How I Spent My Summer
Where did summer go? I'm sure yours has been busy, too; but, I can't believe how summer has flown by. School starts tomorrow here in our community, and we resume our regular Wednesday night schedule at the church starting this Wednesday.
June was taken up with Vacation Bible School -- getting ready and then the week of VBS itself. In July, I finished my last course paper for my DMin at Fuller on the subject of forgiveness. Lots of reading and time in this last paper, but I hope to do my final project on forgiveness, so this was kind of an abbreviated trial run.
A couple of weeks ago I spoke at a Sunday School workers' banquet at a neighboring church in Hurt, VA, and then preached a three-day revival last week at Mulberry Grove Baptist Church in Buckingham, VA. In both places, they were some of the nicest folks I've met. The pastor at Mulberry Grove is finishing his PhD from Edinburgh in early Christianity, so we had some interesting conversations. Trey and Lou Ann are great folks that are enjoying serving a small church in a small community in rural Virginia. While I was there, the local Baptist association of churches invited me to do a Tuesday morning seminar for pastors and lay leaders. The association has 18 churches, all of them small, and 8 churches were represented among the 22 people in attendance. We had a great morning sharing together about small church ministry, and I got some very good ideas from some excited pastors and church leaders.
So, that's my summer so far. Of course, like any time of the year, there are funerals, hospital visits, and church stuff that continues. The garden shows the neglect of a too-busy summer schedule this year, but maybe next year I'll have more time for the tomatoes. I hope your summer was a good one, and I'll be back here a little more often as fall moves toward winter.
