Terry Esau

I had a great time speaking at the Okoboji Lakes Conference this month...just thought I'd share a couple of stories from that week.

I told you the story of Doris and her 'brownies,' (see earlier entry) but this woman was full of stories. Did I mention that when she goes on vacation she takes her house keys and drops them off at church, and then instructs the staff that anyone...anyone who needs a place to stay while she's away has free usage of her home. She said someone asked, "What about those really expensive red goblets you have--aren't you worried someone will break them?" Doris said, "If that was going to stop me, I would haul them out to my driveway right now and smash 'em all and be done with it." You gotta like Doris.

Another woman--I'll call her Susan--told our whole class on Monday about being abused as a child. She told of moving 42 times to stay ahead of her abusers, protecting not only herself, but later her children. She talked about the poverty she has endured. She told us how she wanted to 'surprise' her daughter after all this 'talk of Surprise Me and Be the Surprise,' so on Wednesday she handed her 13 year old daughter a twenty dollar bill...twenty dollars she really couldn't afford to part with. She told her daughter, "This is yours to spend any way you like. I wish I could do this for you more often, but I can't. Go, have fun." She assumed her daughter would run out and buy a new top or something. A bit later her daughter came and asked if Susan would go with her to the book store. Book store? Sure.

When she got there her daughter picked out a teen Bible she said she wanted to buy, but never had the money. She bought it.
Susan said, 'That was the last thing in the world I thought she would choose to buy. I'm so glad I got 'nudged' to give her the $20.'

Also, on Monday, Susan said that because of her past, she allows no one to touch her and she touches no one. Jokingly I said, "On Thursday I'm going to shake your hand, and if that goes well, on Friday I'm going to give you a hug." She laughed at me as if to say, "Over my dead body." Thursday came and went and I didn't shake her hand. At the very end of our last session on Friday I walked up to Susan and asked if she would stand up. As she did I reach my arms out to her and she stepped in and received a hug...something that may seem trivial to us, but to her it was a giant leap. She stayed in my arms for a while with tears running down her face.

Others hugged her after class. In fact one guy, who had just come for the first time on Friday, pulled a hundred-dollar-bill out of his pocket and handed it to Susan. He said, "Your story about your daughter touched me and I just wanted to help." Then the coolest thing happened--she hugged HIM. She initiated contact.

The love of God, on display through humans, was a fun thing to watch blossom last week!