Today was a pleasant surprise for someone from Florida like me. The temperature rose to a pleasant 60 degrees. The fall tree colors are beautiful right now. So, I don’t even have to go to North Carolina to see the fall display of leaves. The birch trees are my favorite. Now, they are golden in color. Looking over the forest land, I can see where the birch trees are amidst the pines and the spruce. In the summer, they all blend together in unified green. But now, the birches show their location by their distinctive golden leaves. There is even additional variation provided by the birch later on toward winter. When the leaves finally fall, the limbs will show off a distinctive purple shimmer. Look for it - but I guess I will just have to tell you about it when that becomes visible here.

Now, three days later and the temperature has dropped to 23 degrees. Frost is on the grass all over this hillside. It will disappear later under the morning sun. Yes, winter is on its way. But, never fear – I have the winter studded tires in the back trunk of that Mercedes station wagon. I am ready to put them on the car when the snow starts to falls. Summer tires don’t do very well on a snow covered road.

Today was Church day and there were about 30 people here in the Church. That is about 20% of the people living in this little village. The great part is that there are many active young families with children involved in the Church programs. What a job I have! The key Elders run the show. They have at least 4 young people and children’s groups meeting each week, that I know about. There are more groups if you count the young people’s meetings in Churches in surrounding villages. They only ask me to lead Bible study for the adult Church. This I do mostly from the pulpit and but always in English. I have a good translator who encoding my words into proper Swedish.

I am so happy that the core people of the Church family have taken up reading the monthly Bible Reading Guide list that I had suggested last year. Each month a new list is published. If followed, it allows one to read completely through the Bible in one year. Sometimes, I purposely select one of those assignments for Sunday morning study. It encourages reading at home. But more than that, it forces one to read some books one hardly ever reads – like the book of Obadiah or Haggai. I chose the Blended sequence listed by the Back To The Bible people found at http://www.backtothebible.org/brg/12.html Try it, you might like it! I have used it for years.

This morning the Church and I were looking at the passage in Mark Chapter 5 in which Jesus had a conversation with a rather desperate lady. One thing occurred to me, after this dialogue unfolded; We do not have record of whether this woman ever thanked Jesus for her healing. Maybe the pressure of getting to the next candidate for healing rushed Jesus from the scene. But I know He appreciates our thanksgiving. He responded positively to the one leper who found his way back to thank Him for his healing. He appreciated Mary’s gesture of thanksgiving evidenced by anointing His feet with costly perfume. Maybe there is a time that we need to turn and once again just thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the Salvation He granted to us. We did that in our little Church in Gunnarn, Sweden. It might nor but according to Swedish protocol, but we said it right out loud – softly. “Thank you Jesus.” He heard us as He always hears.

Continue to pray that the right and proper car will impact my way soon. All is set, as money has been transferred for it. I just haven’t seen the car itself, yet.

In Christ,
George Wilson