Church of the Open Door

We left Shaun and Pam's on Wednesday to share our burden for France with the people of Church of the Open Door in Connellsville, PA. After a safe, event-free trip, we drove up to the beautiful home of Merl and Bevvy Harbaugh (bottom left photo). They graciously received us into their home, providing a comfortable room for us to rest in and good conversations to refresh us. We weren't in their home for more than 2 minutes before Liz discovered that she had worked at Bob Jones Jr. High at the same time their daughter worked in Bob Jones Academy. Shortly after that we found out that their son-in-law (Bert) and Michael had been on the same Australia Mission Team in 1997. The final connection we made was that their daughter, Stephanie, had married the brother of our good friends Tim and David King. We were floored by the connections.

We left the Harbaugh's house about 20 minutes after we arrived to meet a group from the church for dinner. Ron and Jean Grimm treated us all to a wonderful meal at the Country Club Restaurant. We had a good time getting to know the Harbaugh's, Grimm's, and Baugham's.

We left dinner to get ready to present our ministry to the church. The people were very kind and listened attentively to the presentation even though I had some technical difficulties with the power point. They asked good questions at the end and extended Christian kindness to us in a multitude of ways.

As you can see from the collage, Viviane hit it off with Grant. Although he is a few years her senior, he graciously played with her and kept her laughing. We appreciate the reception we received from the church and look forward to the time when God will allow us to reconnect with them.