I thought an explanation/disclaimer might be in order for Mike’s post that included the letter to the pastor.  During church on Sunday, the pastor asked a couple of people to share their testimonies of how God had worked in their lives.  At the end of the service, he invited anyone else that felt they had a testimony of God’s work to write it on one of the blue cards or send it via the MAG website.  Mike announced before we even got out of the parking lot that he wanted to write a letter to pastor Scott to let him know how God had worked in him and changed his life. 

We got home, I went upstairs to change clothes and by the time I got back downstairs Mike had the church website pulled up.  He was trying to post but couldn’t get it to work.  I sat with him and showed him that he needed to register first and then with a password could log in and post his story.  Mike registered, got the password and began to type his letter.  He said he wanted to tell him what had happened to him and asked if I could help fill in what he could not remember.  There are times when Mike’s descriptive language is very simplistic, other times he is the language police.  If there’s a better word, he’ll let you know that you “should have said” or “so what you meant to say was…” English was never his strong suit but you wouldn’t know that if you hit him on a day he has police duty. 

As I gave him the details of what day, what time and so on he was quick to insert his own “proper” interpretation of what I should or could have said.  He can be very serious with policing what you say and of course we tease him endlessly.  He’ll rub his head and smile but doesn’t change his determination to correct you. We have a good time with it.

Like I said in my earlier post, Mike has been spending alot of time reading the postings and comments on the blog and spent about an hour Saturday afternoon on just the “we love mike” comments.  Based on some of his thoughts on Sunday, I think he had realized how many people cared about him during his time of need.  He read his Dad’s post just before writing the letter and had just heard the testimonies of the power of prayer at church - it was all very fresh in his mind.  He worked for about 45 minutes on his own and then asked me to come help him again.  My laptop can be frustrating and he was getting tired.

When I read what he had written, considering it was going to the Pastor, I thought it needed a little tweaking.  His feelings/thoughts sometimes bounced around so with his help, we talked about moving some things around so they would stay in sequence and then corrected capitalization and puncuation.   He knew what he wanted to say and he said it.  I helped him make it pretty.

On Saturday he had talked about wanting to post on the blog so after he finished the letter to the pastor Sunday, I asked him what he thought about taking that letter and letting it speak for his posting on the blog. He thought that was a good idea…saved him from typing so much on my laptop.  I changed the font to italics for the letter and he did the rest.

I thought it was important to add this detail to help you understand that although he isn’t always in touch with how he feels, there are times when he is and needs to get it out.  The next time he posts, it will be straight from him to you, no help with the pretty.  He doesn’t need to pretty it up for you guys - in fact he probably shouldn’t.

xxoo