{"id":2162,"date":"2013-07-12T07:20:16","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T12:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/?p=2162"},"modified":"2013-07-12T07:20:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T12:20:16","slug":"missionary-family-gathering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2013\/07\/missionary-family-gathering\/","title":{"rendered":"Missionary family gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/singing-shot-from-above-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2164 alignleft\" alt=\"singing- shot from above sm\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/singing-shot-from-above-sm-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/singing-shot-from-above-sm-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/singing-shot-from-above-sm.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I felt \u00a0richly blessed last Saturday evening with conversation and singing with missionary colleagues and children of colleagues at Jeff &amp; Carolyn Stoker&#8217;s house in Vista, CA. \u00a0It was a rich, rich feeling of pleasure being together with a precious family. \u00a0I&#8217;m scrambling to find the words to describe the deep feeling of peace and belonging with this group of people.<\/p>\n<p>We were brought together by the wedding reception for Ron and Krisint (Noren) Burke. \u00a0The festivities were July 5. \u00a0Saturday the 6th we went to the beach with many of those present and in the evening were again hosted for supper by the Stokers. \u00a0Present were missionaries and adult missionary kids (MKs) who have or continue to live serve in Cameroon, the Central African Republic and DR Congo. \u00a0Many knew each other from before, but some had only met recently. \u00a0While some lived and served overseas for many years and others for only a short period of time, yet there is a deep connection between us.<\/p>\n<p>We numbered about 20 of which the adult MKs outnumbered their parents. \u00a0I won&#8217;t try to list everyone present because I&#8217;ll surely forget someone. \u00a0Desiree Bakken and Jeff led us in worship singing numerous songs that spoke to our hearts. \u00a0It brought me back to rich memories of worship with the missionary communities in Congo and Cameroon. \u00a0to lifting up His name.<\/p>\n<p>Of particular pleasure was the conversations with the MKs as I learned where they are now and how God has been at work in their lives. \u00a0 \u00a0These connections made the worship that much sweeter as together we had much to celebrate, much to offer as praise to our Lord.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/singing-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2165\" alt=\"singing- sm\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/singing-sm-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/singing-sm-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/singing-sm.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand?moderation_action=report_form&object_type=post&object_id=2162&width=250&height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I felt \u00a0richly blessed last Saturday evening with conversation and singing with missionary colleagues and children of colleagues at Jeff &amp; Carolyn Stoker&#8217;s house in Vista, CA. \u00a0It was a rich, rich feeling of pleasure being together with a precious family. \u00a0I&#8217;m scrambling to find the words to describe the deep feeling of peace and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Missionary family gathering - Ekstrands in Congo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2013\/07\/missionary-family-gathering\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missionary family gathering - Ekstrands in Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I felt \u00a0richly blessed last Saturday evening with conversation and singing with missionary colleagues and children of colleagues at Jeff &amp; 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