Small Miracles,Answered Prayer

i've long been in the habit of muttering small prayers to God. things like 'oh Lord ,please save the soul of that person ' (when i hear ambulance sirens); but, i've secretly wondered whether these kinds of quick said-in-my-head utterances are 'heard' by God. well ,something recently happened to stir my faith in this regard.
about a month ago a little piece of paper was stuck up in the foyer of my building. it was an appeal with two cell numbers for two women about a lost 4 week old kitten. i didn't think there was much hope for a lost kitten-especially in a busy road like the one i live in. anyway, i decided to program the numbers into my cell phone -muttering a little prayer to God: 'oh Lord, please protect the little lost kitten and get it safely back to it's owners'. but, even as i prayed it i didn't hold out much hope for the kitten.
last sunday -at around 10pm- i was at home listening to a Christian audiobook. i thought i heard the sound of a kitten mewing. i muted the hi-fi and went to my front door. i thought that my neighbour had perhaps again befriended a wandering neighbouring cat. i peered along the passage (through the bars of my security gate) and was astonished to see a kitten. i started calling it but thought it was probably feral and would run away.
to my surprise the kitten came running into my flat through the bars of the security gate. i picked it up and it was very tame-purring up a storm and running after me when i put it down to get up to grab my camera. i searched frantically through my phonebook wondering under what name i stored the advertised phone numbers. when i found the number i dialled it and the woman was driving along Musgrave road (not too far from where i live). she didn't think it could be one of her kittens but would come and collect it from me (she apparently belongs to an org that takes care of stray/unwanted cats). i was relieved. i mean i keep pet birds. what would i have done with a cat in a flat? also ,i'd dreaded the idea of handing a kitten over to the SPCA (those guys are overloaded as it is).
eish! imagine my surprise when it turned out that this woman lived across the road from me and it WAS one of her kittens! Does God answer even the smallest half-unbelieving types of prayers? i have to believe the answer is an unequivocal 'Yes'!

Keep your heart open. went to the beach on the public holiday. needed to get out the house. a friend had let me down and the 'rejection syndrome' was gnawing. the only other white faces at north on this day were the surfers. i picked a spot and sat down with my packet of chilled litchies (expensive Woolies merchandise!). a few little black boys (all under age 5 i'd say) were running around where i sat down on the sand. one was bold enough to ask for a litchie (he didn't speak English but the language of signs was enough). i decided sharing was a
God thing. of course once i gave to one i could not not give to the others. and the two boys who were bold enough to ask for more were given seconds. i felt better already! the little ones soon ran off forgetting about me . then i noticed a bigger boy lying on his stomach in the sand facing me-a few feet away. he playfully looked in my direction and it seemed he was asking me for a litchie(it's here that the part about 'keeping your heart open' comes in.) part of me wanted to say 'no'. i mean this was an older child and 'begging' was 'unacceptable' behaviour. the boy was well-clothed as well. i looked into the litchie packet and said "ok, you can have the last one". i gave him the litchie and this child 'adopted' me for the next hour. his English was quite good and it turned out he was older than he looked (12). his name is Thamsanqu. and he's in grade 6 (standard 4 for those from the 'old school' system). the child continued to play and talk with me. i seemed to be his mother. watching his antics in the water (big bright smile directed at me all the while). i answered his questions . obeyed his 'instructions' not to watch where he was going to go to put the packet of litchie skins and pips in the bin. i accepted his gifts of broken mussel shells and filled bottles of sea-water. i watched over him as he ran around putting on a performance for the lone white female he'd adopted. i was worried he'd been left on the beach by an irresponsible parent and kept trying to find out who he was at the beach with. he eventually assured me he wasn't abandoned (his family was sitting away from the beach on the grass amphitheatre).
the sadness i'd been feeling had vanished by the time i left the beach. (i first walked with the boy to find his family. i was relieved when i saw/met them . [had been a bit worried that i might find a rowdy drunken bunch of adults. but the teenage girls there assured me Thamsanqu was their brother.]) i shook his hand and said good-bye.
the emotional pain i'd been feeling had lifted to an astonishing degree. i believe God ministered to me in this situation. the 'rejection syndrome-feeling' had left . and when i -finally-received a text from the friend who let me down ,asking for 'forgiveness' , i was able to let any resentment go. so God will be all we need. but we must keep our hearts open or we can miss the blessing!

2 minute experimental

it might seem harsh to say but everyone is 'contaminated' by the world 'system'. i mean we are all subject to judging each other-mostly unfairly. we all have the seeds of discrimination in us. even the best of us prejudge, misjudge,misunderstand ,assume the worst. (wrote this in the two minutes i had spare. glad i could come up with something intelligible.)