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Jacob went on his way® and the angels of God met him; 2and when Jacob saw them he said, "This is God's camp!" So he called that place Mahanaim.
sjacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4instructing them, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau; Thus says your servant Jacob, 'I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now; Sand I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight. '"
The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him. " 7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies, 8thinking, "If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape. "
And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,' lol am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. llDeliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. 12Yet you have said, "I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their num-
her. '"
13So he spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ISthirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove. " l?He instructed the foremost, "When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, 'To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?' 18then you shall say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us. '" l9He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, "You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, 20and you shall say, 'Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us. '" For he thought, "I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me. " 2lSo the present passed on ahead of him) and he himself spent that night in the camp.
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ln the spring of the year,the time when Kings go out to battle,David sent Joab with his officers and all Is¬rael with him;they ravaged the Ammonites,and besieged Rab-bah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, "This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. "4 So David sent messengers to get her,and she came to him,and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period. ) Then she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant. "
6 So David sent word to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hit-tite. "And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet. " Uriah went out of the king's house,and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king's house with all the servants of his lord,and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, "Uriah did not go down to his house, "David said to Uriah, "You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?"ll Uriah said to David,"The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my ife? As you live,and as your soul lives,! will not do such a thing. "12 Then David said to Uriah,"Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back. "So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, 13 David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk;and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord,but he did not go down to his house.
14ln the morning David wrote a letter to Joab,and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote,"Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting,and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die. "16 As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors. 17 The men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David a-mong the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was killed as well. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting; 19'and he instructed the messenger, "When you have finished telling the king all the news about the fighting, 20 then, if the king's anger rises,and if he says to you, 'Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 2lWho killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did .you go so near the wall? ' then you shall say, 'your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.'"
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THOMAS BJORN yesterday confessed his search for2 perfection on the golf course had pushed him to the brink3 of madness.
The Danish Ryder Cup player walked off after only six holes of the Smurfit European Open last week after conceding he was losing the battle against the "demons" in his head."
And last night the 33-year-old, speaking ahead of tomorrow's Barclays Scottish Open, said: " Sometimes you get to situations in life and in golf where it plays so many tricks on5 you that you start thinking about things that you shouldn't think about.
"There was nothing but fear on that first tee6 last week and that was the mental part flowing in and not believing in what you are doing.
"You start putting pressure on yourself because you want to perform well and it just becomes a vicious circle7 and you can't see anything good out there." When I stood on the first tee, I just saw trouble everywhere. The fairway8 looked tiny and the green9 looked the size of a hole. It was uncomfortable all the way down the first few holes and I just thought; ' I can't be here'. "
Bjorn has helped win two Ryder Cups and claimed seven European Tour titles, including here in 1996. And while insisting his collapse at last year's Open has had no effect, he reckons the loss of his previous mental toughness is down to pushing himself too hard.10
"When I am in a situation with pressure I have always been good and maybe I started thinking I needed to get myself to another level and it just wasn't there," he said.
" I was searching for things which didn't make any sense". So it was a case of cleaning out my head. "
At a previous interview, the correspondent asked "As a small boy, I presume that you would have thought, ' I want to be the best in the world,' as you are ambitious, what is it like knowing that that spot isn't open to you, the thought that Tiger and the rest of you are all fighting for second place? 12 What is that like for your morale?"
" I think you can look at it two ways. You can try and destroy yourself over not being able to become No. 1 in the world, and if you can't become No. 1 in the world why even bother thinking about it. Why don't you just go out there, enjoy playing in the tournaments'3, do as well as you can and just appreciate that you live in the era of the best player that's ever played the game. He's brought a lot to this game. He's brought a lot of money to my bank account, I know that, so thank God he's playing when I am out there. I can only appreciate what Tiger does for the game. I can only appreciate that he is a fantastic player and he's No. 1 in the world. " Bjorn said.
"I think—I think I heard Ernie'4 once say something like, 'Well, if you can ever get to a 14-point average on the World Rankings, that would be the maximum. '1S The guy is on 32 or 33 points now. If you look on the World Rankings, if you take that, he should be three times as good as Phil Mickelson16 who is second in the World Rankings. The guy is fantastic. There is nothing you can say. So, why don't you just leave it and say, well, he is No. 1 and then you play—if you play your best, you'll be No. 2. But, if you are No. 2 behind the best player that's ever played the game, you're doing pretty well. "
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Type O blood is the most urgently needed, because it the universal blood type, meaning it can be safely transfused to most people in an emergency.
"The severe winter weather has forced the cancellation of blood drives and limited out ability to collect blood," American Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole said. The Red Cross reported having less than one day's supply of type O blood on hand in 18 of the organization's 38 collection regions. The Red Cross provides about half of the nation's blood supply. America's Blood Centers, which supplies most of the rest, also has reported shortages.
Reacting to the shortage, a Pittsburgh blood bank asked 40 hospitals in western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to postpone elective surgeries through Wednesday. At least 1 000 donors are needed each day for the next several days to stabilize the supply, said Mark Lynch, spokesman for the Central Blood Bank. "We're talking about postponing hip replacement, for example, and orthopedic cases. These are sick people who need surgery, but it's not life threatening, " he said. When its blood supply is stable, the blood bank needs about 700 donors each day to maintain normal inventory. The Pittsburgh blood bank asked hospitals to postpone elective surgeries because of a blood shortage in October 1995. Such procedures were canceled for almost a week.
Nationwide, donations typically fall off during the holidays, when donors become too busy to give blood regularly. Bad weather increases shortages both by hampering blood drives and by causing increased blood demand to treat accident victims.
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We received your letter dated 2nd July, expressing your dissatisfaction with the present level of your sales in Nigeria. We shall try to explain as briefly as possible how it is that your competitors are doing so well so that you may see why it is that we are not. We shall also suggest ways of improving the present situation. Our difficulties may be summarized as follows:
A. Your competitors pay for extensive advertising in newspapers and magazines that reach every corner of Nigeria. We receive no financial help for advertising and do not receive sufficient commission to pay for it ourselves.
B. The company referred to in your letter sent a two man team on a tour of six provinces in a specially equipped lorry containing the models they wished to publicize. Their agent had arranged displays in the towns they were due to visit and had announced them in the local press. With such backing from the manufacturer, high sales are inevitable!
C. What sells well in Europe does not necessarily sell well elsewhere. Your competitors know this and plan accordingly. They give maximum publicity to three or four models that are sure to sell well here. We would suggest that you do the same and concentrate on the 98cc Speedy, the 250cc Hunter and the 350cc Hawk.
D. In spite of the excellent container ship service between England and West Africa we are still having to wait for too long for orders to be shipped. Once they have placed an order, customers are impatient to receive it. Our present commission of 10% does not allow us to undertake sales tours in other regions. Nigeria covers an area of over 350,000 square miles and our present commission will not stand the expense of such trips. If you are prepared to increase our commissions, contribute to our travel expenses on the longer journeys and back us with advertising, we are convinced that we can do as well as your competitors. We look forward to your comments.
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Some mistakes we make are about money. But most
mistakes are about people. One might say, "Did Jerry really care when I broke up wit Helen?" "When I got that great job, did Jim really feel good about it, as a friend?" Or "di he envy my luck? " "And Paul — why didn' t I pick up that he was friendly just because had a car?" When we look back, doubts like these can make us feel bad. But when we lool back, it' s too late.
Why are we wrong about our friends — or our enemies? Sometimes what people say hide their real meaning. And if we don't really listen, we miss the feeling behind the words. Sup pose someone says to you, "You' re a lucky dog. " Is he really on your side? If he says, " You' re a lucky guy" or " You' re a lucky gal," that' s being friendly. But if he says, " Yoi are a lucky dog" , there' s a bit of envy in those words. Maybe he doesn' t see it himself. Bu bringing in the "dog" he put you down a little. What he may be saying is that he doesn' i think you deserve your luck.
"Just think of all the things you have to be thanking for" is another noise that says ont thing and means another. It could mean that the speaker is trying to get you to see your problem as part of your life as a whole. But is he? Wrapped up in this phrase is the thought thai your problem isn' t important. It' s telling you to think of all the starving people in the world when you have not got a date for Saturday night.
How can you tell the real meaning behind someone' s words? One way is to take a good look at the person talking. Do his words fit the way he looks? Does what he says square with his tone of voice, his posture, the look in his eyes? Stop and think. The minute you spend thinking about the real meaning of that people say to you may save another mistake.
Therefore, when you hear some one saying, please try to know what he really means. Don' t just listen to what he says with your ears but feel the words he uses with your head. In this way you may make less mistakes.
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When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the company of prophets was sitting before him, he said to his servant, "Put the large pot on, and make some stew for the company of prophets. " 39One of them went out into the field to gather herbs •, he found a wild vine and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds,and came and cut them up into the pot of stew,not knowing what they were. 40 They served some for the men to eat. But while they were eating the stew, they cried out, "O man of God, there is death in the pot!" They could not eat it. 41 He said,"Then bring some flour. "He threw it into the pot,and said,"Serve the people and let them eat. "And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
A man came from Baalshalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God;twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, "Give it to the people and let them eat. " 43 But his servant said, "How can I set this before a hundred people? "So he repeated , "Give it to the people and let them eat , for thus says the LORD , 'They shall eat and have some left. '" 44 He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.
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Every sport has its great legends: soccer1 has Pele, basketball has Michael Jordan, and tennis, Steffi Graf. Is there one athlete who people consider i be the best ever? Many would say that person is boxer Muhammad Ali, known to his many fans as 'the greatest.'
'Cassius Clay' was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. At the age of twelve, after his bike was stolen, young Cassius began boxing; by the tirr he reached high school, he was a successful amateur boxer. After winning six state and two national boxing championships,2 he competed in the 1960 Olympics, where he won a gold medal. That same year, at the age <
10 eighteen, he became a professional boxer.
From the start of his career it was clear that Cassius Clay was different from other athletes. He was outspoken, proud, and strong-willed, and talked publicly about himself and his beliefs. The man who called himself
The greatest' still faced many challenges, though. After winning his 'Olympic gold medal, he returned home to the United States. He was not lowed to stay in certain hotels or eat in certain restaurants because of ie color of his skin. Cassius was disgusted with racism in the U.S., so he rew his Olympic medal into a river.
1964, at the age of twenty-two, Clay beat3 Sonny Liston to become the orld heavyweight4 champion. He also surprised the sporting world by incoming a follower of Islam5, and changed his name to Muhammad AH— eaning 'beloved of Allah6.' Ali surprised the world again in 1966, not for s boxing skills, but for his strong religious and political beliefs. As a uslim, he disagreed with the U.S. war in Vietnam and refused to join the ilitary, which all young men in the U.S. had to do at the time. As a mlt, Ali's heavyweight title was taken away, and he was sent to prison r five years. Ali was released almost three years later, and eventually, the S. Supreme Court7 ruled that his conviction8 was wrong.
i retired from boxing in 1981, ending a career of sixty-one fights, of lich he won fifty-six. In 1996, he was recognized as a sporting hero at ; opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. The crowd at the .mes cheered as Ali, now suffering from Parkinson's disease9, lit the ympic flame—no longer the strongest, but still the greatest.
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They see a day in the not-too-distant future when all autos will be abandoned and allowed to rust. Other authorities , however , think the auto is here to stay. They hold that the car will remain a leading means of urban travel in the foreseeable future.
The motorcar will undoubtedly change significantly over the next 30 years. It should become smaller, safer, and more economical, and should not be powered by the gasoline engine. The car of the future should be far more pollution-free than present types.
Regardless of its power source , the auto in the future will still be the main problem in urban traffic congestion ( •$] $f ) . One proposed solution to this problem is the automated highway system.
When the auto enters the highway system, a retractable arm will drop from the auto and make contact with a rail, which is similar to those powering subway trains electrically. Once attached to the rail , the car will become electrically powered from the system , and control of the vehicle will pass to a central computer. The computer will then monitor all of the car's movements.
The driver will use a telephone to dial instructions about his destination into the system. The computer will calculate the best route , and reserve space for the car all the way to the correct exit from the highway. The driver will then be free to relax and wait for the buzzer that will warn him of his coming exit. It is estimated that an automated highway will be able to handle 10 , 000 vehicles per hour , compared with the 1 , 500 to 2, 000 vehicles that can be carried by a present-day highway.
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The US Department of Education estimates there are 250 000 to 350 000 home schooled children in the country. Home-school advocates put the number much higher — at about a million.
Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and a damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herdlike approach to teaching children.
Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home -school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schools and home shoulders have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.
Says John Marshall, an education official, "We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers. " The idea is, "Let's give the kinds access to public schools so they'll see it's not as terrible as they've been told, and they'll want to come back. "
Perhaps, but don't count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education — whether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child's interests and natural pace — is best.
"The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone," says Enge Cannon, associate director of the national Center For Home Education. She says home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.
Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also "strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn—both intellectually and emotionally—that the family is the most important institution in society. "
Other home schoolers contend "not so much that the schools teach heresy, but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately," Van Galen writes. "These parents are highly independent and strive to 'take responsibility' for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient. "
