Spend a day actually working alongside those of us in the ministry and be sure to tell us how many people we screw up. Here area few snapshots for you to enjoy trying to poke holes in:

The young hockey team whose bus rolled down an embankment last week, for ewxample, to whom we're taking a bag of totally silly Christmas goodies guaranteed to make their next (scary) bus ride more fun and perhaps just a little stress-relieving.

The people who will be fed without question or religious comment from the generosity of our parish, their baskets delivered by hubby and I so no one else needs to see who is on the receiving end this year.

The unwed mother whose Christmas "bonus" will be fat this year because she's moving downstate to be closer to the child's dad, where she will complete her degree and continue to work fulltime-- who happens to be our waitress about once a week.

The cancer patients we spend time with.

The older couple down the road whose adult kids emailed me again today with fresh concerns because they know the dear old folks actually confide in us as friends, about their worries, so they ask us what we think about it all because we give it to them straight.

The family for whom my husband left a small Mudcat Gathering at our home last time, to offer comfort to the parents whose son had leapt from their moving SUV at 70MPH, over a guardrail, to land on the rocks about 5 stories below-- people we'd never met, never asked if they go to church, never will see again.

The lady in my aquatics class today who needed to talk about the extraordinary blessing she feels it is to volunteer in hospice care, whose family lives far away and who is a vigorous 80-year-old asskicker from Memphis, but lonely with no family here.

Yeah-- lives ruined, forever, because of our ministries. ;~) (How are YOUR contributions to world peace going?)

Eat that.

Later this week I'll leave the house at 5AM to drive downstate (at my own expense) and back in one day with 7 hours driving and 2 hours of meeting time, to interview some MORE people who would like to go into the ministry. I'll tell them you're out there, along with a whole lot of people just like you. I'll ask them what they think about sad individulas like yourself who only know negativity.

Merry Christmas! :~)

~Susan