Not St. Therese

My friend Robin discovered that the real author of "All shall be well" was Dame Julian of Norwich, not St. Therese. I think I knew that at some time in the past. I'll have to see if I can learn more about her. In any case, I certainly do affirm the truth that all shall be well.

I didn't get a phone call yesterday from the doctor's office, so I assume that no new problems showed up in the test reports, or else they felt that the meds I'm taking will handle it. I certainly felt much better yesterday, and even my brain seemed to be working well enough that I trusted myself to sort out the approval-seeking process for the new magazine articles from a couple of dozen mission leaders overseas. Now they can be responding while I'm at home for the long weekend. (Monday is President's Day in the U.S.) I feel so blessed by the privilege of working with truly outstanding people.

During the many hours of sitting and resting over the past week, I've been reading a remarkable book titled Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Michael Rydelnik (Moody Publishers). I always thought I paid fairly close attention to international news, but on almost every page of this book I learned things I hadn't known about things that had happened in my lifetime. (It would have helped to understand Arabic!) One interesting historical fact is that Jews had been trying to return to the Holy Land in varying numbers ever since the second century. And that the nation of Israel wasn't "born in a day" in 1948, as people like to say. The Jews had been moving back in significant numbers since the 1880s. The best part of the book is its high view of what the Bible says and promises for the future. Let us "pray for the peace of Jerusalsem," as the Bible exhorts us to do.

Our son-in-law Keith is in town on business, and will be with us overnight. We're so excited to see him. On Monday, friends we first met more than 40 years ago are stopping in. And then other friends on Wednesday. That makes this week very special.

Love,
Carol