December Oddity

As Christmas races towards us and we send out our greetings - as I do now to all my readers who persevere with my erratic and non sequitur postings - I need to explain an apparent recent lack of communication.   As happens towards each year end I have begun transferring dates into my 2017 pocket calendar (no, still not digital!)  I noted a possible preaching tour in the Far East that was first mooted at the beginning of 2016.  Realizing I had heard no more details about the theme and expected work....or anything....I sent an email to the US organizer.  He assured me that the visit to Taiwan, S. Korea and Philippines was definitely happening in May 2017.  So I noted it in my 2017 schedule.

The next day I received an email from the team leader Tom Long (there will be four preachers in all) with a copy of his detailed outline of theme with deadlines for our responses.  Guess when he sent it?   Back in August!  But, mysteriously and very irritatingly, it had been sent to me at a non-existent yandex email address.  I was stunned to read what I was supposed to be working on these last few months. I was living in blissful ignorance (not for the first time). Tom shared in my astonishment that I had been gifted with a mythical email account especially since it is a well-known Soviet server that swallows up all correspondence so that he was unaware I had not received it.  He pondered the image of some Russian operative trying to decipher the code embedded in details about an Asian preaching conference!

Needless to say, the last few days I have been focusing on my contribution and trying to catch up!  However,  Carol with customary flowing pen has been sending out cards to friends with manic intensity.  Many readers of my blog are wisely anonymous but to you all let me reiterate my very best wishes for a joyful Christmas and fulfilling year ahead.  For many these are difficult days...may you especially know that the coming of Christ changes everything for the better.  Just imagine if we could not say 'God with us'!