Thursday, November 08, 2007

Lost Calendars... and Cell Phones

A few weeks ago I lost my little calendar book/day planner. I was pulling into Tokyo on a bus by the time I noticed this little detail and I mistakenly assumed the calendar was at home on the floor next to the closet where I had packed (and repacked) my bags. It wasn't! (My prayer partners will remember the saga connected to that loss.) In fact, I still haven't located it.

My father wrote in response to my email about it all:

I fondly remember Pastor Collins and Viola singing an old hymn, "Are You Living Where God Answers Prayer"! Now, with tears in my eyes I remember sitting down on the floor in the house on Bridge St. (as I was working late in the evening putting up sheet rock) and praying "Lord, it may seem like a petty thing, but please tell me where I left the framing square. I really need to finish this now and I promise I shall then go to bed." I would just sit quietly compose my heart in expectancy and very frequently I sensed God moving me to get up and go over and move something or look at a certain area and He would deliver me. Of course there were a few times when I sensed He was saying, "No Lowell, I told you to go to bed an hour ago." Actually I think I got that message on Saturday nights...


The Lowell Mannhardt Family when I was small

I thought of my father's story when I lost my cell phone in Hirosaki last Monday.

Mary found it when she went in on Tuesday.

The bad news: it suffered water damage from the dew. The good news: I didn't lose any data! (At least not yet - I still have to put it in to be fixed!) I am SO HAPPY - that is a lot of important data.

1 comment:

Laurie Elliot said...

I never posted a follow-up on this one... when I went into the post office a few weeks later they handed it over to me in an envelope - I'd left in on the cash machine. (I can't imagine why I even had it out at the cash machine!)

I suggested that they could have contacted me but they seemed to think that would violate some code of privacy.

Oh well! I got it back! And before the end of the year, too. Thank you, God.