Hello again, dear friends, and hearty  congratulations on finally arriving at Spring!  Let's hope Summer is just around the corner...A very Happy Fathers Day to all the men in the congregation.  Your love, support and Christian example are so important to every child with whom you interact.  May God's grace sustain and guide you in all your dealing with the young.

Sel and I have nothing much to report that is 'new' with our life here.  The weather has been remarkably fine and our music continues to be a great blessing to us and, I am assured, an uplifting experience for our audiences.  We are so grateful for these God-given gifts and opportunities to share it.  Sel is dealing with some new medical issues, so I ask your prayers for him at this time.  We are very much looking forward to our July-August travel plans to visit friends and family in Europe and do a little independent touring, so I ask also for your prayers for us as we venture forth on July 2nd. 

My other 'great' and 'grand' news is that my 2nd great granddaughter, Chloe, will be 'Dedicated' on May 31st.  This is a concept used by my granddaughter's and her husband's Church as a prequel to actual Baptism, which in their practice, comes later in the child's life.  Circumstances here will prevent me from being present, which, as you can imagine, is difficult for me, but that is another of the lessons I am learning about dealing with life on the other side of the world.  On the very happy side, however, my grandson Ryan was in Australia for work with his company, and so I joined him in Sydney on May 15th for a lovely, day-long visit before he returned to the US. 

So now, dear Church Family, here are a few more thoughts for your consideration...

For June:

• "Seldom can the heart be lonely, if it seek a lonelier still; self-forgetting, seeking only emptier cups of love to fill."    Frances Havergal
• "Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."    Charles Dickens
• "Be not simply good; be good for something."    Henry David Thoreau
• "Correction does much, but encouragement does more.  Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower."    Goethe
• "My friends are not perfect--no more than I--and so we suit each other admirably.  It is one of the charitable dispensations of Providence that perfection is not essential to friendship."    Alexander Smith
• (Keep your heart right, even when it is sorely wounded.)  "Lord, may Your healing powers remove all my bitterness and anger.  Give me the strength to face this heartache.  Thank you.  Amen."    Anonymous
• "Some goals are so worthy, it's glorious even to fail."    Anonymous

 

• "All sunny skies would be too bright, all morning hours mean too much light; All laughing days too gay a strain; There must be clouds, and night, and rain, and shut-in days, to make us see the beauty of life's tapestry."    Anonymous

 

• ("Nothing is worth more than this day."  Goethe)  "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."    Psalm 118:24
• "Give your troubles to God; He will be up all night anyway."    Anonymous
• May these be strength when you falter, hope when you doubt, comfort when you weep, and joy when you feel blessed...

 

Always in Prayer With and For You, and please remember to pray for the world's children... Mary