The heavens declare ...

Sunset over the marsh at North Myrtle Beach SC

19 

Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God, 

    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

    and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words,

    whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth,

    and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun, 

which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, 

and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 

Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

    and its circuit to the end of them,

    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Chance Encounter with a computer bag

This past Sunday as we cleaned up and prepared to leave our meeting space, we noticed a book bag that contained a MacBook Air laptop. Thinking it was left behind by one of our friends, we picked it up for safe keeping.  However, as we looked through the bag for identification, we found none. Philip finally accessed the laptop and discovered the owner by finding an ID on an application. The bag and computer belonged to a first time visitor but we had no contact information for him. Fortunately Mark had given him one of our name cards with our contact information. That particular Sunday we had a full day - lunch with friends, crash at another friend's apartment before going to a local fellowship where Mark was preaching later in the evening. We ended up carrying the bookbag around all day arriving home 13 hours after we first left. And that with no response from the owner. We concluded the next time this happens, we will just leave the bag secured in our meeting space.

However, as always, God's plans are higher than ours and his ways are better than ours. I figured whoever owned the computer would need it for work and would eventually contact us. Indeed. Early Monday morning we discovered​ an email from the owner. He had lost our card with phone numbers but used the BBC website to contact us. He came over to pick up it up Monday afternoon and stayed for about an hour sharing his story. He wants to "return to church" at the encouragement from his younger brother. They have visited another international body but didn't feel comfortable there. According to his words, they liked the atmosphere at BBC. 

We pray that God will use this "chance encounter" to bring them both to the knowledge and faith of JC. 

Isaiah 55:8-10English Standard Version (ESV)

⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

BBC Family

Our family - representing 23 different countries

Annual BBC Retreat

This past weekend, BBC held its annual retreat. We have learned over the past few years, that no matter how much effort and frustration organizing and planning a retreat for the whole body takes, everyone enjoys the time of concentrated fellowship and focused teaching. Our Father blessed the time of teaching with messages on the greatness of JC by looking at various passages in Mark. Our speaker addressed the greatness or supremacy of JC over things like spiritual powers, wrong ideas, creation, trials, and our own unbelief or doubts. We certainly need these reminders. As a part of the application, after the messages we gathered into smaller groups and discussed applications of these topics, including role playing that left us in laughter.

So often BBC reminds us not only of the glory of JC, but also of the beauty of the future when all nations will gather together as one. Attendees represented 13 nations this weekend. One recent Sunday, we had 20 nations represented. Can we do this in SC?

 

Taking our turn with the children

Starting a 2-hour round-trip hike up the mountain

Most of the hikers. One dad with little ones turned around earlier.

Wild cows on the trail

Catching up

What do you do when the day begins with an AQI over 800 and you don't want to go outside? Catch up on blog posts.

Botanical Gardens - a visual feast

Luke 12:27(ESV)

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Ornamental peach tree

Tulips

 

Ornamental Peach Blossoms

Sam & Sarah, visitors from Kenya

 

People Stories - Jacob & Mary

Jacob and Mary came from Kenya to Beijing where he works as the COO of UNICEF. What a blessing to have a couple our age with young adult ‘children’ with whom we can share ‘young adult’ woes. We have enjoyed much fellowship and laughter with this dear brother and sister.

Imagine our joy and surprise when we learned their older son attends Winthrop Univ. - ‘in our neighborhood’, relatively speaking when we consider the distances around the world – they from Kenya, us & his parents living in Beijing, their son in our state less than 2 hours from our home. God’s world is very small indeed.