Catch Up...

I know I keep saying I will do better at this. I really mean it this time!

Things are hopping in River City! We now have a children/youth ministry, we have partnered with a local domestic violence shelter, and we have consecrated a new deacon! There's an energy and excitement I love to see. The church is doing well.

On a personal level, I am not doing as well...

My sister, the middle of the five of we five sisters, passed away a couple of weeks ago. She had been diagnosed with a return of breast  cancer (after ten years' remission) at Christmas. Chemo and radiation didn't slow it much, and she slipped away peacefully, in the arms of her daughters, at home, in her favorite place, with her cat and dog next to her.


This is the sister who taught me to read ("Are You My Mother?" was the book), and all the words to "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and how to bake Mexican wedding cakes. She let me shave  my legs for the first time when I was staying with her, against my mother's wishes, and had me stay with her when she lived in the college dorm. She was nine years older than me, and I thought for a long time that she knew everything I needed to know. Even though we had drifted apart in later years, with living geographically far apart and the busy-ness of life, I treasure the memories of her.

It's been difficult for the family, and will continue to be. I ask prayers for our family as we come to terms with this loss.