Good-byes

Hi All,
I am sorry that I didn't post anything last Friday. Several things came up all at once and I was feeling overwhelmed so I decided to take a week off from writing or doing a video. I hope you don't mind.

Last Friday Robert and I attended a going away party for The Poit family. It was hosted by some very good friends Jim and Ramona Case at their lovely home in Fullerton. It was an emotional event because Jim and Linda Poit came all the way from Michigan to work with Robert and I at the Crystal Cathedral right after my husband was installed as the senior pastor in 2006. Jim was the Executive Pastor and Linda worked in the education department under Robert's sister. Shortly after we left they were both let go. Wrapped up in saying good-bye to them is yet another reminder that our dreams of building the church through a great future have vanished. A very difficult thing to accept, even now, nearly a year later.

Saturday was the 4th of July and most of our kids were here. Christina came down from Hermosa Beach. Anthony still lives here until tomorrow and Bobby and Hannah are staying with us until their escrow closes on their new home in Orange. Only Angie and Chris were missing. We had a nice day at the beach and then watched the fireworks as they exploded alongside the reflection of a full moon over the Pacific Ocean. A day of taking stock of our freedom and independence enjoyed in this great nation.

Sunday Robert and I went to church and then that evening we officiated a memorial service that took place on a boat out of Newport Harbor here in South Orange County. The service was for Joseph Purcilly, USMC retired major; a great patriot and also a friend. I grew up with his daughter, D'Anne and she and I are still friends today. It was a very touching service and appropriately held on July 5. I lost my dad when I was just thirteen so in many ways it is surreal for me to experience so many of my friends now losing their dads to illness and old age. Time and again I ask myself if it is more difficult to lose someone suddenly when they are young or if it is worse to lose them to an illness as they get older. I have spent many hours pondering this question and I have not come up with an answer yet. Part of me says you love people more with every passing day, therefore it is more difficult to lose them as time goes on. Another way I think has to do with the tragedy of losing a young person. How unfair it seems. The whys and the what ifs that our mind tricks us into thinking about. It's a reminder that we need to appreciate each and every day and we need to tell our loved ones that we love them every day. Each day is truly a gift from God.

Monday, at the crack of dawn I left on an airplane bound for NYC. I used some of my airline miles and accompanied our daughter Christina to New York. She had an audition for a television show and I felt honored that my twenty-three year old wanted her mom along instead of another friend. She told me they would distract her from her work (which they would have!) We had a great two days together.

Today I am planning a going away party for our youngest, Anthony. He leaves for Australia tomorrow where he will be completing a program with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for three months and then another two and a half month mission trip somewhere else on the globe (to be determined when he completes the program) This is a very difficult time for me although I am thrilled for his opportunity and for his gracious and wonderful heart in desiring to serve God this way. He is our youngest and I will miss him terribly!

I decided to share some of myself with all of you in hopes that you can pray for our family as we are still adjusting to our new roles. We did the same thing for so many years. We served many of you and another holiday without our church is another reminder that so much is lost but there is so much to be grateful for and to look forward to. I am coming to grips with "good-bye" and I don't think it's ever easy.

"As they were walking along the road a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of heaven." Luke 9:57-62

Wishing you the peace and understanding of God when you go through your trials and temptations. Keep looking forward, keep looking up. Your friend in Christ, Donna