Hanging around Colorado

After Gabbie's graduation, we've stayed in Pueblo, visited a church in Colorado Springs, where I preached last Sunday, and generally just enjoyed family. We're staying at my sister Jacque's house, and I helped her husband Frank set up the old pitcher pump that served as our means of accessing cistern water when we first moved to the farm in 1956. When Dad installed an electric pump and water system in the house, he gave Jacque the pump. She wanted to make a water feature out of it, so that's what took up a couple of days of planning and work for Frank and me to get it going.

Mom at 97.75 years of age...before her operation

Mom was operated on yesterday (May 30) for a skin cancer on her left cheek. It took 10 stitches. When I saw the outcome, I told her that a woman her age has no business getting into barroom brawls. I spoke with her this morning and she says she has no pain. Next big thing on her schedule is to celebrate her 98th birthday on Aug. 17.

Rachel came from Grand Junction (6 hours away) and Joy from Arkansas (12 hrs) to spend a week here at Pueblo. They both left on Wednesday. The night before, when Rachel's daughter, Braewyn, realized that she and Mia,Joy's daughter, would be separated the next day (they're about to turn 6, and are two months apart in age) she had an emotional meltdown. Mia went over to console her distraught cousin and said, "But you'll always be in my heart."

We're here in Pueblo until June 6, when we'll head for Oklahoma for the weekend and from there to Arkansas for a week or so.

Check the album, to which I have just added recent photos, and will try to keep updated every so often.

No more word on the progress of the documents on the house next to the church. I also note there has been a shakeup in the city government since we left, but the Lord knows what is best for His plan and timing. Otherwise, news from the church is encouraging as the various brethren have stepped in to do their part in the ministry. Your prayers are appreciated and important.

And speaking of prayers...Abbie pulled some muscles in her back on the trip over, as she was handling suitcases. This week she picked up Finn, who is solidly built...didn't help her back. She went for a massage, but still has a lot of pain. Will keep you posted on her condition.

We came all the way for this?

As I mentioned in my last post, our plans for this year include an almost-unprecedented 4 months in the States! I think 1980 was the last time we stayed so long. That meant a lot of preparation had to be done to leave persons in charge of various aspects of our lives: our house and the church, principally.

The church has been left in the overall care of José Carlos, helped by Roy (in the English-language services) and Aurélio (in both Portuguese and English). Aurélio and his wife, Sietske, have been missionaries in Muslim Africa (Morrocco, Mauritania and currently, Senegal) for a number of years. Aurélio is from Madeira and they're here for the summer, so they will help house-sit, along with their two children, who are in high school and university in France and will be "home" for two months.

We arrived in the US on May 7 and spent a couple of days with Joy and Mark in Arkansas before driving to Rachel and Chris's house in western Colorado on Saturday and Sunday. Good choice. Guess what? Our trip across the Rocky Mountains on Sunday coincided with a late snow storm! We came for this?

We came over the pass at 25 mph, and saw a lot of cars that were not able to stay on the road, some overturned in the ditch. The highway was closed just after we got through to the other side of the mountains. This was not something we were expecting... I didn't bring any long sleeve shirts and neither of us had a sweater or even a lined jacket. We would have been in trouble if we had gotten stuck up there on the top. The very same thing happened to us a few years ago, but that time it was at night. The good thing this time was that it was in the middle of the day.


We came for this:

The grandkids. Braewyn, Rachel's youngest, will soon be 6. She'll start first grade in the fall, but she is already reading any book she picks up. But actually, we came for this:

Brody, Rachel's oldest graduated from high school yesterday. I'm thankful he didn't run and jump up into my arms like his sister did! The ceremony was outdoors at the football stadium, and we had to be there by 8:00 a.m. The temperature was 31ºF (about -1ºC) when we got up and about 41ºF (5º C) when we got there. Fortunately it was sunny; unfortunately we sat in the shady side of the stands. Br-r-r-r. It was better by the time the ceremony ended about 10:30 and we could go out on the field in the sun.

Rachel's family

All of us together, including Rick and his wife, Margaret, in the dark glasses, who drove over the mountains on Monday, but the roads were clear by then. Rick's daughter, Gabbie graduates next week in Pueblo, back on the east side of the continental divide.

The guys

Travelling again soon
...and a special prayer request

We'll be headed towards Pueblo on the weekend, going through Denver on Sunday. But we're going to have an unplanned stop there for a night, at least, to see Abbie's sister, Emma. Abbie's brother-in-law, Carlton, was taken from Colorado Springs to Denver Monday night for emergency angioplasty on a cerebral aneurism. The operation yesterday went well, according to reports, but he will need care and prayers for a long time. Emma has Parkinson's and had to be take to the Emergency Room because of a seizure at the same time Carlton was being taken to the operating room. Abbie spoke with her after she was released, and we ask your prayers for both of them.

More news as I get a chance to write.