Peonies . . . beautiful and fragrant, truly one of the loveliest gifts of the garden as spring parades its finest. These, from a dear friend’s garden, graced our home with sweetness for days.
After returning from our friend’s retirement from the US Navy in early June, we happily attended another dear friend’s wedding. I don’t know what’s more thrilling than mentoring an eager young Christ follower whose love for Jesus compels her to truly walk her talk, but that’s been my joy for the past 7 years with Lauren Olson. We’ve walked through thick and thin together as I’ve witnessed her growth in Christlikeness, so it was a privilege to celebrate with her and Dan Elliott as they covenanted before the Lord to have a marriage that honors Him. Everything about their day was beautifully appointed, from the gospel-centered service, to the incredible ambience of the reception held at Wentworth by the Sea. The surprise in the middle was an appearance by “Wally" the Red Sox mascot who entertained the guests by dancing with Lauren to “Sweet Caroline” as well as a number from the Dropkick Murphys. It was a joy-filled, honoring day and we were so happy to be part of the well-wishers.
Mr. and Mrs. Dan Elliott were all smiles throughout their June 11th wedding.
Hanging with the special guest of honor, Wally!
An added bonus of the Olson wedding was having dinner with longtime and deeply loved but not often seen friends.
Besides counseling and meeting up with friends for a variety of celebrations during the brief week we were home, we enjoyed being in town to attend our home church, Hope Christian Church in Winchester, MA. We’ve really appreciated the Biblical preaching of Todd Cravens, as well as the friendly, multi-ethnic congregation. On this Sunday, the children’s choir sang and that was a highlight.
We were also able to attend the “reveal” of the gender of Beshoy and Diana’s baby and it was great fun to celebrate with them the future birth of their first child, who will be a boy. We enjoyed great fellowship (and food) with this Egyptian friend group.
Beshoy and Diana were thrilled by the blue powder which exploded in the air, revealing the gender of their firstborn.
Days later we were on a flight back to California, to speak at Forest Home’s family camp, but first...
We experienced our first AAU basketball tournament, filling in the parental role as we accompanied our oldest grandchild, Brandon, on his first travel experience. Our years of being on the sidelines for our daughters’ athletic careers did little to prepare us for the organized mayhem of twenty-four courts hosting games every hour on the hour for three days straight. It was crazy, but so so good to be with Brandon and his team of 6 who fought their way to the quarterfinal round. It was a great time with him and Auntie Lisa, who joined the party Saturday.
Our dear friend Wendy Turney hosted us, which helped reduce the exorbitant costs related to these tournaments, but much more than that, afforded us time with one of our favorite humans.
Brandon had a great tournament. His 12-year-old body has shot up to 5’11” and his basketball skills have dramatically improved over the past year. We loved being with him and seeing his character on the court match his skill.
Brandon’s team after winning two in a row on Sunday,
Brandon (#11) plays center and usually has a height advantage.
The tournament happened Father’s Day weekend, so we honored Paul Sunday morning with his favorite breakfast foods at Wendy’s lovely home.
And then we were off to Forest Home for a spectacular week of family camp.
There is no arena of ministry for which we have deeper hearts than family camp and we’re so thankful for our ongoing relationship with Forest Home that allows us to speak for one week of family camp annually. This year seemed especially exceptional as we shared meals, hikes, and two-on-two time with many of the campers, forging many relationships that will outlast the week. We so enjoyed teaming up with a number of leaders from Maranatha Chapel in Rancho Bernardo, including Daniel Bentley, senior pastor, who was the evening speaker, and Jared Burke, who served as pastoral host, and Lucas Silva, who led worship. They are such a quality group of Christ followers and there is much evidence they are leading their congregation well as almost half of the campers were from their church.
It was a rich week of fellowship, growth, encouragement, inspiration, and recalibration.
Loved being with the Monterastelli family, with whom we’ve done family camp for over a decade.
The leadership team for the week: Daniel Bentley, Lucas Silva, Jared Burke, and us.
Baptisms at the Lake on Wednesday were cause for great celebration.
The hike up to Inspiration Point for the yummy pancake breakfast was made even better by hiking with new friends, Scott and Christi.
A special afternoon visit with Stan and Angi White was also a highlight. We’ve been friends with the Whites for 4 decades.
The closing session Saturday morning featured the children singing with “Music Mama” —a great Forest Home tradition.
We left Forest Home with hearts full of gratitude for this great week of ministry. How blessed we are.
Soon after returning, our most recent publication was released!! A Family after God’s Own Heart is a 52-week family devotional guide that has been developed through many years of creating family camp curriculum. Our prayer is that this resource will help facilitate families who recognize the importance of seeking truth through God’s Word.
We just received this message from a six-year-old whose family has started using A Family after God’s Own Heart:
“We started it today and a little while after we finished, our six-year-old daughter hugged it to her chest and said, “I’m gonna keep this forever. Can I save this and pass it on to my kids someday?””
The weeks since have been different than expected when we planned this summer. The trajectory changed a month ago when we finally felt we had clear direction for the next season of our life.
For several years we’ve been praying about moving to live near our kids/grandkids. Unfortunately for us, but clearly in God's will for them, we have one set of grands on the east coast and one set on the west coast. When challenged by one of our daughters that if we didn’t make the move soon, we’d miss the window for being a part of their growing up lives, it suddenly became clear that moving to Northern Virginia would make the most sense. Our speaking opportunities often take us to California or to Hawaii and afford us the privilege of spending time with Gabe and Kari and kids in Oakland, but we’re seldom in Virginia, so our times with Derek and Julie and fam are few and far between. By moving the HIM base of operations to Northern Virginia, we’d have much more time with the Johnsons and still have as much with the Garcias.
And just like that, we looked at three houses over the course of three days, put an offer in on one which was accepted the next day and suddenly we’re in the swirling whirling state of pulling up roots 32 years deep in New England, sorting out the accumulation of “great idea” stuff, deciding what to keep, sell, or give away, and managing very strong emotional pain that accompanies leaving “our people.” We’ve been so blessed to have friends who have come alongside us very sacrificially, helping to pack (dear Helen came for 4 days and packed non-stop), to re-sell (one dear friend has taken some of our more valuable antiques and is selling them at her antique flea market, while another is having a yard sale for us at her home); another family has offered to mow our lawn while we’re traveling the next month, and we’ve had many offers of “please let us know how we can help.”
The pain of leaving friends who are deeply embedded in our hearts has been excruciating at times, even though we’re over the moon excited about living 2 miles from Derek and Julie’s home, 4 miles from my youngest sister’s home, 12 miles from my only brother’s homeland, and 2 hours from another sister.
But still . . . it’s very hard to leave.
We’ll return to New England for two weekend of Engagement Matters and our annual marriage conference in Newport, Rhode Island, as well as for other speaking dates. We’re actually speaking at Grace Community Church in Chelmsford in September and at the Arabic Egyptian Baptist Church the same weekend. We’ll welcome any invitations to return to this “home of our heart.”
These weeks have been exhausting for sure as we prepare for this unexpected move, but there have been several delightful “interruptions” to the seemingly endless tasks connected with moving. On the rainy Fourth of July, we met up with decades-long friends from CA who were on an 8-week tour through the states. The Versluys family with their 7 children were troopers to grab a visit in the Public Gardens in less than ideal conditions. It was great to reconnect with them.
The Versluys family, with seven children ranging in age from 3 to 17, didn’t let the rain dampen their enthusiasm for getting together.
Christy, Pam, Patty, and I have been getting together since 1995, when we were in the same Mom to Mom group. Though “Joe’s on a Roll” in Beverly was out of lobster and rain spoiled our sunset beach dinner, we had a sweet time together.
Agit and Jolly are our Indian neighbors whom we love dearly, and to mitigate our sorrow related to no longer being neighbors by the end of August, they took us out for an Indian buffet.
As I mentioned, since a move was not originally on the docket for this summer, we’ve continued with the plans and commitments we had made. That included spending the past week hanging out with Nathan and Rachel, while Derek was on a business trip to Jordan for Neurokids and Julie had several days of work. We had an absolute blast with the kids, walking the dog, playing basketball, going to the pool, and being together, and it certainly confirmed what we have to gain by making this move.
In celebration of Papa and Gigi’s arrival, a trip to Dunkin’ Donuts was appropriate.
Rachel frosted the “Gigi Cakes” aka “Cinnamon Chip Scones” and we delivered some to friends, but enjoyed plenty for ourselves.
Back from walking Rex . . .
A little basketball competition got us all sweating.
This is the constant state of our house currently as we dismantle it.
A move as such is only painful because it’s been so good and so rich here in New England. In between the tears, we’re taking time to reflect on the amazing journey we’ve had, which started in 1991 when we pulled up stakes on Catalina Island spent three months camping across country before landing in Boston for a one-year sabbatical at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The plan was to return to Southern California after one year and continue our work with IVCF.
32 years later, we’re pulling up stakes again. Only God knew then that one year would eventually become 32 and that we’d have incredible ministry opportunities and develop lifelong treasured friends in this beautiful part of the country.
And so we trust Him for what lies ahead. We know He goes before us. And we know He will meet the people we find hardest to leave, especially those who are in very difficult situations with health or family issues. How good to know that He is sovereign over all.
All praise is His.
The last vestiges of a beautiful sunset over Forest Home.