-I had a rough start to my Sunday. As I attempted to go to sleep Saturday evening my mind would not shut down. I was overwhelmed by thoughts of things I wanted to do and with a lot of burdens for people and situations. The result was that I only slept 2 and a half hours.

-It could have been the somewhat dreary weather, it could have been the lingering sicknesses that have been going round and round or it could have been an attitude issue. Whatever was the cause it was tough to minister in my 9:00 church yesterday. Difficult for those leading us in music as well as preaching. Praying that yesterday’s atmosphere doesn’t show up again for a long time.

-My 10:30 church started in a similar fashion to my 9:00 church, but seemed to warm up as the worship service went along.

-I was struggling personally a little more yesterday because of getting word on Saturday that my Dad is back in the hospital. I so appreciate my stepmom and stepsister keeping us informed, it eases some of the pain of being 6 hours away. Awaiting word today on what the next course of action will be for Dad.

-I was very encouraged to see the large number of Easter invitations that people took with them yesterday at both churches. Praying for a great time of worship and changed lives on Easter Sunday.

-Baseball season opened yesterday and for the first time in my life my Cubs will be referred to as “Defending World Series Champs” all year long. I am loving that, the opening night loss not so much, but being defending champs has such a nice sound to it.

-There are many people around me who are going through major life issues. This keeps driving me to pray more.

-There seems to be a lot of ministry positions where we need more help at both of my churches. In my experience a church goes through seasons like this one periodically.

-I am reminded often of Jesus’ admonition in Matthew 9:37-38, “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest.”

-This past week most of our newly formed Church Health Team met for the first time. A couple of them were not able to attend this introductory session. I was encouraged as we met and am excited to move forward with this group as we look at our current health and ways to improve the health of our church and its ministries.

-My wife and I were able to Facetime with our grandson over the weekend. He is finishing his freshman year of college and appears to be doing very well. It was great to see and hear him for a few minutes. He will be heading to Africa to be with his parents and siblings as soon he finishes with his finals.

-We have a group who will begin the third phase of our discipleship process on Wednesday of this week. This will be the first group who has gone through our steps of discipleship and they will then begin to lead others in this same process. This is very exciting.

Here’s hoping that you sense that you are being lifted in prayer this week.

Dennis