LITTLE DRUMMER MANNEQUIN

"Pa-ra-pa-pum-pum" some of you may remember "The Little Drummer Boy". This winter, I was feeling a little like I wouldn't be giving anybody any presents, not able to get out...my health has been so precarious, sometimes I wondered if I wasn't more like a wooden doll in a box at home, not a human being who could think about shopping for gifts for others. But my sister Joyce saw even one day my fever seemed to be cooperating and said she'd take me to the optician to fit me with glasses with both noseguards!

I prayed real hard that God would lead me to the right gifts in a short time because I knew I wouldn't be able to spend the normal time doing Christmas shopping. Within an hour, He planted the ideas in my mind of what presents to get and pulled me to the exact stores where they were then added details like inexpensive items to make the gifts more Christmasy as well as gift bags. I hadn't prayed for those things; they were God's Holiday bonuses.

When I saw Joyce struggling about purchasing a kitchen container, I decided that would be my gift; and since I knew she'd been wanting a good pillow for a while, and the Saito menfolk love ordering online, I had them choose a good one for Joyce. It wouldn't be here by Christmas, so I had a sheet with photograph and description in a gift bag from them to Joyce for her to open on Christmas.

Remember the post: "Revelation: Until He Makes it All Better" (Dec.16,'25)? My friend Aino had been told at that visit I was looking for a small stand for my notebook-sized pictures.  Every time I went to the 100 yen shop, I looked, but what they used to carry before had been discontinued. But after hearing my description, it seems Aino scoured the island and found a few stands similar to what I used before. She handed what she found to Joyce at church, and Joyce brought them home to me. I used one to set a "B5" picture of a wooden mannequin beating on the lid of a condiment jar. (I used the doll to practice drawing poses.) A computer microphone nearby is seen informing him that is NOT a bongo drum!

So my "Little Drummer Boy" story is not of a shepherd boy with a toy drum beating out a tune for Baby Jesus. It's of a shepherd missionary and sheep of the flock looking out for another sheep who was feeling like a mannequin in a box, bringing her a bit of Heaven's Joy.

Pa-ra-pa-pum-pum...

Sorry this got a little late!