Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Tennessee

Praise God I safely made it back to Uchee Pines yesterday. I'm thankful for some nice fellowship and relaxation during my time in Tennessee. Now I'm getting ready for the trip to the GC session tomorrow, as well as for my two-months stay in Europe. I'm excited!

So here are some pictures of my trip:


Watering the okra in the Humes's garden

Alan & Lorraine in front of their property

Delicious blueberries

At Natchez State Park


Bill and Linda Jennings in Ooltewah

Vilma and Terry Myers

Monday, June 22, 2015

From One Place to Another

At the time of this writing, I'm dwelling in Tennessee visiting some dear friends while recuperating from these past weeks working at Uchee Pines. During the last two lifestyle sessions, I've had some interesting people to work with, including a young lady from Italy who used to work for the United Nations in Rome, as well as an 80-year old retired physician who used to be one of the very first students at Uchee Pines. But it has also been an intense time, with hardly any dull moment.

So I'm grateful I can rest a bit now before I go to the General Conference Session in San Antonio at the beginning of July. It will be a very intense time there as well, as I'm going to be part of the German interpreters. May God help me with that! There will be some interesting discussions during these meetings, and I pray that everything will work out to God's glory and to the advancement of our church.

After that, I'm due to leave the United States again, as my 90-day residence permit will expire once more. The following couple months will be filled with lots of interesting travels, including two camp meetings in Scandinavia, our German camp meeting, juice fasting in Serbia, and the ASI Europe meetings in Budapest. In fact, I'll be visiting six different countries. Well, I have to take advantage of my freedom as long as it lasts!

So if everything works according to plan, I'll be immigrating to the US again in September; and this time on an R1 visa.

Until then, I'm planning to enjoy the next three months to the fullest. I'm sure there will be lots of opportunities to serve; and I found that this is the true key to happiness in life.
"The only way to grow in grace is to be disinterestedly doing the very work which Christ has enjoined upon us—to engage, to the extent of our ability, in helping and blessing those who need the help we can give them. Strength comes by exercise; activity is the very condition of life. Those who endeavor to maintain Christian life by passively accepting the blessings that come through the means of grace, and doing nothing for Christ, are simply trying to live by eating without working. And in the spiritual as in the natural world, this always results in degeneration and decay. A man who would refuse to exercise his limbs would soon lose all power to use them. Thus the Christian who will not exercise his God-given powers not only fails to grow up into Christ, but he loses the strength that he already had." (Steps to Christ, p. 80)
Amen to that! May the Lord help you and me to make this happen in our everyday lives.

Some pictures of my trip will follow shortly :-).