Everyday Evangelism
Donna S. Thomas

She came stumbling down the aisle with her bags. Her seat was next to mine. As I moved out of her way, she started a conversation.

She was from New York, and was going to visit some people she didn’t know in Costa Rica. A friend had arranged the visit so she could spend a week in that country. Now that she was on the final leg of her trip, her anxiety was growing. As the plane taxied down the runway she started asking me about the plane, about Costa Rica, about how to go through immigration, and what everything would be like.

This was easy. I was sure the Lord had put us together so I could help her. I had been to Costa Rica several times. After I answered her questions and calmed her fears, she asked what I do. 

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My Basket
Donna S. Thomas

I smiled as I looked at my well-used picnic basket. It had seen a lot of family fun times, lots of great memories. We used it when the kids were little, going to the small creek nearby. Later, when they were in high school, we pulled it out more for excursions to the state parks and amusement parks.

Looking it over, I wondered if it had lost its usefulness and should be discarded. Could it still have a purpose? My grandchildren love picnics. Perhaps I should keep it and hope for times with them. Then a thought struck me. I’ll use it for a different kind of fun time. It can have a purpose with those wonderful grandchildren of mine.

My three sons and their wives have blessed me with some wonderful grandchildren. Here I thought, was a great opportunity to plant some seeds of the gospel in those little minds.

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More Than a Reunion
Donna S. Thomas

“Zeno? Who ever heard the name Zeno?”

Michael, my ten-year-old grandson, was looking over a folder about our family tree. “That’s the funniest name I ever heard!”

Our plan to make this family reunion more than food and the usual talk about jobs, school, and sports was working. This reunion had a unique focus: to zoom in on personal histories and generational blessings. My grandson was catching on.

As each of the families tumbled in, loaded down with gear, I greeted them with a warm welcome and an announcement, “We’ll have a game tomorrow, and you can be the big winner. All the answers to the game questions are in this folder.”

Predictably the older kids groaned, but not wanting to be disrespectful, each managed a smile for me. “It will be like the popular TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Of course you won’t get quite that rich, but it will be just as fun and will have lots of prizes.

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Praying for Me
Donna S. Thomas

I was in a state of delightful shock from the question that my 19-year-old granddaughter had just asked. “Grandma, how can I pray for you?”

Erin and I had been talking on the phone for a long time about college life--its struggles and its challenges. Many times at the close of our conversations over the years I had ended our phone time by saying, “Erin, I am praying for you.” Now Erin was asking me to share my life struggles with her, and she was doing it using the question I had so often used with her.

How did we get here? I wondered. Was there a neat “formula” that I could derive from her growing up experiences to point to as “the way” to raise a child who understood the value of prayer?

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