Postscript

This past Sunday we drove up to Woonsocket to First Assembly to hear my dad preach his first sermon since his brain surgery on June 24. He’s already been playing the piano at services since the first Sunday after his surgery. His sermon was on God’s providence. His text was from Romans 8:28 and 2 Corinthians 1:1-11, and he used these passages as background for his testimony of God’s providence in his life during the last month. He shared all the instances of God’s intervention to literally save his life including having extraordinary access to doctors without advanced appointments.

Listen to his sermon in the video below (it’s the audio with a few accompanying pictures). Some highlights:

• At about minute 21, he begins to share about what happened during this last month.
• At about minute 51, he shares a funny song.

(Verse 1) Never be sad or desponding,

Only have faith to believe;

Grace, for the duties before thee,

Ask of thy God and receive.

(Verse 2) What if thy burdens oppress thee?

What tho’ thy life may be drear?

Look on the side that is brightest,

Pray, and thy path will be clear.

(Verse 3) Never be sad or desponding,

Lean on the arm of thy Lord;

Dwell in the depths of His mercy,

Thou shalt receive thy reward.

(Chorus) Never give up, Never give up,

Never give up to thy sorrows,

Jesus will bid them depart;

Trust in the Lord, Trust in the Lord,

Sing when your trials are greatest,

Trust in the Lord and take heart.

When we got home, Dad was commenting on how normal the day was, and how good that felt. He’s doing amazingly well since his surgery.

We were at Woodlawn Baptist, here in RI, on Sunday evening to share about our ministry. We were so touched to hear of their concern for my father. That church as well as many others are lifting my dad and our family in prayer. What a blessing!

We know your prayers have made a difference.

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I arrived over the Pacific to California on Saturday morning. It was a long flight, but thankfully I had a long layover in Korea and got to sleep in the airport there, but jetlag from a 14 hour time difference still set in quickly. The time difference from where I came from is actually greater on the west coast than the east.

We spoke at our last scheduled WA banquet in Palmdale, CA on Saturday. Boy was I tired when we got home! Sunday morning Jeff spoke at Berean Fellowship in Palmdale and Wednesday evening we both shared there with smaller groups and answered questions. We enjoyed our time with the church; it’s been neat getting to know everyone there. (You can listen to Jeff speaking on-line. Choose the 5/11/08 message.)

We’re hoping to spend the remainder of our time here catching up with each other because we’ve not seen each other in about three weeks, getting some more rest and spending time with Jeff’s parents. We’ve had two very full months!

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Today, we spoke at Abundant Life in Swansea, Massachusetts. We love to share about how God uses ordinary people with all kinds of skills in missions. He doesn’t just use pastors and evangelists. Teachers, IT professionals, media professionals, construction workers, managers…all have a part to play in missions as real missionaries!

It’s also neat to share about how many people still don’t have a Bible in their language. The Bible is the most translated book in the world, but still hundreds of millions of people do not have a single verse in a language they can understand. Our list (unfolded in the picture below) is of the languages left without a translation of the Bible.

We had someone take some pictures of us doing our presentation so that you could see us in action .

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We went to Sara’s church today. We had an opportunity to speak in a couple of Sunday School classes. It was fun to see Sara and her family (including her little red-headed nephew). After church we got to see Sara’s new house. She’s still in the process of moving in after taking care of some painting. It looks like it will be a great place for her!

Tonight we hung out with my Uncle Steve and Aunt Netty. We watched the Patriots beat yet another team!! (Sorry, Steelers fans). After that we watched what I think was the worst movie I’ve ever seen. You’ll have to ask us what it was called. Everytime we thought it might get better…it just got worse. We started mocking the movie, one line in particular–”Dah stamps! Dah stamps!”

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We left LA today for Arizona. After leaving the greater LA area, we went through many miles and hours of nothing–really…not a house, store, gas station…tent…in sight. Finally, up ahead we could see the Arizona boarder.

We stopped in Kingman, AZ to visit Heather. We had a great visit with both her and her husband, Paul. It was fun to hear about what God has been doing in Heather’s life and hear about how her and Paul met. We got to see her parents and her little girl.

After a stop at the Grand Canyon, we’ll be headed to the Pheonix area to visit a couple of churches, see my Uncle Ed & Aunt Dianne, my Uncle Steve & Aunt Netty (and their kids Netanya, Michael and Daniel), a couple of other cousins and another friend from college (Sara).

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