The Neely Team

After a long six months of waiting, the Wilkes Team was finally able to make it   down to North Carolina! The meeting, after  so long, was, on a small scale, what our meeting in  Heaven will surely be like  when we meet all of  our loved ones, and most importantly, our dear Savior! We are thankful for such encouraging, uplifting friends with whom we can fellowship.

  One of the blessings of being around the Wilkes Team is their constant pointing  of everything back to the Lord. In our fast-paced world, it is very easy to take our eyes off Christ and become distracted with temporal cares. They are a living example of the  principle found in Proverbs 3:6 – the command to acknowledge God in everything we do. Even in games, at the table, or just simply laughing over a funny incident, when we are with the Wilkes Team there is almost always a   comment, story, analogy, or special insight that  turns everyone’s hearts and minds back to our all-mighty Creator. What a  desirable testimony to have!

Much of our time during the weekend was spent praying about and planning for NC Family Encouragement Weekend conference,  which will, Lord willing, be taking place near our home on March 26-27. What a blessing it was to give ideas, plan, organize,  and just work together to accomplish the common goal  of getting everything in order for this upcoming ministry opportunity.

One of the fun points of their visit happened rather unexpectedly on Saturday afternoon. Someone came down after looking out our upstairs window and announced that something had been caught in Herman’s live-trap. Several went and looked again, discovering that it  was a cat. Upon  closer observation, it was  realized that we had actually caught a young female bobcat!! We enjoyed looking at it, hearing it growl and snarl a gracious plenty for our liking. A little later, a trapper/friend who sells animal pelts  came and took care of it for us.

  Sunday evening all of the young people worked together to act out a silent  demonstration of Daniel and the Lion’s Den for the parents. Complete with  everything from  nobles, townspeople, a king, the king’s page, soldiers, and even lions, we had a blast and made quite a few side-splittingly-hilarious memories.

We love you, Wilkes Team, and pray God’s richest  blessings on you for your faithful service to Him and  others. Looking forward to many more such times  together!