Emily began to grab her feet with her hands now. Her belly laughter can be easily triggered by gently tickling her tummy or chest. She is so easy to please. A rattle, a book, a prayer lamb, a happy face, or a strange sound will definitely bring smiles to her face. Nathan and Amy came over to see Emily on Monday night. We had roast and played a couple of games after Emily went to bed. It was fun!
We had a busy weekend as usual. Friday morning we got a call from Jerry that his parents’ house/apartment was burnt down. After many calls, David and I took some clothes and went to see them. The roof was gone. The house was full of smoke and ashes. They didn’t sleep at all on Thursday night. David's clothes smelled smoky after he came out of the house. I stayed in the parking lot talking to Jerry’s mom Yunny. For the next two nights, Jerry and his parents stayed with us. They don’t speak much English and they don’t have many friends. So David and I are on call to help them in every way we can. We helped them to come up the property list for the insurance company. Luckily Jerry’s dad had just bought the insurance policy last November. He thanked God for His protection. Jerry’s dad was baptized five years ago when he came to America. But Jerry and Yunny are still searching. Yunny told me later that when she looked at the wild fire eating off everything they had, she cried and prayed to God the first time.
Saturday morning we went to FriendSpeak reader Amanda’s Baptism. Amanda studied with Gail for a while and got closer and closer to God. Finally she decided to be baptized before she goes back to Taiwan in two weeks. After the baptism, we had lunch with the Hargroves, the Millers, and Amanda at Jerry’s parents restaurant across street from church. Saturday night, we had a great time at Kyri and Jeff’s house. We had the Hamburgs and cheesecakes at their backyard. The weather was perfect. Charlie and Emily were so accommodating that their parents enjoyed the conversation very much.
I liked the Sunday sermon a lot (Thanks to David for taking care of Emily so that I could listen to the sermon uninterrupted!) Gordon talked about the “Love Dare” (Philippians 2:5 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”) as he preached on Mat. 5:37-48. The video on forgiveness brought tears into my eyes. The lady in the video said, facing the young murder who killed her 26-year-old son, she saw God standing behind the young man and pleading to her "Will you forgive him?" She made a statement to forgive him. As a mom myself, I couldn't imagine how difficult to do that. But her action and statement changed the young man and changed many people's lives after. After his sermons, two people were baptized that morning (one for each service). Now I got a glimpse of the reason why his church multiplied so fast in Brazil. I wished our Friendspeak readers can hear his messages! Maybe it’s time again for a “come and see” ?!
No comments:
Post a Comment