A few days ago I blogged about a “group” on Facebook in which you could give away or ask for things you need. This last week, I answered an ad for a group looking for a laptop. If you know anything about our household, we are anything but computer poor. So I had no trouble filling this request. The more I found out about the group, the more excited I got about passing along something that they had been looking for at no cost. It turns out that this group is a free reading group that started not long ago and is growing like wildfire. Since the group is free, there is not much money coming in for supplies. Thus, the need for a “free” laptop was huge. Apparently, they had been praying for one.

I felt that I needed to give one of ours to them. Now normally, I would have asked for a few bucks but this time I knew that I was to give them the computer. Affirmation of this “feeling” was not hearing a peep of disagreement from my husband while he restored the computer.

Today, Don and I took a jaunt over to Pawhuska, Oklahoma  to deliver the laptop and meet the founder of this group – of which, I am a proud new member!:) What I expected from this trip was to drop in to her place of work, leave the computer and split. What I got, however, was an hour (or longer) visit with an amazing lady. We discussed kids, church, friends, family; God’s calling on each of our lives, books, authors, little old Catholic ladies, theology, blogging, and on and on we went until a customer came in. I felt like we had been friends since childhood and I probably could have sat there for another 10 years catching up with her. This visit actually filled an unknown void that I had been feeling for quite some time but didn’t realize I’d had. A feeling of being disconnected with people in our community. Now that the kids are grown, we don’t attend community functions like we once did and I didn’t realize that I missed it  and the people that much!

Another thing I received was a feeling of gratefulness that I had obeyed God’s prompting. I felt good about what this laptop would mean to these people and what good it would serve for many others. After all, it was doing NO good sitting in my house collecting dust.

The book that they are currently studying is “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” by Francis Chan. I cannot wait to go back to Pawhuska and see what is in store at the next meeting.

What is cool is that this group doesn’t have to meet at one location because they are going to blog about the books they read. This may not be a “new” phenomenon but since I am new to book clubs, I found that really neat. If you are too busy to attend the formal meeting, you can catch up with the group on the blog! SAH-WEET!

www.asistersnotebook.blogspot.com

I encourage you to join a book club or some other group in which you join others to discuss things that interest you. You just never know how they might help you in ways you didn’t know you needed help with; or vice versa.

It has been a very productive day… I met a new friend and I de-cluttered a small space in our home. Did I mention my new friend knows the Pioneer Woman? Double Sah-weet! I love the Pioneer Woman AND my new friend!

The Gingham Cottage

 

Photo courtesy of House-Mouse Designs, 2011