After the morning Liturgy today, the adult members of St. Michael's, where Dick sings in the choir, gathered to hear about our "missionary adventures"! The pastors had invited us to give a talk, to tell something about our work as missionaries.

First reading today: The Valley of Dry Bones, Ez. 37. "Can these bones live?" God Himself breathed life into them. As He breathed life into the dry bones of our marriage, family and vocation, when we had lost all hope, in 1970.

Gospel today: "Lazarus, COME FORTH!" The man, dead 4 days, was given new life, as our dreams and hopes, dead, came to life, stronger than ever, when the Holy Spirit breathed on us. "Unbind him and set him free." And so He did to us, and sent us on our way, missionaries again, effective this time.

And that new life, that fire, is still burning. By the time we finished filling 30 short minutes this morning, with the story of the Lord's great work in our lives, and how He sent us back to work after that, how MANY dry bones came to life, how many lives were transformed. "Not to us, not to us, the glory, but to Your Name." Whenever people start to OOOo and Ahhh about the missionary work, I just quote John, when he and Peter went fishing after the Resurrection. Seeing a man on the shore, he said, "It's THE LORD!!!" Peter, impulsively jumping out of the boat and heading for the Lord, that's us. Since they wanted us both to give the talk and wanted to hear some of Dick's songs, I gave the talk, since only one of us can sing.

Dick took some of his recordings to give away. Donations go to the orphans the church supports in Tanzania. I took photos of our children and their families, a scrapbook of photos of work in Mexico, and the delightful sculpture of two dancers a daughter in law gave us, sort of a symbol of our 52 years together, 48 in missionary work, here or abroad. But always dancing together, loving life, and answering questions with the one answer: "IT'S THE LORD!!"