Christmas shopping and upcoming U.S. trip

Today we started our Christmas shopping, at least for the kids, at MaxiToys. They are at ages where they are both active and have minds whose development we want to encourage. Our purchases included bouncy balls (purchased on behalf of my inlaws), dinosaurs, play food, paint, books, etc.

Speaking of purchases, I bought airplane tickets to Detroit for next week in order to be at the wedding of Randy Franklin and Barbara Ittel-Payne. I also hope to do some shopping for some supplies on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day each year in the U.S.). Finally, I hope to get to see a number of our friends and ministry partners in that area at the wedding and in some other places too.

The theme at Torrents of Hope tonight was on loving others. Two examplary friendships in the Bible are those of David and Jonathan, as well as Ruth and Naomi. I was struck by Proverbs 27:6--"Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but who can stand before jealousy?" Another version says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend."