CLOSE THIS ARTICLE PART II PART III 12/28/04 Published 12/28 at the: Calhoun Times click link to visit with them. A time for four mountain miracles: Part I From the beginning of recorded history amazing and magnificent things have happened in people’s lives. Things that could not be explained were often described as miracles. People have always been fascinated and listened when there was talk of miracles. Many times I have seen as you have things that we can’t explain. As most of you I observed with wonder, not realizing until later I was seeing what could only be described as a miracle. For many years I have been blessed with opportunities to see young people accomplish things they weren’t supposed to be capable of achieving. With many of these young people I had become very close friends who trusted, respected and loved each other. I could feel those young people in their way loved me, never wanting to let me down, nor I them. I truly believe that if you hear the word miracle and will investigate you will find that there was absolute love surrounding that situation being described as a miracle. And there is no doubt where love started in the beginning. I believe miracles are the product of divine intervention, and we also know that there are no limits to that divine presence. You will read in this Christmas story the beginning of four such miracles. Four little fellows who found in a group of people something they couldn’t explain. A feeling they probably had not experienced often in their lives. A feeling we many times take for granted, that’s our ability to know and try to understand love for someone. They began to learn that in the presence of love it is almost impossible to be sick or unhappy. When love enters, fear leaves. Love surrounds you and dispels all fears. Love changes the way you look at yourself and the world around you. Love I have no doubt creates miracles. When a child realizes they feel a positive affection for someone or something that’s unexplainable, they will always remember that time and search for the reason. They later may see that time as the turning point in their lives; they had learned they loved and were loved because of who they are, kids who learned to believe that they are almost perfect. That time in their lives was a miracle some people could say. What a blessing it has been for so many of us to share those times with so many children. Presence of love Christmas was the time in my life as a child I always felt the presence of love, wanted to share it with everyone. In my years as an advocate for troubled children, our family has always shared part of our Christmas season with small troubled children. Christmas time we realized was the most appropriate time to share the gift of love. God showed His love for us when He gave us His Son Jesus and in remembrance what a better time to share our love with someone else. We have the ultimate gift to give someone, a gift four little fellows without knowledge found and wanted to share. Schools were out for the Christmas holidays. And the miracles that would eventually change several lives were born. Mr. Junior, Mr. Robbie, Miss Sissy, and Mr. Tommy and their parents were told they were the ones that had earned a Christmas trip to the mountains. School was getting out for the Christmas holidays, and we would be leaving Friday evening and getting back the following Monday evening. It was the Christmas season and as a custom we always planned to take some of our little buddies during the holidays with us when we went to our cabin in the mountains. There was something about the mountains that seemed to finally get the Christmas spirit flowing within me. It could be the enthusiasm of the young guys we always had with us, but whatever the reason I seemed not to have the Mr. Scrooge humbug feeling as bad after we returned and I could get on with our Christmas activities. All four of our Christmas trippers were in special classes at school and had been chosen because they had been successful keeping promises to work on personal problems at home, to get positive comments from their teachers concerning classroom work and behavior, have better conduct around their peers, and have positive attitudes in general. The overriding decision for being chosen was because of their families’ history of abuse, neglect and deprivation, especially social deprivation. Only one of our four Christmas trippers had ever been out of our county. Some had been involved with the Department of Family and Children Services and had being placed in their relatives homes to live. One of the children had parents with mental limitations; we all were struggling to keep their child in their home. All four really were sad little kids that were getting attention in school the only way they knew, by acting like they were being taught at home, by mimicking older siblings and neighborhood peers. Over several months all of us had gotten to know and trust each other. They didn’t know the chaperones very well, but that was of no concern. I knew in a short time they would have the chaperones as best friends. We planned to continue to let them know on this trip how close to perfect they really were and how we wanted and expected them to continue to act in ways that got them selected for the Christmas trip. Super kids I remember before we went to pick up the kids thinking a prayer asking the Lord to give us the ability to accomplish our goals of teaching them what super kids they were, to teach them the important reason why we celebrate the Christmas holidays and develop friendships that will last a life time. Before the trip we invited all four of our trippers and their parents to our house to explain where we were going and to discuss our plans. After all the clapping was over, Mr. Tommy asked, “What does plan mean?” I replied, “It means that you will have to remember to bring enough of your socks, clean clothes, toothbrush and important stuff, that you don’t plan to be gone long enough for you to miss your mother and other kinds of sad things, and especially if we get to see Santa Claus you will talk to him and tell him to bring me something I haven’t decided I want yet.” “What’s all of what you said mean”? he questioned. With that answer as so many times in years past I was already preparing a kid to deal with becoming homesick; being away from his mother and home for the first time can cause chaperones a little grief especially at bedtime. Mr. Robbie, who hadn’t been much paying attention at that time, when he heard the word about behavior at school began to interrupt speaking loudly saying, “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do nothing at school. Who said I did is lying.” Everybody started to laugh. It took a couple of seconds for Mr. Robbie to wiggle his way out of that one. “I thought somebody said I done something bad at school.” he said. “I’ve been keeping my promise so I could go to see the mountains and so Santa Claus will come to my house and see everybody.” I knew I would hear from Mr. Robbie again. He was gifted with the ability to explain the difficulties he was having on his buddies. I knew we would get several chances to help him correct that misgiving. We had learned long ago when preparing to take children on a trip, always try to take children about the same age and temperament. We also found the secret to having fewer problems at any age was never place firecracker, match and dynamite personalities beside each other on the same trip. These two secrets usually mean a much safer and calmer trip, always giving the chaperones an easier time making arrangements and directing the activities. Mr. Humbug Scrooge? The first Christmas weekend during school holidays every year had always been a mini-vacation for our family. After so many years of being surrounded by young people, we enjoyed having the first and the second grade age group because they can do so much more for themselves, cause the least problems, and seemed to enjoy the Christmas holidays and were already loaded with the Christmas spirit. Our volunteers have all agreed that if I didn’t have a few overactive kids around to keep me on my toes or things to occupy my time, I would sit around twiddling my thumbs, get edgy, fuss a lot, act hyperactive and remind them of Mr. Humbug Scrooge. I have been referred to as Mr. Grinch on a few occasions. With this age youngster around, a person doesn’t have time to do much of the above! I should explain at this point about our volunteer chaperones you are about to read about. We have been very fortunate to have had many high school students volunteer to be assistants on hundreds of occasions. These young people brought with them so many assets that without knowledge they displayed. They were the role models our group needed. I explained to our chaperones I wouldn’t mention their names when writing articles and stories. These four chaperones will know who they are, and know we love them. They became lifelong friends and on occasions we still meet and talk about our four mountain miracles. Friday evening finally arrived, our chaperones and the kids having been picked up at homes. All of them were fired up with many questions, but most would have to wait until we were on the road. We were in the process of loading the van when we heard one of the world’s most famous statements “I gotta go!” and I had no doubt that would be heard many times during the weekend getaway. One of our chaperones asks, “Who else has gotta go?” Not to our surprise, all three of the others raised their hand and made a dash for the bathroom. Soon we were on our way and had to stop for gas. I told our crowd to be thinking about what Christmas was all about. I told our four that the one with the best answers would have a giant good surprise waiting for them later on our trip. Reason for season I can’t remember all the answers and who gave them. Answers like Santa Claus is coming, getting presents, get what you want if you will be good, giving presents, being nice, Christmas trees, snowmen, and angels. But a couple of the answers I will never forget. One was our pal Robbie telling the crowd that his friend Burl had got mad and said some cuss words and his Mama said all he was going to get from Santa Claus was rocks in his socks. He bet he will be mad because it will hurt to wear his shoes with rocks in his socks. Then Sissy said, “That ain’t nothing. My mother said my sister is so mean that Santa Claus is going to put cornbread, onions and hickories under our Christmas tree for her, and that was all.” I told the two, “I sure hope that doesn’t happen because there will be some sad people in your homes.” We had chosen Mr. Tommy to ride in the seat behind me, which took a little encouragement, since he was already addicted to that sneaky feeling of riding in the back seat. I knew I could hear and answer his questions easier from behind me which I felt would be many. We were hardly on our way when his questions began, “What’s that?” “Are we going to sleep in a tent?” “What does not going dipping in the lake mean?” “Are we gonna see snow in the mountains?” “Are there bears in the mountains?” “What will we eat in the mountains?” “I’m hungry!” “What is a cold as ice refreshing dip?” I realized every one of our Christmas crew was quietly waiting for my response to all those questions. “Where in the world did you learn all the questions you are asking me, Pal?” “My cousin Leroy told me about them bears that was in the mountains would eat you up,” was Tommy’s reply. “Bears don’t ever eat people up. Besides at Christmas time they are too busy looking at stars, and looking for Santa Claus so they can tell him what to bring them and their little kid bears for Christmas.” Instantly I heard, “Leroy didn’t tell me about them stars, all he said was bears eat you up and he took dips in a lake in them mountains, that make his lips turn blue, and a fish or something bit a mole he had on his belly.” “Pal on Christmas you don’t have to worry about bears, dips, blue lips, and your mole getting bitten by a fish. It’s too cold to swim. All you need to worry about is keeping your act together so everybody will be happy and Santa will come to see you.” “OK! What is an act?” he said. “Later my boy, later,” I told him. Answering those questions and many more was usually the responsibility of our chaperones; calling upon knowledge they had developed and their answers seemed to ease most concerns and frustrations. The most important The most important person was Spunky my co-pilot. The most important person on a trip is my co-pilot. We are fortunate to have in our family the person who is the master of all co-pilots. He who always sits in the front passenger seat, who is in charge of telling and directing the driver (and quite often) that there’s a problem with his driving. Leaning back in his seat, putting his foot on an invisible brake pedal on occasions, staring at the almost innocent driver, who tries to act as if nothing is happening, but who sometimes will plan problems for the co-pilot. I know for sure that every one would agree with my selection of our co-pilot. My best pal Mr. Scottie “Spunky” (I love Santa Claus) Keener, the person that is always paying close attention and continually directs the drivers almost every move with the instructions such as, “Watch out for that” or “Look he’s about to” and his favorite advice is, “Look out he might be a redneck” and scores more. Finally on the way we began to see displays that made our crowd know Christmas for sure was around the corner. I heard statements like, “Look there I bet Santa Claus can see that from the North Pole” followed with “Yeah!” several times and “We got a Santa Claus at our home too.” Learning to love How wonderful I thought it was to be around such a gift, four little people who were beginning to learn how to love. We had a place in their lives and a chance to teach them that they were almost perfect and such fantastic little people. I saw a couple of our trippers getting a nap and thought how lucky I was to have this opportunity to share part of the Christmas holidays with young guys that knew very little about the true meaning of Christmas. I knew we were going to enjoy having the chance to teach them what Christmas was all about. Invisible Pet dog named Plank becomes part of the miracle. We were almost in Blue Ridge. Our plans were to stop in the shopping center, take care of “gotta goes” and buy groceries. On the way there I had heard our crowd having fun planning our meals and who was to find and buy each item. There a ritual I go through when planning to stop and have little fellows asleep on board. I blow the horn several times, move the steering wheel slowly back and forth rocking the van, holler loudly, “Look out you stinking mutt,” apply the brakes, blow the horn again then complain about the dog that must have been on the van or followed us up here. “Did you see him run in front of that car? Don’t you guys keep a look out the window for animals and stuff?” I asked. I thought I heard “Nope” from a couple of them. “Well listen and I’m going to tell you about that mutt. We have a nasty old shaggy long-haired stinking pet dog we love that sneaks around our house named Plank; he got that name because he always looks so board and always needs to brush his teeth and take a bath. He’s not had a bath for a long time. You can tell if he is around because there is an awful smell all around and you can’t tell where it’s coming from. He is so sneaky that he can sneak into almost any place. He could have even snuck into this van. If he did I’ll bet he got out of the van to use the bathroom when we stopped for gas at home and has been trying to catch up ever since. Did any of you smell anything stinking before we stopped?” And I knew as always I would get a couple “Yeps!” I heard all the kids and chaperones giggling about such an unbelievable story, “He is just having fun I guess,” I heard one say. As we were getting out of the van in the shopping center a cattle truck with a lighted Christmas wreath attached to the grill came by that smelled terrible. A second after it had passed I made sure our four Christmas trippers saw me bending slightly, looking under the van and under other vehicles. I then asked them to help me keep a look out for Plank because I thought I could still smell him. I then asked, “Can’t you fellows smell anything that smells bad? If you can’t your smellers are messed up or something.” All four let me know without a doubt they smelled our pet PLANK with “Yeah!” so loud other shoppers turned to check us out for a second. Maybe we are having too much fun I thought; I better give Plank a short break. Before we went into the grocery store it was suggested we get two shopping carts. One for Spunky who was to buy snacks for our Christmas crowd; the other was for our Christmas trippers and chaperones to find the food for our meals. I wasn’t supposed to know what we were to have for those meals; it was a secret they said and would not discuss why they didn’t want to have me around. I saw them occasionally in the aisles and the only conversation I heard was, “I can’t find them.” “Can’t find what?” “Them grips,” “You can’t find what,” “Them grips.” I heard one of the chaperones telling him to wait, that they would help him find them in a minute. I later found they were talking about grits. A nickname had just been born, grips. I did notice as our Christmas trippers rounding a corner that Junior and Sissy were too busy riding on the shopping cart to think about groceries. After selecting two large bags of buttered popcorn, reindeer cookies, oranges and Cokes Spunky and I met our buddies, their smiles and our other groceries. Our shoppers asked me to go to the van so I would not see what they had selected to help cook for our meals. I told them I couldn’t wait for breakfast which got several giggles and smiles. Finally getting checked out with groceries in the van we were on our way to the cabin. It was dark when we left and the Christmas lights sure were bright in the clear Blue Ridge Mountains chilly air. My hearing sometimes fails me when several people are talking especially several excited children all screaming at the same time about the pretty lights. We saw thousand of colored lights, lighted figurines, displays of the manger scenes, and others that had our four really excited. I slowed down several times so they could see them better. I asked, “Have any of you guys been to town to see all of the Christmas lights at home?” I was not surprised when all four of them said they had not been to see any Christmas lights. Socially deprived I really believed that response because their families didn’t seem to be interested in what other families were doing. How in the world can people lose the sight that little guys need to have some knowledge about their surroundings, what all of their friends and peers are talking about and situations they are involved in at their homes and school. I knew our four little Christmas trippers were truly socially deprived. I began thinking a prayer as I do quite often when I know I will need a clear mind and the right thoughts when trying to help children. “Lord, I am going to need your help with this situation I have gotten myself into, and Lord, give us the knowledge to begin to instill in these four little fellows the true meaning of Christmas and still have a good time thinking about Santa and what he will be bringing to every one of them. Amen.” It crossed my mind at that time how we adults get so mentally wrapped up in our own ethics, values, morals and lives that we lose sight that there are people around that don’t process things mentally as we do. Unless we take time to live our lives around them how will they ever know there are other ways to exist in this world? Those people with mental challenges hurt, care, feel, and love also. Some of us lose sight that each of us is different; God saw to that. I’m not saying they should approve of our ways or that they are the best; what I’m saying is give them time, let them be the judge and make that determination. They could possibly find out they weren’t doing so bad after all and with some changes their lives would change a lot. I have been around adults with lack of self confidence I guess that would have very little contact with the young fellows who are mentally challenged; they would only glance at them for a second, walk on by not wanting to get involved. If only those people would have stopped long enough to give those little fellows a chance to smile at them, I have no doubt they would see God’s love in their small beautiful eyes. If those adults would respond in some positive way what a wonderful world my little friends would live in. They deserve that kind of world. My belief is that God gave people that are mentally challenged the ability to love every one of us without any preconceived conditions. To put it in their terms they love us just because they want to. Christmas shopping Getting my mind back on track I knew tomorrow would be when we give each kid $10 to buy Christmas gifts for family and friends. We always let them think about it overnight before we went shopping. I have always been amazed watching them select gifts and for whom. I told them about the $10 before we got to the cabin and got a few statements like, “Boy I’m gonna buy me a big something.” And “Boy that’s a lot of money.” I told them they couldn’t tell what they were going to buy and for whom until tomorrow morning. Upon our arrival at the cabin, unloading the van, getting beds assigned, many questions were asked. Especially, “When are we going to eat supper?” After hot dogs, baths, pajamas, gotta goes, and a few questions it was time for the story I promised to tell them. This is first time all are required to relax be quiet and is the time that our chaperones and kids begin the process of becoming life long friends. I have told this story to hundred of little fellows and it seemed to be after trial and error that the best way for the mentally challenged and very young children we worked with to understand how Jesus and his birth became Christmas. I can remember this time like it happened last night. I can still see those four little faces with eyes focused on me and my every word. The first question I asked all four and Spunky, “Who knows why we talk about Christmas so much right now and why we give people presents on Christmas? Sissy, do you know, honey?” “We love everybody and give them presents on Christmas.” “You are absolutely right, young lady. Who else knows why we talk about Christmas?” Robbie raised his hand and said, “Cause we love Santa Claus too.” “Another wonderful answer, my boy, who else knows why?” Grips said, “My Aunt Lois said, ‘You have to go to church cause Jesus is there and you have to love Jesus cause he was a little baby on Christmas.’” “Brother Grips, you are my kind of man. You were listening to a lady who was telling the truth, and you are absolutely right too. Junior, my friend, do you know why we give other people gifts, and why people gives you gifts on Christmas?” ‘We love everybody’ Seeing his brown eyes sparkle and narrow while he was thinking, “Cause we love every body.” “Brother Junior, you are sharper than a briar and just as handsome, and Mr. Spunky, what do we think about when we think about Christmas? Think hard, buddy.” I had already noticed that He was squirming getting ready for me to ask him his opinion about Christmas. The Lord blesses the mentally challenged people with the absolute desire to tell the truth and exactly the way they feel if they feel comfortable and my best Pal who still believes in Santa Claus said in his broken speech that most people wouldn’t have understood, “We have to leave the porch light on so Santa Claus won’t trip and fall and leave him two cookies so he won’t get hungry, everybody has to write him a letter and send it to him so he will know we love him.” “Mr. Keener you are a sight. Do you know that I was afraid you would have forgotten. Santa will sure be proud of you,” I said to a fellow who had a grin from ear to ear. “You fellows listen to me while I tell you what my Granny told me about why we have a Christmas. How many of you fellows got a Granny”? I asked. “I got two of them,” Junior said. To my surprise everyone even our chaperones had and loved their Grannies. Their feeling about Grannies was going to make this story seem personal to each of them. We all loved our grandmothers and trusted their judgment and advice, and our four would be no exception. “Granny told me when I was a little boy a great big wonderful man named God who loved everyone and everything, was living by him self and since he was lonesome decided he would make the whole world and everything in it - even all the people, all the animals, all the trees, all the cars, and all the things you ever thought about.” I was about to continue when Sissy said, “Even us.” I noticed that each of our little fellows had gotten closer to their chaperone and were ready to listen to the story I was about to tell them. ‘God was real happy’ “You’re absolutely right, beautiful, even us, Miss Sissy. “And boy God was real happy with what He had made. One day He was just hanging around and was watching all the people He loved and He was surprised some of the people were not doing what He told them they were supposed to do so everybody would be happy. They were doing dumb stuff, like saying bad words, fighting other people, fussing, and just not liking everybody. So God decided he was going to help all the people because he loved them. “God told several people who he knew that he was going to send a wonderful baby named Jesus to where everybody lived and Jesus was going to grow up and teach them that all the dumb stuff they were doing they had to stop doing. He was going to teach them about all the good stuff they had to do to get to come to Heaven to be with him when they died. I sure am glad Jesus told everybody how to go to heaven. Do you know anybody that died and went to Heaven, and how they got to go there?” Brother Junior surprised me when he said with his hand raised the whole time, “Cause we loved everybody, we will get to go to Heaven. That’s what that man on TV said.” “Brother Junior that man sure knew what he was talking about when he talked about love and stuff, and I know you guys are doing the right stuff and will get to go to Heaven and see God and everybody. “All of you know when you first got to come and live with your families you had to be born and everybody called you a baby. I looked at every one and saw all smiles agreeing that I had hit a positive note. “Well, God decided he had to find the nicest lady he could find to be the mother of Jesus, and since God loved Mary so much and her husband Joseph was such a nice man, God said, ‘I think I will let my little baby boy be born and live with them and he will call them Mama and Daddy and God decided he had to tell Mary and Joseph that he wanted them to name his little baby Jesus.’” I get emotional every time I think back. I can still see those four little faces, so quiet, so interested and I believe understanding what I was telling them. “I then told them, God sent a beautiful angel, the kind that has wings that was dressed in a beautiful white long dress to tell Mary and Joseph what he was going to do. And Mary and Joseph were sure enough happy. “God was so proud of the decision He had made. He had already sent some angels a long time before Jesus was born to tell a few people he was going to send them someone to save them from the people who had gotten real mean. The angels told those people about what God had told them. The angels told them that a baby was going to be born some time and he was going to be called a king. God must have loved all His people so much, and He wanted them to know He was thinking about them being worried so much about what people was doing to make them feel so bad. Having a baby “Well Mary and Joseph before baby Jesus was born were going to have to go to a town called Bethlehem to sign some papers and pay the King the money they owed him for taxes like every body else was having to do. At that time of the year the roads had a million people walking on it and all kinds of animals, cows, sheep, camels and donkeys, just like the one Mary was riding on. There were so many people on that road it slowed every body down and Mary and Jesus was late getting to Bethlehem. “Well when Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem they went to the hotels and motels to get a room to stay in and every place they checked there was no place for them to stay and they were getting worried cause Baby Jesus was about to be born. “A nice man who worked at the motel saw Mary and Joseph were worried and knew baby Jesus was about to be born told them that they could stay in his barn. Since Mary and Joseph were worried so much, they thanked the man and went to stay in his barn where all the people that was staying in the hotel had put their donkeys and horses. And let me tell you that must have been a nice man because God sent baby Jesus that very night to be born. Mary and Joseph were so happy they smiled a lot, hugged each other, and just kept on hugging baby Jesus. All the animals could feel how happy that Mother and Daddy were and laid down and watched Mary wrap beautiful baby Jesus up in special clothes and put him on some soft hay they had put in a manger. A manger is what the cattle usually ate their food out of and with hay in that manger Baby Jesus fit in it just perfect. “God was so happy and He knew He was going to have to tell everybody that baby Jesus was born. He decided to tell some shepherds first. Shepherds are people who watch out for a bunch of sheep. Shepherds have to watch sheep all the time because they will walk off or run away and even had to watch them all night long. God thought that shepherds and everybody saw the moon and some stars at night. What about a very big bright star that would shine straight to where Jesus was, God thought? The more He thought the better He liked the idea. Don’t be afraid “So God made a very bright star in the sky that the shepherds saw and didn’t know what such a bright star was doing there because they hadn’t seen it before. Then all of a sudden some beautiful angels were all around them and one began to talk. The angels could see that the shepherds were scared and told them not to be afraid because they had come to tell them and everybody else some good news. Someone great had been born that day. He is Christ the great King you have been waiting for. He came to save you from all those things that are bad, wrong and evil. You will find him in baby clothes lying in a manger. If you follow the bright star you see you will find Him. So the shepherds started following the star they saw and remembering what the angels told them they found Jesus just like the angels told them they would. “Some of the people who a long time before baby Jesus was born had heard about the baby Christ King were called wise men. Some people said they might have been kings. They saw the bright star and knew for sure the star would lead them to baby Jesus so they followed the star and finally found where Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus were staying. Copyright: 2004 Deacon Balliew
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