Virtual meetings, virtual work, virtual church, virtual concerts, planning for virtual schooling, and last weekend, I attended a virtual wedding! I’m sure by now most of us thought we would be virtually done with all of this! While that may not seem like the case, every day brings us one step closer to getting back to normal.

As I considered the idea of getting “back to normal” I began to wonder if normal was what we should be striving for. I was reminded of the passage from Philippians 3:13 where we are admonished to “forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead.” In case we are unclear what Paul is talking about, he spells it out in the next verse when he says we should “…press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

In our humanness, the idea of eternity can be a hard thing for us to grasp. It is much easier for us to hold onto the things that we see and feel right in front of us. Paul is actually writing this from a “quarantine” of his own, a Roman prison, where he was thrown for preaching the Gospel. He encourages us to imitate him, and those leaders who remain faithful to the truth in troubled times.

We are thankful for those of you who have remained faithful to the ministry of WIVH as we continue to share the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ in these troubled times. We are thankful, too, for the leaders who continue to come up with creative ways to reach those on the islands for Christ.

Pressing toward the goal,