miles and smiles

...driving many miles across the southland has definitely been worth the while as we meet with friends and family and seek to encourage them to pray for japan and partner with us in the work God will have us do there...

...tonight we shared a wonderful meal in steve and esther's cozy home...thanks again esther for the good eats!...esther and claire grew up together and even i had met esther at a church retreat before claire and i married....small world isn't it?...it had been a while since we saw esther (and our first time spending time w/ steve...even tho he was faithfully sending us sermon tapes from nlmc during our 4 yrs in boston), but thanks to our visit to new life a few weeks ago, God gave us the opp to connect on a deeper level tonight...we're so glad that relationships can pick up where they left off...

...and we got our first chance to play with their beautiful kids, older brother immanuel and younger sis hannah (in pink)...we thank God that they felt immediately comfortable with us....that made our time together more meaningful for us...as you can see, they have their parents' radiant smiles...

...immanuel liked it when i took pictures of him and hannah..right after each shot, he would ask me to show it to him on the cam screen...kids today are so digitally minded w/o even knowing it...remember how when we were growing up, it was hard to even remember the pic by the time it was developed (can't tell you how many one year old rolls of film we threw away)...

...let's all have the mind and heart of Jesus who called infants and children to him, saying: "let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." (luke 18.115-17)....let's not only teach and raise our children (and, in our case, pray for and support our friends who have children), but why don't we also learn from children!