Reporting In

Last weekend, we were privileged to speak at Jonesboro UMC church in Sanford, NC.  It had been something like 5 years since visiting this church and as before we were warmly welcomed.  It is the only church we have visited with two concurrent services, a contemporary service and a traditional service.  So, how can you be two places at the same time?  - you preach early in one and late in the other, but it really does focus you on your times - got to finish on time to not keep the other services waiting.  This would never work in Mozambique where time is, well, relative (I think Einstein established that also!)

  In addition a spanish speaking church meets concurrent with the third service and we were able to speak in all four services!  Pastor Preston really has his work cut out for him on Sundays!  We were so comfortable in our host's home, we had to pry ourselves out of there to continue on travels.  We always leave so encouraged as we try to challenge people in their own Christian walk and encourage them through what amazing things God is doing across the world.

Sunday night we were in Clinton, NC, where we stayed with a couple who served in Brazil for many years with OMS.  We call them Uncle Bill and Aunt Dorothy and Bill traveled with us on our very first trip to Mozambique back in 2004.  We are very attached to them and enjoyed getting reacquainted and practicing a bit of Portuguese as well.  Dorothy pastors a nearby church.  I especially enjoyed listening to Bill's reminiscing about the exploits in the mission field; trying to learn from his experiences.

On the way up, we visited with Ann's cousin Stephanie in Florence, South Carolina.  We enjoyed spending most of a day with them and I thought you might enjoy the photograph to see the strong family resemblance.   It turns our that one of her sons is in school at the University of South Carolina an attends the church in Columbia where our daughter Sarah was married and where we've been attending while in South Carolina.  It is a small world.

With a break in the weather, we made a quick run to the cabin to get things we need for our travel schedule.  Calls to our neighbor revealed that indeed the road was pass-able.  We still had a good foot of snow on the driveway and dug a path to the cabin, calling someone with a plow to get us cleared out!  But the weather break was short, so we sceedadled (is there such a word?), getting up and down with our trusty snow-chains.  The fuel oil tank is getting low, which is a concern.  We're on the list to get refilled, but by the time we come back to the top of the list, the roads may not be clear!  We pray that all works out because I'd hate to see the water-lines freeze from lack of heat!

This coming weekend will find us in Nashville for the dedication / baptism of our grandson and then a quick visit to Dave's mother's house in Alabama where he will arrange transport of a player piano back to Idaho.  Dave's mom is moving into an assisted living situation and the contents of her house are being liquidated.  The piano has been in the family for a few generations, works well, and will go back to our Idaho family for passing along.  It's not like we can take it to Mozambique!

We've updated the blog a bit - learning new things.  We've added our schedule on the right and also a listing of the various ministry project numbers that support what we do in Mozambique.  People ask us about these from time to time, and it provides a convenient place to list them.

Our colleague, Larry Weil, has developed a nice video of our seminary in Maputo that I hope to provide a link to in the coming days!

This morning, I was studying Psalms 1 and pondering what it means to have 'delight in the law of the Lord' and how we might 'meditate on it day and night'.  We are blessed if we do so and the Psalm ends with a promise that he will watch over us as a result.  What a great thing to know that the Creator of the Universe actually will watch over us!  But also, we are declared righteous in this last verse, apparently a function of walking in the right path, delighting in the Lord, and the scriptures themselves.  I don't know about you, but I find it very difficult to meditate on something day and night and if I have to 'do something' do be righteous, I find would find that very discouraging.  But, praise God, we have Jesus!  We know that no one is righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10), but yet righteousness comes through faith in Christ (Romans 3:22).  It is through Him and our love for Him that we continue moving towards the prize or as Paul puts it ""I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."  (Philippians 3:14).  But he clarifies in verse 16 that our hearts desire would be to "only let us live up to what we have already attained!"  Through faith in Christ, we attain righteousness.  We already have it and that is the peace we can have, the work is finished, and even in our short-comings, we are declared righteous and our Creator, full of mercy and grace, actually watches over us in a personal and loving way.

I don't know about you, but I find great comfort in that.  We are declared righteous by faith in Christ - we simply ARE, despite our weaknesses and human frailties, and we can know that God watches over us and guides us as we submit to Him.  What peace, what joy that brings in the endless uncertainties of life.

Blessings this day.

Dave & Ann

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.....For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous....." Psalm 1