Illustration: Summer Camp

Dear Mom, Our Scout Master told us all write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and worried. We are OK. Only two of our tents and four sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Jeff when it happened. Oh yes, please call Jeff's mother and tell her he is OK. He can't write because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search and rescue Jeeps. It was neat.

Illustration: Faithfulness

The woman's husband had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months, yet she had stayed by his bedside every single day. One day, when he came to, he motioned for her to come nearer.

Illustration: Hope…and the Single Life

Milton Berle told the story of four widows who were playing cards in the retirement home where they lived. A good-looking, older fellow walks in, bags under each arm. "What's a good-looking man like you doing here?" one asks.

Illustration: Lost

Chester Harding was painting Daniel Boone's portrait in 1820, when Boone was nearly 86 years old. Harding asked Boone if he had ever been lost during his travels. Boone replied, "No, I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days."

Illustration: The Challenge of Preaching

Bruce Thielemann once wrote, "The pulpit calls those anointed to it like the sea calls its sailor; and like the sea, it batters and bruises, and does not rest...To preach, to really preach, is to die naked a little at a time, and to know each time you do it that you must do it again."

Illustration: Life Is Short

A distraught patient phoned her doctor's office. Was it true, the woman wanted to know, that the medication the doctor had prescribed was to be taken for the rest of her life? She was told that it was.

Illustration: Loneliness

David Jeremiah wrote: "When missionary Amy Carmichael went to India, she suffered from acute, prolonged loneliness and homesickness. The other missionaries tried to be kind to her, but they were busy and had their own interests. One day, Amy's condition became almost intolerable, and when her mail arrived, she ran into the house, into her bedroom. Locking the door, she knelt by her bed. There she opened her letters and read them aloud, one by one, to her heavenly Father."

Illustration: Choices, Improvements

A farmer was driving along the road with a load of fertilizer. A little boy, playing in front of his house, saw him and called, "What have you got in your truck?"

Illustration: Second Coming

David Jeremiah writes: "The Diamond Wedding Gown, offered exclusively by a chic bridal salon in Beverly Hills, can be yours for only $12 million. It's the most expensive wedding dress in the world, and it's bedecked with 150 carats of diamonds. If that's over your budget, you might consider the world's second most expensive wedding dress. It comes in at a mere $8.5 million and features 1,000 pearls and a rare five-carat white gold diamond."

Illustration: Opportunity

The right time to do the right thing is always right now. Recent reports indicate that George Washington, if he were alive today, would owe a huge library fine. New York City's oldest library has a ledger that indicates George Washington never returned two books he borrowed in 1789.