A Tale of Two Joels

After being a member of New Hope for a few years, Joel Martin, a graduate student of the University of Pittsburgh, became our financial secretary and my right hand man. As financial secretary he not only faithfully fulfilled his responsibilities of financial secretary but also covered the treasurer's responsibilities after our treasurer sort of went incommunicado. He also helped keep our computers running and frequently helped me and others from New Hope in many practical ways. I am most grateful that he helped me on many occasions get to church services and also moved things too heavy for me like my AC. But then the day came for Joel to graduate and get a real job. :-(

The photo on the left is from August when we prayed for Joel before he left for his new job in Maryland.

But then a couple of months ago another Joel, Joel Lim, who was also a graduate student started to come to our Sunday meetings. After a few weeks the new Joel said he planned to stay on at New Hope and even brought his parents to New Hope one Sunday for a visit. Turns out they are all from Singapore, home of at least two former NewHopers, Min and Yu Hsien, who have since graduated and returned home. Some of us kidded that God was replacing one Joel with another, and of course we told each of the Joels about their counterpart.

Then the day of their meeting arrived. Joel Martin came for a visit last weekend. When the two finally met, much to the relief of local particle physicists and trekkers alike, the local universe did not implode. ;-)

Joel Martin is now back in Maryland. Please pray that God would lead him to the church where he should be and for some good Christian friends and fellowship. BTW God already answered one of our prayers for Joel Lim. When he first came to New Hope, he was also looking for a church and asked us to pray about it.

Dave