Happy times

Friday was the day for our annual Christmas party given for the staff and volunteers at Knapp Medical Center.  We always work on Friday afternoons and had to leave our posts for a while to attend the party.  There is a buffet and veggie trays and a big dessert table.  We had just used our last free lunch card at noon, so we ate at the hospital all day.  While we worked, Evelyn tried to make an appointment to have her knee treated.  She had an X-ray taken for the orthopod to examine.  She will learn next week when she will see him.  There are 2 brothers who were raised here.  they are in practice together.  She saw the younger last spring and didn’t like him.  She will see the older next week.

Saturday we tried to deliver our gifts to the children of prisoners.  Immanuel participates in the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree program.  The idea is to provide gifts to their children as if they were from their dad.  The first place we visited was likely the wrong address, but the families move around quite a bit.  I don’t know how we will find that child.  The second one was a challenge.  We drove north of Mercedes, the town where Immanuel is located, and out to a colonia full of dwellings.  Some of them are quite nice but most are old trailers and junk houses with boarded windows.  It was a drizzly morning, making for mud all around.  I slid up to 3 houses before finally finding the trailer where the baby lived.  2 women were there with at least 5 children including our 1 year old.  Surprisingly, the young women spoke English and seemed grateful.   I am sure one was the mother but likely not the wife.  There were 2 sheriff vehicles likely looking around the neighborhood for some other criminals.  We had not eaten but couldn’t find a restaurant acceptable, so we came home.  I had to clean much mud from my shoes and made it into the house just before the deluge began.  The Valley gets very little rain and this one was a gift from our gracious God.  It is still raining at least 45 minutes after it began.  I will work on tomorrow’s message for the rest of the day, except when I watch the Purdue basketball game.