Sunday morning reflections

It's early Sunday morning and even earlier than it was 24 hours ago, as we went onto daylight savings time at 3:00 a.m. So it's officially 6:23 a.m., even though it was 7:23 a.m. 24 hours ago. It's still dark outside and I don't like the short days of this season. However, we get rewarded by some long days in the spring & summer for bearing with the short days now.

I'm fighting one of those seasonal colds that come when the weather changes from hot to cold to hot on the same day. It's not the best time to be sick, as we have a trip on Tuesday or Wednesday to the Grenoble area, then I fly to the U.S. on the following week for 10 days of support raising.

These are tougher times to be living on a traditional support system. We received word this past week from a supporting friend in TN that he had lost his job & would have to drop our support. The previous week we heard from a friend in IL that their income had significantly dropped, so they would have to reduce our support by 50%. The challenging economy and job market have made 2009 a tough year for some of our friends.

One book I've started reading is Tim Keller's "Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road." I admire Pastor Keller and his work at Redeemer Presbyterian Church of Manhattan very much. His book has reminded me of the need & power of generosity, particularly from followers of Christ. In the overall global perspective, I am very wealthy.

As our salary & ministry work expenses come from the funds donated by our supporting churches & friends, it can be disconcerting & worrying to think what what happen if all of these dried up suddenly. I work hard at the support raising aspect. I try to correspond regularly with our supporters and we do some pretty intense stateside support-raising trips as well. Keller's book was a reminder that it is the Lord who provides the resources, including money.

Yesterday, for example, the mother of one of the girls in English club brought some left over clothes over, as they are done having children. Those are clothes that we don't have to purchase.

Earlier this week my wife visited one of our upstairs neighbors. He's an older man who walks with a cane. She has regularly given him some extra vegetables & baked cookies and tries to check on him. His daughter was present when my wife visited several days ago. The daughter mentioned that her father had mentioned my wife to him. My wife gave the daughter our phone number, just in case the daughter would want her father checked on. This is another example of how my wife's generosity & kindness toward this elderly man has been noticed.

Friday night all 5 of us went to the pool. We ran into a divorced mother and her 2 children, who were classmates of our kids. We ended up inviting them over for supper. All 5 kids played well together, as well as ate like horses. It was nice to be able to share some food, as well as our company with them. Like most in our neighborhood, they aren't yet followers of Jesus.

Friday morning I spoke with one of the mothers of 2 classmates of our kids. She came to our infant daughter's funeral about a year ago now. Over the years, we've become friends with this family & we often trade of picking up each others' kids this year. Our friend mentioned that her uncle had suddenly died & the funeral would be on Monday.

With both these families, we pray that they will come to know the Lord. We try to be kind & serve them with the resources we have. May God take our five loaves & 2 fish and multiply them to feed even larger numbers.