Early Summer Pics

I had to turn around and get a picture of this to show you what our idea of an international airport looks like. We took a trip to the tip top of New Hampshire, to moose country, and passed this along the way.

The bride, Brynn, was 4 years old when we were living in Southbridge, where her family worshipped.

Graduation party for two of our seniors.

Nice to have Sarah home for the summer. The dogs think so too!

The church doing one of the things they do best...eat! Tonight it's waffles at our house. Yum...

See what wandered up on our deck at 4:30 one morning. After our bird-feeder!

We get all kinds of wildlife around here.
Sssssay, ssssonny!

Final preps on a Sunday morning out on the deck.

Howard and Jane Norton, at Gander Brook Work and Worship Week

Our humble abode

We occasionally needed a reminder from God, with all the rain we had recently.

Fellowship meal on Wednesday evening prior to our Bible Classes.

Hey...watcha me makes a fancy pepparrrroni pizza!

Greg owns a convenience store. Sarah, Linda and I all work there occasionally.

Sarah's dorm mom, Donna, came for a visit.

Sarah's friend, Donna and us at Quincy Market. She flew into Logan so we couldn't just drive home without taking a detour for lunch...

"Summertime, and the living is easy..."

Greetings,

A lot has happened since the last blog. It’s been a pretty busy spring here in the Mount Washington Valley. The weather has been annoyingly rainy and un-summerlike. We are getting sun today as I write this blog, and it really gets people into a better frame of mind.

The month of May was filled with lots of congregational activity. We began the month talking together as a church about ways we could influence people in the town and reach out to our neighbors. After a couple of more meetings, we have settled on a course of action which involves having a meal (weekly or bi-weekly we are still debating) on Wednesday evenings starting in August or September where we could invite our neighbors to come eat with us, free of charge. After the meal we would go right into a topical discussion of some relevant issue relating to our spiritual lives. We could also use this as a way to get to know various needs which we might be able to meet. Everyone seems to be excited about the potential of this activity. We are starting even now eating together on Wednesday evenings prior to our Bible classes, just to get us in a frame of mind for when we officially begin this ministry later this fall.

We had a work day back in May but were limited in what we could do outside because of the constant wet weather. But we did get a lot of ancient clutter from the last 20 years out of the building. We still have a few projects we need to finish up whenever we can get a spell of dry weather. I know it must be hard for you all down south to hear this as you are cooking in the heat.

This Sunday I will be concluding a nine week “Family Life Series” in which I dealt with many issues related to husbands and wives, parents and children, and teenagers. It was received well, and we have made CD’s available to all which have been disappearing quickly, so I know people have been getting the Word out to their friends. On Wednesday evenings we continue to discuss various questions being asked by the congregation. We are currently studying the nature of our spiritual battle and how we can effectively fight to keep from losing any of the freedom we have been given in Christ.

As far as personal activity, I have been pretty busy as well. In mid-May the community chorus of which I am a part had their Spring Concert. It is good to get to know people from town. I see them every once in awhile in Wal-Mart or the grocery store, and it gives an opportunity to stop and visit so I feel like more a part of the community activities. Everyone there knows I am a minister for the church here, so it offers opportunities at times to mention church related activity.

I also began working part-time a couple of days a week at the store owned by one of our members. Not only does this help out financially as the church here is still only able to provide us $1,850 a month, but just as importantly, it is another way to have an in with the community and get to know more people around the area.

This time of year, of course is the time for graduations and weddings, of which we have had several. We spent one weekend down in Massachusetts where I performed a ceremony for the daughter of a family who was in the very first church we helped begin in Southbridge, MA. We also went over to Vermont one weekend to attend the wedding of another friend from our son, Michael’s graduating class. And we had a couple of High School graduations, complete with after graduation family parties. We took a bit of time one Sunday to honor our grads and give them a gift Bible from the congregation.

Now that it is summertime, the church camp (Gander Brook) is in full swing. I spent some time up there last week at Work and Worship Week, where Howard Norton (of Harding, and formerly at OCU) was the evening speaker. We got quite a bit of work done in spite of the constant rain. It is nice to live fairly close to the camp.

We are getting into a really busy time of our summer. We have several out-of-town visitors coming our way. Sarah just had a friend from Harding come for a few days last week. One of Linda’s best friends from Abilene is coming next week. Then our son comes in for a couple of weeks, joined later by his wife. Then our eleven year old former neighbor from Vermont who loves us to pieces will make her annual trip to see us for a week or so. Lots of driving to airports, lots of food, lots of activity. And as soon as we blink, summer will be over!

Which means it is time for me to begin that annual process of securing support for next year. I want to thank all of you who have been supporting us over the last two years. Don’t be surprised to find a “thank you” note in the mail shortly. Blog pages are great, but not for the purpose of correspondence related to finances. For those of you who would like to continue helping the church here, we certainly would appreciate it. I am resolved to the truth that growth here might not be as quick as I would have liked when I first moved. We were blessed this year to have received a few sizable contributions which I have been able to scatter throughout the year to supplement our income. And I know our God will once again provide for our needs for the coming year as well. I am encouraged that it seems like the people in the church here are beginning to get more excited about moving forward and getting active in talking more with their friends in town. People didn’t do that for awhile after the problems the church faced before we came. So prayerfully we will see more growth in the future than we have up to now. I know the church will be glad when they will once again reach self-supporting status.

By the way, the church is now on Facebook. If any of you on Facebook want to be friends, look us up. Also, one of our members has just finished a course on Web Site construction so we have high hopes of having a functional site which we hope to use as a tool for getting the word out to the people in our area.

Have a great summer. Keep praying! And please consider us for mission support for next year. We love you all and appreciate what you and your support and prayers have been able to accomplish in this neck of God’s Kingdom.

Brotherly,
Leland