Last Sunday our church had HIM missionaries Byron and Melissa Manners for a service. It was one of the most fascinating missionary services we've ever been in.
They told about everything from snakes and roaches to rice paddies and the burnings of mirrors and other special furnishings that are believed to scare evil spirits away.
Then we had Manners to our place Tuesday evening for dinner.
We had a wonderful time!
Melissa and I had been at Allegheny Wesleyan College together about 24 years ago.
Sis. Durfee had said of Melissa, "If she marries Byron, she'll go places!"
She did--clear to Taiwan!
And all over America now in deputation services--where silly little giggly children sit on piano benches and try to make the adults laugh for the photo!
Our three youngest children had a ball teasing Byron, who practically rolled around on the floor with them, teasing and tickling back. He reminded us a lot of our former pastor Marvin Mosley
who would get down on the children's level and have a ball with them.
And Danny came out dressed in hair bows.
What a case!
Byron said that the orchid we had on the table, still blooming beautifully six weeks after Valentines Day, was probably from a certain place there in Taiwan that grows many or most of the world's orchids.
Melissa slipped me a little box just before going out the door--with this wall hanging rolled up inside. Only the day before, I had taken down a very old Chinese wall hanging that Jonathan had bought in China about 21 years ago, that was now tearing apart.
So in its place I hung this beautiful new one.
I think a little part of our heart is still in China--and now in Taiwan.
Everywhere there are people to share the gospel with and to lift from their sin and need,
isn't that where our heart ought to be?
It was so refreshing to have this cheerful couple come visit our home. They wanted to see everything they've read about on my blog!!!
And it was so refreshing to listen to people who think, people who are articulate in how they express their beliefs.
One of their heroes had been Albert Barr before he died.
It was just good to have a break from
schooling,
cleaning, laundry,
sewing,
chasing runaway pigs like this one that got out the next day,
and just all the mundane and storm-ridden times of life, when the latest dirt devil blew our sliding board off the swing set and about a hundred feet away out in the pasture.
Just a time to sit and chat with friends and catch up on where people are that I used to know.
It was such a comfort to discuss the students in my graduating class
and in the other classes
who are still following the Lord in a conservative way.
One who graduated with me, Jill Riddle, has gone to be with the Lord, succumbing several years ago to ovarian cancer, leaving behind two little girls.
Her husband has remarried, to Byron Manners' cousin. I'm so thankful their family is happy again with a new mother and new babies already.
There's Andy and Shirleen Troyer, whose family of six children, Melissa said, is outstanding there at the college at AWC.
Beverly Ewing married Neal Weaver, whose family of seven children worked together with Jonathan last year in Florida.
Beth Hamilton married and her entire family of six children perished in a terrible house fire a few years ago, but they are safely home in heaven.
Beth Ann Johnstone married Tom Bennett, who just died of cancer recently but left a good testimony at NIBS, and six children.
I am grateful for the wonderful class and college I was part of, and for how so many are either in heaven already or are still serving the Lord.
Only God knows how the pieces of our lives are going to all fall together.
Lovingly, He stitches pieces together,
weaves the threads of black and gray together with brighter gold and scarlet
to make something beautiful, something good.
And all the glory belongs to Him!
Thank you for this post. Glad to hear of the delightful time you had with the Manners and the encouraging reports they brought.
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