Members and Friends of Austin Mennonite Church I pray you are encouraged by your experiences as you continue your journey of faith. Often we discover new, meaningful things about ourselves and our understanding of the present whenever we recognize how previous decisions have served us. Specific characteristics indistinguishable to us before can fall into clear focus whenever we look back and remember how we felt and visioned when moving through unfamiliar circumstances now behind us. This was the experience of two distraught travelers journeying from Jerusalem following the crucifixion of Jesus. As they contemplate and communicate their concerns, the observations of a stranger somehow console them. Only after they discover themselves in the company of the risen Jesus does this consolation become obvious to them. Maybe our enlightenments are not of this magnitude, ..perhaps they are more like the experience of Jesus himself. These thoughts will compose the sermon for this next Sunday, 'Seeing into the past.' May it go well with you. Sincerely, Garland Robertson ...always hold firmly to the thought that each one of us can do something to bring some portion of misery to an end