Our family at the Grand Canyon on our way out to a family reunion in the Southern California desert.
Tragedy: As many of you know, we had plans to be in Northern California on vacation in late June. We had plans to see dear, valued friends in San Francisco and even take a behind the scenes tour of Pixar studios. But as we were packing at EB’s mom’s house on the central Kansas prairie, we received a phone call that changed everything.
The son of EB’s cousin, who just finished his freshman year at the University of Kansas, had hours before taken his own life in Topeka. Within minutes of learning the news, EB and her mom were in the car heading to Topeka.
EB and her mom’s love for this family, along with their faith and cool way of thinking, providing an invaluable service to the shocked, grieving family. EB and her mom received visitors on behalf of the family, prepared meals and made many of the decisions regarding the funeral that are just too difficult to make for a shocked family. God chose to use EB and her mom to provide faith and comfort in the midst of a tragedy.
On another note: You may have heard of this “pastor” Phelps of a cult-like church in Topeka who has his parishioners picketing funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. Phelps had his cronies picket the funeral of EB’s cousin’s son. The father is a prominent judge in Topeka who had executed some search warrants on the Phelps family and sure enough, when the Phelps found out about the death, they picketed the funeral.
Chaos: Even though we nixed the Northern California part of our journey, we made it out to a week-long reunion for EB’s immediate family in the desert of Southern California, where on the coolest day the high was 108. EB’s sister and her husband (Lewis and Barbara Winkler) are moving next month to Singapore. Lewis has just finished his theological doctorate and will be teaching at a Campus Crusade for Christ seminary in Singapore.
In the midst of our Southern California week our Elizabeth was scheduled to go to Uganda for July on a missions project. She was to leave from LA and meet her team in Washington DC. The day before her flight she asks, “Where is my passport?” Less than 2 hours later she was on a flight back from Palm Springs to Wichita where someone was to meet her after ferrying her passport from EB’s mom’s house.
Elizabeth made it out of the Palm Springs airport fine but her connecting flight to Wichita from Phoenix was cancelled. My 15 year old daughter had to spend the night alone in the Phoenix airport. I almost made the 4 hour drive to Phoenix at 9pm that night but the airline assured me she was under their safe protection.
The next day I had to press hard to make sure she was on the first flight to Wichita even though American West at first said there was no room. Elizabeth did get to Wichita, secured her passport, flew to Chicago and then to London, all unescorted, and in London she met her team. She then flew with them to Uganda. We have heard briefly from Elizabeth that she and her team are all safe and sound and where they should be in Uganda. For three straight nights Elizabeth slept either at an airport or on an airplane.
The day we realized Elizabeth’s passport was in Kansas, I was on the phone for 6 hours and for another 3 hours the second day, trying to find a solution to Elizabeth’s dilemma. For Elizabeth, it was a baptism by fire into missions and a guarantee she will never forget her passport again!
In the midst of vacation: It was good to be with EB’s family in Southern California for a week in spite of the difficulties. Now I am back in Denver with two of our Polish staff. We are beginning an arduous and faith-filled process of setting up networks between Denver and Kansas City for our Polish staff. We really need the Lord to act in a way that is now unseen. On July 13th our family is on a plane back to Budapest. We will spend a long weekend at home in Budapest and then go to a 2 week Campus Crusade evangelistic outreach in Macedonia, just north of the country of Greece. We see Elizabeth again after we return to Budapest from Macedonia.
Please pray for the grieving family who suffered such loss in Topeka, for Lewis and Barbara Winkler moving to Singapore, our Elizabeth in Uganda and for my time developing support networks with our Polish staff.
EB sends her love; thank you for standing with us in ministry. The Lord is good to us!
