BLOOD CLOTS!!

Blood clots - I have heard the words for years, but never had any close experience with them until now!!  It is hard to separate the facts from the fiction, but right now I am dealing with blood clots big time!

It all started last week when I was in the bathtub one evening and noticed this red area on my leg - at the side and underneath my left knee.  I thought maybe it was something left over from the bad fall I had in the dining room several months ago when I tripped on the carpet and fell hard against the table and produced a painful hamstring in that left leg.  And we did not think anything of it until the next evening when the red area was bigger and there was a sort of knot you could feel inside.  I mentioned it again to Dad as I got out of the tub and then went to the bedroom to get dressed for the night.

When I came out of the room, Dad ordered - "Get dressed - we are going to the ER, that has to be a blood clot and there is no time to waste."  While I was getting ready for bed he was checking blood clots on the internet and saw the danger these can be if not treated properly.  And so off to the hospital ER we went.  I was put on medication right away, given a room and told to keep my leg up and to rest.  I don't really have a lot of clear memories of those first hours in the ER as the meds they put in me caused confusion in my mind. It was like I was hallucinating and not seeing clearly the room where I was. The bed was not comfortable. I was hooked up to a big machine, attached to my hand where the drip was going in. I had seen a doctor, the nurses were taking care of me. And I felt like I was in another world. Kind of scary really as I had lost track of my local reality.

They changed my room to another floor and again I wakened with confusion as to where I was now.  They had taken a lot of blood and some of my counts were very low.  The in-hospital doctor was extremely nice, came around and took time, answered our questions and started me on the meds.  He said I should be there in the hospital for five days and I was not looking forward to that!  But the next morning when he came in, he had been amazed at how my blood counts had gone up and said that he could send me home the next day. This was also based on the fact that Dad is a "doctor" and gives shots so I could stay on my medication.  That was excellent news.

The one set of shots has to go in the fatty part of the stomach and go through a very fine needy, so fine in fact that I do not feel the needle go in when Dad does the shot - it just burns for a few seconds when the meds get inside.  So we are safely ensconced at home and that is best for me.  Although I have never been so well cared for in a hospital than I was this time. The doctors and nurses were so kind and friendly.  I had a decent bed. I just had to be careful how I lay on the bed as these tubes were in me all the time.  The nurses were also great and I had a number of friends come to visit from church and the neighborhood here.  Plus Dad stayed with me during the daytime.   So I was well cossetted!

My biggest hurdle is that I have to stay off my feet, with the legs elevated until all this medicine does its work and dissolves the clots - evidently one large clot in the groin and some smaller ones.  This afternoon I go again to the hospital to have a check with the cumadin doctor at the clinic.  I may have to be on cummadin for the rest of my life they tell me.  Maybe I will get more info this afternoon.  At any rate, this was a totally unexpected turn of events in my life, but I am being well cared for and peaceful as I look to the Lord to care for me.  He it is who ordains our days and our ways and I can rest in that!  Appreciate all the phone calls and emails from all my family - they make my day.  And I appreciate so much  Dad and his loving care for me. Poor thing, this has happened too often in his life!!

Children are a blessing of the Lord.......

Just looked back at the former blog postings and saw that John had just been here for a visit and when he left it made me sad to have you all so far away.  I try not to be jealous when I see retired missionaries from our church whose children live near them here.  It is such a grace for them.  But all of our children are doing what God had planned for them and we relax in that thought and cherish each communication we have with all of you.  We are blessed beyond measure to have such wonderful children, grands and great grands!

It was our fifty ninth anniversary yesterday and John arrived in the afternoon in time to take us out for a special meal together.  Lavonia now has a fairly new high standard restaurant and John drove us there for the meal together.  It was fun.  It was a wonderful change to have our positive son here with us - after a fairly difficult jail ministry in the morning.  We heard so many sad tales in the jail yesterday - both Dad and me.

 Jail is so degrading for people.  You are stripped of all you own and made to wear a loose fitting striped orange suit which is totally without shape on the girls.  They know that they are supervised day and night from a perch up at the top of the building - no privacy of any kind.  Some do develop close friendships with others while incarcerated.  And our visits on Wednesday mornings is like a breath of fresh air to them.   But it always leaves me limp as a dishrag and feeling like crying inside.  The poor people.

One of our women from our church is a real evangelists and she makes sure everyone in there each week has made a professions of salvation. She also provides written Bible studies for any who will work on them. One girl who just received the Lord last week is the wife of a man Dad has worked with for years.  He is at home with their little girl (Dad says she is the prettiest child he has ever seen.  I need to go and visit this beautiful  little girl.)  The dad lives in the family home (we have been connected with this extended family for years)  and he told Dad last week that his wife is not a believer.  So he was happy when Dad phoned him and told him she had prayed to receive Christ!  Almost every member of this family has done jail time.

The lady who cleans our house - thanks to all of our kids - is part of that same family.  The father was the leading drug lord of all this area of Toccoa.  Dad had worked with him and when he went to prison (from jail) he had a wonderful experience with the Lord and writes beautiful letters to Dad about his life - now still in prison.  The grandma of the family is a saint.  I worked with the wife of the former drug lord for years when she was incarcerated.  Anyhow, our cleaning lady was talking to me one day and she said that their entire extended family was into drugs.  Their evening recreation was for everyone to sit around in a big circle in their living room and smoke joints.  The one house that this family lived in was so affected with evil spirits that some of the jail team men went down there and spiritually cleansed the place of demons.  There is a lot of demon activity associated  with drugs and Dad came upon a bad case of it yesterday in the men's pods.

Happily, jail is not the only reality in our lives - we have plenty of good events in our lives as well.  And we are most blessed with family, church, friends from many different venues of life.  I always think that our Wednesdays are well balanced - we have all of this sadness in the morning and in the evening we have the fun of working with the AWANA kids.

Back in touch again!!

I see it has been almost a year since I last entered anything into my blog!  It has been an interesting year with lots happening in our lives - as usual.  How we both thank God for good health. I had a doctor's checkup recently and he was very pleased with all my blood levels, etc.  And doesn't want to see me again until August. I am so lucky to have had Dad through all of my sicknesses!  You kids know what a good "doctor" he is.  He also spoils me - and I love it!

My physical troubles started back when I had unexpected brain surgery - a pituatory tumor removed when up in Pittsburgh.   Some of you were with us during those hard days.  In addition to getting over that, I have also had various falls and broke my nose and an elbow, had a knee replacement, pulled the ligament in my left upper leg and terrible bruising as a result.  I seemed to save all of my falls and sicknesses for retirement as I was always so well during my earlier life!

My left eye no longer has any sight, so I am a danger to myself and others!!  I cannot drive anymore - used to love to drive, but Dad takes me everywhere.  Any time I go out, Dad is always with me and is my constant caretaker.  God has been very good to us to allow us to live together all these years - 59 tomorrow! -  and we are also presently in good health.   People are always shocked when we tell them how old we are - I guess they think we should be sitting at home by the fire or wheeled around in wheelchairs!

I have been planning to get back to this blog for some time and finally made it today.  But I cannot remember all of the subjects I have written about, so will check this before progressing here.  We old folks often repeat ourselves, so better to check.   A bientôt!!

We are happy in Toccoa

                                           WE ARE HAPPY IN TOCCOA

Just having John here for a visit, made me a little sad that you all live so far away and are so very busy that our contacts with you are pretty spasmodic.  We cherish every visit and phone or SKYPE call, and we are happy that you all love the Lord and are involved with people where you live.  At the same time, we are happy here in Toccoa and have never regretted coming here to live.

Just after John left yesterday we had a phone call from Jan Arnold, inviting us to join them for supper tomorrow night in order to see Jess and Anne Jesperson!  Out of the blue - what a surprise.  This sort of event happens quite often.  For one thing, we have so many ex-missionaries living here in Toccoa and we all have connections with others who come to visit.  I made a list of all the retired missionaires living in Toccoa yesterday, just for fun, and here it is:

Ritcheys, Knickerbockers, Albrights, Stombaughs, Arnolds, Ballards, Strongs, Hooblers, Greenfields, Wiggins, Betty Smith, Fred Smith, Walkers, Crosbys, Tonnesons, Holcombs, Schultz, Scarrows, Bealls, Adams, Beaks, Harveys. the TFC MIR - and us!

All of these folks have others who come to see them and we often have a short visit too from those in town.  We do not all hang out together by any means, but it is good to have this kind of a safety net as you get older.  We have plenty of friends in the community and many who are not IW's  in our church.  So we are happy to be part of this friendly community.  If we want to live the atmosphere of a bigger city sometimes, we can always go to Atlanta or Anderson.

Probably the largest group of missionaries we have ever had under our roof was soon after we moved here. That Mamou palaver was brewing in the Alliance and the people from Colorado wanted to get us all together and explain what was going on.  So Peter Nanfelt called us and asked if we could host a meal for all missionaries in the area and give a safe environment to let all  hear the details of the palaver.  We would provide place and meal and they would pay all the bills!!  An unusual request to be sure - but of course we accepted!   There were 65 people whom we entertained that evening and I put out a big spread of all kinds of buffet dishes, hot and cold.  It was quite a gathering!

Good to know that God orders our ways, and also makes us content to live for Him wherever He leads us.  Africa is still home - always will be! - but we are also content in our situation, where God has led us.   COME AND VISIT!!

Entertaining friends and strangers

From my childhood, my family,  and now our family,  have loved to entertain people in our home.  You cannot know someone by just exchanging Hello's at church or at Walmart, you need time to get to know other people.  And what better way than inviting people to share a meal with you in your own home!  All of our children seem to have followed in our footsteps,  and no doubt the custom of entertaining will pass on to the grandchildren as well. 

Today and also last week we have had people in for a meal with us.  In one case, it was very dear friends and in the other case someone we see at church but did not really know before now.  And now they are friends.  The meal can be simple or complicated,  but the friendship being developed is always a blessing to us.  Milt and I work together when getting ready to have company. 

The folks who joined our table today are longtime friends. They were overseas with the Alliance and now they are working in a recruiting capacity for missions, based here at Toccoa Falls College.  These are also friends from the church and our Sunday School classes, we are interested in the same things and our conversations can go on forever.  We also work together in Jail ministry.  So we never run out of things to talk about and today was a blessed visit for us, and we trust for them as well.

Last week we had invited a family from church, recently started attending our church.  I had gotten to know the mom at Retreat last year and Dad got to know the Dad subbing at the High School.  He is a coach and teacher there.  They came over last week on Monday and on Sunday I asked the lady how many they would be, as I had seen them with various children.  Her answer was - they are eight people, two adults and six children! 

So I started planning for that.  That many children meant fixing a meal kids would like, so I did enchiladas which seemed to be a hit with everyone.  I set a table for six in our back sun room and the kids loved that. There is a TV there and after eating they watched something on TV.  We adults had a nice quiet meal in the dining room, just the four of us.  So we got to know these folks better and that was a blessing.  We showed them a video of our life in Africa so they could understand a bit better who we really are and the kids seemed to love that too.  The children who came were a mix of black and white, as these folks take in foster children!  And how well behaved and friendly those kids were. The evening was a blessing for all of us I think.  And we made some new friends. 

When you entertain strangers, they become friends, and so we have some new friends in our church. We like to use our home and time in entertaining others.  When small groups are in session, we host a group in our home.  God has given us a roomy home and we enjoy using it to get to know others better, as well as to deepen friendships with folks we know. 

DELIVER ME FROM WEDNESDAYS!!

I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Wednesdays!  Monday and Tuesday are normal days, but when I waken Wednesday mornings, my thought is always, "Oh dear, it is Wednesday again!"  But I scramble out of bed when I am fully awake and wash my eyes (as the Bobos say)  and head for the den where Dad brings to me my first cup of coffee while he prepares what I want for breakfast.  Yes, I am spoiled by my husband in many ways and I am happy to have it stay that way!

But there is no lingering over breakfast - after eating, we then have devotions, get dressed, and by then it is time to head for the county jail.  I am always a little apprehensive before I hit the jail, wondering what we will face.  We visitors talk a bit and then gather for prayer before we head down those long halls, waiting for doors to be unlocked before us, led  by a prison guard who remains with us during the entire time we have with the ladies.  Most of the guards are also Christians and sympathetic to the gospel being given to the gals.  We are from various denominations and usually five to seven visiting women.  Only once have I been the only one present and had the whole time of an hour and a half to myself.  That was a rough time and I don't want to do that again. 

You never know what you will find when you get to where the girls live.  Some women never come out of their cells, many join us for a time of singing and reading God's Word and asking questions and so forth.  We all prepare something ahead of time and usually have a chance to share something from God with the women.  They love it when we wear something bright and pretty to brighten up their lives. Our apparel is a nice relief from their one piece jail suits - orange stripes, flimsy material, no style -  and they often compliment us on what we are wearing! 0 We get lots of hugs and compliments - we are the bright spot in their boring days.  The women do puzzles and talk to each other, but many just stay in bed, wishing away the day! And sometimes fights break out among them and then the offenders get put in solitary!  What a life....  We always take prayer requests and pray for the women and their families, and often have the opportunity of leading someone to the Lord.  We make sure every inmate has a Bible and most read them avidly and ask questions when we come in each week. 

So that is the beginning of each Wednesday here.  It is also the day our cleaning lady comes so that she can have the house free to clean while we are gone.  When we get home, Dad and I both have prayer requests to get written.  Mine are the missions requests each week for international workers and included as a page in each Sunday bulletin. Each week it is my responsibility to send them in. Dad has jail requests to send to a group of ladies who pray for this ministry. 

Yesterday was our once a month jail committee meeting in the board meeting room at the church.  Those of us who visit in the jail are members of this committee and we usually have some interesting times of discussion and prayer for this ministry.   Home again then for a bit of rest and getting the evening meal ready. 

After eating, it is off to the church, picking up teenage riders for the youth group along the way.  They join the youth and we go straight to the AWANAs for an hour and a half program.  I love my girls and they are all so affectionate at that age.  How privileged I am to help these young girls hide God's Word in their hearts.  I am with a team of four women who help these girls.  

After our assembly meeting, Dad and I find out riders in the youth group and head home to deliver them back to their homes and return to ours!   Maybe I feel my age that evening when we get home, more than any other time in the week.  At the same time, it is great to still be involved in people's lives, the suffering women in jail, the teenagers and the young girls, friends who participate in ministry with us.  We all have a bond among us, and for that reason, even though I am sometimes very weary by nine pm every Wednesday, I can always know that it has been a good day! 

It has been a long time!

Yes, it has been a long time since I have looked at my blog or added to it.  Katy's decision to go back to blogging gave me a shove in the right direction and I will resume a chronicling of family and personal events, beginning tonight.  This will be of interest to some of you and others will give it a pass, but I am doing it for myself I guess!  And to leave behind a historical legacy of sorts for my extended family.  So here goes....

We were asked recently what we think about death and Heaven, now that we are 80 and 85 years old??!   I guess we are so busy in what God gives us to do each day that we do not seem to have the time for prolonged, introspective thoughts about the future.  In thinking of death,  my mind always goes back to Aunt Donna ( a death out of season I thought)  and also to Josiah (again a death that was not supposed to be (in my mind).  And I again mourn their leaving us so soon.....   My parents were not well and were a ripe old age when they died, and it was time for them. I mourned but not as deeply or as long as I have for Aunt Donna and Josiah. 

Death - and even Heaven - do not preoccupy me - when I sing about heaven, it makes a warm feeling in my heart and I would certainly say that I am ready when the Lord has my place prepared in Heaven, but I do not dwell on that in my day to day living. 

Probably part of the reason for this is that we keep so busy.  God has led us into so many ministries and friendships and our lives are more than full.  When we have a day without activities, we enjoy it together and it becomes a day of rest physically and emotionally and mentally.  Our lines have fallen to us in pleasant places and we enjoy what God is giving us to do in our lives right now.  We realize how fortunate we are to be together thus far in life.  And we do often talk together about that - God's special grace to us.  A teenager whom I have befriended recently and who is always asking for relationship advice, wrote recently on FB to me, saying "I love the relationship that you and Mr. Milt have - I want to be like you!"   Quite a sweet compliment.   

So with this post, I go back to where I left off a few months ago, And chronicle some of the good things that are happening in our lives right now. 

OH, THOSE MISSIONS TRIPS!!

Missions trips to many countries of the world have become almost a missions mania in today's church world.  Not just in the Alliance but in many other denominations also.  The youth sign up eagerly and then look to the adults to provide funding.  Spaghetti suppers are planned, frozen chicken is sold, the church young people hire out to work for cash - all in order to go on a missions trip to some far off area of the world.  Young people, old people, pastors, youth leaders, - everyone is going to some new and interesting country overseas, it's the "in thing" in missions today!  I recently read about a group of young children who made a special trip to hold a VBS in some far off country! 

Some of our training schools in the United States and Canada require every missions major to spend a semester overseas - or at least make a shorter trip to another country.  TFC is one of those schools, and almost every year I get asked by students to help prepare them culturally and in some cases even linguistically for what they will face.  Actually, I enjoy that part of missions trips!

When we first went to Africa, we had never heard of untrained, English speaking young people coming to help in our work.  But during a Home Assignment in 1983-1984 we were missionaries in residence at Nyack College and a group of students wanted to visit us overseas and "taste" missions firsthand!  So we succumbed!

We had already decided on a list of proper comportment for our team of 18 young people.  (Yes, 18!!
We were aware of what had happened when a carload of American Christian tourists came to our city bringing large bags of hard candies.  These people loved to drive through town (with the Mission Protestante  sign painted on the van!) and wave to all the children lining the streets and toss handfuls of hard candy to them.  For weeks after they left,  we had children coming to the Mission asking for more candy - long after the work team had gone!!

We also experienced the visiting college student who had learned how to say "Jesus loves you" in French.  He would go to the local market - a block from the Mission - and say Jesus loves you in French to a young person, and then take him by the hand and lead him to the Mission, find a local missionary deep in his work to whom he would say,  I've  told this boy "Jésus t'aime", now you can lead him to the Lord in his own language. 

Given all of this, we prepared some cultural lectures for our College group arriving from Nyack College, and really they adapted quite well, given the big leap from Nyack-on-the-Hudson to Santidougou village! 

But 18 extra people are still a lot to feed and sleep and to keep occupied.  You girls worked hard along with me to feed and entertain this group - plus giving them a meaningful experience.  All in all, that was a very positive experience, and a number of them later went on to be international workers in several countries. 

Today missions trips seem to be an integral part of many Alliance churches.  Some are "Taste and See" tours, others are work teams sent out to accomplish a specific job.  But none of them would succeed  without the involvement of an on site international worker to help care for them: driving them around, interpreting for them, caring for them when they become ill, and a dozen other jobs required of local workers - to help this multitude of work team people have a positive experience! 

All of this also uses up a lot of money that might perhaps be better used by local international workers and local Christians.  At the same time,  work teams are a fact of life in international  missions it seems, and in this day of seeing is believing, many churches in the U.S. have become more involved in the Alliance Missions program in the world.  To my knowledge, no one has calculated how much is spent in Missions trips each year in the Alliance.  Nor has anyone articulated clearly the positive side of all this rush to the nations by amateurs in our churches

A couple weeks ago I was asked to help interview a TFC student in our church, headed for the Far East for six weeks this summer.  A nice guy but not a clue about most things culturally.  I wish him well and will pray for him.  He will certainly return to us wiser than he is now!!

A QUESTION OF MONEY................

Of course, all of the changes in Missions taking place today also require more money! A new mission job at national office means a new director and a furnished office, an administrative assistant and travel expenses - the list goes on and on.  Sometimes - to us sitting in our armchairs and contemplating missions - it seems like it costs the GCF more and more money to provide all of these trappings which go along with a new missions position and a new office with all the trimmings.  But then, what do we really know??

The Alliance is also requiring their international workers to "pick up the tab" on some of these new ventures. Yesterday I received a letter from an Alliance overseas worker, which was totally devoted to finances!  The thing in it that amazed me the most was that, among other personal financial requests for supporters - us! - was one for international workers' contribution towards funding a regional conference.  This conference is one planned and led by International Ministries, for which workers are asked to raise money so that they can attend!  To me, this was a low point in International Missions of the Alliance.  And the plea for money did  not motivate me to fund this missionary - even if I had the money, which I do not!

Pleas for money come to us from all sides.  But it is not now just independent missions - or "those other missionaries" - who send urgent pleas for money.  It is our own beloved Alliance who has fallen to a new low  in financial matters.  At least from my long term experience in the Alliance, this is how I see it!!

CHANGES.........CHANGES

The old saying goes, that "The old person sees more sitting down than the young person does standing up".  And this is certainly true in the area of missions.  Having been in missionary work for more than fifty years now, we have lived through an abundance of changes! And those changes seem to be taking place at an increasingly rapid rate....

(We now attend an Alliance church which many international workers call home, so some of my observations come from present contact with present day international workers.)

It used to be that newly appointed West African missionaries were sent to France for a year of language study and than went directly to their fields of service where they remained to work for four (or more) years. Than came a one year furlough, which was partially filled with speaking tours in the U.S.  Some workers did come back to the U.S. for family marriages and deaths, but even this was not always possible.  Those were not ideal times either!

Now the pendulum has swung the other way.  In an Alliance church like ours, we see a constant parade of international workers back here in the States for not only weddings or funerals, but also for vacations, mid-term tours, etc.  Money certainly flows more freely now, but we do wonder sometimes, wonder how folks can leave their place of service so frequently??  What does the sending church think when they observe their international workers making trips to their home country so often?  And how is the ministry overseas affected by the frequent comings and goings to their home countries? I guess everyone just makes adjustments.  One does wonder what the national churches of the world think about this innovation??

The Alliance is also giving birth to new programs on mission fields, and of course all of this involves huge bites of money from the Great Commission giving as these new programs have to be directed and funded...  It also causes confusion on some fields, as there are unresolved questions about money and personnel.  As international workers adjust to new means of funding (such as "the ask") and also question how some of these new entities (such as Envision) relate to the rest of the staff already working in an area for many years.  Finances are involved as well as administrative adjustments. All very interesting changes, which we personally saw on our recent trip to Africa, and which makes us glad for the times in which we lived.  The lines were clearer then! 

We still are trying to wade through the terms of  "team leader", "team developper", and "regional team leader"  and just hope that they do not stumble over each other trying to lead!!  It looks to us like some team developers do not have many people to develop.....and what is meant by developing someone who has been at the work on the ground for many years??  From our vantage point, in our armchairs, it should be an interesting future for the current crop of workers!!  

MEMORIES OF AUNT FRAN

We just received word of the death of your Aunt Fran.  The news was not totally unexpected as she had had a severe heart condition and had been in a rehab facility.  But death usually does surprise us - hope springs eternal in the human heart, and we had hoped and prayed for her recovery again.  But God had other plans for Aunt Fran and she is now whole and well and happy in Heaven, even as we mourn here.

Aunt Fran was a Southern Belle from Alabama.  Uncle Luther was in the Army and stationed in Dotham, Alabama, which was Aunt Fran's home.  The Dotham Baptist church held a dance for the U.S. servicemen stationed in their town, and thus it was that the Alabama belle and New England soldier met, fell in love and married.  You may remember that Aunt Fran maintained her Southern accent all of her life.

Aunt Fran was also mother of four rambunctious boys.Their family had a lovely home next door to Grandma Pierce's home on the hill, the one you al remember from your childhood.  Later they moved to Miami and then Hallendale, Florida, and we visited them there.  Aunt Fran was the perfect hostess, a great cook also.;

I don't ever remember Aunt Fran looking unkempt or dowdy - she always had every hair in place and was fashionably dressed for every occasion.  She was also a great housekeeper and cook. Visiting in their home was always a special pleasure.

She suffered greatly these last years - brain surgery and other illnesses.....and this past week her sweet spirit left that worn body and went to be with her Lord in Heaven.  We will all miss her. 

LIFE GOES ON FOR US ............

Sorrow can be devastating......we experience sorrow because of sin coming into the world and with sin came sorrow.  Experiencing sorrow can alter our pattern of living.  Josiah's death was so unexpected, so untimely and so unimaginable that this sad event seemed to sap all my creative juices   I had always loved to write and I enjoyed doing this family history of sorts. It was an historical account of our family for you in this generation to enjoy and to learn about your roots. 

But after Josiah's funeral, I just could not get back to writing.  Just thinking of it made me dissolve into tears.  The tears still come along with the thoughts, but at last I feel I can get back to chronicling family history for you of this and the next generation.  Josiah is in a better place and we all look forward to also being with him again some day.  Josiah lived his life not selfishly but for others and remains a wonderful example to us all.  And so I can finally think of getting back to adding to these family musing  -  as processed by this mother.

I have not touched this blog for nine months, and so had no idea where to start technically.  You all know what a technical dunce I am!  But Steve and Dad worked long hours to me back into my blog mode and so I continue with more sharing of events, emotions and history for all of you. My thanks to my menfolks for their help getting me technically going again!!

COMFORT IN SORROW.......

Having gone through the recent shock and mourning because of our Josiah's promotion to Heaven, I am learning a lot about comfort for the bereaved.   It was a comfort to have so many of the family on both sides be at the actual funeral procedures and burial.  We were all mourning together with Joel and Elin, the girls and Rebekah.  Many close friends and relatives were also present, and we were all in a state of shock and deep mourning.   From the time the news was out, our email box and our PO box were full of consolation greetings - often from people we had not hear from in years even, as well as close friends and extended family.  Death often brings people together through mutual sorrowing.

The night we got the sad news of Josiah's homegoing our pastor and his wife came over and prayed with us,  and the Albrights were also here to weep with us.  This was all a comfort to us, as we made plans to fly to Chicago for the funeral.  Our tickets for the planned wedding in August had to be changed to tickets for a different destination and a funeral.  What a sad change!  We were gone just three days and those days were so full of family grieving together and receiving condolences from so many hundreds (literally) of people who were there for the visitation and then the funeral the next day.  We marveled at how the Wheaton church took over all the physical aspects of such an occasion - food, lodging, everything was provided.   We all cried together there in Wheaton, trying not to question why God had allowed this to happen.

When a young person dies, a whole life has been struck down - a planned lifetime of ministry, marriage, a family, the joys and pains of old age.  It seems so contrary to nature, to the way things should be.  And we question and wonder why...We just have to reassure ourselves that God does do all things well, and even though we as human beings do not understand all the "why's", we sorrowfully accept God's will.

Coming back to Toccoa after the funeral, we went through a continuation of the grieving process.  Many people phoned us and talked to us at church and sent beautiful sympathy cards and emails. We are grateful to all who took time for this.  That first Sunday back everyone expressed sympathy in the congregation at church.  Tears were never far from falling as we returned home.  But there did seem to be something lacking....... and I was not sure what it was.....

Until towards the end of that first week we had a visit from Ed and Sue Potoroff, former assistant pastor and his wife.  They were in town only for a few hours and had business to take care of, but they stopped by to see us and to cry with us and pray for us and the whole family.  And it dawned on me what was lacking in our church - we no longer had a pastor like Ed who has a big heart for the sick and grieving and who is a great visitation pastor.  We have a terrific senior pastor (whose wife is a very caring person) and we have a great worship pastor and a great youth pastor.  But the board has divided up the congregation under a group of elders. Each member is assigned alphabetically to an elder - all good people - and the comforting and/or visitation aspects of ministry are assigned to these men.   Our elder is someone we know and we have seen him from a distance in church, but he has never come to see us, nor even expressed his sorrow to us at church.  We miss that wonderful ministry of empathy and visitation that Ed and Sue did so naturally.  Our pastoral staff is composed of wonderful people and we appreciate them, but real empathy is somehow lacking.

However, the church people more than make up for that.  Dozens of people have mourned with us personally and talked with us and assure us of their prayers.  And all of that has been comforting as we learn to live with the idea that Josiah is no longer here on earth but is in a better place.  But still we grieve.....  Interesting to see how God is sending some new positive things into our family and this is a comfort.  First of all, we got the announcement of Chris and Elizabeth's engagement.  Then the following week we heard from Rachel that she and Josh are expecting a new addition to the family in six months.   So we do go on living, but there is always that sad feeling that God has taken to be with him Josiah who was so precious to all of us.  And we continue to mourn for his parents and sisters - and for all of us who were blessed to know him.

AN EARTHLY FAREWELL TO JOSIAH

JOSIAH  -  so many memories overwhelm me tonight as we just received word that you are no longer with us here on earth.  You have gone on ahead to Heaven where we will all be together again one day!  God tells us to comfort each other with that thought! Heaven is FOREVER  -  earth is transitory!

So many memories flood my mind as I think of your unbelievably short life!  Papa and I saw you for the first time in Paris, a beautiful big baby boy with soft red hair.  We returned to Burkina after spending Christmas with you and your Mom and Dad.

The next time we saw you we were together in Daloa, Côte d'Ivoire.  You were such a sturdy boy - big for your age - and happily engaged in French chatter with the neighborhood kids, your friends. Bursting with energy - you were a delight to know!

My next memories of you are in Abidjan, when you lived across the street from Yves-Alain, your Ivoirien buddy.  The two of you were inseparable.  Again our conversations with you were in French, your language of choice, even though you did understand English.

Through the years I made many visits to Côte d'Ivoire because of my involvement in the FATEAC and other Christian education institutions of which I was a member in that city of Abidjan where you  now lived.  You loved to read in French and your language was so aretiuculate that I loved to listen to you. You also preferred reading French comic books, which you were allowed to do aftere you had done a certain amount of reading in English.  Your parents were getting you ready for English language school.

I well remember the week I stayed with you and Elizabeth while your parents and Papa went to a Mission conference in Bouaké.  You were in school in Abidjan, and I would sit and help you with your homework each night and at the same time listen to how you and your cousin argued with each other!  You were both very articulate!  That friendship between the two of you remained  and I remember occasions when the two of you were college students and  visiting in Georgia at Uncle Mark's and would talk together far into the night!

We did not see you often after you started attending Wheaton College.  We did have a couple of visits with you and we were always proud of your accomplishments in studies and sports at that prestigious Christian College!  You had by then grown into a wonderful adult - we were so proud of you!

I reember the last conversation we had  - that was late at night a couple years ago when we were all at Phenicie's  for Thanksgiving.  Papa and everyone else had gone to bed, but we night owls - you and I - sat there in the living room and talked for a long time!

Then came your work with Samaritain's Purse in Japan - and your meeting Rebecca, the love of your life.  We have been looking forward to being at your wedding in August and getting to know your beautiful bride - a new addition to our family.  But God had other plans for you.  The place in Heaven He had prepared for you was ready - and you are there with Him now!

What a tragedy for Rebecca - and for all of us who have loved you.  But I know it is a delight for you to be with the Lord you love and served on earth.  And Heaven is forever!  Some day we will be together again.  That is the hope we have as children of God.  One day we too - as God's children - will be caught up to meet Jesus.  There will be no separation - "we will all forever be with the Lord!"  And so today we do as our Lord has told us to do - we "comfort one another with these words".  Tonight, Josiah, as we mourn for our wonderful grandson, we have the hope of one day being together again.

Farewell from Earth, Josiah!  We look forward to some day being with you in Heaven!

THE JAIL MINISTRY CONTINUED...........

TO CONTINUE ABOUT THE JAIL VISITS EACH WEEK...... We meet for prayer together in the entrance room when we arrive - after getting our official badges to wear for our visit.  Men and women form a circle together and we give requests and someone prays.  We also get frisked at that point.  At first they went over us with a very careful search, but now that we are known, they just do a cursory search.  You cannot have a pen which clicks in and out because the prisoners get hold of those and make weapons, so you have to have a straight pen.  We can take in our Bibles and a note pad and can get permission to take in songsheets, helpful literature, etc. 

A man officer leads the men down the long halls and a women officer leads the women and those guards stay with us in the pods while we are visiting.  We are not supposed to make any noise in the halls, no talking, etc.  We have a few guards who know us well and they seem to enjoy being with us for our services and visiting with the girls.  First Alliance has more workers than any other church. We have a couple very nice Assemblies women also. The Jehovah Witnesses used to come each week and were very disturbing.  They kept themselves apart and taught their doctine loudly to a couple of girls. But lately - especially after one girl left their class and joined us - those women do not come. A couple men also go in and they confuse the prisoners with their teaching. So we are always glad when none of their people come.

The guard opens the door of the pod where we visit and calls out "church!" and the girls put up what they are doing and appear out of their cells. There are two rows of cells in one pod, upstairs and down. The girls are very affectionate and all hug and kiss us and then start talking indiviually.  They give us any in-prison news they have. And we give them a bit of news of the outside - the cells are totally sealed from the outisde, so they have no idea of what the weather is like or anything going on out in the community.  They spend their days sleeping or playing cards or other games or fixing each other's hair or just chatting.  Sometimes arguments break out and that causes problems for them with the guards.  They can be put in solitary if they cause a serious problem. 

After everyone spends a little time chatting, someone gathers us together in a circle around the pod, and we start to sing.  The girls also have prayer needs. We have prayed for salvation with a number of women.  Some give testimonies, some want to talk personally with one of us or present a serious personal need to the group and we gather around and pray.   Last week one girl who had been let out - and had even attended church with us at our church - was contacted after a couple of days and told they had made a mistake and she was brought back in after being free two days.  She was so angry, and asked us to pray for her to be delivered of her terrible anger.  Last week just as we were about to begin our little service, a guard came in and called out for three girls to return to prison - after they thought they were going to be released.  They had to run and pack up quickly - they own almost nothing, but have to strip their beds and bundle up their mattress and follow the guard.  Everyone was hugging and crying and it started off our time together on a bad note. All the girls were crying! One was a girl very close to me.

During our meeting, we do not have a speaker per se - although one week they had asked Valerie and me to dress in our national dress and speak about missions.  But we all give Scriptural advice and whatever we feel led to give to the girls.  We stop and pray with individuals for special needs.  It is a very informal situation.  We sing quite a bit also.  Then we go into groups usually one visitor per table and spend time  answering spiritual questions and listeing to them.  The backgrounds some of these people have is unbelievable.  Just yesterday Dad had a seventeen year old boy who came from a terrible home situaion - his thirteen year old sister is several months pg with HIS child. He has just so many problems and the only bright spot is when he sees Dad to talk with him.  The men also go on Thursday evening and have a more formal meeting when they have preaching. 

Just want to copy here something someone just wrote to Dad:

"Well, I just need to write to someone. I'm really depressed, the jail has charged me with some damage I did not do plus my girlfriend with whom I have two baby girls told me she was moving on.  She wasn't waiting on me. With all this I'm depressed. I've been praying and reading my Bible. I hope things get better. I am going to prison and all (as opposed to jail)  but I'm afraid I will never get out....I'm hurting deep inside.  You know how physical pain is, well spiritual pain is much worse. It never goes away. I'd trade a broken arm right now for a little peace in my heart. I'm not a bad person, I just had a drug problem and that made me bad.  My heart is so broke I pray it gets better soon.  You help a lot. You really have made my faith stronger. I thought no one cares, but Jesus cares whether anyone else does or not and I hope he makes me feel better about life.  Right now I don't like it!
Somewhere it says life is full of troubles but to put your trust in God. I believe that. I need some prayers though. I'm losing it, I'm about to snap but that will be more trouible for me. The thing is now that my girls are gone I'm starting to not care. I'm ready to give up, my spirit is so weak right now.  Pray for me please, I need it.  Well, with love I'm going to try and go to sleep."

As I have said before, this is a heavy ministry as well as being an opportunity to help some people who would never get help elsewhere. 

The men stay longer in their Wednesday morning time than we women do, and often we women will go downtown and have coffee together and share prayer needs and have fun and plan for a future when there might be a halfway house within reach here to help some of these poor souls when they get out.  One girl I have worked with a lot is totally homeless.  She has a drinking problem and so her two older children were taken from her and no relative wants to take her in.  When she gets out of jail, she walks around town and looks for an empty house where she can crawl in an unlocked window or just sleep on an open back porch, trying to keep warm all night. 

The Bobos were easier to work with I think!   They at least have an orgnized society and they take care of their own.  But in Toccoa we find many people - men and women - who have no one who cares for them.  It is very sad. 

JAIL VISITATION

Jail visitation occupies a great deal of our lives - not just the visits we make there every week - Wednesday mornings for both of us - and Thursday night as well for Dad.  I will share with you a little bit about the process of being in jail ministry.  First of all, these are very needy people.  Many of them will never hear the true gospel from anyone else.  Others have been in church most of their lives but have never had a real experience with the Lord.  Still others have been scorned or disappointed by the organized church and are totaly turned off to Christianity. 

There are about three times as many men as women in our county jail and so our visitation is different.  There are three "pods" of men and only one pod of women. So each Wednesday morning when we visit the women, we have  time to talk personally with prisoners, and in the women's pod we also have a little service - singing, testimonies, words of counsel - it is different each week.  Dad changes pods every twenty minutes and talks and listens to the men on Wednesdays. Then on Thursday nights he goes to preach or back up someone else who goes along to preach.  The TFC students love to go with him for this.

We have to remember the rules of the jail when we go in each week.  You have to have personal ID (I use my driver's license) and a simple pen, none of these which click in and out. The prisoners can use those to make weapons!  You have to have a patdown, usually in the large bathroom - female guards for the women and men guards for the men.  Then the first door to the cells is clicked open by the lead guard and we follow behind, being quiet in the halls.  We go through four locked doors before we get to the women's pod.  As we enter, the guard calls out "church" and everyone who wants to join us comes down out of their cells.  One thing we have been able to do is to require that all prisoners are free to come to talk with us. It used to be that the upper tier of cells was on lockdown one day and the lower tier on lockdown the next and so on...even on our visitation days.  But we asked that that be changed and they complied so now everyone is free to come to church, unless they are on lockdown for misbehviour. 

Just about everyone in there comes and hugs us as they greet us and then follows a time of chatting with the girls (women).  There are about twelve steel tables in a pod, with little steel stools around the tables, all stationery and VERY uncomfortable!  And that is where we sit and talk.  For many, it is a high point in their week.  These prisoners have no contact with the outside world - they have no light from outside in their cells,  there is no newspaper or TV. They do have visitation rights one day in the week when they are called out to visit through a glass with their family.  There is also a row of phones where they can talk with their family, if they have the money to do so.  They have no idea what the weather is like outside.  They live in complete isolation.  We have found that the majority of the guards are kind to the girls and many of them are even Christians.  When there are no visitors, the girls either stay in their rooms or else put together puzzles on the steel tables, play cards, etc. 

There is a certain camraderie that builds up among the girls, and if one girl is sick, the other girls will take care of her needs.  Each cell has a toilet, one girl to a cell.  They are not allowed to cover up, so wear sweaters or whatever they have which is warm when sleeping. Each one does have a pillow.  The uniforms are for the most part, faded (sometimes even ragged) and very unbecoming!  The girls do each other's hair to pass the time and they are required to be hygienically clean.  Often girls come into jail pregnant and usually the other girls take care of these prenant girls. Several times we have been there when a girl had just lost a baby and the others all try to comfort her and take care of her in her physical pain and mental anguish. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of lesbian activity tht goes on in the cells and homoseuxality in the men's side. 

Several women volunteer to be on kitchen duty and so they are dismissed early from our meeting with them.  If they have personl money from their families, they are allowed to order available snacks, plus special prison Bibles for a reduced price. Many of us who are involved in jail ministry put money on the prisoners' acounts so they can buy a Bible.  For a long time, we had some Jehovah's Witness women who also came in and had  couple of prisoners whom they were indoctrinating. They went in with us, but stayed apart from us.  One of the girls saw the  light and left the JW's and after tht the JW women did not come back again, so now we are all one big group. 

Our Alliance church has also been instrumental in starting a good library for these in the prison. We have given money for bookshelves and a cart to take books around to the pods.  The women spend hours now reading good books of all kinds.  And people in our church continue to donate good books to this cause.

Being in jail work is a whole new culture for us!  Our church has more people who come for visitation than any other church in town and so there is a ccertain camraderie among those of us who go each week. Our pastor's wife is one of them.  There are also some AG ladies with whom we have gotten close, and after jail time we often all go out for coffee or lunch together.  More later on jail... but suffice it to say this is a whole new culture that we have entered!  It is certainly a very needy world.  The housekeeping lady whom you kids have provided for us came yesterday as we were on our way to the court.  She hugged me and said how happy she is for people like us who care enough about those incarcerated to spend time with them. She herself was in jail because of drugs when she was younger, and she shared about how she looked forward each week to the church people coming to meet with them. She is now living a drug free life and very involved in an evangelical church.   It is good to know we are making a difference in the lives of these unfortunate people!   (to be continued)

LIVING BY PRAYER..............................................

Living by prayer has become a lifestyle for me since childhood.  My parents were great believers in prayer.  We saw God so many times provide and heal for us in our family.  We always had prayer together in the morning after breakfast.  Then at noontime, we prayed for the countries and peoples of the world after lunch:  Monday - India,  Tuesday - Africa,  Wednesday - Southeast Asia,  Thursday - South America,   and so on through the weekend.  We kids all took turns praying and so knew the names of countries and people we had never seen.  Then each evening we had bedtime prayers together.

Dad and I also have always prayed together in our marriage and family life - and we still do.  Through the years we have been comforted, helped, healed and amazed to see how our Heavenly Father has answered those prayers and the prayers of so many people who have prayed for us!  We are rich in praying family and friends.... I have been thinking of the many times in our life when we had major needs, and prayer was our salvation to get us through difficult times.

When we had to send our first daughter off to boarding school - three days trip away from where we lived - I thought sometimes I just could not stand that separation.  Maybe it prepared us for many more separations from you, Cheryl:  off to college in the States, then off to Beirut as a missionary.  I will never forget the terrible war in Beirut when we were waiting news of the birth of your first baby, Nathan.  We could hear the gunfire when we talked to you on the phone. And then the phone lines were cut....this happened so often.  The time you escaped in a boat with Rachel - we got the news at Council, the night I was giving the missions message.  All communication was going through us by phone to Dave Moore...and finally I had to go to another hotel and concentrate on prayer and also my message while Dad took over the Lebanon message  service.

I will never forget the morning you were so horribly burned, Debbi, falling into a pot of hot yogo.  Or the time we got word that you had been sick for some time at ICA and we had not heard about it.  Or the time we had to bring Elin home from ICA as she was so sick.  In all of those boarding school situations, we had to depend on prayer to get us through.  No one ever understands the anguish of a parent sending a child so far away unless you have gone through it!  And pray we did - always.

Remember the rabies shots??  The night before you kids took off for ICA, Cheryl was bitten by our new little puppy, nd the very night that you had left, the little dog went rabid and had to be killed.  That meant rabies shots for everyone who had been near the dog. We had to call the school and have you all have shots down there. John was pre-school and he hated going to the doctor each morning for those shots!  I wonder who was praying for us when we went through that experience??!

Many people prayed me through my bad bout with hepatitis.  When Dad took in my blood sample, the doctors wanted to know who this lady ws - the count was so high!  Again many people were praying for me, and through prayer and obeying the nurses, I was able to stay right there and finally got back to normal again after almost two months! 

When we got word, Cheryl, that you were being suspended from school in eighth grade, we were devastated, and all we could do was cry ad pray.  And it was a good time for you, being home with us.  Mark was born then and you were there - and he was always your baby. 

Towards the end of our time in Burkina, we made that famous trip to Abidjan when I was driving along the paved highway, still in Burkina, and a child ran right out in front of me and hit the car and fell by the side of the road.  I was terrified and just cried out to God.  The child lay there lifeless but then started to move and to cry.  It took us a long time to take care of the details of that accident and meant taking more time for the journey.  We were headed for Abidjan to make corrections in our Bible manuscript and this seemed like one more trial in keeping that Bible from getting published!  What an experience!  Many people prayed for us in the translation of that Bible for the Bobos, and how thankful we are for them.

I think also of the months and years we prayed for our dear Jennie when she started her cancer.  We prayed personally and with her and our friends and all of you prayed.  And finally we had to submit to God's will for our dear daughter-in-law, and she went to live in heaven with Jesus.  Prayer sustained us all during those times and especially you, John. 

All of these incidents and expeienced remind us that our family has been bathed in prayer all of our lives.  We continue to pray each day - praying together for each of you our children and grandchildren,  and now great grands in the morning -  and then many times during the day as you come to mind.

It is certainly true as the old saying goes - "More things are wrought through prayer than this world dreams of"!  We are fortunate to be a praying family.

DELIVERED THROUGH PRAYER.............

I was reminded recently of how our lives have been surrounded by PRAYER - our own prayers and also the prayers of God's people.  At the time of my unexpected brain surgery and the aftermath of all that, Dad wrote a daily report of what was happening in our lives right then, and I found a copy of what he had written in a file just the other day.  He wrote far and wide to ask people to pray for us at that time of our deep need, and people responded by praying and writing encouraging letters.  God DID answer their prayers.

People who walked with us through that time of trouble see me now and cannot believe how well I am and what I am able to do again.  I have always had a lot of energy, but during those uncertain days - weeks, even a couple of years -  I wondered if I would ever feel normal again.  But God answered prayer and it was nothing but a miracle.  At (almost) age 79, I am able to do a lot more than some of my peers who did not have to go through the trauma I experienced during those three years.  I just recently had a perfect doctor's report, and he commented on how far I had come.  The first time he saw me after my brain surgery, I visited him in a wheelchair.  A good doctor is a blessing, but without prayer I would never be where I am today physically.

The Bible tells us a lot about prayer, and as Alliance missionaries we have been abundantly blessed by the prayers of hundreds of Alliance (and other) people.  The Apostle Paul had this experience of living by the sustaining prayers of God's people.  He says, "(God) delivers us from deadly peril...and will continue to deliver us as you help us by your prayers."   Like Paul, we as missionaries have been delivered from peril, trouble and heartache even as he was, and you children have also been the recipents of this deliverance many times in your lives.  David tell us in the Psalms, "He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help."

I have already mentioned how devastated Dad and I were when our entire month's allowance was stolen out of our apartment in Bobo while we took you little girls out for a Sunday afternoon walk. What a shock for brand new missionaries.  We soon learned that we belonged to a good mission which would advance us enough money to live on until we could pay back what we borrowed.. But God helped us to put all of that behind us, and not live in constant fear of robbery.  In fact, during our years in Africa, we were robbed so many times that we lost track. But it did not deter us from the joy of living and serving in West Africa for more than forty years. Credit for this goes to those who prayed so faithfully!

During our first term, Dad was often sick with malaria - the old fashioned kind that lasts!  But many people were praying for us in our missionary life and prayed for his health.  In answer to prayer, Dad had less and less bouts with malaria and was fairly free of the sickness during our later years in Africa. 

As a child, I had often had the old fashioned malaria and I can still remember the chills and the burning fever, and my mother wiping my face with a cool washcloth by the hour.  But during those early childhood years I must have built up an immunity in my system, as I was seldom bothered by a malarial attack in my adult life as a missionary.  We had a lot of praying friends who prayed faithfully for us during our long life of service in West Africa.  Prayer support is so important for international workers in our day even as it was for the Apostle Paul who spoke of those "who helped me through your prayers" as he traveled and preached the Gospel.  It has alwaqys been an encouragement for me to have someone tell me, "I prayed for you...." 

And now WE are on the praying end.  We pray for all of you children and grandchildren and now the "greats" every single day, and we also have a big photo album filled with prayer cards from workers all over the world for whom we pray faithfully.  Prayer is a privilege for the one praying and a blessing to those for whom we pray.

to be continued............................................... 

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE ..........................

Dad and I went to college at the time that Billy Graham was getting started in his ministry and so we have many memories of the excitement in evangelicalism as  this new young evangelist began to preach and rocketed to evangelical stardom.  We had heard of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, NC, about three hours from us, and Aunt Jessie had often invited us to come visit her and she would take us to visit the Library. She is a volunteer there one day each week. 

So last week we finally set up an overnight with Aunt Jessie in Charlotte so we could visit the Library.  We had no idea what to expect.  This is not just one library building full of books, but an enormous park which contains the original old Graham family stone home, acres of lovely park and beautiful flowers, the graves of those from the BG team who have gone to be with the Lord, including that of Ruth Graham, and then this huge building which contains all the mementos of Billy Graham history, including his enormous library, with his desk, etc. 

What an atmosphere of both peace and excitement pervades the whole facility.  We entered first into the original Graham home, perfectly restored with all of its (re-upholstered) furniture and original appliances in the kitchen.  From there we went on to the main building which houses both the library and all of the oral and pictorial history of this evangelistic team who has influenced the entire world. 

The entire building is electrically controlled and you go from room to room, being closed into each room to listen to the oral and electronic history of this evangelistic team.  You hear Billy preach and Bev Shea sing, you travel around the world to Asia and Russia and Europe and of course the United States, watching and listening to what God did in these many countries.  There is a whole room dedicated to the ministry of Ruth Graham who stayed at home to pray for the ministry and care for the children. She joined her husband when she could and often gave him advice about the ministry.

Giant videos show Billy Graham's time at Wheaton College and his courtship of Ruth, the many U.S. and world crusades. Billy being interviewed on US TV by well known personalities is all there to see. There are dozens of glass cases burgeoning with mementos of the Crusades and the people who made them possibe.  In every instance, all glory is given to God for the success of this great ministry. Many Alliance leaders in the world - like Sami Dagher and others -  are also pictured, and you hear their actual voices giving testimony to what God did in their countries.

For people like us who lived through that period of history, it was an exciting, uplifting experience, as we identified with so many of the people and events portrayed.  It was well worth the trip!  And we had the additional blessing of spending time with our dear friend, Jessie.  We go back a long ways together!

GROW OLD ALONG WITH ME..............................

Americans have many expressions about growing older - as we live in the "youth culture" of this century, like:
    - The old grey mare ain't what she used to be!
    - Old age ain't for sissies!
    - Grow old along with me - the best is yet to be!

Modern American society tends to  push aside the elderly, hoping that perhaps their children or the government will somehow take care of their needs.  Special communities are planned where only people "over 55" can live, an abnormal kind of place where the voices of little children are seldom heard unless someone's grandchildren come for a visit. 

In the United States, aging parents used to live with one of their children.  Dad remembers his Pierce grandparents living in his home when the children were growing up.  In other societies, the older generation is revered, looked to for advice, caretakers of the small children, storytellers and the repository for the family history.  They remain very valued members of the family until their death.  In our Bobo culture, an old person has a  funeral lasting many days,  and people come from other villages to greet the still living for the honored dead. 

But American society has changed and homes and apartments are smaller, everyone works outside the home and life seems more complicatd.  And so special provision is made for the elderly to live together.  Older parents are perhaps more independant than they used to be.  So those 55+ communities - and whole neighborhoods - flourish in our American society today, places where the elderly can live - and die - togther.  It is a different world. 

At this point, I need to add that you, our five children and spouses, have always had open homes for us, and even wanted us to live closer to you when we retired.  We chose the home we live in, made friends here, and have never been sorry we did.  You sons and families have long since moved away from the area,  and we feel at home where we are.  All of our children are good Africans and keep in touch with us and provide for many of our needs.  We salute you for your love and care.

I remember an old friend - a former missionary from Africa - who was starting to lose her memory when we visited her in Carlisle.  She tried to remember something and couldn't, and she said to me, laughing, "Don't ever grow old, Nancy!"  Well, guess what?  It comes to all of us.  We still live a full interesting life together, but we do have to help each other remember dates and events sometimes! 

We watched Grandma Kennedy's body and mind deteriorate each time we visited her in Carlisle. (The Lord mercifully spared Grandpa K. as he would not have aged gracefully.  He was able to preach right up to close to the time he died suddenly, and he is now rejoicing in Heaven.) Some things seemed to be buried deep in Grandma's once keen mind.  I loved to say to her, "Mom sing a song for me in Jula." And without hesitation, she would sing out lustily one of her favorite African songs, not missing a word!  The Carlisle nurses did not know that she had ever known another language and one day I had her sing her song for them - and they were astounded!   Grandma could remember those Jula words, but she had no idea what she had done yesterday, and it was a celestial deliverance for her when she transferred to Heaven!

Alliance pastors, Kenneth and Sarah Liu have started Caleb & Co., which is an annual gathering for retired Alliance missionaries.  Each year we enjoy times of good messages, fun and laughter, and the renewing of  lifelong friendships. We exchange stories of our pasts overseas, and enjoy updates from our Aliance leaders who also attend the conference. We pray together.  This has become a much appreciated ministry to all of us "oldies" by the Liu's.

Dad and I have been most fortunate to be together as we age and live on our own in our own home.  Our ministries have changed but we keep involved - in our local church, through prayer, and by ministering to needy people in the local jail each week.  We love our connections with you, our children, and feel blessed to have so many wonderful grandchildren and even great grandchildren. Many people of our age do not have loving caring family members as we do.  We are most grateful for your continued participation in our lives.  Thank you!!