Joyeux Noël 2006!!!

[S.C.]

I hope everyone has a joyous holiday.






~Shavon

[cppgenius]

Same to you Shavon. I'm also now officially on leave since yesterday afternoon. Now I have a little spare time on hand and hope to do my Pure review soon.

This has been a very eventful year for me with a lot of things that happened. Some of them have been the toughest challenges and times of my life, but through the strength of God I got through it.

Good news is that I passed all my subjects this semester while I knew it was not possible out of a human point of view. Alone to God the honour for helping me pass these exams while I was under extreme pressure.

Great things are also happening for my web site Cyber Top Cops. I only started this site late in April this year and it already has received many positive response from the general Internet community. I already helped quite a few people through this site and just a week ago I helped a lady who almost got involved in a money laundry scam if she it wasn't for her own vigilance in the first place but also thanks to the fact that she found my web site in time. It feels good to be part of the solution to an ever increasing problem, cyber crime. Cyber Top Cops is ranked, as of today, in position 73 out of 448 South African web sites on www.satopsites.com/ in terms of unique visitors (and that from position 183 just two weeks ago).

So besides all the bad things of 2006 I really end this year on a high note, with a thankful heart to God and everyone who supported me throughout this year, including Shavon, Leona, Paula and Mark. A merry festive season to you and your families, enjoy this time of the year and make an effort of spending quality time with your loved ones.

Looking forward to 2007!.

[ocelot]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I hope everyone has wonderful holidays!

For me the past year has been a year of discovery and in some things re-discovery. I know that everyone here has been a part of that. I have been so blessed this past year, through experiences, friendships and music. Thanks for you guys for the beauty you brought to my life this past year. God has really blessed me with knowing you.

[ocelot]

Coenraad, I'm so glad everything went well for you. I'm looking forward to your Pure review.

[achebeautiful]

I share the same sentiments as the rest of you! You have all been a tremendous blessing to me, and I am so thankful for each of you.

Here's a little song lyric by one of my favorite artists....

"You Gotta Get Up (Christmas Song)"

by Rich Mullins
Song of Solomon 4:10, Ephesians 5:25-31


I thought Christmas Day would never come
But it's here at last, so mom and dad, the waiting's finally done
And you gotta get up, you gotta get up, you gotta get up
It's Christmas morning

Last night I heard reindeers on my roof
Well you may think I'm exaggerating but I swear I'm tellin' you the truth
And you gotta get up, you gotta get up, you gotta get up
It's Christmas morning

Did my sister get a baby doll? Did my brother get his bike?
Did I get that red wagon, the kind that makes you fly?
Oh, I hope there'll be peace on earth
I know there's good will toward men
On account of that Baby born in Bethlehem

Did my sister get her baby doll? Did my brother get his bike?
Did I get that red wagon, the kind that makes you fly?
Oh, I hope there'll be peace on earth
I know there's good will toward men
On account of that Baby born in Bethlehem

Mom and Daddy stayed up too late last night
Oh, I guess they got carried away in the Christmas candlelight
And you gotta get up, you gotta get up, you gotta get up
It's Christmas morning

And you gotta get up, you gotta get up, you gotta get up

[achebeautiful]

You may have heard this story before, but in the spirit of things, I think it is worth repeating:

"A Christmas Message"

In 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from 3 months to 7 years; their sister was 2. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared.

Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they
would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.

If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that
time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old '51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.

The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck.

The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I
tried to convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel.

An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until 7 in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.

I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good
arrangement to her, so we made a deal.

That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we
all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money -- fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.

The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.

One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, and just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana, I wondered?

I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.

I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't
enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.

I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some
old toys. Then hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry, too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.

On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were the truckers, Les, Frank and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.

A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.

When it was time for me to go home at 7 on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.

Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was a
whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries.

There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items.

And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.

As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.

Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.

[ocelot]

I've never heard that story before. It's absolutely beautiful.

[achebeautiful]

I thought so too, Leona.

.... I wanna be one of those guys who hung out at the Big Wheel.... or at least someone who is willing to do what they did for someone who needed as she did.

[kalel]

What a great story.

Have a
Happy Holiday Season

All of you



/Karl

[lapayin]

Hi All,

I am back from California and just wanted to wish everyone a great holiday season. May the New Year bring dreams come true for each of you and your families. And may 2007 be the best year yet.

[achebeautiful]

Thank you, Paula! It is great that you are back. I hope that you had a really good time in California. You should tell us about it when you get a chance!