Kid's Ripple Makin' Page

Kid's

Ripplemakin' Page

Welcome!

I'm so glad you dropped by. Well, now you just settle back and let me tell you how I got into this whole RippleMakin' deal.

It's an ordinary story with a most extraordinary outcome.

God brought an Angel to me last year. His name is Arthur. Allow me to expand on the details of that meeting.

I'm the Information Systems Director at a small rural hospital. One morning I was fixing a cup of coffee at the watering hole, overhearing but paying no attention to a conversation taking place there.

One of them, the sister-in-law of the Administrator, said,

"No, I didn't get anything done last night. You know, Arthur's in town, so we went to see him; the kids were just having a fit to go see him." ..... "You know, I don't see how he carries that thing; that thing's heavy". ..... "And he carries it all day long; he been all over the world.".....he's famous!"

I thought little about this whole snippet of conversation and went on along with the business of starting my day. About an hour later, my Administrator came to the door of my office and said

"Kid, (now you know that's not the truth; you know he called me by my RealLife-3D name doncha?) I need you to do something for me. My cousin's having some trouble with his email; he can't get it or something, and I told him maybe you could look at it."

"Oh great, just GREAT" my little voice whined even as I answered Jimmy

"Absolutely, I'll be glad to look at it for him."

He said

"I told him to bring his laptop by here this morning and I'd ask you if you had time to look at it; I think he's going to try to come by here this morning before he leaves." As he turned to leave he casually threw out

...."his name is Arthur Blessitt."

This being the second time in less than two hours I had heard about this Arthur, once in glowing terms from a person who doesn't glow much about anything, and now Jimmy, who doesn't ask for much, asking this favor in his behalf. My interest in who this guy was notched up about three levels.

"Hey, Jimmy, who is this Arthur guy? Is he somebody famous or something?"

He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head as he said it depended on what I meant by 'famous'.

"Well, I was wondering, 'cause I heard 'em talking about him this morning and how the kids were having a fit to go see him ."

He turned to go and as he did so, said casually

"Well, he's a preacher."

"Oh nooooooo....." the little voice whined again as I fought to keep my face from showing my dismay. "That's all I need this morning is a damn PREACHER with a laptop on the blink."

I kept on with what I was doing and soon other things pushed any thoughts of Arthur and his computer woes aside. About midmorning, the Front Desk paged me to inform me that "Mr. Arthur Blessitt is here to see you". I told them to tell him I'd be right there.

I took a deep breath, steeled myself for I didn't know what type of experience, and started down the hall resignedly, but resolutely, to perform this favor for Jimmy.

Once in the Front Lobby, I saw the only person there carrying a laptop, and being the SuperSleuth that I am, immediately deduced this must be Arthur.

He was nothing like I had imagined him to be. He had on a fringed jacket and T-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes; his hair was sort of long; he had a slight Hippy-ish look to him.

Now, being of the firm belief that there were only a couple of occasions, funerals and possibly weddings, that actually dictated dress in anything other than jeans and tennis shoes, my smile was spontaneous and I shook his hand as I greeted him, the little voice grudging muttering,"Maybe he's cool, maybe he's just trying to be cool...."

I took him to my office, opened his laptop and began the bootup as I asked him what the problem was. He replied that he had no idea; it was working fine when he shut it down 2 days before, and then the next morning it wouldn't "do anything".

Since this could be almost anything up to and including a disk crash, I sighed to myself, thinking now that I'd never get the work finished I was trying to complete.

To fill up the silence and awkwardness of meeting a stranger, I drolled out some small talk, "So, you're Jimmy's cousin huh?" He began to tell of his visit and connections with Jimmy and I began the checkout of the computer.

"And I heard 'em saying something about you carryin' a cross, is that right Arthur? What's up with that?"

He began to tell me his story as I started looking at things on his laptop.

The laptop wouldn't go into Windows, just sat there with a black DOS face and the cursor blinking at the command prompt, with the words "Bad command or filename".

I ran ScanDisk from DOS, found no errors, then checked for a virus; no virus. I checked for old ScanDisk files or other signs of previous problems, asking questions about the computer and applications he was running.

Arthur replied to my questioning quietly and with politeness; No, he had not had any electrical outages; the battery had not run down while he was using the computer; he had not experienced a freeze-up in an application and had to reboot; he had had no previous trouble with the laptop at all as a matter of fact. He turned it off two days before, and when he turned it on the next morning, this is what he had.

I looked in his Autoexec.bat to see what had caused the "bad command or filename" statement. The last command in the autoexec.bat was "Win".

Which, boys and girls, ladies and gents, just happens to be a small file that should start Windows by running a small but vitally important program file called win.com.

I looked to see if the file was the same size as my win.com, or if it had been corrupted in some way.

The win.com file was not THERE. Simply NOT there.

As I prepared to copy the file from one of my PCs to a floppy disk and put on his laptop, I was telling him how STRANGE it was that the file was just GONE.

Arthur just kept sitting there, smiling, and quietly assuring me he had done nothing to cause this.

I asked him if he had deleted any files, ANY files. (Being the afore-mentioned SuperSleuth, I have learned that people will always say "No, I didn't do anything.")

He assured me he had not, that he didn't know enough to delete any files. He just knew how to get and send his email. He had checked his email two days before and everything was fine when he shut it down.

For some reason I tended to take his word for it, even while the little voice harped "Yeah sure, that's what they all say." I shrugged it off as one of those things that you can't explain about computers.

So as I prepared to do some housekeeping on his computer, I settled back and listened to his stories. Fascinating, moving stories, told without fanfare or hype. Told simply as they happened to him on his travels. I was spellbound and amazed at the simple manner and affect this man had, yet his story was so amazing.....

He spoke of being saved at the age of 7, of being called by God to preach at the age of 10, of years of witnessing and hard times and faith in Jesus....

He told me how in December of 1969, while praying to reach more people at his mission house with the message of Jesus, that the answer he got was to "Take that cross down off the wall and go out TO the people."

So he did just that.

The next day he set out, carrying a 12 foot wooden cross braced on his shoulder, a small wheel attached at the base of the beam. He walked and met people and talked to them, shared his message, brought people to accept Jesus as their personal savior.

And he's been walking with the Cross ever since, for almost thirty years, all over the world....

(But I digress. You can read more about Arthur's story at the CrossWalk website link below)

Bluntness being one of my better traits, I held back little.

"So, Arthur, tell me, do you think that just because someone goes to church every time the door's open they're going to heaven, even though they're mean-spirited? What do you think about these Near Death Experiences? What about this, what about that?"

We began to talk, and by the time we had finished, things that I had FELT were right and true, even though I thought maybe I was the only one who thought that, he confirmed.

Answers to questions I had been seeking for months suddenly fell into place as Arthur confirmed, "Why yes, I think that's exactly right; the Bible tells us...." and then whatever it was that pertained to what I was seeking to confirm. I told him things that I felt to be true, and thoughts of how I perceived things to be, or what I thought about this, or that....

And I don't think I've ever had a conversation I enjoyed more.

At one point Arthur reared back and put his hand on his leg and said

"You know, you're a very deep, spiritual person. I feel blessed to have met you."

"Let me tell you something Arthur," I replied, "I was prepared to not like you; I like very few people instantly, but I like YOU, Arthur. I feel like I've known you forever"

Then off I'd go again, saying,

"You know, I think that if even if I don't belong to this religion, or that religion, but I still believe in God and Jesus as my savior, and I try to be good, even though I sin, I think God knows I'm TRYING to live right and..."

And Arthur's answers came easily and quietly, with assuredness

"God knows what's in here" he said, motioning to his heart, "and He knows you're human, and He loves you just the same."

Countless times, he gave instance after instance of confirmation to my questionings.

"You know, Arthur, Indians of the West believed that there were "doorways" to different worlds, different planes, that are located in certain places on Earth. What about that Arthur? What's up with that?"

Again, his answer was given without hesitation, with the same quiet confidence:

"Jesus tells us that "In my Father's House are many mansions, I go to prepare them for you" and you know, Kid, who's to say what mansions await us? What a mansion is? It could be a whole world!"

By the time I had completed the housekeeping and safeguards on his computer, I knew something very special had occurred. I looked at Arthur intently and asked, "You know what I think happened to the win.com file in your computer Arthur?"

Without hesitation and without blinking Arthur replied with assurance and confidence

"I think God broke my computer, so I could meet you."

His smile was full of the love and kindness that can only come from within, could only be genuine; it can't be faked. We've all seen those "preacher" types try to fake it, right? Nope. This was different....

My voice was quiet, yet full of emotion.

"I think so too Arthur. I think so too."

My life has been different since then; I've been a quieter, more at ease person, more caring, more AWARE. And I've discovered that I'm a RippleMaker. I make Ripples.... And in those Ripples float the seeds of the way to Heaven, Jesus, and living as God wants us to, as Jesus TOLD us to do.

I'm a RippleMaker, and I make my Ripples in my everyday life, and in email. Do you know what a RippleMaker is?

A RippleMaker is someone who seeks, every day, to do some little thing for someone that makes them feel good about themselves, or instills confidence in themselves, or makes them happy or glad for just a few seconds. I do it just to make them feel good for a few seconds.

Sometimes it's just a quick aside to a coworker "I think I better go help this person" as I go to open a door for someone struggling with some packages. Little things. But I tell you this:

They WORK.

Sometimes it's a compliment, or praise for a job done well, sometimes a small thing like doing some little task for them that will save them some time or trouble.

The important thing is to do it everyday, and to do it without any thought of self, do it for them. I do it with no thought of "payback" or reward; it's something done totally out of wanting to do a good deed to others. The way God wants us to be.

The funny thing is, I've noticed more times than not, that this Ripple has a way of spreading, or reaching out, of touching others. Therein lies the secret....

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you......

And, I learned that there are AngelsToBe walking this earth, still in their human form. Angels that lack only the act of death to release their full potential as Angels.

Because on a cold gray drizzly day, in an office in a small hospital in a little Mississippi Delta town, I met one.

Remember me in your prayers, and please ask that I be helped along my RippleMaking way and increase the people I reach and the way I am able to share with them.

The RippleMaker

01/23/2000
Here's a new note.... I'm going to be helping Kay and Sally Hobbs put some of Arthur's books up on the server so they'll be available for everyone to read. I'm very blessed to be a part of this endeavor, and I'm thankful for the chance to assist. The Internet is such a powerful tool for communication... You can find out more information about the books on the CrossWalk page....

Arthur Blessitt
The Walkin'Dude
CrossWalk

Here are some wonderful links to check out. You won't be sorry.
A Moment in Heaven	Near Death	www. blessitt. com	Helping On The Internet	All Pilgrim's Radio	Mercy Street Missions

Comments??
Suggestions??
Send me your stories of RippleMakin'.....
Think what a Ripple can be formed
on the Internet!

Contact me at:

SundanceIM@AOL.com

Arthur and his cross, Cleveland Mississippi, 1998

Thanks for stopping by

The Kid
Copyright �Sundance Kid 1999 All Rights Reserved

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