We're Home!!!

Wow, did 8 weeks go by fast or what? We are back home after finishing strong at FPO. What a rich time it was, and what a great time we had at the very end.

To sum up our 8 weeks, we were filled with all kinds of teaching, our time was filled almost every minute, our worship time each Sunday morning was a small group worship, and we also had cultural worship every Sunday night with the entire community. Our cultural worship was very good, and showed us how different countries worship God. There was Korean, Chinese, African, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American. All great moving times of corporate worship. Our last Sunday together was a time of our own worship, one we are so blessed to be able to celebrate. I thought I was the only one who was weeping by worshipping for the first time in familiarity, but as I looked around most everyone was emotionally moved by this worship of Jesus that we all had missed so much.

We finished on Tuesday morning with the commissioning of the entire group who are being sent out to our regions in the next two weeks. Jerry Rankin spoke and Clyde Meador prayed over us, as the rest of the 400 visitors to see their family members commissioned held their hands over us and prayed for us. My wife and I were priviledged to have 3 pastors from our church attend the service, and what a blessing that was to us! Not just familiar faces after 8 weeks, but special ones in our lives. Our Associate Pastor, who is the one who encouraged me to walk in obedience to God calling me to go on my first mission trip to South Asia and has continued to pour into our lives the encouragement we have needed during this time. To our marriage and family pastor who believed in us and encouraged us not to give up on ourselves when we were almost down and out years ago, and helped us to let God do a healing in us. To the missions pastor who was with the IMB for 15 years before taking his current position, who has helped to guide us and encourage us throught this whole process. It meant so much for you to be there and I can't describe how we felt with you present at that moment.

We flew home Wednesday, and since have been going through all of our stuff and trying not to be overwhelmed with the decision about what to pack for the next 3 years! We'll make it through. We are so excited to be home, but also very excited to be close to flying to where God is going to use us.