Yesterday was a good day for many reasons, the top one being that I was back home after a few busy days away. As for my musings …

-Our church is being totally transformed as the Vacation Bible School decorating has now spread to the hallways and is moving into many of the classrooms. The platform in the Worship Center is now completely taken over by VBS decorations. I love it. I had to adjust as I preached yesterday, but I love it.

-Our worship service went well yesterday, and the congregation was engaged in all parts of the service.

-The attendance was good.

-Yesterday evening my wife and I went out to one of the town’s beautiful parks and had a nice walk. It was great to be together with no appointments. The weather was perfect. We made this walk about 3 weeks ago and my wife couldn’t quite make it all. Last evening, she walked the whole thing and felt good when we finished. Fourteen weeks after double knee replacement and she is going strong.

-Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was out of town to help assess some prospective church planters. I went through training to be an assessor and then participated as one of the assessors. It was an intense and wonderful experience. There were five prospective planters and their spouses involved in this event. They were great people and I believe all of them will do well. I loved getting to know them and look forward to seeing what happens with their plants over the next couple of years.

-My 9^th grade volleyball team finished their summer league with a .500 record. That is significant because we were playing in a league where the other teams were junior varsity teams with all, or mostly, sophomores on the teams. With summer schedules of vacations and camps, I only had my whole team for one of the weeks. It is great to be coaching again.

-Our grandson who is studying in South Africa this semester, finally got his luggage. When he arrived in South Africa his luggage did not. A few days later it arrived, but he had to begin with only what he was wearing on the flight and a little in his carry-on.

-This morning a roofing crew will be arriving to replace the roof on both the church and parsonage.

-Next Sunday we will introduce the theme of our Vacation Bible School and let the adults get a glimpse of what the children will be learning. We will also be honoring the memory of a couple of people from our congregation who passed away recently. It will be a great time of worship that will highlight how we finish life and the joy of life.

-The past two weeks have been very busy for me. I am looking forward to a week where I will not be traveling. I have many scheduled appointments, but it pales in comparison to the past couple of weeks.

-I purchased a barbecue/smoker 2 weeks ago and haven’t been able to use it yet. I am going to use it this week for sure, anyone hungry?

-One of the best things of being a part of the church planter assessment last week was seeing 2 or 3 of them gain confidence and discover something in themselves they didn’t know was there. It was exhausting, and it was exhilarating.

Here’s hoping that you will look to help someone discover something about themselves this week that will give them confidence.

Dennis