Dear Fellow Children of God,
Last week was a week of re-connecting with long time
friends (Notice I said “long time” not “old”.).
On Thursday and Friday, my oldest son, Josh, and I went fishing with
John Webb and his son, Scott. John and I
haven’t seen each other since high school graduation day, 1971, but we
re-connected through Facebook because of our 40th high school
reunion last year. (See pictures below.)
Then, on Sunday right after church I got to spend 15
minutes with Dave and Peggy Adler. Peggy
and I began college together in Austin, TX, in 1971 and Dave joined us in 1972
and graduated with me from seminary in 1979.
They were on an Alaska cruise tour and as they traveled on a bus from
Denali to Seward their bus stopped for lunch at Settlers’ Bay. (See picture below.)
Finally on Monday I got to fish with Ron Hawkins. Ron and Deb were members of St. John years
ago, but they have lived outside for the last 10 years or so, and now they live
in the Las Vegas area. Ron and I have
been fishing buddies for a long time, but it has been a couple of years since
we had the opportunity to fish. We also
took along a friend of my daughter, Kevin Neyhard, who teaches with her in
Chevak. While the silvers were few and
far between, Kevin caught his first salmon that day, and quite a few others. Ron
and I had the opportunity to re-connect. (See pictures below.)
Friends
are a real gift of God. As we are told
in Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity.” A friend is a joy in good times and a help and strength
in times of trial. As one of our Fellowship
Board members said in our meeting last night, “God created us for relationships, not to live alone.” We not only rejoice to have friends, but we want
to be good friends to others, though as sinful people, no friend is perfect.
We do have a perfect friend, however. In John 15 Jesus tells us “13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.” We can always count on Jesus. He is not just there to comfort us in times
of adversity He laid down His life to take away our sins.
What a gift to have friends, people who help us
enjoy God’s blessings in the good times and help us through adversity. What a gift that God has lowered Himself so
that Jesus is the one friend on whom we can count, one who laid down His life
for us.
A Child of God, Blessed with Friends!
Pastor Jonathan
P.S. Here is a
picture of Jonathan with long time friend, John Webb. https://picasaweb.google.com/114993745799525883148/LongTimeFriendsAndFishingAdventuresJuly2012#5772524224095271298
P.P.S. Here is a
picture of Jonathan with classmates Dave and Peggy Adler. https://picasaweb.google.com/114993745799525883148/LongTimeFriendsAndFishingAdventuresJuly2012#5772525263939071778
P.P.S. Here is a
picture of Kevin Neyhard from the July 30 fishing trip. Pictures of Ron Hawkins to follow. https://picasaweb.google.com/114993745799525883148/LongTimeFriendsAndFishingAdventuresJuly2012#5772525534776378690
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ABOUT ‘THOUGHTS
FROM THE PASTOR’ - I am sending these e-mail messages, hopefully
weekly, to all St. John members and friends whose e-mails I have. (I am
always adding new names of friends and members – in case you are just receiving
this e-mail for the first time.) However, if you don’t want to receive
this e-mail, please let me know, and I’ll gladly leave your name off my list
for this message. . . Or, if you know someone who would like to receive one
of these e-mails, please send me their
e-mail address.
****
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