countless blessings

First, my preaching has been a blessing to me and evidently the congregation.  We began with 21 in November and had 39 this past Sunday.  I have seen that several people have been strengthened in their faith through the message God has given to me to pass to them.  Second, Evelyn has finally recovered from her airborn virus that she got just after Thanksgiving.  It took about 6 weeks, but God finally granted her healing.  Third, our eldest grandson has arrived safely in Hong Kong where he is studying math.   We thank God for His mercy in allowing him to travel safely and be excited in his opportunity.  Fourth, I have been blessed to, as a Gideon, distribute New Testaments.   to 5th graders in a local elementary school and will assist in delivering more at a different school tomorrow.  Evelyn and I spent the morning learning about 2 mission outreaches right here in Texas.  One of them ministers to oilfield workers extracting oil from shale neat Kenedy Texas and the area around it in central Texas.  The other ministers to inner city minorities in Houston and other urban areas, mostly in Texas.  It is quite a blessing to be able to support organizations like that. 

We have had a cool, overcast winter overall thus far until the past couple of days.  The sun has emerged and the high temperatures have been in the low 80s.  I have played golf only once but haven’t really missed it.  I thought I was going to work at one of the local courses as a ranger, but the job fell through after just one afternoon.  We have essentially dropped out of the activities in our park.  We would like to sell our trailer but can’t seem to attract many lookers.  We have spent 14 years in this same dwelling and have had little success in making any good friends.  We used to volunteer to work in many activities, have hosted several parties, and have had many dinner parties, but few have reciprocated in any way.  We have had few invitations to either dinners or even invitations to have a beer with anyone.  l would like to either move to a different part of Texas or at least into another park.  But of course we can’t do that unless we sell this one. 

One couple who are winter Texans and live in a different park have been our most frequent friends.  They are from Wisconsin, and he plays piano for our worship service most of the season.  They love to play dominoes more than anything, and we spend time with them in both our houses.  We also go to some high school plays with them as well as some afternoon dances.  They are also garage sale fanatics, but we don’t accompany them in that arena.  Another couple who are good friends have lived here all their lives.  They are members of the church where we have a membership.  We go to a concert series 6 times each season in McAllen.  We always go out to dinner with them before the concert.  We also exchange dinners in our respective homes and play some cards with them.  The man is an engineer and is 6 weeks older than I but hasn’t retired.   She is the organist for the church where we are members.  They have a huge garden (remember some of the major growing season is during the winter months at this latitude), and just this last week they shared several varieties of lettuce, Swiss chard, and spinach with us.  The only other lasting friends are a couple who live in Rio Hondo.   He farms 3000 plus acres.  Our wives met 16 years ago I a Bible study and, ironically, sat next to each other in a small group.  They had the same last name and have been friends since.  We are only able to get together with them 3 or 4 times each winter because he is always busy with some farm activities, but in 2014 we were together for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  He has several Hispanics working for him on the farm, but loaned one of them to do some work on our unit. 

It is these few people who have become lasting friends and will be missed if we leave, but we leave our future in the hands of our loving Lord.  He knows what He wants us to do, and, since is our Creator and Savior, we will serve Him wherever He wants.