My journey
I am lifting up my youngest brother, Phil Jones, in prayer today in our prayer services and well as tomorrow and
Friday. He is on a short term missions trip to Guatemala. He has been there multiple times, being involved in building a church there. This time the organization he has worked with, called Impacto, has asked him to come on a planning trip to help plan for the expansion of the organization’s ministry.
I love winter mornings like this–sunshine, crisp,frozen,still, but not too cold–great day for ice fishing or bird watching or taking a long winter walk at Green Lakes. I guess it is just one of those little things to savor in life that brings us joy.
I read a good thought this morning in the devotional book for men that I am using in daily devotions. The book is Walking with Christ Every Day. It was a quote from E. Stanley Jones, who was a missionary in India. “God is a never-ending source of support and courage for those of us who call on him. When we are weary, He gives strength. When we see no hope, God reminds us of his promises. When we grieve, God wipes away our tears. God will hold your hand and walk with you every day of your life if you let Him. So even if your circumstances are difficult, trust the Father. His love is eternal and His goodness endures forever.”
“Faith is not merely you holding on to God–it is God holding on to you.”
What an encouraging word!
Written on 16 January 2010 concerning events the evening previous
I’m down on my knees giving directions and keeping things on track – literally. Two gradeschool boys are at the controls of the three O-27 gauge trains around our Christmas tree. (Yes, I know it is a little late for Christmas trees, but when you have trains, you prolong the season.) Wrecks happen regularly. The lower level tracks aren’t tied down and shift just enough so the engine catches the corner of the station platform. I’m crawling around putting things back together. The boys are very helpful and catching on fast. They seem to be having a lot of fun too. They even pitched in on the hard work of wiping down an oily track and digging detached cars out of the back tunnel. Another time around and an old Lionel track comes apart. One time the engine caught some white gauze ‘snow,’ dragged it through the tunnel, and brought the tunnel portal crashing down on the train. I try to discourage intentional wrecks but…. Sharing model trains with kids is so much fun. A three year old sister who has been watching hesitantly tonight decides she has watched long enough and grabs the throttle. She figured out how it ran pretty quickly. One young man was pretty creative with his consists and decided to try running the inner train in the other direction. I liked the way it looked.
The purposes of this blog are several:
To help me connect with church family and other friends,
To provide a forum for written contemplation of a kind that might be useful to others,
To disseminate information, especially the kind of tidbits that are interesting but don’t seem to have a forum at the time.
To achieve these purposes more efficiently, I will be dividing my inputs by categories.
Journal
Bible Commentary
Church Notes