This year our family finally graduated to the 15 passenger van. It’s less cozy than a suburban, but it means we can sing and read as a family (and keep the peace quite nicely). In the picture above, Jubilee reads to Faith Evangeline.

Each week after the meeting of the church, our families gather for a fellowship meal. After lunch, the families visit and talk, and sometimes the children catch grasshoppers as in the pictures above and below. The meeting house of our local church is way off the beaten path in the deep country (as deep as it gets in Texas), but the view sure is easy on the eyes. In fact, we are just a few hundred yards from the river where I sometimes have the privilege of performing baptisms, like the blessed baptism of Justin Turley which we had two Sunday’s ago.

This month is the fifth year anniversary since our fellowship began to meet. After more than three years of the local church meeting in a home (with often 200 people packed in on a Sunday), God was kind to give us a little ancient church building in the country. It’s mighty cozy but we love it. No speakers or microphones are needed, but my favorite part of the country church building is that there is a rope hanging from the bell tower which drapes down into the sanctuary. We usually let a different young person ring the bell at the beginning of the church meeting. From our initial fellowship, three other fellowships have blossomed ministering to about 750 people in all. How I thank God for the local church and for the blessing of being in covenant with God’s people.