March 29, 2024

The Church Mouse: A Free Trip

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
– John 142:3

Congratulations are in order for me!! 
I got a call early today telling me that I had won a free vacation to the St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. 
I was not very excited because I knew there had to be a catch to this deal. 
I knew that somewhere along the line I would be asked to pay money. (Nothing is ever really free!)

After listening to all the details of the trip, the lady on the phone asked if I could use a free vacation. I decided to play along. 
I said “Yes.”
She told me that they would send a limo to pick me up at my door and the driver would take me straight to the Meigs County airport. Where they would have the red carpet rolled out for me to walk right to the plane to fly first class to Miami Florida.
I started to laugh. She asked surprisingly why I was laughing? I told her there was no airport in Meigs County. She assured me that there was an airport. 
Anyway!! 
She went on to tell me that after flying to Miami I would have to wait for 4 hours before flying on to St Thomas. But, I was not to worry about the wait as my time would be spend it getting my paper work ready for leaving the country. I would need my driver’s license, my birth certificate, and pass-port and also at this time I would need to have my credit card available to pay duty taxes in order to leave the country. This duty tax was going to cost me $412.37 just to get out of the USA! 
Hummm! What happened to free?  
At this point in the conversation I stopped her and told her that I was not really interested in going to the St. Thomas.  
She seemed totally shocked that I would not want this free trip. (It did not really, seem to be free to me.)
So I asked her about where I would stay when I got to St. Thomas. I was told hotel accommodations were very limited. She told me when I got to Miami that I would receive a list of hotels and they would guarantee my reservation in a hotel.  But I would have to pay for the room, which ranged from $350 to $500 per night. She said if I had taken the boat option, I would not have had to find a hotel, and I could have just stayed on the boat. (I did not know that I had an option to pick a boat.) However, I was told that the cost of my hotel would be deeply discounted but I would be responsible for paying for the room. She could not tell me the cost of the room only the price range, as it depended on what room I picked! 
Hummm! This is now costing me over $800. Again what happened to free? 

Needless to say I  declined the trip. I also politely ask to have my name remove from their calling list. The poor lady was quite shocked that I did not want the trip and even more shocked I did not want to pass it to someone in my family or one of my close friends. (I want to keep all my family & friends liking me! LOL). 

I am however, going to be taking a trip in the future (I’m not sure of the exact date) and my reservation is made and it is a free trip. I am willing to recommend it to all of my family and friends. I will have the very best accommodations. I will be greeted by the Master of the house.  I must tell you that I am pretty excited about this trip. I have some work to do on the details for the trip such as: 
Praying  daily, 
Reading my Bible, 
Asking for forgiveness of the sins I have committed and 
Helping others find out about how to take the trip. 
Like said I do not know the exact date of this trip but I am preparing daily for it because I want to be ready when it is my turn to go. 
You see I am going to Heaven!!
It is not hard to get on the list for this trip. I want you to go, too. There are no hidden fees.  Jesus has already paid the price for us. So the trip really is free. All we have to do is believe in him.  I surely do not want to miss this trip. I bet you do not want to miss it either?  And the best part is we can to stay there for all eternity because Jesus has already built us a mansion. Yes sir! This is a trip I will definitely be going on.

Prayer- Thank you Jesus for our many blessings we received each day. Thank you Jesus for being willing to pay the price that we might have eternal life with you. Thank you for offering this free gift to everyone. Help me, Lord to spread this good news to everyone I come in contact with.  In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen. 

the Church Mouse 
Work hard; Pray harder!