Life’s surprises, divine appointments

Since I taught a class yesterday and will repeat that process on both Wednesday and Friday, I elected to not go to the office this morning, my scheduled day to work from the office. It was a wise decision. Late yesterday evening management decided to close the office to all non-essential personnel. I would have gotten up early to get to the office on time only to be sent home. The current surge in people testing positive for COVID was the impetus for closing the office. I laud their safety focus, especially since we have proven our ability to work from home with almost equal efficiency, but I am tired of our focus on eliminating exposure versus implementing effective treatments for the illness. It is here to stay, and we need proven methods of dealing with it other than hiding from each other. The office shutdown put a damper on the invitation I was going to send out this morning for the open house Mama was putting on for Color Street. I would now be inappropriate to extend such an invitation to my fellow employees. But, as it turns out, that may be a moot point.

Mama was talking to Grandpa this morning and was not receiving any good news. All three of our temporary Floridians are sick. We have to assume they are sick with COVID, but Grandpa is heading to the doctor this morning to see if our suspicions are correct. He is the only mobile member of the group. Grandma cannot get out of bed and is running a pretty high fever. Grandpa told Mama that he does not have the strength to mover her without her help and at the moment, she is not able to offer any help. Nor is Norman able to offer any help with Grandpa’s incapacity. Norman has only stirred from the couch for brief periods of time. According to Grandpa’s update, Norman is somewhat better today than he was yesterday and is able to drink a little water now and again (which is a significant improvement), but he is still quite sick. All of them are relegated to the tiny space the RV offers, so recovery is going to be complicated by the confines of that limited space and its lack of good ventilation. Sometime soon, doors will have to be opened to allow an influx of fresh, less contaminated air for them to breathe.

Mama, in her need to offer some nurturing to her ailing parents, will soon join them in that crowded space. We are not sure at this moment when, or even if, she will go, but her heart is set on helping them out with whatever care she can offer. Victoria has offered to pay for the ticket to get Mama to Florida, but we are waiting on a follow up report from Grandpa to make sure sending Mama into that situation is the correct thing to do. We have a very limited time to pray about it, but God is not constrained by our timeframe, so we are actively seeking His guidance for us and how we can best involve ourselves in the situation and His healing for them. We should know this morning what plans to make.

On a brighter note, while we were eating at the restaurant Sunday a couple sat in the table next to us and Mama started talking with the young mother about her baby. In the course of the conversation, Mama discovered that they were transplants from Canada. Since Mama has been seeking a way to enter the Canadian market with Color Street, she opened the conversation about Color Street with the young lady. The young lady was very receptive to the idea of getting Mama in contact with multiples of persons in Canada to begin organizing a marketing leg in that country. I have been praying for divine appointments and this was a conspicuous answer to one of those prayers. Mama has since followed up and the contacts are now in progress. It will be fun to see how all that works out.

Also, speaking of divine appointments, I have been praying that we would cross paths with the persons leasing the property next to us and as it happened, Mama got to talk at length to a young man who was working the wells on that property. Mama discovered in their lengthy conversation that he has had knee work done by the doctor Mama is considering for that operation and that he knows the person leasing the property. According to that contact, the well worker Mama talked to feels certain that his buddy would not mind at all if we fished in the lake on that property. The main interest of the lease is to hunt hogs. That should be an easily achieved outcome on the 600 acres. So, once I have confirmed his willingness to allow us to fish, I will resume those activities. God is Good!

Our pastor is going to be thrilled!