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*I Stood With My Brother* ______________________________________ If you enjoy this free email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of many! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, join the thousands of HeartTouchers.com readers around the world by sending a blank e-mail to: HeartTouchers-subscribe@myinjesus.com Visit our inspirational web site and read all the past stories in our archives at: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/Archives Be sure to check out our brand new inspirational list just for teenagers! Heart4Teens.com To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: Heart4Teens-subscribe@myinjesus.com or visit: http://www.Heart4Teens.com ____________________________________________ Good evening HeartTouchers.com readers! I finally placed some photos up of our brand new baby boy on our website! Visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com and share in our joy as you meet Chase William Powers... We wanted to say thank you for all your prayers, your encouraging e-mails, and for being a part of our HeartTouchers family. Some of you have been with us since we first starting emailing inspirational stories out back in 1997, while some of you have just joined us this week! But regardless of when you jumped on board, we feel like we have close friends all around the world who have been with us through many exciting times in our life. May all of you know that you are loved and appreciated! From my family to yours, Michael ___________________________________________ I Stood With My Brother By Bob Perks Bob@BobPerks.com It's simply a moment I will never forget and it took me 53 years to experience it. My brother and his wife had invited us to attend a concert last Saturday night. Try as we may, we don't always get to spend time together. It's not that he's so far away, it's simply a matter of scheduling. He's retired and busier than he was when he was working. That and a thousand other excuses keep us in touch by phone but not in person. "How'd you like to go to a concert with us?" he called and asked last week. My mind quickly scanned through all the recent concert announcements I heard for our new arena. "It couldn't possibly be Brittany Spears. I don't think our old hearts could take that," I thought to myself. "Tom Jones is coming to the Kirby Center soon. He's an oldie, but I'd go to see him," I continued in my head. "I have tickets to see the Army Field Band and Chorus," he said. There was silence. "Oh...great. When is it?" I replied. This gave me a few extra seconds to think of a reason not to go. "Next Saturday. I just thought we haven't seen you guys since Christmas. We could go have a sandwich afterwards," he said. He was right. We hadn't seen each other for some time and time is truly the big issue here. He's ten years older than I and, you know, life is all so unpredictable. "Let's do it!" I said with enthusiasm. For the next week we moaned and mumbled about the whole thing. We wanted to see them, but we weren't too crazy about seeing the band. "You know we're going to have to leave real early. It's a thing senior citizens do, you know," I said jokingly to Marianne. Sure enough, my brother called the day before and said, "The concert starts at 7:30. The doors open at 6:30 so, if you can be here at my house at 6:00, we'll leave at 6:10 and get in line." When we arrived at the theater at 6:25, the lobby was half filled. "These people probably got here at noon!" I said. "Look, that guy has his lunch with him." Promptly at 6:30 the doors opened. The view in front of me looked like a wave of white and gray pouring into the auditorium. By 6:35 we were seated. We had 55 minutes to wait, but so did the other 1,397 people who got there too early, too. Hoping that the show was only about 90 minutes long, we scanned the program to discover there was an intermission. "We'll be here all night!" my wife whispered. With little anticipation or excitement on our part, the show finally began. We were wrong, so wrong. This concert was excellent. They were the most professional, talented group of musicians I have seen in a long time. They played all of the classic marching band pieces as well as some very well orchestrated jazz and show tunes. They even did "cartoon music." The intermission came all too quickly and the night seemed to fly by. At the very end of the concert, the conductor announced that they were going to play songs for each of the branches of the U.S. military. "If you have served your country, we invite you to stand when your song is played," he said. After a brief intro the very first song was for the Navy. Since serving in the Navy many years ago, I have never had the opportunity to acknowledge it. At just the right moment I stood up and there to my left was my brother. I was seated at the very end of the aisle and I swear I could feel my father standing next to me. He served in the Navy and Army. Glancing off to my left, I could see my brother standing taller than I have seen this arthritis riddled man stand in a long time. He was proud. He should be, but I was even prouder. You see, I'm not sure how many more chances we'll have. There have been more times in my life than I can count, that my brother stood by my side, but for the first time, I stood with my brother. "I believe in you!" Bob Perks Bob@BobPerks.com E-mail Bob and let him know your thoughts on his story! ****** Robert C. Perks is president of Creative Motivation and author of the book "The Flight of a Lifetime." He is a motivational speaker, Member of the National Writer's Association, and a training consultant with the state of Pennsylvania. He is a contributing author to many inspirational books including a number in the Chicken Soup series. Sign up for Bob's FREE weekly messages, "I Believe in YOU!" by visiting: http://www.BobPerks.com or send an email to: Ibelieveinyou-subscribe@topica.com All stories remain the property of Bob Perks Copyright 2004. _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "The superior person stands erect by bending above the fallen. You rise by lifting others." Verse for the Day: "And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men."--1 Thessalonians 5:14 Kid's Thought for the Day: "You can't always be first." Parent's Thought For The Day "Children are God's apostles, day by day sent forth to preach of love and hope and peace." Coach's Thought For The Day "Hustle is: doing something that everybody is absolutely certain cannot be done. Earning a position because you learned it first, or stayed with it when everyone else gave up. Getting other players to say yes when they have already said no. The sheer joy of winning. Heaven if you are a hustler, torture if you're not." Writer's Thought For the Day: "Rejection is as much a part of writing as your time at the computer. I guarantee you will be rejected. Again and again. You can either stick your head in the sand, use the nifty rejection letters and cards to wallpaper your living room, or, as I did, save them all in a photo album. Every time I put another card in there, I say someday so-and-so will regret having not published my story, novel, whatever. Rejection is something you get used to, and it gets a little easier to deal with over time. But don't let anyone fool you, rejection always hurts." --David J. Sherman Deep Thought For The Day: "Avoid parking tickets by leaving your windshield wipers turned to fast wipe whenever you leave your car parked illegally." _________________________________________ REQUESTS: Please can you all pray for my brother io law, Mervyn Davey. He is in surgery right now, having a brain tumor removed. This is his second operation, he had one about ten years ago and the tumor grew again. Apparently this operation is more serious. Mervyn loves the Lord dearly and is a faithful servant of the Lord. My niece Lyndall has just gone to London last week to find work and is also very concerned about her dad. Please can you also pray for her, she is also a born again christian and loves the Lord. My sister Dianne and her twins Merice and Marvyn, are at home also concerned. Please remember all these people who are very dear to me, in your prayers. Thank you Norelle BEETONNP@DOHHO.KZNTL.GOV.ZA **** Dear Michael, I have a special prayer request. My nephew, Alex, who is a senior this year in high school, is going through some tough times right now. I believe in the power of prayer and that is why I am asking that you, and your Prayer Warriors, lift Alex up in your prayers. He is so special to me and I truly believe that God is testing Alex and I just want Alex to have the strength to get through this time in his life. He is a wonderful young man with a BIG HEART and I cannot stand to see him hurting like he is right now. Sheltered in His Love, Lisa Montgomery Craiglaw@dixie-net.com **** Dear Michael, Please assist to circulate this urgent prayer request. My family really need all of your prayers. My eldest sister Mar Lee aged 48 is diagnosed with breast cancer both sides and need urgent operation and chemotherapy. We are all in Malaysia but Mar Lee and her husband and son are all in Switzerland. Please pray for our Lord's Almighty Intervention in the operation which is either this week or next week. Pray the our Lord gives her strength and faith through this. She is very sad and depressed. Her husband, Stephen, son, Terrence and daugther, Tracy all have not received our Christ's salvation. Please pray for their salvation and may they see our Lord's glory while going through this. Praise the Lord for being there for us all. Thank you all and God bless you all Ma Nar lhling@pc.jaring.my _________________________________________ Have you been to the HeartTouchers.com website lately? If you like what you see and would like to have your own professional looking website, visit the link below. Bizstudio has been a wonderful service for HeartTouchers.com and with 355,000 visitors in the past three years, the website has been a tremendous tool in helping us to "Touch Lives, One Email at a Time." Although I had no prior experience building a website, I was able to create and build the HeartTouchers.com site easily utilizing Bizstudio's online editor. It includes an Online Site Editor, Unlimited Updates, Unlimited Pages, Professional Themes, Pre-Programmed Features, E-mail Accounts, and free Search Engine Submission. If I could do it with no prior experience you can too! Check it out at this link: http://www.bizstudio.com/main/home.htm?bpn=A16435 _________________________________________ MICHAEL T. POWERS www.HeartTouchers.com "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 __________________________________________ Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business Dear Michael, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for the beautiful video you made for me! It was so special to see both of my parents in tears as they watched their children grow up in pictures before their eyes! I loved the way you made Estania's part set aside from the rest--that was the part that really got them! The music was beautiful. My mom kept blubbering, "What song is that?" I don't know how you did such a beautiful job with the video in such a short time. I really appreciate your doing it so quickly. You have a wonderful gift, and I thank God that you are using it to create such sentimental memories. I hope that I can find my niche like that in an area that I love. Your video gave us one of our most lasting Christmas memories! I hope yours was filled with moments to be treasured forever! Love, Trisha Silverhill, AL Let me make you a video from your photos! Check out my video production business by visiting: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery ___________________________________________ Would you like to see your story in HeartTouchers.com? Writer's guidelines can be found on our Web site here: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/guidelines/ __________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm _________________________________________ The copyrights to the stories that appear in HeartTouchers.com are owned by the authors and are used with their permission. We refuse to run stories without the author's permission and contact info listed after the story. We also refuse to publish stories listed as "author unknown." (All of which violates Copyright Law and the rights of the authors.) This e-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but please do not cut and paste the stories to be used elsewhere unless you have contacted and been given permission by the individual writer. Thank you so much for honoring the rights of those writers who graciously share their stories with us! ___________________________________________ Reading Books, Changing Lives! For those of you who would like to purchase the books from the HeartTouchers.com bookstore via your credit card, you can now do so! You can now order a number of different autographed best-selling inspirational books for the same price you would get them in the store, the shipping to you is paid for, and you are helping change the lives of teenagers and those they come in contact with! And best of all, every penny from the book sales are going to youth ministry! http://www.HeartTouchers.com/books _________________________________________________ A number of people have written to us asking what an EBook is, since our book is being offered in both print and EBook versions. An EBook is a book that can be downloaded and read right on your computer. The advantage of ordering the EBook is that is costs less, $8.95 (No other charges), as compared to $14.95 + shipping and handling for the print book. Plus you can download the EBook and begin reading the stories in a few minutes! EBooks are read via Acrobat Reader, which is software that most of you already have on your computer. And if for some reason you don't, it can be downloaded free of charge at the web site. So for those of you who don't want to wait for the print book to be delivered, check out this web site to order the EBook version of Straight From the Heart "A Celebration of Life." http://www.booklocker.com/bookpages/michaeltpowers01.html |
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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