It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.
1. Travel, travel, and more travel We are traveling quite a bit this summer for ministry reasons. Last week took us back to Calgary where we started a church plant in 1988. It was wonderful to see old friends and make new ones at the church! The church membership has successfully grafted in a new pastor and his family and seem to love him dearly and follow his leadership. Such a blessing to see this! My husband and I were both surprised at how emotionally intense (in a good way!) the weekend was for us.
2. Surrogate Grandma! One of the benefits of being ‘of a certain age’ is that you can act as a surrogate grandmother to kids whose biological grandparents live far away. When we told God we would serve Him wherever He wanted us, it ended up being far from either of our families. Many people became aunties, uncles, and grandparents to our kids in their growing up days. This past weekend I got to be Grandma to Madison and her brothers. Loved every minute of it and looking forward to more sweet times together.
3. The challenges of traveling with fibromyalgia When a person with fibromyalgia travels so many different things can cause a relapse. Part of managing my fibromyalgia these past 2 and a half years has been identifying problems spots in my health and learning to manage them. Two big areas for me are proper sleep and a diet that helps me have fewer or less severe fibromyalgia symptoms. This past weekend I had good sleep and thanks to the diligence and kindness of the church ladies, had safe food to eat all weekend. Yay!
4. Reunion with a dear brother Our schedule has been so intense and busy we talked about moving our Calgary meeting from last week into September, but we felt compelled to keep the July date. Just before we left to drive down, we learned a former church member was in hospice and would soon be with the Lord. He very much wanted to see my husband so that their relationship would be in perfect harmony before this dear brother went to be with the Lord. Many hugs were shared and many tears shed at that short but powerful meeting. Three days later this brother went to be with the Lord. God is sovereign and granted the dying wish of one of His own. We are humbled and blessed by His leading!
5. Goodbye tree! We had to take down a big, old tree from the back yard because it was diseased. *sniff* I love those old trees, the shade they provide, and the bit of privacy they offer. Now most of the back yard is open and sunny and…..as my husband reminds me, we have new possibilities for the space. Guess it does all depend on how you look at things!
Here are a few more of my prairie “Abandoned Dreams” photos. I hope to get out and take some with my new camera soon.
