I want to start trying to share some of our adventures here on the blog, especially for those who don't do Facebook. If you're already friends with us on FB, then you may have seen a lot of this. But maybe you haven't...I know I don't see everything all my friends are doing due to time constraint or FB hiding things.
Anyway, I don't know how faithful I will be with this...but I will try. :) And I'm not going to go back and try to share all that has gone on in the last 14+ months, other than what we've already written about in past blog posts and in newsletters.
In the last post we were leaving NY. After New York, we had a Monday-Friday Camp Meeting we were scheduled to be at in Eastern Pennsylvania. There were several churches that get together and put this on, and each church took time to have their choir or special singers minister, and each pastor started the services each night. We stayed about 25 minutes away from the meeting, in Maryland. What a beautiful part of the country! Rolling green hills and lovely farms, horses and cows and gardens...it was just gorgeous to drive to and from each day.
We enjoyed some wonderful preaching, missionary presentations, and singing the whole week. It was a blessing and and an encouragement to us. Everyone was so friendly and we were very much refreshed after the week was over. We were blessed to meet several missionaries this week and even met a pastor-turned-missionary (and his son) from near my birth place, Houma, Louisiana, who pastored my parents for awhile! We love visiting with other missionaries. We have been blessed by them throughout the years as we were the ones being ministered to when they came to our church to share their burden.
Excuse the blurry picture...this meeting was outdoors and the lighting made for interesting pictures.
We had an adventure during one of the morning meetings! A missionary to Brazil gave his presentation. An amazing story of how God has been using his family on the field for a number of years already. He spoke of jungles, and riding in a boat to get to remote villages. After he was finished and had sat down, the service went on. All of a sudden, there was a commotion near where he was sitting on the other side of the building. A snake had slithered in to join us! That same missionary got up and helped to take him away from the outdoor building where we were. It took some minutes before he and some other men were able to get him...the snake was up and striking near the front platform when they finally got him out. It was quite exciting, but I sure am glad that I was all the way on the other side!
From Pennsylvania, we made our way down to Tennessee. God answered our prayer and allowed all my boys to be able to go to camp! We dropped our oldest 3 off at a church in TN, where they left early Monday morning to travel down to Pensacola, FL, to attend Pensacola Christian College's Teen Extreme camp. They had an absolutely wonderful time and enjoyed the youth group they were with so much! They have not stopped talking about the camp, the youth pastor that they went with, and the friends they made. I am so very thankful that they had that opportunity!
After we dropped the older boys off, the rest of us headed down to South Carolina for Midway Baptist Youth Camp. We joined 3 other churches and had a blessed time! The preaching was awesome, the singing was so good, and the way that God met with us there was so wonderful! A lot of kids, as well as us adults, got some help from the Lord. It was so great to see the young people praising the Lord and just enjoying the things of God. 7 young people were saved this week!!! On Friday we headed back to TN to spend the night and pick up our teens.
From here we headed to North Carolina, where we stayed in a place we consider a home away from home. It truly has been a blessing to come back to this place time and again. We walk in, and there are scentsy things burning, everything is clean and refreshing, and....there is a washer and dryer! Hallelujah! :D I'm just giving God praise for what He does for us. And I pray that God blesses the people all around the US who go out of their way to take care of missionaries!
The end of July found us in northwest Florida...closer to "home" but not close enough. We had a great time here and enjoyed yet another wonderful mission home!
Again, we are so very grateful for the opportunities that God has allowed in our lives and the amazing people that He's put in our path during this deputation journey! And let me tell you all...God has some GREAT, godly churches scattered all over the United States. With people who love the Lord, want to do His will, and work in the harvest. I'm so thankful to be a part of what God is doing!
