It's leaf-turning time in Louisville. The maples in our front yard and along our road are growing from green to golden and red. In the past week, the air has cooled enough in the evening to sleep with the windows open. The call of the whippoorwills on summer nights are gone, replaced by the whisper of the wings of geese, honking low overhead on their fall migration. Yesterday, while on a prayer walk, the autumn colors and air prompted me to sing Pierpont's old hymn,
For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.
I'm still amazed by the privilege of teaching at Southern Seminary. The Lord is at work on this campus. Come and visit Southern if you ever have the opportunity. I was deeply honored to speak in chapel on September 15. I preached from 1 Timothy 4:16 on "The Almost Inevitable Ruin of Every Minister . . . and How to Avoid It." You may hear or download this message from the seminary website at http://www.sbts.edu/resources/audio/Fall2005.php
Caffy's big news is the grand opening of her new website, www.CaffyWhitney.com There you will find a gallery of more than two dozen photos of murals and ceilings she has painted in dining rooms, bedrooms, children's rooms, bathrooms and other places in various homes. The photo here is a sample. Thanks to Andyand especially JanetMcClurg for their development of the website. Caffy is still enjoying her Thursday night class of seminary wives, too.
Laurelen continues her seventh grade classes two days per week, and studying at home the other three days. After about two years away from the piano, she has resumed lessons this fall, and seems to enjoy them more than ever.
I want to express profound gratitude to the Lord for His recent provision for us, and gratitude for those He used as His channels of provision. Ever since our move to Louisville, I have requested prayer in this newsletter about a major water problem. I didn't want to bore you with the details, but it was a costly, ongoing burden. To those of you who prayed for us, thank you so much! The Lord has answered, prompting some brothers in Christ from a church where I've been privileged to preach many times to supply the resolution to the problem. I wasn't even aware that they knew the specifics of our difficulty. Their generosity was the means of one of the most dramatic and memorable answers to prayer we've ever received. May the Lord greatly bless all those He used to pray and to provide.
Now, may I request your prayers again for the completion of the writing project I've been burdened with for a couple of years. Our move to Louisville caused a hiatus in the work, but now I need to return to it with great diligence, with the hope that I can finish in February. In addition, please pray for the completion of some materials on family worship that I hope to send to the printer within the next month.
The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
2 Timothy 4:22