The Fellowship of the Ring: A Tale of Perseverance and Prayer

Welcome back to my blog, where I share my adventures and experiences in retirement. This week was filled with both joys and challenges.

One of the highlights of the week was some great cycling. Tuesday night my friend Mark helped me get my bike ready again after a minor fall the previous week had mis-aligned the brakes and some spokes. I really appreciated his tutoring and help. Over the following two days I then hit the roads for about 35 miles. One of those days was with my sons Brock and Branden, and I really enjoyed being out with them!

In addition to cycling, I spent some time doing yard work and mowing the lawn. These may not be the most exciting activities, but I appreciate having the extra time to take care of these tasks without feeling rushed.

On the church front, I had a planning meeting with some of our area leaders, and it was inspiring to see their dedication to their service. We also had some uplifting worship services on Sunday.

The biggest challenge of the week was when my wife lost her wedding ring. It was a scary and emotional experience, but we had an amazing "fellowship of the ring" to help us in our quest to find it. With the help of friends armed with metal detectors, including our son Branden, we searched for over 24 hours before finally finding it in a pile of clothes that Vivian had set aside to give away.

Lastly, I want to share that our missionary papers have been 100% submitted for over a week now, and we're excited to hear back about our call and assignment. Based on some questions we received from the Missionary department, we know that things are moving. We're expecting to hear back before Memorial Day and leave before the end of the year.

Thank you for reading, and I hope that our experience inspires you to keep going even when the journey seems impossible. As before, here's a collage of pictures from some events of the week. Enjoy and please feel free to share your own stories of perseverance (or anything else) in the comments below.

(l-r)

1. Saturday morning gardening service project

2. The missing ring is found!

3. First time pottery outing