Tuesday 5/11/10 update

I promised Rob to send you an update tonight. It is still “tonight” Victoria time. We just finished watching the Canucks get bumped off by Chicago on US TV. I am sure many in our town are in the dumps as a result, though probably not a lot of GBC people.

Just a word about the graduation ceremonies on Saturday:

The ceremony itself is most interesting to those who know the individuals involved. In some ways, it can be a rather dull affair. When I was a student, I was required to attend and found it usually hopelessly tedious. (Of course, I was young and immature.) The ceremony certainly is a milestone and college graduation is worth marking with a ceremony.

In the BJU graduation, graduating students are given the opportunity to give testimonies. Rory was one of the ones selected, following in Susan’s footsteps from two years ago. Rory’s testimony was vintage Rory. If you recall his sermons in our church, you would appreciate the fact that he took the chance to give a gospel invitation to those listening. We may get a DVD of the event later, so we’ll try to let you see that part of it for yourselves.

We do have some video shot after the graduation when graduates and their families and friends mill about on the BJU lawns and take pictures. I’ll put a few pictures below, the video will have to wait for later. (Amazing, editing video takes time!) Included will be some shots of Elena and her kids. For our newer folks, Elena is a former member of our church who went off to BJU and married a fellow down here. Her kids are cute! (We keep lobbying them to move to Victoria!)

Here are some pics:

On Sunday, we went to church in Greenville in the morning. The church is one some of our kids attend while at BJU, pastored by a friend of mine from my seminary days. We heard a fine message and got to see several old friends.

In the evening, we went to a church in Gaffney, SC (about an hour away) pastored by my former English professor. His wife was my freshman speech teacher and was also Cullen’s speech teacher this year. Cullen has been helping out at this church this semester and Rory will be helping out this summer, Lord willing. This church is quite small. It reminds us of home. One of the older members of this church was part of a church I worked with 30 years ago in the area. It was a great blessing to see him.

Monday we spent running around with errands and traveling to Knoxville, where we are staying in Debbi’s mom’s old house. Today we went to Cades Cove, a unique region now in a US National Park, but once home to many early settlers. Many of their old buildings are preserved including three old churches. We videoed parts of this and will put that up later also, including some pictures of ‘bars’ (bears) and a wild turkey.

That brings us up to date. As soon as I get some time, I’ll get busy editing those videos for you.

Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3