What a day!

Well, today has offered interesting/encouraging developments along the way (and it isn't over yet!).

First, I had a great time with the class I teach, talking about the concept of being filled with the Spirit, and getting at least some to think about the real possibility that the command of Eph. 5:18-19 holds before them. Kept them all awake, I think.

Then I read two updates from missionaries that were raised up in and sent out by our church in California. One was from a single lady in one of the -stans of Central Asia. As she wrote of the challenges of life in a hostile political environment, she had more to say about the joys of reaching out to people and the embarrassing moments of cross-cultural work than she did about struggle and the hardness of it all (though she has been honest about those matters as well). The other was from a couple laboring in Spain--a post-Christian culture with a Catholic veneer. They have organized a house church and are reaching out in many creative ways to their neighbors. Just reading about a talk J. is giving in a public setting, "Catholic Without Catholicism? Reflections of a 'Separated Brother,'" makes me wish I could be there, and understand Spanish. They are inviting those who come to follow ups in the local coffee house on Sunday afternoon. How cool is that?

Then I got a good dose of encouragement from taking lunch to Dan Knudsen, a student at CU who suffered a spinal injury on a short term missions trip that left him paralyzed, yet still strong in his faith. Ladies from our church prepare lunch for him every Tuesday and Thursday, and while my wife did the preparing, babysitting for our grandson meant I did the taking. Dan isn't feeling great today, but just seeing him, and being around someone facing such challenges with an amazingly positive spirit and trust in God--I am blessed again just thinking about it.

And now I just got a call from a missionary of ours in Peru, telling of the latest ways God has answered prayers to provide for their family in unexpected ways.

A day in the life of a believer looking toward the Lord is never dull!