3rd Day at VOM

Today was monotonous work.  I worked on the parachutes again.  They only have one  grommet pressing machine.  It's probably their worse job, and the boss, Jake, lets people take turns.

The plastic zip-lock bag that protects the Bible and radio that goes inside has to attach to the parachute somehow.  That's where the grommet comes in to play.

Because there is only one grommet presser this is the bottleneck in the whole assembly line.  I focused as hard as I could to just churn out the grommets as steady and fast as I could!  I thought about the people that might come across the bag.  My neck and arm started getting sore after about the 5th and 6th hour.  But I thought about the people who get the tar beat out of them because they do not enjoy freedom of religion like I do.

During one of the break times, there are free snacks and beverages.  Everybody likes to go in there and chat over some coffee and bag of chips.  There this one dude (I don't even know his name) that I always see and I blew him off today, and I regret it.  Earlier in the week he had a few of his facts wrong about China but acted like he was very outspoken.  And instead of me gently correcting him, I secretly lost respect for him.  Today it came out.

He was saying something to me, he may have been asking a question, and I was paying no attention at all.  There was another couple at the table, and too much talking, I was trying to talk, and in the midst of all the craziness, the dude got up and left. After the fact, I realized I was not listening to him.  No idea what he was asking me or saying.  Anyhow, tomorrow I'll try and make some peace with him.

They have a large memorial wall with many martyr's name's etched in.  I put Martin Burnham's in the middle of this pic because I'm reading the book , In the Presence of My Enemies, by his wife, Gracia Burnham.  Gracia was kidnapped with Martin and survives to tell the story.

This huge mural is painted in the lobby of the VOM Operations Center.