Game On!

November 26, 2007


The day is here. I sit now in Cincinnati trying to find free wifi. Looks like you "watchers" will have to wait a few hours for a fresh word. But here is what has happened today so far. We wrapped up our packing last night and into this morning. G has earned the new title of MP (militant packer). It is amazing how much I realize that I don't know about space and weight management. But the proof is can be found at ticket counter - no bags over 48.2 pounds! All kidding aside, I am proud of the MP. So we slept very little last night. We woke up very early and arrived at the airport a little after 6 am. To our surprise the security line wound around and down the entire front of the airport and then came back to where our ticket counter was located. Man, I've never seen so many people waiting at our little airport at one time. Although the crowd was impressive the lines moved along quickly and we made it to our first gate without delay. The weather is a little sketchy today so hopefully we'll make all of our connections and get to our final destination on time. I'm not looking forward to the overnight flight this evening.

So enough with the itinerary. Yesterday at our church, we hosted these young kids from all over the world to sing and tell a bit about their own stories as either orphans or children who were victims of war or poverty. These kids were awesome. I don't suppose any of them were over 10 years old. Some of our friends had seen them at an adoption conference earlier this year and helped to arrange their visit to our church. So the whole thing ended up and Platt took the stage and began to expound on James 1:27 and what it meant to care for orphans and widows. We talked about the aids pandemic and what our part as the body of Christ is to reach out and care for these people. I was just overwhelmed with the thoughts of how many of our friends both within our local church body and from neighboring communities have been impacted by the summer hosting program and are taking action to walk out this admonition. Platt said something to the effect of "once you meet them and know their names and faces, the need becomes real (my paraphrase)." Dude, that is so true. All I could think of was that in about 18 hours I'd be on a plane to walk out our mission. So the service ended up in small group prayer. Gina had to step out to take care of some last minute business and I sat there with KB and began to pray. About half way through the time I felt a hand on my shoulder and it was our friends that had just arrived back at home earlier in the week with their new 3. God has been so good to us to surround us by so many willing to lay it all on the line for the sake of His call.

So here I SIT, ready to WALK in obedience and through HIs power - and reviewing my notes from small group yesterday. I appreciate you brother.

Please continue to pray with us. Thank you to all of you who have loaned us stuff for this adventure and helped us to prepare. Thank you to all of you that have helped us financially. Thank you God for allowing us to be a small part of your plan to help the helpless.

Papa