a reunion and milestone

this weekend, our community of faith, communality, will celebrate ten years.  although a marker at ten years wouldn't seem major, for our little group it is nothing short of a miracle.  we feel like we've not only survived our first decade of experimenting in life together, we've come out the other side with precious wisdom and experience.

personally, we are rejoicing for two reasons.  one, our dear friends the gladdings (sean, rebecca, maggie and seth) are with us from houston.  these dear friends were a part of the beginnings of communality and in their six year absence, we've never been the same.  rebecca and the children arrived tuesday and sean will come in late tonight.  already we've laughed at and lamented many shared memories. 

two, my (sherry) parents will join us for the weekend celebration.  from the start, they have supported our crazy lives as missionaries in this context.  they have prayed for us and often served as sounding boards and sources of comfort during hard times (as have geoff's parents, but they are just so far away and are unable to regularly share in this life with us).  we feel enormous amounts of gratitude for our families and their love.

most of all we give thanks for god's goodness and grace.  as a community, we are a testimony of god's transformation, a broken vessel that somehow still gives glory.  we are thankful for god's provision over the years through many circumstances.  we live with immense gratitude that we were called to participate in god's kingdom work and our lives are immeasurably rich.