Just lying around leads to a mission

   When I said I'd be on Day 38 for awhile, I didn't expect it to be in my column. But responses to my column on Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life" are too good not to share.
   Nancy Amestoy of Snellville said, "I'm stuck on Day 38 and I haven't even read the book."
   Sarah Davis of Lawrenceville said she hadn't started the book yet, but thanked me for the warning.
   Having never read the book, Lilburn's Karl Peterson, a senior at Berry College, said he went on a mission trip to Panama City, Florida. When I noted it was a domestic trip, Karl enlightened me. 
   "The United States is the largest missionary field in the world. Other countries are sending people here." 
   But the reply that had the most impact was from a friend who asked to remain anonymous, so I'll call her Kim.
   Kim was a Gwinnett County math teacher and weekend swing dancer. But swing dancing isn't as big here as it is in California, so two years ago she moved out west. 
   Kim wrote, "I read your column and I thought it was rather timely. I recently read "The Purpose Driven Life." I felt like God spoke to me as I read it. I wanted to go on mission trips before I read the book but the book only reinforced it."
   She then related a series of medical problems that landed her in the hospital for eight days.
   "I thank God for this experience as it opened my eyes to soooooo many things. While I was in the hospital the lady in the next bed had spinal cancer and she was in a lot of pain. No one visited her. My heart went out to her. I went to talk to her and stroked her arm. I pulled my dinner tray next to her bed and we had dinner together. When I was discharged she grabbed my hand squeezed it and said she loved me. I realized how scared, lonely and sad sick patients can get."
   "While lying in the hospital, I made the decision not to go to Palm Springs for the entire dance convention where I have been spending my Christmas holidays and New Years since moving to California. I am staying around here and finding some kind of volunteer work to do. 
   It used to be that outside of my teaching job, dancing was the most important thing in my life. All dancing did was give me fun which fed my body but not my soul. While laid up in bed I read "The Purpose Driven Life." This book reinforced my lessons and took it further!"
   I've seen Kim dance. I've seen her weave dance into her math lessons. If dance can be worked into her new mission in life, I'm sure she can swing it. As for the part about working in a foreign country, well, Kim is an immigrant.

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