Yesterday we left the house at 7:45 am and drove 106 miles north to Burlington, WA in the beautiful Skagit Valley. Jim Shaw is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church. We were there to speak in the morning service and then after a potluck lunch. The church has been one of the most active over the years in supporting us, sending cards, letters and notes. So we were glad to be going to re-connect and report.

Attendance was small, but people were enthusiastic. The music team had three guitars, a piano, a violin and a cello, plus singers. You don’t see cellos in church every morning. It was a blessing to be able to share what we’d been doing and what is on our hearts to go back to Puebla and do. We’re trying to work on really getting people to think about what they could do with us in Mexico. At least people seemed to be listening closely!

The big attention-grabber was that they had had a fire in the men’s bathroom a week-and-a-half before. It was apparently a cigarette left in the garbage that smoldered and smoked and filled the bathroom and church with smoke. Providentially the bathroom door was closed (always a good idea, under any circumstances!) and the damage was limited to the bathroom, which is now being remodeled. So God was merciful and kept the church from a huge loss. Beside that, the building goes back to 1898 (and 1910) and is a traditional white, steepled structure with nice old stained glass windows.

There were lots of kids and young families at the church, including a college classmate of Tim’s, Shelley (Mordhorst) Struiksma (and her husband, Andy and four cute kids). Up there in the northwestern part of Washington you’re in Scandinavian dairy country! Lot’s of little blond children running around!

We drove back down in the late afternoon, passing by Qwest Field as the mediocre Seahawks were completing a comeback win over the even-worse-than-mediocre Lions. We beat the post-game traffic!

Thanks, to Faith Baptist!