Surgery & St. David's Youth Retreat

Well, let's start with the fun stuff. We got to spend last weekend at a youth retreat! I was the speaker for St. David's E.C. Church's youth retreat, and it was a great time! The youth were great--very interactive, very attentive, and several were really in tune with their own spiritual needs. So God met us there and is continuing to work in all of us. It's such a delight and a privilege to be a part of what He's doing, and it was fun to be back in youth ministry for a weekend!

Now, the not so fun stuff. Rachel had a somewhat minor surgery on Monday. I wanted the doctor to email me one of the pictures from the surgery so I could post it, but neither the doc nor Rachel thought that to be a great idea. Anyway, back to Rachel. She's doing well, resting here at home, but she's in a bit of pain from time to time with her healing incisions. She's not doing backflips yet, but she's definitely better than she was on Monday and Tuesday. Thanks for your prayers--God's at work!

Jim Thorpe!

Last weekend was spent in Jim Thorpe, PA, the namesake but not the birthplace of Jim Thorpe. Yes, it was cold there! We were able to spend Saturday evening with our friends, Jared and Kerry (below), who were just sent there by our denomination in June. Jared and I started seminary on the same day back in 2004, and, Lord willing, we will finish it together this May.
There was a sense of excitement among the people of the congregation, and they warmly welcomed us and were quite interested in us--a great encouragement all the way around. We're excited for Jared and Kerry, since their church is eager to do ministry, but we're even more excited for the church, since we know that they have a quality couple there. Two thumbs up for this weekend!

Back in Action!

Well, after three Sundays off, today we were back in action, speaking at Grace E.C. Church in Akron, PA. While I was preaching, Rachel was sharing about Spain with the children for Children's Church. I think the best question she was asked today was, "Are there schools in Spain?"

The reason for the above photo is not just that we are racing again with our speaking schedule (12 scheduled speaking dates in the next two and a half months). It's mostly that we had a close call with a curb on our way to lunch after church today. With Grace Church's missions commission chairwoman in the back seat of our car, I made a last second decision to go a shorter route to lunch, and to do so required some Lightning McQueen-like skills. It was a quick swerve, causing us to barely avoid the curb, and though a few things were tossed around in the car, no one tossed their cookies (not good just before lunch). That's probably not the best way for young missionary candidates to make a good impression on a missions chairperson, but it definitely left a memorable impression!