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Family Road Trip

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          Salvador, Bahia, is about a 15 hour drive from João Pessoa. Each year the churches in that state get together for worship, and this year they invited me to speak on the theme: The Family at the Foot of the Cross. Since these are the last few days Lydia will be with us before going to college in Knoxville, we decided to cram our family in a car for endless hours for a road trip – it sounded like a good idea at the time. Playing, arguing, joking, pestering, laughing, reading, sleeping, getting lost, the family doing this all together – maybe it was a good idea, and the kids got to see the city of Salvador for the first time.
          There were over 500 present for the all day meeting. No one complained that I preached 15 minutes overtime. Morning worship, lunch together, fellowship and fun in the afternoon, we got to see brothers and sisters we haven’t seen in years. I had people share their difficult family situations and tell me that they felt encouraged to keep trying to bring their families to Christ.
          On the way home we took a detour and visited a national park, Chapada Diamantina – beautiful. We hiked trails, climbed rocks, went through a cave, and swam in a cold waterfall, appreciating God’s creation. We made it home exhausted, but happy.



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