Death with a purpose

Tonight, I attended the calling hours of my uncle Eddie. He passed away last Thursday and is currently talking with my other uncle and my gramma in Heaven.

Funerals are a time for families to get reacquainted. My extended family is horrible about keeping up-to-date, often seeing each other only at funerals. Such is the case with me and my cousins. I saw cousins tonight that I haven't seen since my Gramma's funeral a year and a half ago. I spent most of the night talking with my cousin Shelly.

Shelly told me about what has been going on in her life. About her family. About her work. And about her church. Yes, her church. Shelly accepted Christ as her Savior about a year and a half ago, and she told me about it tonight.

It all started on December 15, 2007. The day my Gramma died. She said when Gramma died, she started thinking about how Gramma was now in Heaven. She didn't understand that and she needed to know more about it. She started seeking and not too long later, she found Jesus.

She found Jesus because of the death of our Gramma. Gramma's death had a purpose. God's timing was perfect and allowed her (Gramma) to continue to impact people, even after her death.

Death is always hard, but knowing that God has purpose for death makes it a little easier. I love that my Gramma helped bring my cousin to Christ and that I will someday be in Heaven with both of them.

Rest in peace Uncle Eddie- and may your death have purpose in the Kingdom of God!

Road Trip

Recently, I took a road trip, driving for 15 hours. I left Ohio and drove southwest... through Indiana, through Illinois, down to Saint Louis, across Missouri, and into Oklahoma, not too far from Tulsa. Why would I drive 15 hours, one-way, to go to Oklahoma?? Well, for one thing, one of my best friends lives there and it was a great chance to visit with her (for the little time I got to spend with her), but besides that, the trip had a few main purposes.

A huge cross on the side of the highway in Illinois.

The Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri.

A large Indian statue just off the highway in Oklahoma.

The main purpose of the trip was to do support raising. I actually was able to speak in 3 different churches, as well as with some other individual people and a women's small group. I was able to tell them all about the wonderful opportunity that God is giving me to serve Him in the Dominican Republic. I was able to make new relationships with people and had a wonderful time making new friends and developing my prayer and financial support teams.


Another purpose for going was that my friend's church, Friendly Foyil Baptist Church, was having their Vacation Bible School. The VBS they were doing is Lifeway's Boomerang Express. This is the same VBS that the mission team going to Venezuela in a month is also doing. I went there to get ideas for the planning and preparation for the mission trip. Since I was a visiting missionary, I was one of the focused missionaries of the week, speaking with the children during their missions class. During the week, the children were bringing in their loose change as their offerings for missions. The church decided to give that money to me to support me in my ministry. :-) After the VBS was over, the church donated many of their decorations, teacher guides, and craft items to our mission team to use in Venezuela. What a blessing they are!!


I was also able to observe this same VBS at another church. The people at this church were very friendly and wanted to help me out in any way they could with materials for the Venezuelan VBS. While I had to leave before the end of the week, they are seeing how they can be used by God to be a blessing for the church in Venezuela.

It is wonderful to see the family of God come together to help each other out when they are in need. Absolutely wonderful.

Deliquency

Yes, I am alive! Although I have been very deliquent on updating my blog. I appologize. There are many things that have been happening. I have been keeping busy with many things. I hope to start updating you on what has been going on.

For now, I continue with the work I have been doing. Support raising, VBS planning, working. Today I took a bit of a rest (although I still worked on some things for the VBS). I am going to try to keep my blog more up-to-date. Drop me a message or two and let me know what has been going on with you out there (as I don't get to see many people very much anymore).

Ok, more updates to come....