With much thanksgiving our family recently received a dear brother in Christ into our home. A husband to a joyous wife and home-educating father of ten children, he and his precious family have also been dear friends of the Jones family for well over a decade and a half. Having known a Christian family this long, notwithstanding the separation of several states and distinct family characteristics, there is a special closeness that comes from the joys and trials shared together through prayer. How grateful we are for this family! We have been encouraged by this family's faithfulness and love of the Lord, and inspired by their courage and steadfastness in well doing. May the Lord bless them for all that they have invested in the Church for God's glory."Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation."
~George Washington (from a letter written January 1783)
