End of Summer Update
Thursday, October 16th, 2008How time flies! Already summer is over, and fall is quickly flying by also. We thought we would post a quick recap of our summer.
We started the summer out by celebrating our 3-year wedding anniversary in June. What a blessed and sweet 3 years these have been! I hope to post photos soon of the 10-day trip we took–partly for business and also back to one of our honeymoon spots, Niagara Falls. On that trip we attended computer conferences in Detroit, Michigan, in Washington, D.C. and in Toronto, Canada. I think the real highlight of our trip was all the drive-time together, during which we were able to spend time talking and praying, and get a more focused vision for the summer.
July and August, amidst busy home and work life, were also busy preaching months. Our dear friend, Brother Gary Birdsong, joined us for a couple of weeks to preach with us at the 4th of July and the Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. We were also able to preach at several local events. We found our preaching this summer to be a mixture of some of the most tender responses we have ever experienced €¦ and the most hostile. Truly, the battle for souls wages on, and the devil knows that his time is short!
Being that it was a bit of a cooler summer than normal, and extremely dry, September was when all the produce from the garden and local fields and orchards came ripe, and it found Jackie busy in the kitchen canning many quarts of tomatoes, peaches and pears. (This year the raccoon or skunk seemed to have stripped the grapevine completely clean just before harvest–so no grape juice this year.) The dehydrator also was kept full, pumping out pear leather from the trees of a generous neighbor who brought us bag after bag of delicious pears (after we had already canned a bushel from the Farmer’s Market). Jackie was certainly thankful for the wonderful strainer that Giampaolo had gifted her with, which made short work of processing all that pear sauce to make the pear leather! Jackie was also blessed to have help from younger sister, Ruth, for 3 days. She made canning 2 ½ bushels of tomatoes and two bushels of peaches seem to go so much more quickly!
And now we are into October and beginning to see cool weather and beautiful fall colors. Over the next month we will be traveling out of town for several work conferences–including a week in San Francisco, California, where we also hope to have opportunity to go to the streets and preach. With the cooler weather coming in, and less work outdoors, Jackie is also gearing up to get busy in the sewing room. Seasons are such a blessing, as God has designed them to be such perfect facilitators of the various responsibilities and tasks that He has given to us. Warm summer weather makes way for outdoor preaching, gardening, and various household projects. Cool fall and winter weather provide more time for updating the web, and the various “indoor” projects–not to mention baking!
We don’t know how many still “keep up with us” through our website, but we would be very glad for any of you who wanted to drop us a “hello” through our contact page.
In Christ,
Paolo & Jackie
