FROM BEAUTIFUL BELLEAIR BLUFFS, FLORIDA

IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE!

I have been doing this goofy publication for over a year now. I believe it all started in January or February of 1997. The oldest one in the archive is dated 2-19-97. It has evolved quite a bit. The subscriber list has grow from a handful to well over 100 (that is before you nice folks forward HF in infinity.) Occasionally someone will even forward it to me. There have been ups and downs. Like the months I attempted to send out a version with graphics included. One friend in Romania said it took a hour to download, and she was paying by the minute. (Fortunately she deleted it early on in the process and asked for the text version only PLEASE!) Or there are the times it gets forwarded to someone who does not want it and then they fire me off a colorfully worded e-mail asking to unsubcribe - IMMEDITELY.

Through Hello Fridays I have learned a lot about people, and about myself, and about the Lord. Here are some of my, let's call then "HF anniversary observations":

1. We need to laugh, we need to laugh out loud, we need to laugh at each other, we need to laugh at ourselves. It helps. It lightens our lives. It cuts away the roots of despair. It helps us handle overwhelming circumstances, things we have no control over. It softens pain. It endears us to others. It is critical to our well being.
2. We need each other, even in small ways. One word of encouragement is better than a piece of gold. And people really do care. Though often they hindered in showing their care by the business of this world. We have allowed the nonessential to get in the way of the essential - the priority to be pushed aside by the frivolous. All of us need to refocus on what is really important - our relationship with our Heavenly father and his kids. Nothing else is eternal.
3. E-mail is cool. It is the greatest way for a slouch like me to communicate. No handwriting, no looking up addresses, no stamps, no trips to the post office, no return address labels. It is a dream come true.
4. The world is indeed becoming smaller - I still cannot believe I'm one key push away from Siberia, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Estonia, Etc.
5. People like getting e-mail. Numerous times I have been told, "Hey it was good to see you again, and please keep sending me Hello Fridays".

Like you, this has been a year where God has built my faith thought the challenges of life. I have experience tremendous highs and desperate lows, but God has been consistently faithful through them all. One of my new HF friends, Chiqui Polo, recently forwarded a quote that has really ministered to me and the others I have shared it with. As I close my little chat I would like to leave it with you.

"When you come to the edge of all that you know and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, FAITH is knowing that one of two things will happen; there will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught to fly...."

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE SILLY

QUOTES TAKEN FROM ACTUAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS

(sent in by Clay Zirkle, Florida)

"Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom

and has started to dig."

"His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of

morbid curiosity."

"This associate is really not so much of a has-been, but more

of a definitely won't be."

"Works well when under constant supervision and cornered

like a rat in a trap."

"When she opens her mouth, it seems that this is only to

change whichever foot was previously in there."

"He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle."

"This young lady has delusions of adequacy."

"He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to

achieve them."

"This employee should go far - and the sooner he starts, the

better."

"This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an

idiot."

KIDS TELL THE TRUTH

(from Ray Sommer, Florida)

After the church service a little boy told the pastor, "When I grow up, I'm going to give you some money."

"Well, thank you," the pastor replied, "but why?"

"Because my daddy says you're one of the poorest preachers

we've ever had."

--------

"My wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to our six year old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?"

"I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied.

"Just say what you hear Mommy say," my wife answered

Our daughter bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"

A SMART DOG

(From Cheryl Orr, Florida)

A dog walks into a butcher shop with a purse strapped around his neck. He walks up to the meat case and calmly sits there until it's his turn to be waited on.

A man, who was already in the butcher shop, finished his purchase and noticed the dog. The butcher leaned over the counter and asked the dog what it wanted today. The dog put its paw on the glass case in front of the ground beef, and the butcher said, "How many pounds?" The dog barked twice, so the butcher made a package of two pounds ground beef. He then said, "Anything else?" The dog pointed to the pork chops, and the butcher said, "How many?" The dog barked four times, and the butcher made up a package of four pork chops.

The dog then walked around behind the counter, so the butcher could get at the purse. The butcher took out the appropriate amount of money and tied two packages of meat around the dog's neck.

The man, who had been watching all of this, decided to follow the dog. It walked for several blocks and then walked up to a house where it began to scratch the door to be let in. As the owner opened the door, the man said to the owner, "That's a really smart dog you have there."

The owner said, "He's not really all that smart. This is the second time this week he forgot his key."

EURO-ENGLISH

(from Laurie Hale, Texas)

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as Euro-English (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replased by "f". This will make words like fotograf 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in

the languag is disgrasful and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz year, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be nomor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

FINAL WORD FROM KEN

Vel, dats al volks.

God bless and have a great two weeks - Ken