There’s an old saying that goes something like, “A shared burden is half the burden. A shared joy is twice the joy.” Today, I’m going for the twice the joy part! First of all, after many months of spiritual growth and fearful consideration of “taking the plunge” in baptism, Tom and Josie Matty, who are a part of our Thursday night bible study, rather suddenly decided to go for it and get baptized last Sunday evening. It was a bit hurried and chaotic, but it all came together. What a joy to see new believers declare their faith in Christ alone. What a joy to see the undeniable and unmanufactured joy on their faces that came from the true joy in their hearts. It was great.

It has been a great joy this week to watch all that’s going on with VBS. A great number of you are personally involved in a great number of ways. The number of children coming has been a real blessing and watching the interaction between the children and the many volunteer workers, helpers, and teachers has been greatly encouraging. To this point things have gone quite well. The kids are having a great time and being influenced for Christ. Meeting the parents of many of our visitors has also been a great joy. I would like to sincerely thank all of you who are so invested in serving Christ in this way.

Lastly, I want to share an anticipated joy. In August, the Indiana part of our family is coming in for a visit. It’s always great to see them, but the anticipation is even higher since this will be the first opportunity that most of our family will have to see the newest member of our family, Isaiah Tamrat McDaniel. Marilyn and I got to meet him last February shortly after Joe and Sarah brought him home from Ethiopia. We haven’t seen him since, so we are all looking forward to the joy of getting everybody together again, even if it just for a short time and share some more joy.

See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim