To begin the final newsletter of 2025, I reflect back to Greg’s words in this very newsletter exactly one year ago that led up to our “Milestones” theme of this past year.

You probably are familiar with the term, “The passing of the mantle”. The term originates in I Kings when Elijah passes his mantle to Elisha. This “mantle” was a cloak with powerful symbolic meaning. With the passing of the mantle, Elijah was passing his prophetic authority and mission to Elisha before he was to be taken to Heaven.

A single event in time. An event in which the outcome was good in a snapshot in time. A life was saved and a deviation in the course of someone’s life is changed for the better.

Joe was excited! He had finally earned enough days off to take a real vacation and had scrimped and saved for years to do so.

India has a population of 1.4 billion, making it the most populated country on earth. But a more important statistic puts the poverty level at close to 100 million people. And the term poverty means something entirely different in India than it does here.

What is Judith’s miracle?

It certainly had nothing to do with her early childhood. She didn’t experience anything miraculous there.

In celebration of 25 years of serving the fatherless, we would certainly be remiss if we failed to celebrate the work of one particular man in a faraway place; where the children he serves truly have no other hope. A place where a single man has saved the lives of countless children and forever changed the lives of many thousands.

Responsibilities. Some are inherently tethered to us all as individuals. Others seem to drift about with no clear “owner” until knowledge and opportunity inevitably tie them to an individual or a collection of individuals. Once you know, you know.

Some things are just fragile.

Butterflies are fragile. Most things made of glass are fragile. And sometimes even countries are fragile.

Mack pumped the gas pedal of his old chevy, turned the key and muttered “c’mon ol girl” under his breath. The engine turned over slowly in the freezing night air, but it fired and then sputtered to life, billowing blue smoke from the dual exhaust.

In Revelation 3:15, Jesus tells the church in Laodicea that they are neither hot nor cold and that because they are lukewarm, He will spit them out of His mouth. He goes on to say that while they believe they are rich and have prospered, needing nothing, that actually they are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.”

The elderly man stopped at a switchback on the trail and looked down the hill at his grandson who was just rounding the last switchback on the steep and rocky trail. Even from where he stood, he could see the fatigue on the troubled teen’s face and saw that he was sweating profusely; despite the cool, morning, mountain air.

The man had shown up early to the potluck. It happened to be the very first time he had attended the church and therefore he hadn’t been prepared for the gathering and was a little more than hesitant to attend because he had brought nothing to contribute.

There is a tree at the top of the hill on our driveway. It was planted the same year we built our house, more than twenty years ago. It is tall and full and a very dark and vibrant green. The picture of health as trees go.

Funny thing about gardens. Something is going to grow there. Really, it’s up to the gardener and what is planted and what is culled as to what the garden produces in the end.