Thank you to all who came last Saturday to celebrate with us Steven's life and homegoing. Thank you for your love and support and awesome comments, both on the blog and at the service. Your prayers are much appreciated. After the IL service, we will put some of the things from the celebration service on the blog.

This is my 1st day without anyone else here. And yes, to all who are asking, I am doing fine. I'm starting to sleep a little more (my body had to slowly get used to more than 4 hours), appetite is back, doing good. I'm enjoying the quiet and tackling a long list of "need to do asap". While figuring what to do about this and that and the next, Jeremiah 29:11 came to mind: "I know the plans I have for you..." It is so reassuring to know that God still has every step of my future planned out.

Around 33 years ago, God planned a week of downpours in Sarasota, FL so we couldn't spend our vacation time on the beach. Browsing through the Christian bookstore, I found "Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman" by Ann Ortlund. I took it back to the motel, read it while the rain continued to pour outside, and was thrilled to find that God was not only my Saviour (I had given my life to Him years before) but that He also wanted a personal relationship with me - a relationship that could be built by spending one-on-one time with Him in His Word.

After we returned home, spending time with my Bible, notebook, and pen became part of my middle-of-the-night routine (after I had fed the latest sweet addition to the Sauder family - John). As my relationship with the Lord grew, Steven noticed how the Lord was changing me, and he decided to start having a personal time with the Lord, also. His routine was a little different than mine. He would pray, read a short passage of Scripture (starting at the beginning of a specific book of the Bible and continuing on through that book), and then He would write a letter to God concerning that passage of Scripture. As he grew in understanding the Word of God and applying that Word to his life, he gradually became an even better husband, father, physician, and employer. He began to learn to know God and gained more insight into the desires of God's heart for Steven and our family.

My Bible reading yesterday included Genesis 18:19, where God speaks about Abraham, "...for I have known him, so that that he may teach and command his children and the sons of his home after him to keep the way of the Lord and to do what is just and righteous..."

After beginning to learn to know God himself, Steven wanted the same thing for his children. So...after each of our children committed his or her life to the Lord, Steven's next goal became to teach that child how to cultivate a personal relationship with the Lord. He would do that by teaching them, daily alone with each child, to hear what God was saying personally to them through his Word.

In the coming days and weeks and months, I would like to share some of Steven's own journal entries with you - his "letters to God" - so that you can see a bit of the journey God took Steven on, a journey that has now ended before the throne room, face to face with this awesome God of the ages.