Problems or Opportunities?

Well, yesterday was a day of confronting problems! You know, one of those days when you just come up against obstacles that you just have to tackle head on. UUugghh ... I hate these kinda days, but although it is hard to confront issues, the future benefits far outweigh the present discomforts.

The first problem was a biggie. It was a church problem and had to be tackled. We, as leaders, had an interesting dialogue on how to deal with the problem. Someone was caught red handed doing something that she should not have done. The Filipino consensus was to ignore the problem, set up a new system and move on. The British way was to confront the issue head on - talk to the person, show the evidence, pray for admission & repentance and believe for restoration.

In the end, we went for the British plan but in a Filipino way! Praise the Lord, the person admitted, repented and agreed to say sorry to the leaders of the church. So we all met together ... it was not easy. But forgiveness was asked for and forgiveness was given. We all learnt many things yesterday! I had another two problems to tackle, although they were not on the same scale! So, my head was buzzing when I went to bed last night.

Please pray for Mary & I in these next few weeks. We wrote down a list of all we have to do and it scared us! This week, so many unexpected things have taken up our time and it feels that we cannot get started in organising our itinerary, making a DVD for going around churches etc. Pray that we will have wisdom to do the things we have to do and time to do them.

Well, after all my problems yesterday, I thought I would give you a wee puzzle to solve. Actually, my brother David told me this one and I cannot work it out. You try:

Three friends wanted to buy a stereo from a shop that cost $30. So they chipped in $10 each and bought the stereo. Just after they left the shop, the manager realised that the stereo was actually on sale and should only have been $25. So he decided to run after them. He thought, "I can't divide $5 between three people, so I will give them $1 each and I will keep $2." That's what he did.

Now each friend had paid $9 = $27
The Manager kept $2

That adds up to $29. What happened to the missing dollar?

Please give your answers in 'comments'.

By the way, if you double click the map to the right of the blog you will see all the places in the world where people have looked up this blog. Let's try and fill up more countries! If you know anyone in Africa, Middle East, South America etc. then send them a link for this page and let's see how many we can find.

Have a great day. I pray that today you will heave a 'no problem' day and that you will be given wisdom to find the answer to my puzzle.



"Every problem is an opportunity to prove God's power. Every day we encounter countless golden opportunities, brilliantly disguised as insurmountable problems."

C. Swindoll, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, p. 35