make one hundred Bibles delivered to that office. The soldier I had just met, Jessica Beach, weighed on my thoughts, and through our e-mails, I got her name correctly, took one of the Soldier's Bibles I had at home back to Ruth's and asked for Jessica's name to be printed on it. I delivered it to her in the late morning and then confirmed a few things we had talked about with the unit she asked me to ship to. At this writing, we plan to divert this order of thirty to that unit. Yes, there will be a few more complications than just driving sixty miles to deliver them, but I hope the station has enough Bibles for a while to allow me to send this order to the unit. I have a few more e-mails to exchange with Jessica and the sergeant but then they will be on their way where I know they will be received well.
See how a chance encounter with someone turned out to be good?
Stephen
