To: FBCF Church Family

From: Pastor Bill

Monday, June 13, 2022

Hi Folks!  Yes, it is good to be home, but it sure was good to get away too!  Becky & I had a great time going to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole (the Grand Tetons).  It was a great opportunity to be amazed at the wonders of evolution (just kidding).  Seriously, the diversity of God’s creation is simply awesome!  From the central plains to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota to Devil’s Tower to the geysers and springs and pools and boiling mud and waterfalls and mountains and valleys of Yellowstone to Jenny Lake and Signal Mountain giving view to the Grand Tetons, back to the warm and friendly Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, God has shown that He is obviously a creative God with more imagination than we can imagine.  And then there is the wildlife!  We saw bison, antelope, deer, elk, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep.  I guess the highlights were (including their newborns) about 10 moose and 14 bear!  (And to be honest, yes, we were at times shuffling along with a pack of idiots, getting closer than we should have been.)

And to be honest on another point, it was a needed getaway.  This past six months has been tiring, for our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, have been active in our church family.  We have brothers and sisters in Christ that have been struggling with a number of things, more or less serious, and with more or less success in seeking to line up their life with their beliefs.  (We just studied in Sunday School the Romans 7 passage that talks about doing the things we do not want to do and not doing the things we do want to do.  Augh!)

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not complaining.  Trying to help in these situations is what all of us in a church family are called to do.  And this does not make us a bad church, just a real church where people are struggling to live out the faith they claim.  But the only Sunday I had missed since I had covid in January was when I was speaking in Nicaragua, so I had simply gotten weary and needed some time with just God and His creation and my beautiful best friend. 

Now it is back to work.  Now it is back to us praying for the Camp LeJeune team.  Now it is back to all of us being faithful in Sunday School and church and our Wednesday night Elective and the Upstream Nights.  Now it is back to all of us looking around to see who might be struggling and then offering love and support.

Thanks to everyone, especially Pastors Rick and Larry for filling in while I was away.  I know they were a blessing and I so appreciate them and everyone else who stepped in.  And thanks to all of you who make up a church family that we really did want to come back to!

God bless!  See you Wednesday night as we study 1-2-3 John, and then Sunday as we celebrate Father’s Day!

In Him,

Pastor Bill