​On Sunday August 14th,  our daughter, Abbe Geneva Linder, was baptized in Ngaoundere Cameroon. Our son, Pomgna Freeland Linder, was baptized in the same church and by the same pastor, Jonas Miner.  Pomgna was born in Cameroon and has always been a United States citizen.  He is categorized as a citizen born abroad.  Pomgna came to the United States to live when he was fifteen months old.  In turn, both Abbe and Pomgna celebrated their first birthday in Cameroon with their grandmother, as well as their baptisms.   

​Part 1 – written after Rally Day.   Some lines from my sermon on Rally Day on Sunday September 11th seemed empowering to me as I preached them:  “As I look out at you here in church, I say – What a team.  What a kingdom team.  I realize we are not as large a team as we once were, but we are formidable.  That means strong.”   I realize now looking up ‘formidable’ in the dictionary that it can mean ‘causing fear and apprehension’ like if I were using the word about how underpowered teams might view the Buckeyes in these pre-season games.