Gail and I have been home in Friendswood (TX) since the second week of November.
By the way, happy belated Christmas. We hope your celebration had 3 cups of wonder at the incarnation of Jesus, a cup of joyful fellowship with family and church, a generous scoop of gift-giving, and 1 or more feasts to taste.
But what are Gail and I doing when we’re not at a response site?
(1) Spending Time with Family. Officially we only work for Crisis Response fifty percent of the time. The highest priority in the other fifty percent is connecting with our kids and grandkids – 36 in all. In this holiday season that has included visiting each of the local families, watching grandchildren for office parties and doctor’s appointments, attending Christmas concerts, hosting or contributing to holiday feasts, and doing all kinds of Christmas shopping.
One of our (partial) family gatherings
(2) Spending Time with God. When we’re on a response site, especially during volunteer team weeks, there is not a lot of time for “quiet time.” It’s been good to sit and meditate on the Word and in prayer. I (Bob) prepared a daily verse for Advent focused on “Why Did Jesus Come.” I’ve also continued my blog series on “In Him.” I officiated at a wedding for a young friend and preached a sermon at our home church. This preparing things is really my favorite “quiet time” – spending time in the Word with a purpose.
- By the way, I would love to put you on the mailing list for my blog, which comes out once a week. If you’d like to sign up, just drop me an email (rjdegray@gmail.com) or go to the website (bobdegray.com) and fill out the sign-up form.
(3) Continuing Crisis Response Work. Even from home there are things to do. Gail has several Bible studies (designed for response site small groups) that she is preparing or revising. Both of us are preparing to lead a conference at one of our supporting churches where we will discuss trauma care, lament, and other Crisis Response topics. In January Bob will be going to Florida for one week of working in homes, and in February we will be going to our annual ministry conference in Covington, Louisiana. Then we will probably head back to Florida for a couple of months.
(4) Carrying the Crisis Response mindset into our neighborhood. We’ve had several opportunities to meet needs for our neighbors, and thus begin relationships. For example, we were driving back into our cul-de-sac the other day and we saw a big branch falling from a tree – it had just broken off. The homeowner, a widow of the Muslim faith, was in the yard, and praise God the tree missed her. We helped her cut up and bundle much of the branch and clear the rest from her neighbors driveway. Gail exchanged phone numbers with the her and they agreed to get a tree-trimming estimage for both houses.
The remains of the fallen limb, after cleaning up all the branches
The next day Gail had the opportunity to jumpstart a neighbor’s car. This also led to significant conversation. In fact whenever you have the opportunity to show God’s love to a neighbor, it is an open door to relationship, which can lead to gospel conversations. You don’t have to be part of Crisis Response to do this!
So, bottom line? We stay busy.
Thank you for your support of our ministry by your prayers and your gifts. We are grateful for the opportunity to care for those in need. (If you would like to support Gail and me here is the link to our giving site: Bob and Gail DeGray)