I am new to Ocala, new to Joy Lutheran and new to this blog. What the heck am I doing here on this blog anyway? How did this happen? How did I get to this place in my life to walk into Joy on Christmas last year, all alone, without any connection to any of you? Retirement was new to me. Florida was new to me. Living in an association was new to me. I had worked so hard all my life. I had sold my farm and left my life and all that was dear and familiar to me to come here by myself. It was all so fast, all so difficult, all so new and alone.

The Lord is wonderful! The vine of Christ was at work. That first night I heard such beautiful piano music playing from Tambry. It beckoned me to stay. I heard a wonderful inspirational message from Pastor Art. It spoke to my Christian soul. As I stood all alone in the hallway after the service wondering if any of you would accept me, wondering what my life in Ocala would be, wondering if Joy would be my new church home, tears of loneliness streamed from my eyes and my broken heart missing my home, my farm and my beloved horses. I did not want any of you to see me crying, to see my lonesomeness and my vulnerability. “I had to hold myself together,” I thought. In those moments -I reached out to the Lord and prayed.

I had to pinch myself and remind myself that “I am a child of the Most High Precious God”, that Jesus died for my sins. He died for all our sins dear reader. By the Grace of God I was at Joy in my lonesomeness; He called me here for some reason; my new life would be revealed to me one day at a time. I had to wait on the Lord, wait on Joy Lutheran and its people. I had to have the courage to reach out and to trust that as God’s child you would accept me and become my new church home.

So who am I . . . a precious Child of God, that’s who. A precious child of the God who loves you and me unconditionally.

Doris