Thessalon Mission Trip Part 1

I am sharing Thessalon with a group of teens from two different congregations this week. I do love coming here; the sky seems bigger.

It was a very busy Lord`s day today with the words of two poems staying with me as the day draws to a close. As we worshiped together this morning the words of a song were especially meaningful to me ( a paraphrase ):

You, the source of every blessing: tune my heart to sing your praise.
Your mercy, like an endless stream should be answered by songs of boisterous joy.
Teach me to adore you as long as I live. May I reflect how good you are with my life as my heart is filled with joy and love.

I hold up Jesus, my only hope. For it is through His blood that I have come this far.
I hope to be delivered home, if it is your gracious will.
Lord, you sought me when I was a wandering stranger,
And you rescued me with your precious blood.

I am more in debt to your grace each day.
Bind my wandering heart to you with your goodness.
Don`t let me wander from you, or leave the God I love.
Here is my heart, O God. Please take and make it yours.

This afternoon the Bailey family gathered to receive friends and church family and mourn the passing of their mother and grandmother, Mabel Bailey. She was a positively regal woman, who had the pleasant dignity of royalty but none of the pretense. She was also simple and common, and unique at the same time. I don`t know anyone quite like her. Her family shared this poem with friends:

Miss Me But Let Me Go

When I come to the end of the road,
and the sun has set for me;
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room,
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little – but not too long,
and not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared;
Miss me but let me go.

For this is a journey that we all must take,
And each must go alone.
It is all a part of the Master’s plan,
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick at heart,
go to the friends we know,
and bury your sorrows in doing good deeds;
Miss me – but let me go.

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