Newsletters

May 1999

James Edward DeLong

March 29, 1924 – April 11, 1999

I want to thank all of you for praying for my grandpa during his illness. Thank you also for praying for our family. I wanted to share with you a poem that my mom wrote and read at his funeral. 

- Shelly

Shelly and her Grandpa DeLong

My Father’s Tribute

Dad loved to work with wood,

Building things and refinishing furniture.

He could take a broken, ugly, dusty piece of furniture;

He would pick it up and repair the broken pieces,

Strip off the old layers of paint,

Refinish the furniture

To bring out the grain of the wood

To create a beautiful, brand new object

To be a lovely piece of Dad’s workmanship.

To shine in the sunlight

With a beautifully varnished finish

To grace our earthly homes.

In a similar way we are God’s workmanship.

Each of us is beautifully and wonderfully made.

Our lives were broken by sin – ugly, dusty, and dirty.

Jesus picked us up and repaired the broken pieces,

Stripped off the old layers of sin,

Painting our lives by His shed blood,

Refinishing our hearts by forgiving our sins,

To bring out the new grain of our lives

To create in us a beautiful brand new body

To be a lovely piece of God’s workmanship

To shine in God’s light

Until our lives on earth are finished

And we reach our heavenly home.

Mary Ann Remick

Not All Have Heard!

While on our way to Elyria in April, we were listening to Dr. Laura. She has a radio talk show and listeners call in to have her answer their questions of a moral nature. By no means do we agree with all the advice Dr. Laura gives, but we found one call very interesting.

The caller was a young wife and mother of two. She had been raised in an atheistic home and her husband had been raised by parents who claimed no religion. This lady proceeded to tell Dr. Laura that she felt like there was a void in her life and that something was missing. As she looked at her two boys, she felt like they were missing something too. The caller then went on to say that she felt that some Force had to be in control of the universe, that all of creation could not just have happened. She wanted to get involved in a religion, but was not sure how to know which one to investigate.

Isn’t it interesting that here in the United States, where we have so much religious freedom, people still have not heard about Jesus Christ and His desire to have a relationship with each of us? And they often know that something is missing from their lives, but are unable to put their finger on Who that is. What a challenge to each of us to look for opportunities to share with others about Christ’s love and gift of salvation! Never assume that the people you interact with each day have heard the gospel, because this caller shows that many have never heard.

Prayer and Praise

Continue to pray that our support would come in quickly and that we will be able to begin our ministry at the University of Michigan in the fall.

Pray for Shelly’s Grandma as she adjusts to living alone.

Pray for us as we will soon begin  house hunting in Ann Arbor. Right now our plans are to start looking when we have reached 80% of our total support need.

Praise – For a wonderful, encouraging and vision-enhancing time in Michigan.

Praise – God has kept us safe with all of the traveling we have been doing.

Praise – We have been able to schedule appointments almost every day of the week that we are available!

Staff Planning

We enjoyed spending a week in Michigan. We got to meet each day with the staff team as they reviewed last year and began to plan for next year. How exciting it was to be a part of planning for the fall! We spent time praying  together as a team for what God is going to do at the University of Michigan next year. We also met with a Realtor^® and began to talk to him about our coming move which will hopefully happen sometime this summer. The more time we spend in Ann  Arbor, the more we want to be up there before fall!

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