Sitting with Jesus

We have a member in the body who has fallen. They got caught in a snare and are struggling greatly.
Please pray for them. Pray they wouldn't hear their own shouts of condemnation but the whispers of Jesus.
I have tried multiple times over the past couple of weeks to get together with the person and talk with them about what is going on but there is always an excuse why the date has to be broken.
They didn't make it to fellowship last night and I felt it was right and time to call on the others to pray and let them know a bit of what was going on. Not sure what kind of response there would be since there were lies, manipulation, and people taken advantage of.
Certainly reason to be angry, resentful, bitter and the like but instead...
urgency.
Urgency born out of sincere compassion and love. Compassion that can only be found when Jesus is present.
Prayer
Tears
more prayer
We read again Galatians 6 and we all had a deep understanding of what it means to be careful that we ourselves don't fall into sin.
The sin of judgement and condemnation of thinking we are somehow better and beyond falling ourselves. That's what he is talking about there.
Self-righteousness is gnarly.
Some recounted how just a few weeks back they were in need of gentle restoration and how thankful they were in receiving it.
We're a ragtag bunch here. grubby cups (to borrow a name from a friend) for sure.
We often don't look very mature. If you said turn to Philemon many would look dumbfounded.
But we get compassion,
we get grace
we see clearly our need for it every day.

Someone once said that
if you call Jesus good He'll be good.
If you call Him love He'll be love
but if you call Him compassion He will know that you know.

Please pray for our brother/sister. Pray for us too.

Sandy

Kim took this picture early Tuesday morning. Hard to tell from the angle but her feet aren't touching the ground. I'm not sure how this was comfortable but...
If the picture had sound you would hear her snoring...hard.
We used to try and train her to not sleep on the couch but it never really worked and in the end we were pretty much ok with it.

She died unexpectedly last night and we buried her in the backyard this morning.
She was almost 5. Early 30's for a human I guess. None of the 3 vets that were working with her were sure what was happening. She has had trouble with her back legs for years and over the past couple of months it was getting worse.
But within a couple of hours she was unable to walk or lift her head. She died a few hours later.
It may have been a coral snake bite (I killed one in the backyard this morning)
Someone could have thrown something poisonous over the fence for her to eat
or most likely she had been fighting something for a long time and her body finally couldn't fight any longer.
Everyone who knew her knew "rubabelly"...
say it and she would immediately drop and roll on her back so her belly could be rubbed.
Actually all you typically had to do was look at her and she would want her belly rubbed.
She was a blackhole for affection but it was great...
Lew nicknamed her "flumix" I'm not sure any of us know what the heck that means but it sure seemed to fit.

It's been a hard day here.
tears,
prayers,
hugs.
Kind words from many people.
We feel loved.
Death is a part of life, not the end though, a doorway to the imperishable.
Jesus made sure of that.
Thanks Sandy for all you taught me. You'll be missed.

Fall Retreat

Here are a few pics from our fall retreat at Roan mountain.

Lew, Judy and some of the folks from the church in Cincy made it down as well as my niece from up near Dayton.

One of the many blessings was Judy's dad, Mr. Weiss, who came along. His testimony is truly inspiring. If I understand correctly at almost 50 he and his wife sold everything to become missionaries. Most places wouldn't take him because of his age and lack of theological schooling. He persevered and went on to plant 18 churches in the Philippines and now at almost 80 is headed back to continue the work Father has given him.


We also had a baptism in the river. It was great.

To see all the pics click on the title above or the "Picasa" link to the right.

He's Baaack!!

After 8 months working with Jesus in Calcutta, India my good bro' Jesse is back!

(sorry the pic stinks. I took it on my phone and we had bad lighting. I would have ran out to my car and got the good camera but I had a pulled pork basket sitting in front of me.)

We celebrated by going to our favorite eating establishment:

The original Bubbalou's Bodacious BBQ.

We won't talk about what the BBQ did to his system after 8 months of Indian food.

It's great to have you back!