Dear friends, October 2019
About the time that most of you receive this month’s letter, Claire and I will be with old friends and pro-life colleagues, Dr. Greg Gardner and his wife Grace in Birmingham, England. It will be the first of three bases of operation in a 16-day adventure which will also see us in Cambridge, Manchester, London, and the Manor House at L’Abri in Greatham. Along the way we will be presenting 3 or 4 lectures, several showings at senior citizen facilities of a special British version of our “When Swing Was King” show, and a lot of networking conversations with comrades in the ministry who work with Image, Christian Heritage, and L’Abri. Among those heroes are the Gardners, Ian and Elaine Cooper, Sue Dray, and Christine Fidler who many of you met when she was here in Omaha last November. A bonus blessing is that we will be involved with Christine’s daughter, Deborah, in an outreach that combines old folks and young folks joyfully engaging with one another. That should be terrific.
Nevertheless, as active as the U.K. trip promises to be, our September may have been even busier. For, in addition to a weekend in Denver to attend the 50th reunion of Bear Creek High School’s Class of ’69, we had our regular 11 “When Swing Was King” shows, sessions of prayers and pro-life witness outside the abortion clinic, hosting the Vital Signs Ministries quarterly Board meeting, our regular correspondence and intercession duties, and 10 speaking engagements: 4 adult Sunday School classes and 4 worship service sermons for Wellspring Church in Papillion, a talk Claire and I did together at a staff retreat for Assure Women’s Center, and an address I gave way out west at the annual fundraising banquet for the Ogallala Women’s Resource Center.
Also along the way were visits with friends and family, hosting our book club, lawn work, and getting everything ready for the England trip — studying, planning, and packing. No small task that. Oh yes, we also had to deal with moles in our backyard and a bat in the garage!
But by far the toughest test came when Claire became severely ill less than 2 weeks before we were due to fly to Great Britain. A CT scan revealed it was acute diverticulitis but, because her system is super sensitive to antibiotics, she was very much in danger of having the cure actually be worse than the disease. Well, Claire braved the suffering very well and God’s kindness was poured out in many ways as she endured pain, sleeplessness, nausea, and the anxiety about whether or not she was going to be well enough to travel. She wasn’t given the green light by our physician until the very day before our scheduled flight. Your prayers for a sustained recovery, safety, and all other needed mercies are much appreciated. (One other blessing – Claire was given a clean update on the thyroid test she had taken six months ago. Thank You, Lord.)
So, what’s next?
Vital Signs Ministries Pie Social
Friday, November 8th at 7:00 PM
Converge Church
14515 Harvey Oaks Ave – formerly Harvey Oaks Baptist (Enter through the back door on the west side.)
And please RSVP to Claire by calling or texting (402) 341-8886 or
sending an email to vitalsigns@vitalsignministries.org.
We have a very interesting, fun, and inspiring program that night which will include a brief review of our Great Britain adventure and a preview of our plans for the Christmas season and a couple of brand new ministries we’re developing for seniors.
P.S. Okay, instead of our custom in these postscripts of listing recommendations from the books we’ve been reading, Claire suggested this time around that I quote from a book review of my novel The Christmas Room recently sent to us by one of my fellow BCHS grads who just read it. We hope it might encourage you to kick off your holiday season by reading it (or re-reading it) too. Teresa wrote: “When your book arrived, I told Chuck, ‘I get first dibs on reading it!’ I am more than half way through and it is an amazing read! I am not getting my work done because it is hard for me to put the book down! At the end of each chapter, I tell myself I will just read one more and then one more turns into one more and…Everyone with an aging parent would enjoy and benefit from The Christmas Room!”