Ming Lee checked the readings again on the gauges in front of her. All of the readings were fine. The green light showing that the oxygen levels in the shafts  shown brightly. "The air quality is good. The miners will breathe good air today."  The exhaust fans hummed their steady monotone tune. The red light on the carbon monoxide monitor remained dark - a good sign.

Everything is functioning well, she thought to herself.  She glanced out the window of the little shed that housed the  mine office as a proud smile played around her lips. "This is the finest mine in China. We have never had an accident  - never lost a miner."

Realizing the pride in her statement, she humbled herself and began to thank God.  "Thank you , Father God. You have kept the men safe."

She settled into the foreman's chair. Though her eyes remained alert, a prayer bubbled up in her heart. This time a broad smile creased her weather-worn face. "Thank you, Father God, for my friends, Lin Wu and Su Wong. I would not have become a Christian if they had not told me about you. Thank you for the missionaries who told them your story."

Sadness began to choke her joy as she prayed for the heavy burden that weighed on her friends' hearts.  "Help their husbands to learn about you too. Lord, my friends worry that there will be an accident and their husbands will die without knowing you." 

As Ming Lee prayed, the faces of more miners passed before her eyes. Many she knew by name.  She prayed earnestly for each miner and his family that God might be gracious and give each one a chance to believe. 

Suddenly, a heavy sense of dis-ease swept over her body. Fear gripped her heart as she realized she had been praying rather than  being alert to any changes on her control board.  

Quickly Ming Lee checked the lights and monitors. The green light still shown brightly. The exhaust fans hummed their same monotone tune. The red carbon monoxide warning light remained dark. She scanned the mine yard. No sign of trouble anywhere. She breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't shake the  sense of impending doom that had come over her.

Something is very wrong.  She tried to shake off the  eerie feeling. Well, not wrong, exactly. It feels like the air before a storm, kind of thick and apprehensive.

"Pull the alarm lever!" It was as though an audible voice commanded her. She glanced quickly around the  little office but saw no one.

Again she felt the firm command. "Pull the lever to clear the mine."

Ming Lee knew that if this was a false alarm, she could lose her job. Her young children would starve because no one would hire a foolish worker who cost her employer so much money.

A Bible verse Su Wong taught her leaped into her mind. "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." (Psalm 32:8)

No doubt remained. Though everything looked normal. Ming Lee leaped to her feet and pulled down the alarm siren with both hands. The sound reverberated through the small office as she held her hands to her ears.

The men began pouring out of the mine shaft. The foreman ran to the door of the small building, demanding answers for Ming Lee's foolish actions.

In all the confusion, no one noticed the slight trembling of the ground at first. But as it steadily intensified, the men began to shout, running for cover and for something solid to hold onto.

When the rumbling stopped and the dust settled, a large section near the mouth of the mine had collapsed. The foreman's face blanched as he hung his head and turned to Ming Lee. Everyone in the crown grew quiet when he began to speak. "If you had not sounded the alarm, many men would have been trapped inside the mine. I would have been with them. You saved our lives. How did you know?"

"I didn't know the ground would shake. But Su Wong and Lin Wu told me the stories about their God who has the power over floods and shaking ground. I believed their stories- I believe in this God. He told me to pull the alarm."

The foreman shook his head in wonder. "Why would a god do that?"

Ming Lee looked directly into the man's eyes and spoke firmly with conviction. "My friends had heavy hearts, fearing that their husbands would die in a mine accident before they could hear the stories of the true God and believe in him. I was praying for their husbands when God told me to pull the alarm.  He saved them today so they would have a chance to believe."

As women wept  tears of joy and men hugged their families, Ming Lee and her two friends began to pray with all who gathered around them desiring to believe in the God who had saved them from the mine collapse. That day, over 400 of the miners accepted Jesus as their savior including the husbands of Ming Lee's friends!


*******
Fictional slice-of-life stories based on true events have the power to encourage us to trust the Voice of God we hear in our own spirits. We tend to question and second guess what we think he is saying.  Yet when we listen, God does amazing things.

Can you remember any times in your life when you heard the voice of God telling you to do something specific? Did you listen or did you decide that it wasn't God after all? What happened because of your actions? 

Have you ever considered writing down your experience? God could use your story to encourage others to hear and obey God's voice.

Life throws all kinds of unexpected things at us each day. How we respond to those events can make a big difference in our attitude and outlook for the day, determining whether we feel defeated or like an overcomer.

Being able to laugh at ourselves really goes a long way toward that overcoming attitude. It helps us to dispel the shame of inadequacy that we feel when we mess up or do something dumb. And it also can lighten the hearts of others as we share our humorous faux pas.

So indulge me as I share a funny story with you. This really happened recently...

I  was getting ready to go to the Christian Women’s monthly luncheon. I felt pretty  good, having only one mild angina episode that morning. My purse sat by the back  door, ready to go, along with the checkbook to pay for my meal. After one last  mental check of my “do-I-have-everything list,” I headed out the door at 11:45 am.

No  need to hurry. There was plenty of time to drive those few miles, park and  yak with my friends. I got in the car and rummaged through my  bag. My heart sank as reality hit.... NO CAR KEYS.  

I must have left them in the house. I'll just go back in and get them....

Uhhhh...Wait a minute! I realized I couldn't get back in  the house because I had locked the doors on my way out and of course, the CAR  AND HOUSE KEYS were on the same key ring which was in the house  somewhere!

“Keep  calm so you don’t have another angina attack from stressing out,” I told myself  as I ticked off my short list of options. Hmmm. Maybe I could: 

1. Find  the conveniently hidden extra house key – Nope – didn’t have one. 
2. Call  hubby to rescue me – Nope. Dan was unavailable because he was driving a client  to a doctor’s appointment in a town 40 miles away and wouldn’t be home until at  least 2 pm.
3. Call  Mary P– she was going to the luncheon and could come and get me. Nope – no  answer and I tried twice. I couldn't remember anyone else's number who might be going to the luncheon or anyone at all who could help me out for that matter.
4. Miss the dinner and meekly wait on the shaded back deck until Dan got home? Nope,
   not  a chance if there was any way at all!

No, there was only one option left. I had to break into my house! But where to start? I tried the doors and couldn’t budge them one inch. The credit card trick wouldn’t work and I didn’t
know how to pick locks. Kicking the door down only worked on TV and I sure wasn’t desperate enough to break the glass - yet.  
 
The living room windows on either side of the big picture window might work if they  weren’t locked from the inside – and they were easily accessible from the deck.  Good thing it was summer!  One of  them was unlatched so I managed to open it and put one leg inside. I quickly  realized they were way too narrow to go in that way unless I became a contortionist.

Maybe  head first? Nope - even though I've lost 60 pounds, I wasn’t going to fit through that way either. I had visions of getting stuck halfway. Wouldn't that be a sight - legs sticking out a narrow window that faced a heavily travelled main street in our community? I could almost hear the gossip about the totally undignified, chubby, 61 year old, crazy pastor’s wife who lives in the parsonage. I might even make the evening news if someone had to call paramedics to get me unstuck. LOL – definitely not going to happen!

I swallowed my pride and called Dan to tell him about my predicament. After commiserating with me for a moment (I knew he was laughing), he suggested  that the larger dining room window might be unlatched. But, he said I would need to get a ladder or a chair because that window was at least 5 feet above the ground.

There were two ladders in the garage, but they were hung up too high, weighed too much for me to handle and were too dirty to bother with.So I dragged a metal patio chair to the window, shoving it between the shrubs. I have had difficulty climbing onto a chair for years so it took me several tries. Finally I managed to get up on the chair and realized to my dismay, it wasn't quite high enough. I gripped the window frame for balance and climbed gingerly onto the arms of the chair. (Thank goodness we bought those sturdy chairs several years ago. Whew!) I got the window open and was up just high enough to launch myself in head first. 

There I was with my front half inside and my legs sticking straight up in the air outside. I suddenly realized that I hadn't thought this through very well. There was no way to go back out the window, but how was I supposed to get the rest of me inside without doing bodily harm? I finally decided to wiggle and jiggle myself over the window sill until I flopped onto the dining room floor, hoping for the best. Thankfully there were large shrubs outside that window to block the view.

By this time I was laughing quite a bit. (It was probably a good thing I hadn't taken a water pill.) I figured I looked pretty ridiculous – maybe even funny enough to win $10,000 if only someone would make a video of it for America's Funniest Home Videos. Drat - where was my camera phone when I needed it? Oh yeah - it was on the ground - outside - in my bag. Sorry, no selfies for the blog today. LOL!

I picked my dignity up off the dining room floor, latched the windows, brushed the dust from my clothes and straightened my hair. When I found the missing keys, I said goodbye to the dog and headed out the door - again. I retrieved my bag from between the bushes outside the window and giggled all the way to the luncheon a little late, but in plenty of time to eat, and with a story to tell.  

As a friend of mine once said – “You’ve gotta learn to laugh at yourself.”  Yup...it works!

Have you ever had a day like this one? How did you respond to it?