QUARANTINE BLOG # 32

May 1, 2020

While you slept, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp allowed his statewide shelter-in-place order to expire, but the elderly and medically fragile are ordered to stay at home until June 12.  Social distancing requirements and bans on large gatherings remain in place.

The number of newly confirmed cases seems to have spiked on April 7 at 1,598, but the numbers go down one day and up the next: Sunday, April 26 – 265; Monday, April 27 – 868; Tuesday, April 28 – 495; Wednesday, April 29 – 779.  The danger of the shelter-in-place order being lifted, according to Dr. Harry J. Heiman, professor of public health at Georgia State University, is, “If the message ... is we no longer need to shelter in place, that gives many citizens the false sense that it’s safer to go outside than it was a month ago.  And that’s very concerning and frightening to me.”

👉  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday dismissed the notion that former Vice President Joe Biden should “directly, publicly” respond to sexual-assault allegations made by Tara Reade, his former Senate staffer.  CNN reports that Mr. Biden has not said anything publicly about the situation, but Ms. Pelosi she was “satisfied with how he has responded.”  Hmmm.

For years now we’ve been in a season of extraordinary, and revolting, political party politics.  I’m right.  You’re wrong.  Period.  My first thought is that the same demagoguery that was wreaked on Brett Kavanaugh when he was nominated for the Supreme Court should be applied to Joe Biden.  My second thought, which I mentioned in an earlier blog, is – where have all the statesmen gone?  Long time passing.  Listen to Peter, Paul, and Mary ask that question.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgXNVA9ngx8

After listening to that song, you will know why Mary Travers’ voice earned her the nickname “a blonde and a half.”

👉 Verizon told me that effective today they are adding 15 GB of data to my plan at no charge for its use through May 31.  No action is needed on my part.  That was most kind, unnecessary, but kind nevertheless.

We have an 8 GB plan and only used 4.3 GB in February, 4.7 GB in March, and 1.2 GB in April.  With unused carry-over gigs, we start this billing cycle with 18.7 GB.  So with an extra 15 GB we can watch every movie on Amazon Prime, binge on YouTube, talk, text, and Facetime to our hearts’ content.  Actually we Duo, not Facetime.  But hey, the gig’s up!

👉 There are some criminals who should not be put in jail, they should be put under the jail.  At the moment I am thinking about all of the low lifes out there who are perpetrating coronavirus scams.  The Federal Trade Commission says coronavirus related scams have cost Americans $13.4 million so far this year. Google has blocked 18 million of them – coronavirus-related phishing emails as criminals try to steal money and personal information.  And with over 40,000 registered internet domain names using the word “coronavirus,” there is a lot of potential for swindling.

With most of us sheltered in place, scammers know we may be more likely to answer a phone call from a number we don’t recognize than we would under better times.  And here is where the slimeballs go to work.

One version claims to be from the CDC and offers “exclusive reservations” for a coronavirus vaccine in exchange for your credit card and Social Security numbers.

The second is human depravity at its lowest: a robocall tells the victim they’ve tested positive for COVID-19, so they must provide their card number to receive “antibiotics” to fight the disease.  With many people anxiously awaiting test results these scammers are lower than what you wipe off the bottom of your shoes after walking through a cow pasture.

Protection rule number one: never, never, never give your social security number over the phone, and unless you are dealing with a company you have researched and you have personally called, don’t give them your credit card information.

Protection rule number two: never, never, never give your credit card information to a robocall.  If it is a legitimate testing site, they will contact you personally, not with a recording.

Just when you think the meanies out there can’t sink any lower, they prove you are wrong.

👉 It goes without saying that these are uncertain times, filled with anxiety, so I am going to end today’s blog with a true story that happened in August, 1997.  The power and the hope of those two unusual days are as real today as they were then.

I led a missionary team of 18 people from Evans, Georgia for ministry in Russia.  Our plans were to be joined in Moscow by the 19th member of the team arriving from Saudi Arabia.

At the first stop on his way, the airplane had mechanical problems and Chris was grounded.  Our lead translator and guide, Sergei Zelenski met us at the Moscow airport with an e-mail stating Chris would arrive late.  The Aeroflot information desk told us he would arrive the next morning at 9:30 a.m., so we boarded the 8 p.m. train for Samara and dispatched Sergei to meet Chris.

Chris arrived, not at 9:30, but nine hours earlier, shortly after midnight, alone in a city where he knew no one and could not speak the language.  An hour later, in the vast and dark cavern that is Sheremet’yva International Airport, Chris found one man who spoke English.  That man put Chris in a taxi for the Kazansky railway station.  At the train station, he found one man who spoke English and that man helped Chris buy a ticket for Samara and slipped him into an empty train car to sleep until morning.  Onboard the train, Chris was berthed in a compartment with three other men, one of whom spoke English.

When they arrived in Samara, the man asked, “Who are you meeting in our city?”  Chris gave the man my name and the Russian called his neighbor, asking, “Do you know David Sisler?”  The neighbor was Alla Gershburg, our lead translator in Samara!

No Las Vegas bookie would have taken those odds.

When I recounted that story not long after it happened, one person remarked, “Your young man sure was lucky.”

It has long been my suspicion – as I said in an earlier blog – that Jesus’ middle name is “luck.”

It has long been my confidence that steps of faith, ventured in Jesus’ name encounter Jesus’ blessings.

That was what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “All things – even airplane trouble in a foreign country that completely messes up your well-planned schedule – work together for good to those who love the Lord, who are the called according to His purpose.”

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