The last 2 weeks of holidays and merriment and family and friends have been awesome!!

However, since Christmas Eve part of my heart has been in Burbank, CA, where I used to live ten years ago.

In California, I was a part of a good GREAT group of people who met Sundays and Thursdays to grow and learn together in our faith.  It was an incredible two years that I spent out there, and I'm forever grateful for the way I grew because of time spent with that incredible group at Village Church.

A member of our group left this earth on Christmas Eve morning.  He had been fighting cancer hard core for two years.  Tonight is a memorial service for him at our church in Burbank.  I wish I could be watching a live stream of it or something.  Ha, that's totally something he would have set up if it was somebody else's memorial service.  Kevin was very tech minded.  Anytime I had problems with or questions about my computer I could go to him for help.  And, boy, was he patient.

The most laid back, calm, thoughtful person you could imagine.  He dealt with a lot during his 37 years on earth; yet he remained steadfast.

A verse that came to my mind as I pondered over Kevin's life, especially these last couple years of intense battles, is 2 Timothy 4:7.  Kevin truly fought the good fight.  He indeed finished his race.  And he certainly kept his faith.  As Kevin passed from this earth into the presence of His Lord, I believe he heard as we read in Matthew 25:21, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Most of my pictures from California were taken on film and printed off and in some random storage bin now, but here's a picture of just some of our group taken one Sunday morning in Burbank.  Kevin is in the white shirt near the center.  His now wife is next to him in the denim jacket.  I continue to keep her and their two little ones in my heart as they go through this grieving process.  It won't be an easy road.

If you want to read more about their journey, visit their blog at www.aquietlife.net or their FB page for the Hill Family Fighters.