This morning is a much different feeling since my wife and I were gone yesterday. I am still getting reports of how things went while we were gone. As for my musings …

-On Tuesday I received word that my Dad was back in the hospital.

-On Wednesday I was informed that the seminar in which I was to teach on Friday, Saturday and Sunday was being cancelled.

-On Thursday my wife and I decided to make an impromptu trip to Kansas to check on my Dad. Since we had already arranged to be gone on Sunday it didn’t take us long to pull things together and take off.

-I am very glad we made the trip. It meant missing 3 volleyball matches (there was a tourney on Saturday), which I hated to do, but they won all 3 of them (maybe I should do that more often).

-It was great to spend time with family. My brother and sister in law (who live in Georgia) decided to make an impromptu trip as well, arriving on Friday afternoon. We were all together (myself, my wife, my brother and sister in-law, step-sister and her husband) for a while and I believe that encouraged my Dad and stepmom. My wife and I stayed with her brother and sister in law who live in the same town. We were able to catch up with a lot of family in that time. We didn’t get a lot of rest, but it was worth it.

-My Dad was doing a little better on Saturday and Sunday, but he is not out of the woods yet.

-One report I received about the worship service here yesterday was that it concluded about 15 minutes earlier than our normal time. People might wish I would take a few more trips.

-Attendance was down a little again. We received a few inches of snow Saturday evening and early Sunday morning, but none of the predicted ice. I don’t know if that, or illness, was the main contributor.

-On Saturday we left to head back home. We drove about 2/3 of the distance and then stopped for the night. Where we stopped got a couple of inches of snow and a little ice.

-We took advantage of being gone on a Sunday to attend church somewhere else. It was a very good experience. We attended worship at a satellite location for a church that has 9 locations. They are doing a lot of great stuff in their communities. Yesterday was the beginning of a series that is kicking off a 2-year campaign of expansion of ministry and locations. We came away with thoughts of things we are doing well and some thoughts on improving some details in our Sunday morning routines.

-Since we rarely get to attend another church we love it when we get to attend somewhere that does things very differently so that we can observe some new things.

-This coming Sunday is our “Give it All Away” offering. We call it the ultimate love offering. Everything that we receive we will give away. This year it is being split between a local pregnancy center and a church planting project in North Carolina.

-Beginning a new sermon series this Sunday, “Moving to Yes” that will take us to Easter.

-Easter is just 7 weeks away.

-Really burdened for people who are attending church most Sundays but are not allowing God to make a difference in their daily lives and relationships. They are still running their life they way they want to run it and trying to stuff God into it. It doesn’t work that way.

Here’s hoping that you get a fresh sense of God’s amazing grace and love for you and allow yourself to surrender to him and his will.

Dennis