I had a recent conversation with an acquaintance who shared her feeling of great loneliness during these months of coronavirus. She lives alone and was used to having a full routine of places to go, things to do, and people to meet with. She said she did not mind the break of routine for the first few months. As a senior adult she has some moderate health risks. She also has a lake house that she can go to when she needs a change of scenery. She does not understand why there has not been an all-out effort to help keep everyone safe with enough medical supplies for our seniors and those who have to go to work every day. She has some friends who are out and about as if nothing is different than before. She worries daily about them. She said the one thing she has learned from this experience is that she is comfortable with herself. By that I take it that while she misses others, she does not mind being alone with herself—she likes who she is as a person. 

I think it is unconscionable what has not taken place to keep the people of this nation safe. Take, for example, the Greatest Generation, a term coined by Tom Brokaw in defining those born in the 1920’s and early 30’s. They suffered the hardships and poverty of the Great Depression yet answered the call to serve and sacrifice for their country during World War 2 and the Korean War. They created the American Dream. Yet today, many are on lockdown in nursing homes and assisted living centers, unable to have their loved ones near them. A full 40% of the COVID deaths in Oklahoma have come from our nursing centers. Our nursing centers are undersupplied in medical equipment and understaffed with nurses, aides, and support personnel. The residents and staff are rarely tested, and only then after someone reports a contact with someone else who tested positive. There should be a great mobilization effort on our part as a tribute to and for the sake of the Greatest Generation and their children. What happened for it to be perfectly acceptable for elected leaders to take no personal responsibility for the health and welfare of our citizens? Waiting for a magic pill or vaccine to make it all go away is not acceptable. The Greatest Generation is having to spend these precious days in enforced loneliness. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. We can do better. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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The whole world is grieving under the weight of the losses of this year. The coronavirus has reached every place on earth except Antarctica. In our country, it is the 3rd leading cause of death, with about 1,000 souls a day. Millions of acres of forests, farms and towns are burning in California, Oregon, and Washington. Hurricanes and repeated flooding threaten even more people. Financial, racial, and political tensions have up-ended families, churches, and communities. So much grief, and no real opportunity to properly mourn together. I came across this poem this week by Maya Angelou, who was raised in Sparks, Arkansas.

When Great Trees Fall 

When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.

Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened. Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away. We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.

And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.  Copyright © 2015 by The Estate of Maya Angelou.

Isaiah reminds us that our Messiah “is a man of sorrows who knows our grief.” By faith I believe that one day we will gather at church again to worship, pray, sing and even share our accumulating grief. Until that day, weary as we have become, we press on, step by step. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. You are a great soul. And let’s experience the love and power of God together while apart.

Bro. Darryl

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If all goes smoothly, the Avery family will arrive in Houston, Texas about 2:30 this Sunday afternoon, September 13^th. They will quarantine in Houston until the end of the month. Kevin’s parents live there, so they will spend much time with them. We talked to the Averys on Sunday evening, which was Monday morning in China. September 7 was Molly’s 13^th birthday. The whole family was recovering from Molly’s birthday sleepover. They are down to the final packing of everything into eight suitcases to bring with them. Everything else they own in Shenyang is being given away. There have been farewell parties, visits with many of the families they have been ministering with, guests from other parts of China, and last-minute work meetings to finish up all the details.

Kevin, Dayna, and the children are scheduled to move to Tulsa around October 1^st. The gracious people of Arrow Heights Baptist Church in Broken Arrow are providing their furnished Mission House for them through the end of the year. This will give them time to find a suitable place to live. Their mission efforts will continue as Kevin assumes the management of the mission organization, Serving Humanity in Crisis (SHIC), headquartered here in Tulsa. Kevin will continue his work in Shenyang through Zoom and other virtual platforms, much as he has done since the pandemic began. He is also negotiating the publication and distribution of his Chinese book, Needs to Be Seen, throughout China. Mission and autism centers in other areas of the world seem interested in his book also. The Averys mission efforts to children with disabilities and their families continues, with just a change of address.

On a personal note, I would like to thank you for your prayers and financial support of our daughter and son-in-law, Dayna and Kevin Avery. Your support for these missionary volunteers has enabled them to touch countless lives for the Lord. And the work they have begun will continue far into the future. In addition to safe and smooth travels, you can pray for Kevin’s health and stamina for the journey. The trip will take them about 35 hours, flying on Delta from Shenyang to Shanghai, then on to Seoul Korea, to Detroit, and finally to Houston. They will be wearing their N95 facemasks and distancing from others as much as possible on the planes and in the airports. By the way, they have a family motto: Averys can do hard things, because nothing is impossible with God.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Know that God provides. And let’s experience the love and power of God together while apart.

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