Kuala Lumpur December 2024 "Plugged In"
04/01/25 10:41
"Let us go and visit our friend now", my wife said as I was driving us home from a shopping trip. There is a time and place for everything and we had previously decided that visit would take place next week not this so I was a little confused by the sudden change of plan. As the driver I had complete control over what we would or would not be doing and I'd rather prefer to rest after an afternoon spent shopping (or more accurately 'window shopping' as we had bought nothing). However I could tell from her voice that this was more of a directive than a suggestion so I changed course and drove to our friend's address.
This particular friend is not well and we knew she would welcome a visit from us to lift her spirits. It was undoubtedly the right thing to do but the timing was odd. Usually we would go there in the morning and take her some food but it was afternoon now and we had nothing to give her but our time. We were warmly welcomed by our friend and her sister and I listened as they discussed how our friend was recovering from her sickness. There was a pause whilst she was telling us of her Christmas as one of her presents was an electrical device that could not be used. She had been given a hand held infra red heat lamp to reduce the pain in her back but it couldn't be used as the electrical plug pins were too big, much bigger than the holes in the two pin adaptor she wanted to use to plug it to the socket. As my background is an electrical engineer she handed me the device and the adaptor in the hope I could find a solution. The pins on this device were thicker than normal for a two pin plug and were definitely too big to fit in the adaptor and I thought to myself that a mechanical engineer might have more success with this! However I knew that if I could depress the earth pin in the socket then the protective covers over the two live pins would be lifted and I could insert the two pin plug directly into them. (I'd done it before and knew what I was doing). Expectant faces gazed at me as I unsuccessfully tried to use the small screwdriver I was offered but I didn't give up. I needed something bigger, I needed our car key. The key was wide enough to press down on the earth pin and open up the two holes for the plug. I had immediate success! Our friend was overjoyed and was sure that this device would be a great help to aid her recovery. I was pleased to have solved the problem.
On our way back home I remarked to my wife how fortunate it was we had decided to visit her so soon after Christmas. "Yes", she replied, "The Holy Spirit put into my mind that we needed to go now and not as we had originally planned". I nodded and thought "Ah, that was what prompted the change. It was a good thing to do".
This particular friend is not well and we knew she would welcome a visit from us to lift her spirits. It was undoubtedly the right thing to do but the timing was odd. Usually we would go there in the morning and take her some food but it was afternoon now and we had nothing to give her but our time. We were warmly welcomed by our friend and her sister and I listened as they discussed how our friend was recovering from her sickness. There was a pause whilst she was telling us of her Christmas as one of her presents was an electrical device that could not be used. She had been given a hand held infra red heat lamp to reduce the pain in her back but it couldn't be used as the electrical plug pins were too big, much bigger than the holes in the two pin adaptor she wanted to use to plug it to the socket. As my background is an electrical engineer she handed me the device and the adaptor in the hope I could find a solution. The pins on this device were thicker than normal for a two pin plug and were definitely too big to fit in the adaptor and I thought to myself that a mechanical engineer might have more success with this! However I knew that if I could depress the earth pin in the socket then the protective covers over the two live pins would be lifted and I could insert the two pin plug directly into them. (I'd done it before and knew what I was doing). Expectant faces gazed at me as I unsuccessfully tried to use the small screwdriver I was offered but I didn't give up. I needed something bigger, I needed our car key. The key was wide enough to press down on the earth pin and open up the two holes for the plug. I had immediate success! Our friend was overjoyed and was sure that this device would be a great help to aid her recovery. I was pleased to have solved the problem.
On our way back home I remarked to my wife how fortunate it was we had decided to visit her so soon after Christmas. "Yes", she replied, "The Holy Spirit put into my mind that we needed to go now and not as we had originally planned". I nodded and thought "Ah, that was what prompted the change. It was a good thing to do".