Yesterday was a wonderful day. It was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time and I was pleased with the day. Let’s get to the musings …

-Our son and daughter in law spoke at both churches yesterday. They shared about their ministry in Kenya the past 3 years and then told us about the new ministry they will begin in Central Africa Republic when they return to Africa. This new ministry will be with a Muslim group of people, they will be part of a team of 8 adults and a few children who will begin this new work. They did a wonderful job of sharing and of giving us a great picture of the ministry, of the need and helped spark a burden in all of us.   

-We had a carry-in meal following the worship service at our 10:30 church. There were people from both churches who were a part of the meal and it provided a chance for our son and daughter in law to have a time of questions and answers about their ministry.

-Our oldest granddaughter, who is about to turn 12, sang one song with my wife during the worship service. That was so neat. She was our first granddaughter after 3 grandsons. She also was born on my wife’s birthday so they have a special bond.

-It was so special for us to have our churches get the opportunity to get to know our son and daughter in law a little better. They have been praying from them without knowing them, now they we will be able to put a face and voice with the prayer requests.

-There was a good spirit in both churches during the entire service.

-We had good attendance in both churches again yesterday.

-We have needed to upgrade the computer that we were using during worship at my 9:00 church. Yesterday was the debut of our new computer and it worked well.

-My son and I are visiting with my Dad (he lives 6 hours away) for a couple of days. My son hasn’t seen his grandpa for 4 years so this will be a special visit.

-Next Tuesday we will make another trip to O’Hare Airport to take my son, daughter in law, and their 2 youngest kids (2 of our 10 grandkids) to begin their return trip to Africa. As I wrote a few weeks ago this will be difficult. Not because I don’t want them to go. I am pleased that they are going because I know that they are being obedient to the call on their hearts from God. The difficult part is not because of the fact that the new place they will be going is not as safe as where they have served their first 3 years. (That fact will just increase the fervency of our prayers a little more.) The difficult part is because now we know what 3 years feels like. We know what missing 3 years of birthdays and Christmases feels like. This time we know as they depart that it will be 3 years before we get to hug them again and we know what 3 years feels like.      

-I am really looking forward to next Sunday as I begin a new series of messages entitled “I Choose Hope”.

Here’s hoping that you will choose hope this week.    

Dennis