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{HeartTouchers.com} *Don't Wait For Christmas* ______________________________________ 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 morning HeartTouchers.com subscribers! As Christmas draws near I will try and run more than one story a week... Enjoy today's poignant reminder from Bob Perks! From my family to yours, Michael P.S. If any of you are still thinking about transferring your pictures over to video (with music added free!) as a unique Christmas present you would need to try and get those to me in the next two weeks to be sure you can have it done in time for Christmas! For more info visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/video_imagery P.S.S. And for those of you who would like autographed copies of inspirational books such as those in the Chicken Soup series for a unique Christmas gift, you would need to get on that in the next week or so also! (Same prices as those in local bookstores and we pay the shipping!) Check out: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/books _________________________________________ Don't Wait For Christmas By Bob Perks Bob@BobPerks.com You are never prepared for a call like this. You are certainly aware that the time will come, but when it does it hits hard. We were shopping at a new store that sells bird food, feeders and such. It was a perfectly wonderful day. That is until my cell phone rang. It was my wife's brother. He never calls like this unless...unless there's bad news. For whatever reason I talked and joked with him. "We're getting old now, Anthony. Our hobbies changed from more physical things to bird watching," I said. He didn't reply. I walked outside and motioned for Marianne to follow. I know I was thinking if I kept talking he'd not have to tell me what happened. I stopped, took a deep breath and said, "So what's going on?" "I have some bad news," he said. Whenever it involves my wife's family I make sure she hears it first. I handed her the phone. "No! No! What happened?" She slumped against the store front window. My brother-in-law, Nabih had died. Shock and disbelief stormed into our lives. This otherwise perfectly beautiful day suddenly turned black and overcast with fear and pain. We headed home. Knowing she would need to go to California to be at her sister's side, my wife began packing. You know what I'm going to tell you. You probably see it coming. You've been told this before. Perhaps you even made an extra effort once. Don't wait any longer to tell them how much you love them. Don't wait to visit them next year. Don't wait to say "I'm sorry!" Don't wait...should I go on? Earlier that day we did a little Christmas shopping. As I watched my wife struggling with her emotions pacing back and forth, I wondered what I could do. That could have been me. That could have been her. It could be you. Then it hit me. I went to my closet. When I came out of my office she was standing there. "I'm sure that somewhere in a closet in your sister's house there is a present Nabih had purchased to give to her on Christmas Day. We shouldn't wait for presents," I said. Then I handed her the new robe I bought her. "Merry Christmas, just in case," I told her. We cried. Oh, I know you can't do things like that all the time. Christmas presents are for Christmas. It wasn't until later that we discovered that Nabih did indeed have a surprise for his wife. We have a bakery in our area that makes the very best Poppy seed roll. We have shipped it or hand delivered it to her family for years. A few weeks ago, Nabih had asked my wife for the phone number of the bakery. She gave it to him and forgot about it. Nabih had died at around 4:00 a.m. on that saturday. His wife found him in the family room. In the midst of all the heartbreak, a delivery man came to the door with a package. It contained four rolls of poppy seed as a surprise for his wife. Wait there's more. I never heard that story until later. Knowing that the family loved it so much and that they would be gathered together Thanksgiving Day, I overnighted three rolls for them to share. They arrived the day they held his memorial service. His gift to them was his life. His surprise wasn't diamonds, gold or even a new robe. But it's not what you give them...it's why. Don't wait for Christmas to tell them you love them. "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 2003. _________________________________________ 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 270,000 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 _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "Happiness is the result of circumstances, but joy endures in spite of circumstances" Verse for the Day: "...in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore"--Psalm 16:11 Kid's Thought For The Day: "Felt markers are not good to use as lipstick." Parent's Thought For The Day "It goes without saying that you should never have more children then you have car windows." -Erma Bombeck Coach's Thought For The Day "You can soon determine the caliber of an athlete by ascertaining the amount of opposition it takes to discourage her." Writer's Thought For The Day: "It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop." --Vita Sackville-West Deep Thought For The Day: "He's the kind of friend who will always be there when he needs you." ____________________________________________________________ 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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