THE FRIEND

We sang this hymn in church this morning. Everyone wants a special friend that we can trust to always be our friend regardless of what life hands us. I am happy to have some earthly friends, but the fact that Jesus is my Friend is of untold value to me. I also appreciate the fact that we can share this friend with others; and this morning we wanted especially to help one to receive this Friend.

We mentioned in the last blog that we visited a lady in the hospital as she was passing to the other side, and we attended her wake this week.

The Lord helped us at the wake, and we were honored to meet more of the Indian people who live in Lower Brule. We appreciate the help of missionary friends who served in Lower Brule under the Wesleyan Church. They are now pastoring in Lake Andes, South Dakota; and they called to let us know of this lady's illness and hospitalization. They went ahead and visited the family in the hospital in Sioux Falls, and they told the family that we would be coming. The family was expecting us and accepted us as friends of their friends. These missionary friends and us also attended the wake in the same night, and they introduced us to other people there.

We were pleased when the husband of the lady who passed away came to church this morning, and he tarried for several minutes after church to talk with Ray. He said that he and his wife had been married for 56 years. Both Ray and John had been in the service of our country; so they found much in common. Please pray for John as he passes through this lonely time of grief and loss.

Esther had only a few children in the basement this morning, but they are such lovely children. Several of the children were gone to relative's homes for Thanksgiving and had not yet returned. She is telling them the story of David; and I think we are all gleaning from her studies while she prepares.

Christmas is coming :), and we are hoping to try for a Christmas Program. We are planning to try something that we tried at Ravinia and felt that it was successful: we want to have a three-day mini-VBS during the week before Christmas on Wednesday- Friday to tell them the Christmas Story, and to help them "tune up" for the program on that Saturday night. We are excited, and we are still working on the logistics of this endeavor. Please pray that we will be able to work out the many details of this. We will keep you posted.