Together We Stand

Over the years I have been blessed by the devotionals shared in these books by women all over the world. When I read the profile of each sister, I find a sweet unity, for no matter which country we call home, we all join in using our talents for service to God. We all have so many stories to tell. God has called us individually and provided us with talent, time, and capability to work for Him. He can use us, blended together, to help finish the work so Jesus can come. I relate well to Priscilla, who shares she is getting older and slower.

How often I have uttered those same words, yet she writes that “her budgies . . . keep singing, no matter what!”* Yes, we can be thankful for what we are blessed with each day, no matter what limitations we may have, like Glenda-Mae in her wheelchair, who delights us with her devotionals. God bless her. I smile when I read about Elizabeth and her chimney sweep business. This brings the memory of childhood days when the chimney caught alight and roared so fiercely that I thought my family’s house would burn down.

It was Dad to the rescue, who put a hose down the chimney. What a mess. I have deep admiration for Deborah and her commitment to Sonny.

Your stories have given us much inspiration over the years. Sonia tells us she has driven the school bus for well over thirty years.

That brought vivid memories of when I had my four children to get ready to meet the school bus at a set time. That was easier said than done, and the driver often had to sit a moment while the Welk kids did their morning dash. Sonia also tells us she lives in the rugged but beautiful state of Alaska. It must be picturesque. My husband and I love the rugged places and have traveled much of Australia in our four-by-four and our caravan.

We live on the side of a hill in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges in southeastern Australia. It was once rich, cultivated land but is now well built on.

My friends, wherever you live, or whatever your passion, God bless you and thank you for blessing us with your stories of God’s love and faithfulness! Someday soon, I pray, we will all be living together in the mansions above.

I am really looking forward to meeting you all.

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11, NASB).

Lyn Welk-Sandy

* Priscilla E. Adonis biography, in Covered and Carried, ed. Carolyn Rathbun Sutton (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press®, 2021), 373.