Last week was a memorable week in Texas. Following a Sunday mission emphasis at Nassau Bay in Houston and a few days with Russell’s family in their new home in Waco, we attended the North American Mission Leaders Summit in Dallas where I was recognized with the “Lifetime Service Award.” Pictured making the presentation were […]

In the midst of two weekend engagements in Texas we are experiencing the utmost joy of retirement–time with grandchildren. After eight years in Nashville, our son Russell has returned to his Texas roots, taking a new job in Waco, Texas. Not only was he born in Texas, he and and sister attended Baylor University. Upon […]

The holiday weekend got off to a great start hosting college friends for a cook-out and watching football in the man cave. Having a few weeks at home have given us an opportunity to host friends from the neighborhood, our life group at church and local buddies that go all the way back to high […]

We are grateful for the many significant opportunities God continues to provide for speaking and ministry opportunities. It seems we have constantly been traveling throughout the first three years of retirement; we enjoy the trips and the margin to relish the journey, but often find ourselves wondering what life would be like if we were […]

Vacations have always been somewhat of an enigma to me. On the occasions we were able to get away from work responsibilities for a few days, vacation time was usually seizing a rare opportunity to visit with family. The few times we went to the beach or mountains were never real escapes from the emergency […]

Following the Moldovan missionary conference we began an alpine vacation with a couple of days in Garmisch, the heart of Bavarian country. Staying in a quaint bed and breakfast we relaxed strolling the narrow pedestrian-only thoroughfares lined with shops, side-walk cafes and cascading flowers from every window box and balcony. Unbeknownst to us we arrived […]

Last week Bobbye and I were privileged to be a part of one of the most inspirational conferences we have experienced in a long time. Sponsored by a partnership with the North Carolina Convention, the missionaries sent out by the Union of Baptist Churches in Moldova gathered for a missionary conference for the first time […]

My role as director of the Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies at Columbia International University is essentially a virtual role of program-planning, marketing and networking. At the heart of the efforts to train and equip missionaries and churches to understand and relate to Muslims is the academic programs in inter-cultural studies at CIU. The University […]

A Sunday afternoon phone call last week informing us that Betty Neasbitt (photo below) had died stirred a flood a memories and emotions as we remembered this dear friend from Sadler, Texas. We immediately threw some things together and jumped into the car, driving well into the night in order to be present for her […]

We were appointed as missionaries to Indonesia in June 1970 and, following an extended time of orientation and visa delay, arrived in March 1971. After a year of language study we moved to our isolated outpost in East Java where for 14 years we raised our children and sought to share the gospel and plant […]