Extra Ordinary People

[Itaewan]

Just want to share some true stories that I have came accross....

The Piano Teacher

At the prodding of my friends, I am writing this story.

My name is Mildred Hondorf.

I am a former elementary school music teacher from DeMoines,Iowa.

I've always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons -- something

I've done for over 30 years. Over the years, I found that children have many levels of musical ability.

I've never had the pleasure of having a prot

[Itaewan]

The Blue Ribbon - Against Child Abuse

Sarah

My name is Sarah

I am but three

My eyes are swollen

I cannot see.

I must be stupid

I must be bad

What else could have made

My daddy so mad

I wish I were better

I wish I weren't ugly

Then maybe my Mommy

Would still want to hug me

I can't speak at all

I can't do a wrong

Or else I'm locked up

All the day long

When I awake

I'm all alone

The house is dark

My folks aren't home

When my Mommy does come

I'll try and be nice

So maybe I'll get just

One whipping tonight

Don't make a sound!

I just heard a car

My daddy is back

From Charlie's Bar

I hear him curse

My name he calls

I press myself

Against the wall

I try and hide

From his evil eyes

I'm so afraid now

I'm starting to cry.

He finds me weeping

He shouts ugly words,

He says it

[Itaewan]

I am blind, please help

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet.

He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help."

There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man walking by took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat.

He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words and put the sign back so that everyone who walked by wouldsee the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up.

A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were.

The boy recognized his footsteps and asked,

"Were you the one who changed my sign this morning?

What did you write?"

The man said, "I only wrote the truth.

I said what you said but in a different way.

" What he had written was: "Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it."

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing? Of course both signs told people the boy was blind.

But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat.

The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

The first sign simply said the boy was blind.

The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this story.

The first is: Be thankful for what you have. Someone else has less.

Help where you can.

The second is: Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently. There is always a better way of doing things!

[Itaewan]

Beautiful (true) story.... makes you understand that things happen for a

reason.

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn , arrived in early October excited about their opportunities.

When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.

They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc, and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days.

On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.

The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus.. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.

Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet.. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria . When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave.

Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do.. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.

One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike.

He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison.. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.