I had a really bad night of sleep - finally woke up around 4 a.m. and then went back to sleep around 5 ... next thing I knew it was 9 a.m. Oops! I ended up being 25 minutes late for Sabbath School. With the way I was feeling (miserable x 2) I *almost* just didn't go.
Church service was really really good. We had a guest speaker who was born in Russia as an atheist. At the age of 24? he was given one-year to live. Someone gave him a Bible - he read it and started following some of the health principles. Started getting better. A while later he was given a book by Ellen G White about health principles. Now it's 26 years later ...
He was there to talk about his work with the Muslim population and to raise funds for an outreach project which is set to go except for the funds.
Church usually gets out about 12:15 or so ... today was 12:52. He was really good and interesting, so other than worrying about my afternoon plans, I didn't mind. 
--
So after church (still feeling miserable) I ate lunch with the others who were going to a place here which serves the homeless/refugee/low-income people in our city.
I came very close to deciding not to go.
When we got to the center I was put at a table with one of the staff. We had clipoards with surveys in three languages (English, Spanish, Arabic) which people were required to fill out.
This wasn't *quite* what I'd been expecting to do ... but I went with it.
I'd been there for a couple hours when another staff member came to our table and we started talking.
He came from Iraq in 2013 where he was a university professor (taught Iraq Civil Code or something like that.) We talked about a lot of things - such as how nobody *wants* to leave their home country - to leave behind friends, family, tradition, good jobs. I asked him about what he thought about ISIS/Daesh and about the US involvement in Iraq. He pretty much praised Bush, Jr. for his strong arm/stance and vilified Obama as weak - even saying that he strongly thinks that Obama is pretty much responsible for the rise of ISIS. Something about the US being able to tell people in Turkey? to stop funding the ISIS - but they haven't - and that's what's made ISIS so strong.
When we were talking about refugees - he was telling me about how beautiful Syria is - how the people are very clever/intelligent/beautiful/handsome. He also mentioned that Steve Jobs actually had a Syrian background.
About this time is when we were interrupted to go bag apples.
All in all, I am SO glad that I decided to tough it out and go despite how I felt.
On the way home though I was feeling *really* hungry (only had a sandwich at lunch because wasn't that hungry) and thirsty ... so stopped at Walgreen's for a drink and snack. $5.18. Ouch.
--
Oh, at church today I was given a robe to fix the braiding on (for our Christmas drive through pageant) - hope I can do a decent job on it. I can hardly remember the last time I did any sewing. (I have til Dec 12 to get what I can done on it.)
--
Now I'm just trying to keep warm without turning my heat on ...
Interesting Afternoon
November 22nd, 2015 at 02:05 am
November 22nd, 2015 at 06:14 am 1448172869
November 22nd, 2015 at 02:15 pm 1448201756
November 22nd, 2015 at 06:42 pm 1448217755
Wow CCF - I hadn't heard this before - but I've done some looking and am finding things that support it. Not mentioned in the mainstream US media of course ... I am so fed up with all politicians - democrat and republican - there just isn't ANY good choices for president. Ugh.
November 22nd, 2015 at 07:30 pm 1448220638
November 22nd, 2015 at 09:47 pm 1448228838
Now the US has a lot of intolerance and hate towards Islam. And many politicians on both sides are feeding this intolerance rather than trying to dissipate these feelings. It's not just one side of politics but many of them are being very intolerant.
My favorite youtube recently was a young boy in Texas who gave a mosque his piggy bank money because they were vandalized. Because his mom talked to him about a place of worship should be respected no matter what the religion. I thought it simply amazing the heart of many people still. It's still there in the US we just have overlook people stirring the pot of fear.
November 22nd, 2015 at 09:58 pm 1448229488
I agree - I don't think anyone would want to leave their home under these circumstances.
It is so incredibly sad how so many so called Christians are having such a horrible attitude towards a people. It goes completely against what the Bible teaches. Bigotry, hatred, contempt for others ... so NOT a part of Jesus's teachings. I've lost a lot of respect for some of the people on my FB feed ... and some others I know in other avenues.