Light Ahead!

Sermon outlines are set for the month; the agenda is made up for the church leadership planning meeting tonight; our annual reports and prayer letters (both snail and e-mail) are all sent out; there are still some e-mails that need to be answered…but after all that maybe I can get a blog written. Since the beginning of this year I’ve felt overwhelmed with things that needed to be done, but slowly the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming visible.
We did have a terrific week in the mountains of south Brazil at the ABWE All-Brazil conference. It was one of those times when you think that there’s just too much to do and this is no time to get away, but once we got going it was really worth it!

The speakers were challenging and the music uplifting. It was so good to receive rather than give for a while! Visiting with colleagues and friends from all over Brazil was fun. Around 130 folks were there between missionaries, administrators and kids. Nights were late (playing games) and mornings early (to get some breakfast before the first session). Two hour daily training sessions before lunch involved the areas of evangelism and discipleship. Afternoons were free for touring, relaxing or exercise. Morning Bible sessions were led by Bruce McDonald who is a sports chaplain to some NFL, NBA and NHL teams. Evening Bible sessions were taught by Rich Van Heukelum who is pastoring in Waterloo, Iowa, but grew up in west Michigan and is the son-in-law of some friends of ours from Jamestown. The kids program was lead by a group of fathers and daughters from Traverse City, Michigan, and one of the dads was a son of some other friends of our from Grand Rapids.

Michael Loftis, ABWE president, spoke for a couple of the sessions as well. We enjoyed having lunch with him and JoBeth one day and comparing notes on being first time grandparents.

That tremendous mountain top experience is over now, and we are back on the ground and running again. Numbers were down on Sunday because this was a long Carnaval holiday weekend. Our teens had a great retreat with another church youth group from town, and are now back and wanting to know what we’re going to do Saturday evening.

We got news today that my Aunt Grada was promoted to Glory this morning. She was ninety-two years old. I remember that she did so much to help raise my sisters and me – taking us to the beach, taking us on trips, suppers with her and Grandpa on Friday evenings, helping with education expenses, supporting whatever endeavors we undertook. She loved to laugh, loved to eat, but most of all she loved the Lord! It’s neat to think of her in His presence right now. On this side, some may say, “There, she’s gone.” but on the other side, there are people saying, “Here she comes!” We’ll miss her, but boy, I’ll bet she’s so happy now!