First, the Fall has given SPACE a very slow pace. We haven't really done any student service/mission projects at all so far this school year. The original idea was to gather some momentum and drive it into the Friday night outreaches - sending students from summer teams into the community. That worked nominally - and it was a good idea that was worth trying. Come January, I think we will be back to more SPACE experiences. In the meantime, we are giving it some more thought and setting some things in motion for after the holidays. More on that later.
Although SPACE has been tame this Fall, our family life has not. The girls are having a great school year but there is a lot of activity going on - brownies, gymnastics, piano lessons - almost over the line. Even with two kids in school all day, D has been quite busy with volunteering in school, a tutoring gig and various other things. The new puppy is working out pretty well, but one more thing to take care of. We are balancing it all and it is all good things but still makes for a busy week. There has also been one other looming life thing which has taken some attention and energy. It's a good thing but I can't quite tell you about it - yet.
One other big piece of news is that my dad was recently diagnosed with colon cancer. Twelve years ago, he had bladder cancer and the miracle doctors took out his bladder and reconstructed a small bladder from a piece of his small intestine. Ever since that, he has been going in for 6 month checkups. One of his checkups last month came back strange so they did some more tests and think they caught it early - the prognosis is supposedly good. He is scheduled to have surgery on November 14. We are of course hoping for good news but also bracing for the possibility that life may certainly change. We would certainly appreciate your prayers for my dad, Frank.
I'm going to be speaking on a retreat in a few weeks. DHelger and I got to know each other through the Nens - our hosts in Cameroon. When the Nens used to live here in Columbia, they were involved full time with the local high school ministry of The Navigators. DHelger and his wife now run the ministry and they asked me to come and share with their students. It should be a great time and I think this might be the start of a fun connection with DHelger. Their ministry has been part of a partnership with a ministry in Bulgaria for a number of years. Also, DHelger is the brother of AmyM, who is married to Matt, both of whom comment on here every once in a while. We are making it a family trip - it will be fun to get away for a little bit together.
We are doing the Winter-Sheng-Orlando-Fest in February. Somehow, Orlando seems to be a connecting point for us at least once a year. We will be going as a family for almost a week and I will be attending Humana 2.0 [although I still have to register] which I'm really excited about. There are going to be some good friends attending with me which is just as exciting.Anyway, thanks to those of you out there reading this, thinking, praying and encouraging us. It's a honor to consider you as friends - friends in the truest form of having our hearts tied together by the One who launches us so that we can launch students.
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