.jpg)
Confession: this picture was taken several years ago. When Neil arrived, his eyes were a bit sunken from the strain of air travel and the exertion and stress of the past 3 weeks of ministry. This picture captures what Neil felt inside when he arrived home.
Neil called me the moment his flight touched down at the Minneapolis airport. The flight from Amsterdam arrived on time, around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. Our friend Anne Crump was waiting to drive him to their home in Hudson, Wisconsin, where they kept his Toyota 4-Runner. As Neil headed west of St. Cloud, he called Gary and Lois Bjorklund to touch bases. They were just 7 miles ahead of him on I94, so they stopped in Sauk Center for a short visit over a soft-serve cone at McDonald's.
By this time, the little girls in our neighborhood, their faces beaming with excitement, had gathered at our house after school, eagerly awaiting Neil's arrival. We huddled around the tracker on my phone, watching Neil's car icon approach, trying to guess how long it would take him to arrive. The youngest, unable to contain her joy, let out a high-pitched shriek when her friend announced Neil's truck was pulling into the driveway. She would have dashed out to greet him in stocking feet if I hadn't insisted she put her shoes on. And so, I found myself in a line, waiting for Neil to get hugs all around, but I was basking in the moment's joy as much as Neil.
Neil then sent the little girls to their yard to play as he took me out on a dinner date. He had begun thinking of hard-shell tacos. Mi Mexico in Morris is a colorful restaurant with good food. It seemed like an invitation had been sent for Neil's friends to arrive. Our former family doctor and his wife were in the booth next to ours, and on the other side was one of Neil's high school classmates. Then, the family who host our Tuesday night Bible study by Cyrus arrived. So we joined them at their table and had a great visit catching up on Neil's events of the last 3 weeks and their adventures while Neil was gone.
Prayer
- Praise you, Lord, for the safe travel, strength, health, and provision for the 2024 Kenya Site Visit.
- Lord, we trust you to be the teacher and counselor for our friends in Kenya. Protect the people, and protect your Word in their hearts. Help them to become more and more like Jesus with each passing day.