Wednesday, April 25 - 29; Missions Conference, Fairfax Baptist Temple, Virginia

Wednesday the 25th we headed toward Fairfax Baptist Temple in Northern Virginia for their annual Missions Conference. It was the first time in 17 years to be there, and their new facilities are just beautiful. There were eight other missionaries and families there. FBT treated each and every one of us like royalty. The conference was great, the preaching was spot on and the singing was so uplifting. So nice to hear God’s Word in your native tongue. On Thursday evening, Henry’s sister,
Mary, from Lakeland, Florida, had come up and joined us along with niece Kate and Mary Osborne, a family friend. It was good to meet them again.

On Friday evening, Woody and Deane Ferrell came up from North Carolina to see us. They are both in their 80's now and still serving the Lord as fervently as they can. Mrs. Ferrell led me to the Lord back in 1975, so it was especially poignant to see them again. We got lots of pictures.



Friday afternoon we were able to meet Mary again at the Osbornes over in Herndon, VA, for a few hours. That was a good visit catching up on family things. We tried to meet up with the Ferrells on Monday the following week, but just missed them. However, we shall see them in heaven if not here on earth again.

Sunday night at the conference’s end, all the missionaries and families on the platform. Then the church members proceed to come forward, each with a gift and just lavished each of us with all sorts of things. It was so awesome. Sara was able to spend Thursday and Friday in the academy with the third grade, so a bunch of these girls all came giggling up to the platform with a huge bag of gifts just for Sara. They had such fun giving it to her; you should have seen the looks on their faces.
Priceless. Sara said, “Is this all for me?” Then they had a group hug–so sweet. It was really a joyous conference–our cups run over.