Kathy,

Thanks for your prayers for Gretchen as always.

Yes, a very long time ago, we did return to the small church but that was
well over a year ago; maybe closer to two years ago.  We stayed for several
months but frankly, things got worse instead of better.  This little church
would be ok for me and Sandy but not for our son and his wife or for our
grand kids.  The new place we are going is large enough for all sorts of
youth programs and they have young marriage activities and classes as well.
So I really felt lately the Lord was telling me to find a church for the
rest of the family.  I like this church and the preaching is good and the
people are very friendly.  It will likely encourage Gretchen seeing us there
every week, too.  We are about the only gringoes in the place, or as we are
called now angloes to be politically correct, but that doesn't bother us
any.  The pastor is even spanish.  Well, shoot.  That's the wrong word, too.
If you live in California, it would be Latino.  Denver used to use the word
Latino but then changed to Hispanic.  You do not call Mexicans, Mexicans
here in Denver; you call them Hispanics.  However, we have loads of Mexican
restaurants so I am totally confused.  I'm half German and half English so I
have no idea what that makes me.  Regardless, out of 300 or 400 people,
there are probably a dozen angloes in this church my son said it looked
like.  Man, the music is very good and these people love the Lord and even
with all the drug and alcohol people they are working with, they don't ask
them to pay for their help nor their families; they just trust the Lord.  I
nearly had forgotten what practice what you preach was all about until last
Sunday.  The pastor is 47 years old and leads the worship and plays the
keyboard.  He is an x heroin addict himself from way back.  I have always
wondered why our churches never had any former prostitutes, drug addicts,
alcoholics, homosexuals, lesbians and people like that when I was a kid
growing up.  I saw these types of people in the Bible being born again and
becoming members of the New Testament churches found in the epistles but we
never had testimonies from such people on Sunday nights when we asked for
testimonies so I guess we never had any.  A little tongue in cheek there I
suppose.

Phil.