The Best Main Plans

We'll be at the airport preparing for the long journey to Moldova in about 44 hours and there's lots I should be doing.
But I'm not.
Sometimes God steps in and reminds us that He'll work things out...and He'll also direct us where we're needed.

A couple of days before Christmas, the 19 year old son of some very close friends died.
It is a tragic situation the circumstances of which need not be borne out here.

But we heard God calling and reminding us that our bags would get packed, we'd remember our passports, and Shell could handle any minor household emergencies we didn't plan for before we left..

Right now we had to put those preparations aside, we're needed elsewhere...with our friends in their grief.

Death, especially the unexpected death of a teenager, requires so much of us, not only emotionally and physically, but answering all the questions, filling out all the paper work, figuring out what to do with family and friends... planning a funeral you prayed you'd never live to see.

So we've tried to be there and do whatever we could.

The funeral is planned.

Gordon will preside, I've written and will try to deliver a eulogy...Amy will sing. We've tried to remove some of the unthinkable burden from our friends. In between we've hugged a lot of people, prayed with a lot of people, and cried with a lot of people.

I don't know if we've done all we could, but I'm reminded that oftentimes in situations such as this the best approach is, "Don't just do something, stand there!"

Simply "being there" is often far more comfort than any words or action.

About 19 hours after Amy sings our friend's son into the grave, we will board a plane with the partial intent of bringing hope to children in a very far away land.

We'll be on that plane, but we pray that before we leave we will have helped re-plant a few seeds of hope here too.