Man's Best Friend

I have written previously about the most difficult thing for us serving in Africa - being away from our dear daughters. I am confident that this will always be the case and now that we’ve added a Grandson, that adds an entirely new dimension to all of this. Coming home and seeing all that has transpired in our absence also makes us realize how much we are missing - maybe I need to think about this a little more to try and relay the gammit of emotions we have felt since we have been back on homeland assignment.

There is another thing we left behind when we went to Africa, the family dog. I had gotten this dog primarily for Ann when our youngest went to first grade – so she has been around a while! There is nothing like a dog – they teach you what loyalty, devotion, and unconditional love can look like. After we left for Africa, daughters 1 of 4 and 3 of 4 shared taking care of her and she ended up being a city dog in down town Philadelphia, a far change from the comfortable suburbs. They did a wonderful job with her in our absence.

Earlier this year, two of our daughters wrote to us saying that ‘it was time’ to put her down. She was very old and we think she has had a stroke in the past months. She was blind, mostly deaf, arthritic, incontinent, and very frail. She paced all the time, just couldn’t get comfortable and was just plain miserable. Our oldest daughter was waiting for us to come home on furlough before doing anything and the last few days we have been able to spend a few days with the dog, making it obvious that ‘it was time’.

So this morning, we took all seven pounds of her to a vet recommended by the people we are currently staying with and the vet put her to sleep in my arms. The vet took one look at her and no more needed to be said – she knew it was time. First they put her to sleep and gave us 10 minutes with her. It was wonderful to see her relax for the first time since we’ve been around her as she was suffering so. Then a second shot finished the job. I managed to be strong until I got in the car and then I just sobbed uncontrollably.

Some friends of Krista are letting us stay with them as we visit churches on this side of the state. This dear couple has been such a blessing to us and allowed us to bury our little dog in their garden. We thank God for their kindness. Their daughter has just gone to Uganda for a three-year assignment and is struggling in her first few weeks there, and we can really relate to what she is going through and hope we are being an encouragement to both her and her parents.

Tough morning. I know intellectually that she was just a dog, but that doesn’t change how your heart feels. And yet, one person a part from God has infinitely more value - why is it we have less compassion for them than for animals? I thank God we can rely on His pure and perfect love for us, for even when we were sinners, His one and only Son, died for us, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of man.

We’ll miss you Sophie-girl. Thank you Lord for all the pleasure this creature of Your creation brought to our family.

(photos are of Sophie in her younger days!)

Dave & Ann


“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” Matt 19:29-30

Open Houses - this week

We have two open houses this week. It will be an opportunity to visit with us and we will go through a presentation of what we've been doing. It is the same thing we might do for a home meeting or Sunday School time. So, if you don't think you'll be hearing us at your local church, it is an opportunity to stop by and ask questions.

Consider this an invitation!

Thursday, October 14, 2010 - 6:30 PM
New Song Community Church
4767 Library Road
Bethel Park, PA 15102


Sunday, October 17, 2010 - 6:30 PM
Peters Creek Baptist Church
6300 Library Road
South Park, PA 15129


Dave & Ann

"I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of god that was given you in christ Jesus...." 1 Corinthians 1:4

Johnstown

This past Saturday, we headed to Johnstown, PA to speak at the last Sunday of the missions conference at Roxbury St. Paul's church. What a beautiful time to drive in Pennsylvania and the tree colors were brilliant and spoke so strongly to the existence of a gracious Creator. As the Bible says, all creation testifies to His existence.

On our way to Johnstown, we saw a turn-off to the Flight 93 memorial in Somerset County. We took the 10 mile detour through the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside to the temporary memorial. The temporary memorial was packed with visitors - we had not expected that. We walked down to a fenced-in area that overlooked where Flight 93 drilled into a field on that fateful September 11 day. There were flags and flowers on the fence and the crowds were very quiet, somber, and respectful of this now hallowed ground.

We learned that the US Park Service has bought 2200 acres to protect this area and a beautiful memorial monument is under construction. An American flag marked the location of the covered crater where the plane hit as passengers fought for control of the plane hijacked by terrorists. A display room presented a time-line of that fateful day and what they know of the events on this flight through the phone calls and recordings. We left very emotionally touched and proud of those who fought back, preventing and even more awful outcome. The event speaks so strongly to the evil man is capable of absent of a personal relationship with Christ - there is no end to the evil that men are capable of doing. We took no pictures, it somehow seemed disrespectful. Hallowed ground....

We had only passed through Johnstown previously and we enjoyed our time there very much. We stayed at a Comfort Inn that was hopping! There was a bus-full of a choir group from Pennsylvania and several hockey teams from a number of colleges. There were vans from the University of Charleston (SC) and other schools and there was lots of noise and activity. We were so tired, we passed out but it must of been bad because in the morning when we checked out, the staff apologized profusely and gave us an additional discount on our bill. Thank you for that! The night manager looked and talked like he had been through a very rough night and if he'd ever been a hockey fan, he clearly wasn't any longer - we gathered it was the hockey teams that had given him trouble most of the night. It even looked like he had blood on his shirt - we didn't have the nerve to ask about that! I wouldn't think you mix it up with hockey players! We felt bad for him but we managed to sleep through it all!

Sunday morning we spoke at both church services and at a breakfast between the two services. They had our name on the marque, which is always a bit un-nerving, but we felt so very welcomed and loved by this church. It was the final Sunday of a three-week missions conference and it was truly a privilege to be there. We got lots of good questions and had a delightful lunch afterwards at Eat-n-Park with two members of the missions committee; breakfast buffets are my favorite. "I just can't lose weight...it must be something I ate and ate and ate and ate....." We have got to get more discipline in this transient life we live!

Johnston is a nice town and I think one of those hidden secret kind-of-places that are so special. It is in and around a valley where a river runs and our GPS (Garmin) took us all sorts of crazy places as we negotiated the town. We left the conference feeling spiritually up-lifted and thankful for this church that truly has a heart for the Great Commission, which is the job description of the church - Go and Make Disciples. (Matt 28). We were blessed to have been there. We pray Your blessing on this precious congregation and its leadership.

Great weekend but have a mountain of paperwork I need to get busy on!

Blessings!

Dave & Ann

"The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork..." Ps 19:1

"Fo his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse..." Romans 1:20

Speaking

We had the opportunity to speak at New Song Community Church our first Sunday in Pennsylvania. We had a great time and filled in for the Pastor, who was away that Sunday. We know him well and have traded email with him numerous times while we were in Mozambique and will see him later this week. We also received sermon tapes from this church all during our time in Mozambique so it was a little different, in that we felt like we'd been attending services all along! It reminded me of when we arrived in Mozambique - through the prayer initiative, we felt like we knew everyone there and what was happening in the work, but they didn't really know us! We were greatly encouraged by our time at New Song and the questions we received spoke volumes - that the church was following the work in Mozambique and that they were praying for us. Very very encouraging to us! This traveling road-show lifestyle does not come easily to either one of us and this Sunday at New Song was a wonderful way to start our next 8 weeks of engagements. Thank you Lord for this precious and loving church!

And something I have to mention here - it is such a blessing to be attending services and singing songs in my heart language! I have not tired of that yet although I did start to stray into Portuguese a time or two when I was speaking - not sure what that means!

The photo shows our display table that Ann has set up, including our toy truck that speaks to our need to purchase another vehicle when we return. You can also see the small DVD player where we run a continuous 4 to 5 minute loop of church services, travel, and experiences in Mozambique to music we recorded in various church services.

The church is helping us with an open house this Thursday at 630 pm - all are welcome!

Dave & Ann

"Make me to know your ways, O Lord: teach me your paths." Ps 25:4

Pennsylvania and Headquarters

I have been negligent in writing since we entered Pennsylvania. We have found ourselves very busy, trying to reconnect with folks we haven't seen for some time. It was an emotional event when we drove over the Pennsylvania line and the tears flowed for both of us. Some dear friends have put us up in their spare bedroom and we share a bathroom with their precious daughter, who visited us in Mozambique a couple of years ago. We feel very comfortable here and it is a tremendous help and blessing to us. The only trouble is that they are feeding us way too well and the pounds are going on. Self-discipline is so difficult when everything tastes so good!

Our time at OMS headquarters was very beneficial and we were thankful to be updated on what is happening in the world of OMS and for the wonderful help to prepare us for our home-assignment travel and speaking engagements. Recent renovations at the headquarters building gave a professional feel to the facility and Ann liked the colors very much (red is involved! and they match the new One Mission Society Logo).

When you first enter the facility, you see this wall (photo) and the picture on the far right is of Dinis Ramos, one of our church multiplication trainers - that made us smile and be a little homesick. In addition, on the other side of the door on the left of the picture was another group of pictures, including one old picture of a Khongolote church service, and we knew the kids in the picture and knew how much they have grown since the picture was taken!

We were updated on a new computer program that will help us manage our mailing list and keep up with folks, and found out in the process that we have a few people who have helped us but unbeknownst to us

were not on our mail list - not good! So, we're fixing that. We also resolved some income tax questions (boring!) and other new administrative requirements that we're working on (even more boring from a blog standpoint!). Bureaucracy, what would we do without it!

The only thing that troubled us and even discouraged us was that there is no credible funding plan for the operation of our seminary and since our seminary isn't in as much financial trouble as other seminaries, we fall to the bottom of the stack. So, we are praying for new and innovative ideas for how we as a field can fund the seminary and are making this the center of our fund raising work over the coming months. It goes against our business sense to just spend into deficit until it becomes a crisis!

We hope to raise some scholarship money for individual students that can help us defray the real costs of our school. We feel a great responsibility for this as we recognize that the seminary is key to the continuing growth, stability, and self-sustainability of the OMS work in Mozambique. But doing the same old tired things over and over expecting a different result is not the answer - so we are praying that God would help us with some fresh ideas. We've been corresponding with our colleagues in Mozambique about all of this.

We left Indianapolis feeling privileged to be a part of the One Mission Society, having had a bit of a glimpse into the many different OMS ministries across the world.

While there, we received our official medical checkup by a doctor quite known for his knowledge of tropical medicine. I lost count of all the tubes of blood they took out of us to test for various exotic things. We left with a good bill of health but strong admonition to get more exercise and not let the food of America put pounds on us as our weight was good. We are not doing well on the food and exercise as of this point. We are still waiting on our final

blood results and we did get de-wormed again because we did have the problem a number of times in Mozambique (didn't you just want to know this little bit of information - euuuuuuh).

We visited many friends and supporters in and around Greenwood, Indiana, including a former colleague who had served in Mozambique. All of these visits were an encouragement to us and we found that the more we talked about our time in Mozambique, the more excited we became for God really did amazing things during our time there.

This last photo is of some of the people who manage the Every Community for Christ (ECC) program that funds our church multiplication work in Mozambique. They are special dedicated people with a passion for church planting and it continues to be our joy to work with them.

Thanks for standing with us!

Dave & Ann

"Do not let your hearts be troubled, Trust in God; trust also in me" John 14:1