Down Memory Lane...

Carmen and me


Our girls with Cana and Harmony Bear (Cord and Carmen also have 2 sons...weren't home for the picture!)


Last week, my family and I headed back home to my hometown of Brazil, Indiana. On our way there, we made a pit stop in Wheeler, Illinois. This was the place of our first ministry. We wanted to show Macayla her first house she used to live in. Of course, she doesn't remember any of this because she was only 6 months old when we moved away from there. But going down memory lane can be fun sometimes, so we drove by our first church and our first house...actually, this was our 2nd parsonage, but the first for Macayla.

From there, we went to our friends' house, Cord and Carmen Bear. We had developed a very close bond with them during our time in Wheeler. They became some of our closest friends. In fact, they were both there when our daughter Macayla was born. Carmen is an o.b. nurse and it was her day off, but they spent the long emotional day with us anyway. We have kept in touch some over the years, but "life" gets in the way of that sometimes. It was refreshing to sit down and be able to talk with them and catch up. They remain very dear to our hearts.

We visited some other friends of ours too. It's so encouraging to go back years later and find that all of these people are still actively serving God and growing as families.

"Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints." Philemon 7