Praise the Lord for Roger and Kristin!

Yes, they were married on February 25, 2009 at our home in West Melbourne, FL. Rita had the great joy of designing and crafting most of the decorations. Roger and Kristin were very concerned about the cost of a wedding in today's world. They certainly didn't want to go into more debt over this. We knew the Lord didn't want that either. The whole thing really came together in just a few days and in the end it was a beautiful time of the two immediate families coming together to witness the vows and celebrate the joining together of this man and this woman--the new Mr and Mrs Roger and Kristin Pallatt. They immediately flew to Las Vegas for a couple days of honeymoon. And now they are as we say, such a cute couple! Oh, and in case you are wondering, the total cost was about $900 and that included pretty much everything... the rental of the chapel (which was our transformed living room), pictures, decorations, refreshments, the cake, as well as the pastor to marry them (that was me and I gave them a pretty good discount)...it was great! And just to let you know, Rita said she might be interested in starting a business, "Great Weddings for Under $1,000."

Thoughts

In following a link from a friend on Facebook, I came across a writer for Time magazine by the name of David Van Biema, whose latest article for TIME is entitled, "The New Calvinism." I read the article and would first want to say that it was well-written but had a dash of bite to it--probably just what TIME wanted. Anyway, I wanted to know more about Mr. Van Biema and thanks to the marvel of the internet, immediately found out that he was recently married to another writer (female) in California by a Rabbi. Anyway, the article was so good, and I had another minute so I searched some more and found another of his works this time having to do with Mother Teresa. It was that article that inspired me to reflect a little...
Mother Teresa spent over 60 years doing what I would call, serving the Lord. Over the years like so many others, I have always admired her for her faithfulness and selflessness, two marks of a believer in Jesus Christ, or to simply say, a Christian. But in his article I read of Mother Teresa's clear lack of what I would call, 'real' faith. We can do, do, do, so many things that we would all applaud as good, even extremely good, even sainthood good, but in the end that's not what will matter on our judgement day. Two things...we should never raise a person up too far and our own eyes, but rather leave those ultimate judgements to our Lord; and two, it is never our 'works' but our abiding faith and trust in Jesus Christ that we can live with the assurance and hope of spending eternity with our Lord and even that is a gift from God (better stated in Ephesians 2:8-9). I am thankful for the Holy Spirit... the Comforter in my life that for some reason unknown to me, Mother Teresa apparently didn't have.
Just some thoughts.

Jan-Feb-Mar 2009 Update

Greetings All,
It's halfway through February and I'm finally able to get this out. Normally this would be our first quarter Prayer Letter. Well, it is but rather than coming to you in a usual format, I have decided to make my 3-page annual report serve as my first Prayer Letter of 2009... But here's the catch, despite this being the age of electronic communications, I want to get a little "old school" for this one. All you have to do is request it, with your name and mailing address, and I will mail the report to you.
In any case know that Rita and I are fully into the work of serving the Lord through our mission, our local Christian school and our local church. We are supper-busy but totally working in the strength of the Lord.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement.
Till the next time, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!
-Roy