JOSHUA TIME 945

----- Original Message -----
From: "MountainWings"
To: "Loretta Robinson"
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 1:15 AM
Subject: MountainWings:Saturday - The Parachute?


> -------------------------------------------------
> MountainWings A MountainWings Moment
> #1200 Wings Over The Mountains of Life
> -------------------------------------------------
>
> The Parachute?
> ===============
>
> Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate,
> was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam.
>
> After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a
> surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy
> hands. He was captured and spent six years in a communist
> Vietnamese prison.
>
> He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from
> that experience.
>
> One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant,
> a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew
> jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.
> You were shot down!"
>
> "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
>
> "I packed your parachute," the man replied.
>
> Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.
> The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"
>
> Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked,
> I wouldn't be here today."
>
> Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man.
>
> Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in
> a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom
> trousers.
>
> I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said
> "Good morning," "How are you?" or anything because, you see,
> I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.
>
> Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long
> wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the
> shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his
> hands each time, the fate of someone he didn't know.
>
> Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?"
>
> Everyone has someone who provides what he or she needs to make
> it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many
> kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy
> territory -- he needed his physical parachute, his mental
> parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute.
>
> He called on all these supports before reaching safety.
>
> Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss
> what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or
> thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has
> happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice
> for no reason.
>
> As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize
> those people who pack your parachute.
>
>
> Thank you for inviting MountainWings in your mailbox.
> See you tomorrow.
>
> Forward this issue to a friend or send them the link below:
> http://www.mountainwings.com/past/1200.htm
>
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