Bee Stories

A friend of mine recently wrote a story about an encounter with a bee. You can read it here. It is a great story! And it jogged my memory about a great bee story that never made it on to this blog. As you have probably noticed, lots of stories about the kids make the blog, but ones about me, not so much. Most things that are blog worthy, I am actively trying to forget. But, here's a little story about how Thanksgiving 2011 went down.

All of the Brackens in Taiwan decided to have a little fun for Thanksgiving. Not the traditional turkey and lounging around the house Thanksgiving for us. We are missionaries. Adventurers. Conquistadors! We planned to head up to the mountains to "Bracken Hole" and BBQ beside the river. Since November is nice and toasty here in Taiwan, we also planned to swim in said river. Well, about two years ago, a typhoon came through and causes massive flooding in the mountains. Unbeknown to us, it wiped out part of Bracken Hole. So, when we realized that place wasn't going to work, we set off to find a new place to BBQ and swim. This actually should have been an easy mission. Except for the flat we got on our car. And the two lug nuts that broke when we were trying to change it. Chris and Dad Bracken set off for the nearest town to get it repaired and Mom B and I ended up setting up an picnic/BBQ area on the side of the road. I think we all thought that the guys would be gone for about 30 minutes. They ended up being gone for close to three hours. Finally, they returned and we attempted to recover the day. Chris grabbed a piece of BBQ chicken and headed over to where the kids were playing to watch them. I joined him to ask all the details concerning the car. Remember that piece of chicken. It comes into play in a moment. Well, while we were chatting I heard a bee buzzing. Not thinking, I casually swung my hand over my head. That was the last thing I did casually for about two minutes. I must have scared the bee, who was sitting on top of my head, because he stung me. Then he got stuck in my hair in an effort to escape. So, during our normal conversation, I suddenly screamed and started hitting the top of my head. Just as Chris was starting to ask me what I was doing, the bee flew out of my hair and straight at Chris. He threw his piece of chicken in surprise. Then he started yelling, "IT'S OUT! IT'S OUT!" in an effort to get me to stop beating myself to death. And that day I learned that bee stings to the head hurt. Really hurt. For three days hurt. And that quite an impression can be made on children if you will scream and beat your head. Also, sometimes God test our thankfulness on Thanksgiving.