Too Much to Write

Marilyn has been after me to update our blog. Hey, what's wrong with my last one? I thought it was rather sweet. Well, you can't think that I'm going to try to record all the stuff that's happened since August. This is, after all, a place to post newsy type things. September - October - November - early December are no longer news. So I'm skipping them.

Of course, I guess I have to talk about some of the Fall stuff. After all Oct/Nov/Dec were the months our beautiful baby daughter, Sara, was home from her mission work in Mexico. We sure love having her around. I keep telling myself that her living in Mexico isn't so bad. She could have taken a job in Ohio - that's further away than Morelia.

Sara came home for furlough with the intent of buying a car while here. Her plan was to take it back to Mexico with her. So, she bought a cute little Honda Civic - very practical! Sara and her mother called its color "champagne." I cynically said, "I've never seen champagne that color." And "Looks more like weak tea, to me." But, it is cute and in good shape and she got it for a good price. Primary features - standard transmission and cruise control. (As I write it has already gotten her safely back to Morelia.)

Another notable event in our lives during this time period is that I am no longer Sara's Boss. By that I mean that I am no longer the Minister of Missions at Richland Hills. That job has been given to another of our ministers - Duane Jenks. In a re-org of the staff, a new position was created that came to be called "Minister of Global Outreach." It has to do with the newly articulated vision for our church. There is a vision of what RHCC will achieve by the year 2020 in four different arenas of involvement. They are described in terms of the Acts 1:8 description of the how the church would spread from Jerusalem. The four arenas are Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. The 2020 Vision (as it has been called) lays out work to be accomplished in each of these arenas. My new job is to manage the projects for the Judea, Samaria and ends of the earth arenas. So, I used to be minister over a worldwide missions program. Now my territory has been expanded to include Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. One result of that is that I am no longer the "direct report" for all the missionaries. Now Sara calls Duane "Boss" and me she calls "Daddy." I think I like this a bit better.

My job change meant that the Harvest Sunday that happened in November was my last one as Minister of Missions. It has been an exciting ride to see this annual Fall collection for mission work grow from a couple of hundred thousand to over a million dollars collected on a single Sunday. This year's goal was $1.3 million. The Lord blessed it, again, with full funding. One part of the whole thing is an annual Harvest Dinner. We normally have about 500 people who come to have dinner, hear of the mission projects, hear a great speaker and just enjoy talking and thinking of world evangelism. This year, at the dinner, the Chair of the Missions Ministry pulled off a surprise presentation of a plaque to me in recognition of the years I have spent with the ministry. Marilyn was in on it as were Sara and Shelley. They had a whole bunch of pictures of me and our mission points that have been taken through the years. Marilyn supplied them. Shelley showing up, unannounced, to attend the dinner should have made me suspicious, but I was surprised when it all happened. They called both Marilyn and me up on stage. They awarded the plaque and also recognized Marilyn's years of service with a huge bundle of flowers. It was all very touching and we were greatly blessed.

The Holland side of our family was able to gather at my mom's for Thanksgiving. Well, not all of us - but some. We had a great gathering except for the fact that I got sick with some kinda stomach ailment on Wednesday night and laid around on the couch all day, Thanksgiving Day. The up side of that was I didn't overeat - like most did and like I surely would have had I been well. On Friday, the day Mark and Carla had to head back to Allen, David and Shelley and the boys came down from College Station and we watched the Aggies beat t.u. in a great football game.

December was our grandson, Samuel's, seventh birthday. You can read on the Park's blog all you ever wanted to know about that. Of special note was the "Pie-in-the-face Contest" which I managed to loose. Yeah!! Daddy David won and so he got the pie in the face.











The Parks came to our house on Christmas Day (Monday) and stayed until Friday. We had some great times together. We opened gifts. We played in the back yard. We had family portraits made. Sara was still here from Mexico so we were complete. We went to the zoo. We played putt-putt. David and I got in some biking. David, Samuel and I got in some biking. I'm sure all of those things are forming memories in the minds and hearts of the boys - and their parents and their aunt. Somehow, from my generational perspective, it's not the memories that seem most important. Times like we had during those special days feel more like a joy to be savored for the moment. Oh sure, there'll be memories, but the view from the grandfather's perch sees that I don't have to wait for the times of remembrance to feel how sweet those events are. I already know they're priceless blessings. It's like you get to bask in the joy of the moment at full flavor and then you get to keep the memory so you can taste the joy again anytime you're ready. It's like it's already a precious memory as it is happening. And, since life is composed of memories, not time, it is one of those rare times of being alive in the midst of unspeakable joy - and knowing it!

Marilyn and I spent News Year's back down at my mom's place. We played "99" as 2006 ended and 2007 began. We were laughing and joking and loving being together. Larry and Ann were with us and another couple from the SWCC.

God has been good. God is good - all the time. I believe, the best is yet to be.