Please pray hard for the chair lady.

About a year ago, in the dead of the last "bleak midwinter", I decided to combine housecleaning with exploring my computer world. I gathered my rather large hoarded horde of miniature chairs for a photo shoot and posted the collection FOR SALE on Craig's List. Like, who is even going to see this, and who wants these???

Surprise, instant hit! A woman was very interested and we began our negotiations. How could she get the chairs, was her question. Craig's list is locally based and I am thinking," well honey, you get in your car and drive over from Hudsonville and I'll be glad to box them up and help you to your car with them."

Imagine my surprise to find that my "CHAIR LADY" lived in AUSTRALIA!!! Over the next few days, our emails of negotiation grew warmer and I got past my initial thought that the shipping costs were easily going to be three times the price I was asking for the dear chairs. We began, slowly to reveal little bits of information about ourselves and one day I found myself telling Steve how much I was going to miss chatting with Rosalind when our business transaction was completed. The very next email from her ( she goes by "Judy". When she was born, behind her convalescing mother's back, her Dad signed the birth certificate naming her Rosalind after a movie star fav of his, Rosalind Russell...actually one of my favorites, too...but I digress) JUDY asked me if I would think it too strange or forward to suggest that we become email penpals!

For the last year we have become closer and closer as I marvel at how exotic Judy's ordinary is to me. Reading the melodious names of the former gold rush hamlets near her and Wal's home. Names that seem, to me, so well suited to a pet dog "Here BENDIGO, come here boy!" To think that when some people decide to go for a quick vacation in their "neighborhood" they think Figi, Tonga or Hong Kong...wild! But I have also learned about their daily anguish over living through the worst drought in 130 years. How all the trees are dying and there hasn't been grass for a long time. Judy has sent me pictures of a kangaroo caught in a rare swim in the ocean, and another of a koala bear that wandered into a nearby neighborhood looking for relief. There he is, sitting in a pail of water with his little elbows akimbo, resting on the sides of the pail as though he's relaxing at some swank koala resort complete with a darling little blond haired girl on her knees next to him, waiting for his order for a pina colata.

The BAD came when I checked my mail this morning and found a heartbreaking missive from Judy. Their worst fears are realized. Terrible fires, the worst in history have broken out. It truly sounds like hell on earth. Temperatures are 115 degrees ( thanks to Google I was able to convert from Celsius) with terrible winds. People are being burned alive in their cars attempting to escape. Judy and Wal have their car packed with important papers and photos, ready for them, and Clive their big, old, dignified cat to jump in and take off. Her email is heartbreaking and makes me feel, oddly guilty for the beautiful morning I awoke to here.

PLEASE PRAY!! Please Pray that God will stop the fires quickly and protect those in danger. Pray that He draws people closer to Himself in this and and all circumstances.