Jesus Loves the Little Children

I have been somewhat scarce on this blog. One of the reasons I began it was to keep our extended family aware of some of the family happenings. Facebook has changed that a since a lot of family communication goes on there. A case in point was the wedding recently in Moscow where Morgan and Kaitlin tied the knot. It was a great time,with over 100 photos

springing up on Facebook.

I did title this blog "Moffat Musings" however and I will still muse from time to time.

I have been musing about children and Jesus' love for them. They are so incredibly innocent and so subject to the strengths and weaknesses of us adults.

Our great Grandson Rowan experienced that Love as he went through a 2 hour operation to remove an extra kidney and reroute his "plumbing". Marla sent these pictures of Rowan with his grandmother, mother and brother We pray for our grandkids and great-grands a lot and it was a privilege and joy to see Jesus' love for him as he did marvelously and the medical staff and doctors used their love and skill to bring that about.

That led me to wake up thinking in the middle of the night about the Haitian children. I don't need to add any images of them here. We have been assaulted with those images, both good and bad. One news flash I just witnessed was the ruins of an orphanage flattened on about 50 young orphans. I know they are resting in the loving arms of Jesus, because he said "let the little children come."

On the other hand there are hundreds of these kids experiencing the loving arms of Jesus through the ministry of rescue workers, orphanage workers, relief organizations (mostly Christian) and new adoptive parents cutting through the red tape and getting them into the homes of these parents. For these survivors a chance for a loving home was accelerated because of the earthquake!

Jesus shows His love for the little children in many ways. We thanks him for working in the lives of the children in our family and that "Jesus loves the children of the world"

It hardly seems real

We are really enjoying the 80 degree weather
here in Maui. Our condo is the one one the upper right, is right on the beach with whale, turtles and surfers within a short distance off our Lanai.
We are doing a lot of stuff, much of it free.
We did take a boat trip to see whales and dolphins up close .

Taking the famous 30 mile trip to Hana tomorrow.
We used to bumper strip "we drove the Alcan Hiway"
Around here it's the road to Hana. we will give it a try.

We rented a bright red PT cruise which makes mom(Carol )
feel like a teenager.

A Day to Remember

Carol and I went to the Hollywood District here in Portland to watch the Remembrance Parade and listen to city leaders and veterans share their thoughts about veterans and their importance to our country's freedom.
It actually was a moving experience. Something I was not expecting in "progressive" Portland.
Of all the speeches the one that summed it up the best quoted and unknown author.

"It's the military not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the military, not the poet who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the military not the politicians who ensures us our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is not the campus demonstrator who burns our flag, it's the military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath our flag and whose coffin is draped with our flag."

This is a day of remembrance for Carol and I for a very different reason. fifty six years ago today In Kenai, Alaska, we had a missionary couple over to our newly built cabin for dinner. The occasion was to celebrate the completion of our homestead cabin that would give us the right to claim the land it was built on. After dinner I filled the Coleman light that was giving light to our home with no electricity. In the process I spilled the gas over the hot lamp and in a few minutes burned the whole place down. It was a cold snowy night. We had no place to go and we went to live with the missionaries. We began to follow Christ and serve him. November 11 1953 started a whole life change for us. One of the best things that ever happened to us.

Carol cooks in our replacement 16X16 foot cabin

Recent Highlights

We sure have been having fun lately, with lots of special family times. Carly and Jed came by on tn end of their honeymoon and stayed with us a few days. Multnomah Falls . Sure was special to have them stay with us.
My boys arranged a special Birthday celebration for me by hosting a Seahawk football weekend, in Seattle.. All of my sons, Jim, our son-law was here in Portland for a few days and Nikki came through with Marty. What a special time. As you can see a Moffat get together includes some deep belly laughter. The game was lousy but it didn't matter
Kaylie had her 15th birthday party and she is maturing into a very special person. And a Sunday School Halloween party included a lot of our great grandchildren dressing up in costumes.

Family Joys

We sure enjoy family since living here in Oregon.
Recently our granddaughter Carly and her husband Jed stopped by
to see us for a couple of days on the way home from their honeymoon.

We did some sightseeing. Multnomah falls and the Columbia River Gorge are near are home.


They are home in Anchorage, Alaska now.








We have the joy of going to our grand-children's and great-grand-children's
birthday parties, games, plays and other school events.

We missed out on a lot of this when we lived in Canada.


It was a beautiful but windy day when we again went to Kari's
soccer game. They are getting better and she scored a couple of goals.

Retirement Parties

Yes, that's plural--"Parties"
We have been overwhelmed by the affection shown by the mission organization we have worked with for fifty years -"InterAct Ministries", fellow workers, supporting partners and many of our family with a retirement party in Alaska in August and another here in the mission headquarters in Oregon in September.

The one in Alaska, organized by George and Judy Richardson, member care missionaries in Alaska and the one here, organized by the staff in the home office of the mission, included lots of people who fit in the descriptions above.
The mission commissioned a dear friend of ours Suzie Althens of Alaska to paint oil paintings depicting ministries, recent retirees of the mission were involved in during past years. With the consultation of our six children Suzie painted the picture which now hangs over our fireplace. It shows the boat we built to transport family and native kids to Kokrine Hills Bible Camp while we ministered there from the village of Tanana. We traveled many thousands of miles in that boat for many summers in Alaska. The picture is and will be a family treasure.

The highlight for Carol and I was to visit with so many people we love and respect. People who have been partners to us in so many ways.

Life hasn't changed that much for Carol and I since "officially" retiring, but the honor and love expressed by these special parties will warm our memories and cause us to thank our Lord who made all of it possible over the years.

50 Yrs Ago

Fifty Years ago this month we left Portland to spend our first of many winters in a remote Indian Village. We went to Shageluk to fill in for the Furmans who went out on a furlough. Mark and I went out together and Carol and the rest of the kids stayed in Port Angeles WA to have our fourth (Merlin). Mark and I went though culture shock together until Carol and the kids got up there in November.

The top right picture is us at our second villgae, Anvik, where we had to build a house. After staying there for five or so years we were transferred to Tanana. (The picture at lower right).

A suit and tie??!!!

We never did have running water at any of the villages. We did have a light plant with limited electricity at Anvik and we had village power in Tanana.

God enabled us, kept us and allowed us to serve Him in these villages.