Back in California- My 60th Blog!

Dear World of Friends,
I am at my host home in California. We mad it back, indeed. It was a long drive from Utah, but it was fine. It was especially great when I read to my husband from this amazing book called "The Body-Being light in the darkness" by Charles Colson. When the stories of prayer and extraordinary forgiveness and grace are told, the tears start to flow as I read. So many things just touch my heart. I love this book. I just want everyone to read it. I may be misreading this, but it appears to be one cent on Amazon. Buy it!
We all need to be challenged to remember that the church is not a building. And it tells the historical and spiritual story of the fall of communism from Eastern Europe. What a touching, life changing story.

So, tomorrow is going to be fun. We are having a Christmas party! We never get to celebrate Christmas together, as a campus, so we are doing it tomorrow. We're going to exchange presents too.
Soon we will have our banquet, and it will be a powerful time, because it always is. It is our chance to come together as a body and celebrate what God has done. One of my favorite things is scribbeling notes furiously as people share the beautiful and challenging and humbling things the Lord puts on their heart. We leave challenged as individuals and as a community. We were meant to live in community, depending on each other, and listening to what the Lord has to say united like that. I know there are churches and home groups that do that. I want to see more  people get to experience that kind of closeness, the way the Lord meant for it to be. It was so good to see our unit member again too. It's strange, living so closely for four and a half months and then being apart for almost a month. It gets more normal. Next mission will be my 20th tour. At the end of it, I will be celebrating 10 years as a Covenant Player. It doesn't seem possible, but it does. This life is full of paradoxical thoughts and sentiments.

Thank you for sharing this journey with us. Changes are going to be coming to this blog, and I'm excited to be jumping into it with new enthusiasm! God is good and He has good things in store!

We are blessed to get to serve Him together!