Six Sentence Story: Convert

"So," he asked, "when G-d looks down on all of the billions of people on earth, what do you think he thinks about them?"

"That they are pretty badly screwed up," the man answered quickly, "but what's that got to do with discussing how people of many faiths can get along?"

"Well, don't you think G-d wants to help all of these people, no matter their religion, or no religion, be not so screwed up, by bringing them to Himself, not to just a religion?"

"That does make sense, but how could He do it?"

"Think of it this way, if you bought an appliance in this country, and brought it to another country, you'd need a converter or transformer for the electricity, so it would work in the other country; to bring us into G-d's kingdom, He needs a converter, someone to transform us, and who do you think that is?"

"It's Jesus," he almost gasped, "Jesus came here to convert us to G-d, not to a religion!"

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the word prompt this week is Convert.

Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- South Korea

Bat Appreciation Month -- hooray for Bat Conservation International! 

Children's Day -- Singapore

Christmas Seal Campaign begins

Chuuk Constitution Day -- Chuuk, Micronesia

Cowboy Hall of Fame Ceremony and Banquet and Rex Allen Days -- Willcox, AZ, US (the kickoff for Rex Allen Days, includes the Cowboy Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and celebrates Willcox's own silver screen cowboy; through Sunday)

Cut Out Dissection Day -- let's find alternatives for school kids!

Dalton Defenders Days -- Coffeyville, KS, US (honoring those who defended Coffeyville's banks against the Dalton Gang in 1892; through Sunday)

Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux a/k/a Therese of the Child Jesus or The Little Flower of Jesus (Doctor of the Church; Patron of African missions, AIDS patients, air crews/aircraft pilots/aviators, florists/flower growers, missionaries, sick people, those who have lost parents, tuberculosis; Australia; France; Russia; several cities around the world; against bodily ills and tuberculosis)

Festival of Penha -- Rio de Janiero, Brazil (through the 31st; pilgrimages to the Church of Our Lady of Penha)

Firepup's® Birthday -- have fun learning fire safety from Firepup

Flattering Finals -- Fairy Calendar

Global Diversity Awareness Month begins -- to foster and further our understanding of the value of people of all races, genders, nationalities, ages, religions, sexual orientations, classes, and physical disabilities

Guoqing Jie -- China; Hong Kong; Macau (National Day/Founding of the Republic)

Homemade Cookies Day

Independence Day -- Cyprus(1960); Nigeria(1960); Palau(1994); Tuvalu(1976)

International Day of Older Persons -- UN

International Music Day -- information from the International Music Council 

Investiture of the Captains Regent -- San Marino

Kalends of October -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also
     Day Sacred to Fides -- (goddess of faithfulness and keeping your word)
     Festival of Juno Sororia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Juno the Sister, protector of young women at puberty)

Little Golden Books Day -- the first twelve were published on this day in 1942 (Baby's Book of Objects, Bedtime Stories, Mother Goose, Nursery Songs, Prayers for Children, The Alphabet from A to Z, The Animals of Farmer Jones, The Golden Book of Fairy Tales, The Little Red Hen, The Poky Little Puppy, This Little Piggy and Other Counting Rhymes, Three Little Kittens)

Month of Freethought -- inspired by Freethinkers who emigrated to the US in the 19th century

National Book It! Day -- teachers across the US can join together with Pizza Hut to encourage the love of reading each school year from today through March 31 

 
National Lace Day -- US (a day for lace fanciers share their love of lacemaking!) 

National Walk Your Dog Week begins -- a campaign to bring awareness of and fight the increasing problems in the US with canine obesity 
 
O'qituvchi va Murabbiylar Kuni -- Uzebekistan (Day of Teachers and Instructors)

Pageantry in Oslo -- Oslo, Norway (Storting [Parliament] convenes to decide the date for its ceremonial opening, which is usually the following weekday, when the King opens the session in the presence of the Corps Diplomatique, preceded and followed by a military procession between the Royal Palace and the Storting.)

Pancasila Sanctity Day -- Indonesia

Popcorn and Tears Movie Appreciation Night -- go see a tear jerker; if guys don't want to go, make them stay home and vacuum

Pudding Season begins (Time to preserve meat from slaughtering for the winter by making meat puddings.)

Ram Mating Ceremony -- various towns and villages in Turkey (through the 20th, each village setting its own date; after being separated from the females for two months, the rams are returned with ceremonies to ensure good luck and lots of babies next spring)

Right-Brainers Rule Month begins (because left handers / right brainers are in their "right" minds)

St. Remigius of Rheims' Day (Patrn of France; Rheims, France; against epidemics, fever, plague, religious indifference, snakes, and throat pain)

St. Romanos the Melodist's Day (hymn writer of the early 6th Century whose surviving works are still sung)

Unification Day -- Cameroon

US Fiscal Year begins (why in October?  that i have never understood)

World Vegetarian Day


Anniversaries Today:

EPCOT opens, 1981 (Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow, or, if you work there, the insider title, Every Person Comes Out Tired)
Walt Disney World opens, 1971
Stanford University opens, 1891
Yosemite National Park and Yellowstone National Park are founded, 1890
South African College is founded, 1829 (Now University of Cape Town)


Birthdays Today:

Zach Galifianakis, 1969
Mark McGwire, 1963
Esai Morales, 1962
Grete Waltz, 1953
Randy Quaid, 1950
Stephen Collins, 1947
Tim O'Brien, 1946
Rod Carew, 1945
Stella Stevens, 1936
Julie Andrews, 1935
Albert Collins, 1932
Richard Harris, 1932
George Peppard, 1928
Tom Bosley, 1927
Jimmy Carter, 1924
William Rehnquist, 1924
James Whitmore, 1921
Walter Matthau, 1920
Bonnie Parker, 1910
Vladimir Horowitz, 1903
James Lawrence, 1781
Richard Stockton, 1730
Henry III, King of England, 1207


Debuting/Premiering  Today:

Compact Discs, 1982 (Billy Joel's 52nd Street)
"Remington Steele"(TV), 1982
"Kung Fu"(TV), 1972
Night of the Living Dead(Film), 1968
"The Merv Griffin Show"(TV), 1962
"The Honeymooners"(TV), 1955
"This is Your Life"(TV), 1952
"Tom Corbett, Space Cadet"(TV), 1950
"Best Foot Forward"(Musical), 1941
Ford's Model T, 1908
World Series Baseball, 1903 (the Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates)
Postal Special Delivery, 1885 (USPS began special delivery services)
Postcards, 1869 (in Vienna, Austria)


Today in History:

Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia, BC331
The Russian Parliament accepts the annexation of the Ukraine, 1653
First session of the new French legislative assembly is held, 1791
Spain cedes Louisiana to France in a secret treaty, 1800
The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orléans, Louisiana, 1811
Maria Mitchell discovers a non-naked-eye comet, 1847
A cyclone strikes Calcutta, India, killing 70,000, 1864
Karl Marx' "Das Kapital" is published, 1867
The world's first postcards are issued, in Vienna, Austria, 1869
John Philip Sousa becomes the new director of the USMC Band, 1880
Thomas Edison opens the first electric lamp factory, 1880
The USPS begins special delivery mail service, 1885
Jews are expelled from major Russian cities, 1898
Arab forces under T.E. Lawrence, a/k/a Lawrence of Arabia, capture Damascus, 1918
An oil field accident cost aviator Wiley Post his left eye, but he used the settlement money to buy his first aircraft, 1926
The Pennsylvania Turnpike, often considered the first superhighway in the United States, opens, 1940
Mensa International is founded in the United Kingdom, 1946
First broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, 1962
The Concorde supersonic transport plane breaks the sound barrier for the first time, 1969
Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida, United States, 1971
The United States returns sovereignty of the Panama canal to Panama, 1979
EPCOT Center opens at Walt Disney World, 1982
William Gibson's groundbreaking novel Neuromancer is published, introducing the word "cyberspace" to the English language, 1984
Denmark introduces the world's first legal modern same-sex civil union, 1989
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over the judicial functions of the House of Lords, 2009
A dedicated 3D TV channel, Sky 3D, launches in the UK, 2010