Happy Mother's Day!

We (Sally and I) are truly blessed. We have both grown up in loving families that have strived to honor God in words and actions. We have grown up knowing that our mothers loved us unconditionally, cared for us, and sacrificed many things for our good. Even though it is totally inadequate, we want to say 'thank you' to Mom Jessup and Mom Pepper!
You have inspired us, loved us, blessed us, protected us, prayed for us, and most of all, set a great example for us of a loving parent. We can say without a doubt that much of who we are today is because of you and your love for God. And you continue to bless us by loving our kids and showing them what it means to be a godly woman.

I (Larry) want to tell all of you how proud I am of Sally. There's a lot of reasons, but today particularly, I praise God for the amazing way that she has raised our three kids. She is an amazing mother to them, following in the example of hers and my mom (and other godly mothers you can read about in the Bible) through loving, caring, helping, listening, teaching, and praying daily for the kids. She has set for them a great example of a godly mother, much like the description in the 31st chapter of the book of Proverbs. I love you Sally!

We are very proud of our kids, and I know that much of who they are today and who they are becoming is because of what Sally has done over the past 23 years.

I want to close with these thoughts. I have been blessed to have a godly mother, a godly mother-in-law, and a godly mother of my children. It is something that should never be taken for granted. We are realizing just how many kids here in Lesotho have not had the privilege we have had to have loving mothers. The last estimate I heard was that of 250,000 orphans! Kids that desperately need a godly mother to care for them and love them. This past week as we left a mountain clinic the pilot pointed out a village that was discovered to be totally void of adults as they had all died of HIV/AIDS (or had left). A village full of orphans that were trying to take care of each other. When the Lesotho government realized it they did garner up significant support to help these kids. My point is that there are likely other villages heading towards that same state. Progress is being made in treating HIV/AIDS but many are still dying (4/hr). Join us in praying for these kids. Pray that the hearts of many people will be opened to find ways to love these kids. I don't know the answer to this challenge, but I do know that the Scriptures tell us that God is the Father to the Fatherless and cares for orphans. Pray that these kids will experience God's mercy, forgiveness, and grace today.