The Neely Team

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11

Graduation… a time to reflect on the abundant goodness of the Lord in the past. A time to evaluate your direction in life in the light of Scripture. A time to set goals and make decisions. A time to commit everything anew to the Lord, knowing that in His perfect sovereignty, He will work it all together for His own glory, and your best good.

By God’s grace, I walked through this door this past Saturday as we celebrated my high school graduation. Many dear friends and family members came to join the festivities, and the Lord gave us a joyful, tremendously encouraging afternoon and evening together.

An oh-so-extra-special blessing was having both grandmothers there, as well as a dear cousin who came all the way from NY at the age of 94 to see her namesake graduate! 

Family shots

Music presentation

Fellowship…  glorious fellowship!

Willing helpers

An emerging tradition – that of doing some shooting after the graduation — turned into a painful, educational, and actually quite hilarious experience. (That 50-caliber beast – an elephant gun for safari hunting that was loaned to us for the occasion – had the audacity to “scope” us!) Needless to say, for the rest of the evening, we sported beautiful cuts and goose eggs.

To God be the glory!

A few weeks ago we were blessed by a brief-but-oh-so-wonderful visit from Nana, Aunt Lisa, and three of our cousins!! They squeezed us in on their route to SC to see one of our other cousins at college, and it was truly a joy to be with them for a few days.

First moments – - spent in catching up

The fellowship continued!

Dad had to work, but we were able to meet him for a picnic lunch at a nearby rest area.

A couple rounds of “Bible Runners” – - and we must give congratulations, reluctant though they be, to the “secret police”! (who almost never win, but through an unusual amount of sneaky perseverance made this game one-of-a-kind!)

One of the biggest highlights of the time together was a late-night cousin prayer meeting in the woods. An excellent suggestion on the part of a certain individual led to a sweet hour of sharing requests with each other around the campfire and then presenting those needs to the Lord. What a privilege to not only have a close bond as family, but also as fellow believers! Praise the Lord! 

Thank you, Nana and Conns, for including us in your trip! May the Lord bless you as you continue to seek Him first, bringing Him glory in every endeavor. We love you!

For several years now we have had the privilege of knowing the Walker family. What a delight it is to watch them grow in numbers and in the Lord, being conformed into His likeness as they seek to pattern their family after the truth of Scripture! A few weeks ago, they invited us over to their home for dinner (which, I must point out, is quite a remarkable undertaking, as not many are brave enough to let twelve people invade them for any length of time. ). Delicious dinner, a to-die-for dessert, time to learn from the Word and sing, and sweet fellowship made a joyful and encouraging evening. Thank you, Walkers, for opening your home, but especially for your love for our Lord! May you continue to let Christ’s light in you shine brightly! (Matt. 5:16)

Have you ever experienced it when the Lord takes a relationship that you have had and gradually deepens it? You may have known this family or individual for years, and yet suddenly you realize there is a strength in the relationship that you never had before. What causes this?  This blessing is the inevitable result of both sides actively seeking and growing closer to the Lord, because as we draw nearer to Him and are more conformed into His likeness, He unifies our hearts with others within His Body, the Church. Our family has seen this happen over the years… among ourselves, esp. in sibling relationships, for one thing. We have also begun to see it worked out in relationships with other families. What a joy it is!!!

A few weekends ago we were blessed to experience this again with a visit from our friends, the Barnes family. We had a load of fun, played hilarious games, made music, put together jigsaw puzzles, blew up our gingerbread houses, and laughed a ton in the process, of course, but the highlight for most of us was the discussions and times of fellowship that were shared. Things the Lord is teaching us, what we are learning from our devotions, favorite passages of Scripture, meaningful insights, prevalent and troublesome issues of today that must be combated with Scripture, and more were shared and discussed. It was a time of exhortation and encouragement, and we came away tremendously refreshed.

And, by the way, our discussions were far too interesting to take the time to jump up and get the camera – - thus the lack of pictures of the afore-mentioned activity!

So, be encouraged if you desire to see a certain relationship in your life brought to a new level. Seek Christ through His Word, pray with diligence – - and watch and see what the Lord will do.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another…” 1 John 1:7

Nineteen years ago, a young couple with two small children moved from their warm home in north Georgia, to the shockingly different territory of southern New Hampshire. During their two-winters-long stay in New England, they experienced vast differences between the sunny south and the much-colder north, not the least of which was the necessity of shoveling two feet of snow off of the car many mornings during the long winter months. They also met some new friends, including one couple who had just had their first child, but who held the unusual belief that they would accept as many children as the Lord saw fit to bless them with. Although this idea seemed a bit radical to the newcomers, the couples were soon good friends, and when their paths diverged fourteen months later and the Lord moved the first couple back south (this time to Texas!), the two families continued to keep in touch via annual Christmas letters and pictures. For several years, this was their only means of communication, and meanwhile, many changes took place in both families. The New Englanders’ family grew until they had nine children, and over the years, the Lord changed the hearts of the other couple and eventually blessed them with a total of ten young “arrows.” (See Psalm 127.) Then, early in 2010, the Lord placed in both families the strong desire to reconnect with each other and renew their friendship.

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This happened around the time of the first North Carolina FEW Conference, and our excitement was unbounded when we received the news that the Wikmans would be making the 1,000+ mile trek (one-way!) to attend the event! Though our time together was short and extremely busy, we were able to reconnect to a small degree, and each of the few times we’ve seen each other since then has only increased our yearning for a longer and more personal visit.

Finally, last week we were blessed with the opportunity to have the Wikmans in our home for a few days. And what a joy it was! Besides the fun and games that went on, we Neelys were incredibly encouraged by seeing the way the Wikmans interacted with each other. Their sweet spirits and self-sacrificing love were very convicting to us as we watched them serve one another with Christ-like love. We observed in amazement as time and time again, an older sibling would drop whatever they were doing to help with a younger one, or Mr. or Mrs. Wikman would willingly give up fellowship time to care for a child, and always with a smile: there was never a word of complaint! They were also always ready to jump in and help with whatever we were doing, whether it was preparing food, washing dishes, or sweeping the floor. It was a tremendous blessing to us just to have them in our home, and we look forward to the next time we can share fellowship with them!

Thank you, Wikmans, for the blessing you were to our family! You have truly “provoked us unto love and to good works.” (Hebrews 10:24) Thank you for being such a wonderful example of Christ-like service and love!! 

We had the privilege of having a friend of ours for dinner last night. Jennifer always brings lots of fun and laughter, and this visit was no different. After supper, we gathered around the table for a rousing time of playing with… empty cups???

We enjoyed this game particularly because it included all ages, encouraged attentiveness between players, and required teamwork to run smoothly. Thank you, Jennifer, for “filling our cups” with your joy and love once again!

The Lord often blesses us with times of refreshment and encouragement as we strive to serve Him in the corner of the world where He has placed us. Like-minded families may seem few and far between, but the refreshment of gatherings is hard to describe! Times like these are what could be termed “recharges.” Just as a battery gets low, our “fellowship meters” often are in need of charging.

We had such a weekend when the Barnes family came for a visit. Puzzles, trampoline, guitar, meaningful conversations, National Ice Cream Day…. it was definitely a weekend not soon to be forgotten!! Thank you, Barnes family, for your joy and love for our Lord!