ROWVotions by Ben Mathes

Oh, my, this could be the “big one!” I live in Dixie, more specifically Georgia, and it just started to snow. When it snows even just a little bit in the South people make a mad dash to the hardware store and buy everything they ever dreamed of buying. People also rush to the grocery store to stock up on staple items, as I did. I just bought 18 loaves of bread, three gallons of milk, four gallons of water and enough toilet paper to wrap the whole neighborhood. I am now prepared and just waiting for the snow to pile up in case this is the “big one.”

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Have you ever been in a library and had people ask you to hush because you started making a little too much noise? Sometimes it is difficult being quiet in a library when you see all the books, magazines, videos, posters and computers available.

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Some of the languages of this world are “beautifully” challenging, to say the least. In my travels around the world, I have picked up phrases from a variety of languages. Even though my Vietnamese is dreadful, I believe I can remember Chuc Mung Nam Moi, Happy New Year.

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Most folks are not crazy about having to pay their bills and I am no different. What I do enjoy is writing checks and playing on PayPal as a means of blessing others. It is that time of the year when I sit down, take a checkbook and review all the ministries that I love and pray for and I send them a gift.

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Okay, bear with me while I envision a scene from heaven. The Lord wanted to see how we were doing here on earth so He sent an angel down to conduct a little survey. When the survey was completed, the angel returned to heaven, reported to God and said, “You know things are not so hot. We’ve got about 95 percent of the population who are misbehaving and only 5 percent who are hanging in there with us.”

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Boy, am I stiff and sore all over! Believe me, it has nothing to do with my age either! We have been laying concrete block for the construction of another church in Central America.

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Are you ever selfish with your time, money, food, gifts, love, acceptance and forgiveness? While ministering in northern Iraq, I experienced an unselfish act of kindness that really touched my heart.

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I am at home on rivers and in jungles where it is hot and steamy. I am not crazy about mountains and cold weather, and yet, I found myself in the back of a pickup truck headed into the mountains where it was cold. I could not get out of the truck as it continued its climb up, up and up into the mountains.

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According to Marine Capt. Luke McConnell, they sure didn’t last long! My wife, Mickie, organized a group of 100 women in our county in Georgia and they baked chocolate cakes for the troops serving overseas.

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Since I was the youngest, I was elected to be the one to change the tire. The truck had a flat tire on a dirt road in the middle of the Congo and Bill Washman said, “You change the tire and I will tell you a story.”

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