A Special Sendoff!

Being a kid is harder these days than when I was a kid many enough years ago. Making tough choices seems to be the norm anymore. Life just doesn't seem to get any easier as time goes by. And making the choice to find God's will for your life is passed by in the lives of too many of our young people. So seeing Daryl make this choice has been special to our family. Many will never know the battles he has gone through to get ready for his trip to the Amazon. It's been clear to us from the start that this experience was God's desire and it was also clear that the Devil intended to keep it from happening. But God has taught Daryl so much already just in preparations and now the time has come for Daryl to leave for boot camp. We will leave in the morning to take Daryl to the Pittsburgh Airport where we will meet up with another "TLCer" before flying to Florida. After a week at boot camp, Daryl will leave with his team for Columbia, South America where they will meet missionary Becky (Cooley) Stence. Daryl will be living on a houseboat and working in various jungle villages. He will return home July 1. Our special church family wanted to give Daryl a sendoff of love and prayer so a special time was set aside in our evening service. Daryl played his guitar and sang a song which he wrote in the past couple of days. I will share the words to his song at the end of this post.

The board members gathered in close and laid their hands on Daryl.
Nevaeh was greatly concerned about Daddy crying.

She kept watching him and patting him though she did not cry herself. I believe she knew that Daddy was praying.

The guy on the left with the shiny head is Jeff Shorts. He is our Minister of Outreach and the Youth Leader here at our church. Jeff led in prayer. The guy on the right with the gray hair is Jerry Ritchey. He is our church treasurer. He and Daryl share many common interests and spend time together whenever they can. Both of these men are very special to Daryl.

Daryl getting up after prayer.
We will share more of Daryl's adventure as it unfolds.

I Give It All To You

I give it all to You
I lay it all upon Your back
I give it all to You
REPEAT
*****
I know that it seems that I'm giving up my dreams
But I'm giving them to You
All of the tears that I cried was my fear from deep inside
I give them all to You
*****
I give it all to You
I lay it all upon Your back
I give it all to You
REPEAT
*****
I give You all my dreams - I give You all my fear
I know just what I need - I give it all to you
I give you all my dreams - I give You all my fear
It's Your grace that's all I need
I give you all of me
*****
I give it all to You
I lay it all upon Your back
I give it all to You
REPEAT
*****
I give my life to You