Dear Family,
Read this story from a book on Prayer by Philip Yancey that I am almost done reading (started in earlier this year!... sorry slow reader...)
'You must be hungry after shoveling so hard! Let me get you a piece of apple pie. So you like apple pie? You stay right there and let me get you some pie.'
She was an 80yr widow, and I knew it would take her at least 10mins for her to make it into the kitchen, never mind dishing out the pie, I sat at the table, wondering how long she would make me sit before I got my pay and was there of there.
The offering was quintenssential New England: light golden brown crust, piping hot apples adn cold milk in a tall glass. I devoured it.
She had barely sat down at the head of the table to enjoy her slice when she noticed my bare plate. "Let me get you another piece!' There was no declining the offer: she was into the kitchen before I could open my mouth. Funny how quickly she could move at times. The pie was good, the milk cold, and I made quick work of her second offering.
But she kept talking and talking. It was the unspoken dread of our neighbourhood - getting caught with Mrs Back. We all  have a Mrs Back in our lives. Even at at young age, I began to reflect , how could somehow be so oblivious to the cues before her- how could she not notice that I wanted out of there?
About 10 years later, on a Monday afternoon, something inside me said, You need to tell Mrs Back. For on that previous Friday night, at a bachelor party in Harvard Square, I have myself to Jesus. I still hadn't told anybody. But somehow I knew: I was supposed to tell Mrs Back.
It was a lovely spring afternoon in May, and Mrs Back was hanging out her laundry to dry. I walked up to the fence. "Mrs Back, do you know what it means to be "born again"?'
She dropped everything and looked at me in sheer surprise and delight. "Why, yes I do.' She had been a pastor's wife, after all.
'Well the other night, I was born again.'
She looked at me and said with a firm note, 'You stay right there!' I stood on the driveway, at the fence, watching her hobble up to the back door, up the steps with her cane.
10 minutres later she came out from her back door, walked over to me and handed me the biggest, most delicious piece of choclate cake I had ever eaten in my life. She smiled adn said, 'Eat it!' And I devoured that piece of choclate cake as she stood there and gazed at me. Celebrating with me. Rejoicing with me.
Finally, she spoke. 'For the last 15 years, since you moved in, I have prayed every day for you and for Paul [my friend who lived on the other side o fher house] - I prayed every day that you would come to know Jesus.'
Well hope you liked this... as it touched my heart and taught me about praying, especially about praying for someone else.
luv, dad xxx