New Zealanders Come to Dinner

Questions Do you ever think about how small this world has become? Or how quickly some things that you never thought of or imagined possible become an important part of your life? Or how things from 30 years prior could come back to haunt you? Have you ever wished to become good at something, but it takes lots of time and effort? Small World Steve and I traveled to Illinois this past weekend. It started out to be for a Publications Committee meeting (you've got to love those committee meetings!). Then a farming conference was added. Since we have a sister and brother-in-law living nearby, it became a family visit as well. Around the time that Tyler purchased his tickets for New Zealand we heard that Justin had been there for Precision Planting. PP invited a couple that Justin spent time with to come to their conference to speak last week. Marcia hosted them for supper with us and Justin's folks on Friday night. Just one week earlier Tyler landed in New Zealand, and here we are sitting across the dinner table hearing that same "down under" accent that Ty is. This is what I mean by how small our world has become. The husband was actually born in The Netherlands and moved to New Zealand with his family when he was eight. My brother lives in The Netherlands. Important Things Email, blogs, Skype, cell phones, internet service, instant messaging: how important are these to us? Our lifeblood for communication with loved ones in this world that has become very small and yet still so big. Haunting Memories When I was twenty years old I went to Japan as a missionary. Two years became three (probably one of the reasons I needed to give my blessing for my son to go to New Zealand). Over this past weekend I was blessed to spend time with fellow missionaries from long ago years in Japan. Willis and Lois Ehnle recently moved to Peoria, IL after spending more than 50 years in Japan. We worked directly under them when we were teaching at the Shioda American Kindergarten there. We visited them and they were kind enough to not bring this up, but later when visiting with a former teacher (Kathy Klotzle- Sauder) she shared that one story the Ehnles remember about the teachers was when a young bicycler ran into our car, while I was driving. After making sure he was okay he went on home and so did we (Evie Blunier-Mogler and I). Apparently that was not the proper thing to do. Later Ehnle-san instructed us that we were to go to the boy's home and humbly apologize for this incident. The embarrassing part is that I resisted doing this ("because it wasn't may fault" )and only went under the Ehnles insistence. God bless this dear couple for their patience with my immaturity and ignorance. Perhaps certain of my children's stubbornness doesn't come from the Stieglitz side of the family. Learning I'm still trying to figure out if I have it in me to do the hard thing. Actually I know the answer to that is: I don't have it in me. By nature I am lazy and give up when things get hard. I wanted to learn how to play the piano, guitar, speak German, Spanish, and most recently communicate in sign language. I have not mastered any of these. I have done some difficult things in my life, but I am convinced that it has not been by my power or skill, but by the gifting and grace of God. What difficult task has God laid before you that you'd like to get out of? May He be glorified by our obedience to do the hard thing and "stay in the mess."