a2f newsletter.

happy thanksgiving from everyone at a2f to y’all.

wishing all of you guys safe travel and a good time with family and friends. one encouragement for this season: be sure to express your gratitude to someone this week. a friend, sibling (😱) but most definitely your parents. gratitude expressed is such a medicine to the soul and i am sure people in your lives would want that injection of joy that simple words of thanks can bring.

it’s been quiet out here. but we did get to welcome daryl and krista to purdue as they joined our international team and welcomed them the only way we know how. incredible caloric intake.

aside from that, one announcement. know not everyone can make it to awc. but for those around the area or interested, we wanted to open up some of the sessions with our guest speaker, cliffe knechtle, on sat (1/3) at our training center. details below.

cheers.

dj.

sunday, 11/30. 12p. 1305 cumberland ave.

worship. time in god’s word. lunch. note the location for this week (at our church building). come join us.

we recently did our devotional through the most famous psalm in the bible, the shepherd’s psalm, psalm 23.

i was struck by the language of leading and following.

god is the one who guides and leads.

our response? to trust and follow.

i was reminded of this story. charles blondin. renowned tightrope walker but get this. his claim to fame? tight-rope walking across the niagara falls. he got so good that he could do it backwards and even blindfolded.

one day he turns to his audience and asks. “is anyone willing to get on my back and come with me?” that same crowd that was cheering raucously the other day? silence. until one hand went up. blondin’s assistant, harry colcord. he’s seen him do it time and time again and he trusted that blondin could do it again.

harry climbs onto blondin’s back and, before they set off, blondin says this, “I need you to listen to me. Move when I move. Stop when I stop. Trust me. And if you do we’ll make it across together…”

and, as the story goes, they made it.

as we think about life, it could feel like you’re about to embark on this tight-rope journey and you look straight down the cliff’s edge and fear floods in. all the possible “what-if’s”. being back at home taking care of my dad, i’ve come face-to-face with that truth.

but i think the most wonderful and reassuring promise we could hear at that moment is that god is with us and that he’s leading us. like blondin, god is saying, “hey get on my back & I will carry you through safely to the other side. i will lead you even through the valley of the shadow of death. trust me.”

indeed, as corrie ten boom, christian author who endured the most grueling valley of the shadow of death through the holocaust, says, “the safest place to be is in the center of god's will.”

until next time.

dj.