It wasn’t beginning to look like Christmas back when this photo was snapped on October 28! In fact, at that point, it seemed like Christmas was a VERY long way off.
And here we are. Christmas was here. And now it’s in our rear view mirror.
We’re continually being confronted with the reality that the older we get, the faster time goes.
I last wrote after our whirlwind tour that included Maryland, California, Tennessee, and Georgia, before returning to Massachusetts for a day of counseling.
And then we were off . . . for 5 weeks!! No wonder we haven’t felt like we’ve been home much this fall. While we were away, as they say, the mice will play, so a rewrite of that famous Christmas poem for us would read: “not a creature was stirring, only a few mice.” They found out that though we’re known for hospitality, we must draw the line somewhere, and depopulation has taken place. :)
Our 5-week trip started in Oakland, where we spent two days with the kids (getting Covid-tested for entry into Hawaii, among other things). They thoughtfully surprised me with an early celebration of my November 5 birthday and then we were off.
The Littles helped me celebrate my birthday a little early when we passed through Oakland on our way to Kona.
Kona! For 3.5 weeks. In our continuing partnership with Living Stones Church, we committed to 16-18 hours of counseling a week, preaching one weekend at all their services, doing a marriage conference, speaking to the senior high youth group on relationships, meeting with their staff team, teaching at their “Re-Engage” series, and being available for whatever might come up.
So just in case you thought we were merely eating bonbons on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii, it was actually a great combo of a lot of ministry and some great R & R.
Our first view of this amazing parad
What we didn’t plan for nor expect was to meet up with three different couples from the states who just happened to be in Hawaii during the first week we were there. Duane and Cheree Steward were in our Sunday school class at Grace Chapel over 20 years ago and since their relocation to Florida over 15 years ago, we hadn’t seen them, but we had stayed in touch. It was such a delight to catch up while hiking to Kihilo Bay with them and we all considered it a kind orchestration of God to have our paths cross there.
Duane, Cheree, and Paul flank “Queen’s Bath” prior to taking a (cold) dip in the natural spring-fed rock formed “bath.”
My love affair with sunsets was fed almost nightly as the photos will reveal.
On Sunday, Oct. 31, we preached at all four services at Living Stones Church. Our assigned passage was Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.” It was a good challenge for us to wrestle with the meaning of “peacemakers,” which is so often used synonymously with “peacekeepers.” Often times, in an attempt to “keep the peace,” we avoid conflict or controversy—which buys short term peace at the expense of speaking truth. “Peacemakers” believe that there can be no true peace apart from truth and will risk being unpopular or offending someone because of speaking truth. The response to the sermon has been very encouraging. You can listen to it on the Living Stones Church website under “Watch” or on their Youtube Channel here.
The second of our “who knew?” meet-ups in Kona was with Keith and Wendy, friends from New England who were actually vacationing on Maui during our first week on Kona. When they heard where we were, they took a hop over to hear us preach and then to hike to Capt. Cook’s memorial the next morning. This "2 miles down, 8 miles up hike” over a challenging lava trail is also one of our favorites and we loved sharing it with them. Snorkeling in the cove at the bottom of the 2-mile trail is as aquarium-esque as you’ll find and we were richly rewarded for our efforts. Our time with Keith and Wendy was very sweet.
Keith and Wendy were intrepid on the trail to Capt Cook’s monument.
The third set of “we can’t believe we’re on the island at the same time” friends was Chad and Cathy, a delightful couple we met on our only Caribbean cruise 8 years ago. We had an instant bond on that cruise and have stayed connected ever since. We also hiked with them, this time to Makalawena Beach (another one of our favorite hikes) and were treated to seeing 3 monks seals hanging out on the beach. There are only eight of these beautiful mammals (an endangered species) which live in the waters off Kona so we felt very fortunate. Even better than seeing the monk seals, though, was having fellowship with Chad and Cathy. Such a special gift!!
Chad and Cathy Robrock were also on the island during our time and we loved catching up with them while hiking.
A “junior aged” monk seal soaks in the rays on Makalawena Beach. This is a very rare sighting.
November 5th we celebrated my birthday with a great hike followed by dinner out with Pastor Bill and Pine Barley. We’ve become such good friends over the past four years of partnering with them and couldn’t think of a better way to mark my birthday. Pine sacrificially made me the plumeria lei I’m wearing, risking life and limb to pick the blossoms which were only found on the highest parts of the tree. I wore it for 3 days before tossing in the ocean as a memorial to my mom, whose love for Hawaii ran deep.
Bill and Pine Barley have become treasured friends as we’ve partnered together at Living Stones Church.
And yes, this is the sunset that ended my birthday. Another gift.
Saturday the 6th we spoke for a morning marriage seminar to an eager, open crowd. A good number showed up in person and an even bigger number joined by live-stream. Though marriage has certainly never been “easy,” the challenges seem to have escalated, especially over the past two years of the pandemic. Everyone wants and needs encouragement in the form of Biblical truth and that’s what we gave them by the grace of God. It was a very good morning.
Ryan and Sara Burns, who pastor Living Stones’ church plant, “Lone Pine”, hosted the marriage conference and as always, did a great job. We love partnering with them.
Especially encouraging to us was having Bill and Pine and two of their four kids’ families attend the conference. All are very involved in ministry on the island.
The next highlight came on Monday the 7th, when we were privileged to teach on relationships to their high school youth group. We were blown away by the enthusiasm and energy of this rather large group of students and volunteers, and even more by their interaction. The leaders had solicited written questions from the students the week before and they submitted a good number of very important questions. We were so thankful for a very powerful evening and for many follow-up conversations that came over the next couple of weeks.
On a balmy tropical night, under the stars and a canopy, dozens of high school students gathered to hear us talk on relationships.
The exercise of asking what the students were hoping to have in a future spouse and then categorizing them in to the “Four C’s”—convictions, character, compatibility, and chemistry—was profound and revealing. (See “Letters to my Daughters” for more insight in to this concept.)
Later that week, we spent a morning doing some podcast recordings with Ryan and Sara Burns, who interviewed us on parenting questions. They are very good interviewers and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. Those podcasts can be found on the Living Stones Church website under “Watch” (then scroll down to “Culture of Faith Podcast”) or on their Youtube Channel here (see Culture of Faith Podcast, Season One, Episodes 12, 13, 14).
In Ryan and Sara’s kitchen, we recorded several podcasts on parenting.
And that night, we gathered with the staff team from both campuses for a casual social evening. It was most enjoyable to hang out with this great group of people, getting to know each other better.
The staff team from both the Living Stones and Pine Tree campuses gathered for a social evening at Ryan and Sara Burns’ home, and fun and fellowship was had by all.
We spent another evening speaking at “Re-Engage,” a “rebuild hope in your marriage” 14-week course that the church offers. Headed by two dedicated couples, Dan and Jen and Wayne and Liz, couples who are struggling in their marriage receive instruction and small group interaction which, by God’s grace, equips them to not give up on their marriages. We were thrilled to spend an evening with these couples and so impressed with the attendees who were committed to finding solutions to their issues.
Dan and Jen introduce us at “Re-Engage."
Here we are with the “Re-Engage” team: Wayne and Liz and Dan and Jen. We “talked shop” over a lovely dinner out.
In addition to the speaking engagements, during each week we spent 16 hours counseling in the church nursery and that was pretty amazing. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit could a one-time counseling session be fruitful, but many of the appointments were just that. All praise is His.
During our 3.5 week stay on the island, we were hosted by Bob and Deb Cary, owners of “The Tree House” airbnb and members of Living Stones Church. It would be hard to find more hospitable, kind, generous people and we were well taken care of by them. Their generosity extended to our friends as well, as they hosted Brian and Sue McCoy and their daughter Shaina for dinner one evening.
Bob and Deb Cary, owners of the airbnb we stayed in for three weeks, generously invited Brian and Sue McCoy and their daughter Shaina to dinner one evening. The McCoys are the YWAM partners we work with in Mexico and long time friends.
Besides lots of counseling and speaking, we did lots of hiking.
Lots.
Kona has a craggy lava shoreline along azure seas full of marine life and unique sights. We took it all in.
The lava rock is unforgiving should you trip and fall, and fortunately we managed to stay upright through over a hundred miles of hiking,
Unbelievable archways and other carved-by-nature formations were captivating.
We were thrilled to have a great view of the lunar eclipse on Nov. 18 and watched it for two hours as the moon was completely shadowed by the sun.
We found this old carved “tiki god” on the beach in front of the old Kona Village, which was wiped out by the tsunami in 2011 and is now being rebuilt.
Turtle sightings are always worth stopping for.
Another very cool natural lava rock arch.
Sunset on the church property…
Monday, the 22nd, we left the beautiful island and joined Kari and family, as well as Lisa, in Oakland for Thanksgiving. We exchanged beauty of one kind for even more beauty of another: being with our family. We made a quick trip together to Monterey to visit the world renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium and while there, reconnected with our best friends from seminary, Johnny and Lori Potter. It’s now been 30 years since we became fast friends at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and we truly treasure their friendship.
Monterey has such beautiful coast line and it certainly helped ease the transition from 3.5 weeks on the water in Hawaii to go from “sea to shining sea.”
Johnny and Lori Potter flank our gang at the waterfront in Pacific Grove, California. How we love them!!
The kids didn’t seem to notice the chill in the water in Monterey.
Our afternoon at the aquarium was wonderful. What a magical place!
The traditional Thanksgiving Day family football game was had at their elementary school, and though small, it was mighty.
Micah eyes the traditional “name card” cookies made for the Thanksgiving dinner table.
The gang just before eating non-traditional ribs for Thanksgiving dinner.
An afternoon at the Oakland Zoo was such a treat. It’s a great zoo!
View of Oakland Bay from the zoo just before the sun set.
And set it did. It was a glorious symphony that night.
We left Oakland on Saturday, the 27th, to drive to Lisa’s home in Riverside, and we made a stop in Exeter, California, to spend a few hours with our nephew Randy and his wife Rachael Clark, and their five kids. We had the sweetest time and you’d never know from looking at this photo that just days later, three of these children would be afflicted with E-coli bacteria infections which would land the littlest one, Isla, in the ICU for the past three weeks (where she still remains.). Her infection led to HUS and she’s had a very tough road these past three weeks, which has included coding several times, having her large intestine removed just hours before sepsis would’ve taken her, being on an ECMO machine for several days, and having her kidneys shut down which has required her to be on dialysis. She’s thankfully “out of the woods” within the past two days, but has a very long road of recovery ahead. Many of you have prayed with us as I’ve posted on social media about her journey these past three weeks and we ask you to continue. We believe she is alive today because of the miraculous intervention of our all-powerful God.
With our dear nephew Randy, his wife Rachael, and their five children at their home. Paul is holding sweet Isla, who is recovering from HUS.
On to Lisa’s we went where we spent two days doing as many projects for her as we could to lessen her very heavy load of both teaching and being a student. She was in the midst of wrapping up a full semester of teaching as well as completing courses for her next-to-the-last semester of her PhD studies. She’s on schedule to graduate in August.
We love spending time with her anywhere, but there’s almost nothing Paul loves doing more than helping her out with house projects, which he was able to do a number of. I loved doing her holiday baking and decorating while she was teaching and we still managed to enjoy an outing to see the Mission Inn Lights (an annual tradition) and another to hike Mt. Rubidoux. The time was short but sweet and after being gone since Oct. 27, we finally flew home Dec. 1.
Costco comes through with the perfect Christmas tree.
The lights at the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside are a holiday favorite and we were so happy to be able to continue this tradition.
We hit the ground running with counseling the day after returning and holding our first in person Engagement Matters Conference in two years. Joy!! Hosted by Matt and Beth Ide in Nashua, New Hampshire, we had a great group of eight couples who will go down in history as one of the most interactive, inquisitive groups we’ve ever had. The community experience was palpable, reminding us that this unnatural state of isolation we’ve endured the past 20 months really is counter-design. It was so good to be together and the Ides’ hospitality facilitated the experience beautifully.
We were also so grateful to have Richard Hendricks and Steve and Janet Hathaway join us as our service team, preparing and setting up meals and cleaning up afterwards. In between they interacted with the couples. We couldn’t have done it without them.
Matt and Beth Ide have been faithful partners with HIM for years and did a beautiful job of hosting Engagement Matters December 4–5.
We loved this group of Engagement Matters attendees and had a very impacting weekend.
Matt and Beth presented Biblical financial truths during one of the sessions.
The couples lingered over great food and soul-feeding fellowship.
That brings us up to Christmas, but since that deserves a post of its own, I’ll wrap this up now. The seven weeks leading up to the EM weekend have been so rich and full. We are overwhelmed by God’s faithfulness in making a way for us to be fully back in the saddle. In all our years of ministry, we’ve never been more convinced that the message of Hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ is the best we have to offer. He is the answer to this groaning, hurting world and we have rejoiced in seeing this life-transforming truth literally change the trajectory of individuals, families, and marriages.
All praise is His.