Voices from the Past

We are leaving Albuquerque this morning to go to Phoenix to attend the SBC.  Yesterday, on the advice of a lady at the free hotel breakfast in Amarillo, we went to Santa Fe.  Aren't we glad we did!  What a fabulous city.  The whole city is built in that adobe (or however you spell it), Indian style housing.  All of it is painted the same earthtones as the lay of the land.  No building is tall.  The whole city is camouflaged.  What a neat city.  So many shops, museums, and artisans selling Indian jewelry and such.  Dawn was in her heyday.  Met a man from Yazoo City that said he and his wife had been coming to Santa Fe for 20 years.  I can understand why.  Thank you, Texas lady, for the good word of advice.  Today will be our longest day of travel yet, however, we will see some stuff along the way.  The girls have been great.  They have hung in so well.  We are so thankful to the Lord for this opportunity.

I hadn't heard from him in a long time.  Every three or four years we would talk.  We met in high school.  He started coming to the church that I was raised in. His quick wit and slanted look on life made us good friends.  He went to a baptist school in SC and I went to one in NC and we lose contact.  I have seen him a couple of times since and we seemed to pick up where we left off.  Good to have friends like that.  When I moved to Houston, I got a call from him.  Not from the NC church that I knew he pastored, but from Europe. He shared with me that God had moved him and his family to become IMB missionaries and reach a unique people group there.  His work is changing now, however, he is still faithfully serving the Lord in Europe.  I hear of friends that have died.  I hear of friends on drugs.  I hear of friends who have struggled.  However, I also hear of friends from the past that are doing well in the Lord and churches that are prospering.  I think that is what Paul had in mind when he wrote- Only let your manner of life be worthy of  the gospel of Christ, so that... I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel.- Phil. 1:27  May all that hear of us be blessed and challenged by our faithful stand for the cause of Christ.  May God richly bless my friend and his family as they do their part to set Europe on fire for Christ.