Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord, all the lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord is God!
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people,
and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him, bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Father Tomas Del Valle-Reyes
Discovering 21 Century
P. O. BOX 1170 New York, NY 10018
Radiosigloxxi@aol.com

Lean On Me

As the road ahead seems rugged
and the path is getting steep,

I feel that I can't make it
so my heart begins to weep.
Then I turn to see who's coming
to join me on my way.
I see it is my Lord
and He slowly turns to say,
"Lean on me.....
when you have no strength to stand.
When you feel you're going under,
hold tighter to my hand.
Lean on me......
when your heart begins to bleed.
When you know I'm all you have,
then you'll find I'm all you need."
Then when I felt that no one cared
if I lived or died,
and no one bothered asking why
I'd go alone to cry.
When the burden got so heavy
I could barely face the day,
I felt His arms around me
as I gently heard Him say,
"Lean on me......
when you have no strength to stand.
When you feel you're going under,
hold tighter to my hand.
Lean on me......
when your heart begins to bleed.
When you come to know I'm all you have,
then you'll find I'm all you need.

Author Unknown~

Descubriendo el siglo 21
P.O. BOX 1170
New York, NY 10018
212-244-4778
917-499-9715
http://www.discovering21century.com/

Final Inspection

The officer stood and faced his God.

Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining, just
as brightly as his brass.
"Step forward now, Officer, 
How shall I deal with you? 
Have you always turned the other cheek? 
To your church have you been true?"
The officer squared his shoulders and said,
" No, Lord, I guess I am not, 
Because all of us who carry badges Can’t always be a saint. 
I’ve had to work most Sundays, And at times my talk was rough, 
And sometimes I’ve been violent Because the streets are tough.
But I never took a penny That wasn’t mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime,

When the bills got way too steep.
 And I never passed a cry for help,
Though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God forgive me, 
I’ve wept an unmanly tear.
I know I don’t deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fear.
If you’ve a place for me here,
Lord, it needn’t be so grand.
I never expected or had too much,

But if you don’t… I’ll understand!
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints often trod.
 As the officer waited quietly
For the judgment of his GOD
"Step forward now, Officer. 
You’ve borne your burdens well 
Come walk a beat on heaven’s streets, 
You’ve done your time in hell"
author unknown



Father Tomas Del Valle-Reyes
Discovering 21 Century
P. O, Box 1170
New York, NY 10018
212-244-4778

Radiosigloxxi@aol.com

75 Cents

In 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket.

Their father was gone.
The boys ranged from three months to seven years;
their sister was two.
Their Dad had never been much more than a
presence they feared. Whenever they heard his
tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would
scramble to hide under their beds.
 He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. 
 Now that he had decided to leave, there
would be no more beatings, but no food either.

If there was a welfare system in effect in southern
Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it.
I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new
and then put on my best homemade dress,
loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off
to find a job.
 The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince whoever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything.

I had to have a job. Still no luck.
The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town,
was an old Root Beer Bar rel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop.
It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny 
owned the place and she peeked out of the window from
time to time at all those kids.
She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.
I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people.
I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night.
She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep.
This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.
 That night when the little ones and I knelt to say 
our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job.
And so I started at the Big Wheel.
When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money -- fully half of what I averaged every night.
As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.
The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak..
I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.
One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat.

New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires.
 Had angels taken up residence in Indiana ? I wondered.
 I made a deal with the local service station.
In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office.
I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires. I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough.
 Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.  
I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys.

Then I hid them in the basement so there would be 
something for Santa to
deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too.
I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel.
There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.
 A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine.
The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.
 When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box.

 Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans.
Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes.
There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries.
There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes.
There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour.
There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items.
 And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll..
 As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly
rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life,
I was sobbing with gratitude.

And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my
little ones that precious morning.
Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December.
And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.....
THE POWER OF PRAYER.
I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
 1. 'Yes!' 
 2. 'Not yet.' 
 3. 'I have something better in mind.'
God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar.
You maybe going through a tough time right now,
but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.
 Here is the prayer:.... "Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power. Amen."

Father Tomas Del Valle-Reyes
Discovering 21 Century
P. O. BOX 1170New York, NY 10018
Radiosigloxxi@aol.com

Puppies

A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell.

He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups.
And set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard.
As he was driving the last nail into the post,
he felt a tug on his overalls.
He looked down into the eyes of little boy.
'Mister,' he said, 'I want to buy one of your puppies.' 
'We ll,' said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back
of his neck, ' These puppies come from fine
parents and cost a good deal of money.'

The boy dropped  his head for a moment.
Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled
out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer.
'I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?'
'Sure,' said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle.
'Here, Dolly!' he called.
Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly
followed by four little balls of fur.
The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence.
His eyes danced with delight.
As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little
boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse.
Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller.
Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up.... 'I want that one,' the little boy said, pointing to the runt.
The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said,

 'Son, you don't want that puppy. 
He will never be able to run and play with you like the other dogs would.' With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers.
In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe..
Looking back up at the farmer, he said, 'You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands.'
With tears in his eyes, the farmer reached down and picked up the little pup.. Holding it carefully he handed it to the little boy. 'How much?' asked the little boy. 'No charge,' answered the farmer, 'There's no charge for love.'
The world is full of people who need someone who understands . Show your friends how much you care.

Father Tomas Del Valle-Reyes
Discovering 21 Century
P. O. BOX 1170New York, NY 10018
Radiosigloxxi@aol.com