Saturday, July 26, 2003

8:22 PM The sermon e-mail list now has 1417 names, up nearly 80 in the last two weeks because of many sign-ups from Word of Life and Living Waters … Went for a bike ride this afternoon, my first in two weeks. That’s one of the best parts about being home.

6:02 PM Toured the church and was amazed by how much construction has been done in the last two weeks—and the major work in the gym hasn’t even started yet. I’m glad we were able to get started in the summer when things are slower … Alex Pirus reports that the hockey camp for teens in June was a great success: “We had a total of 92 campers and 30 either first time commitments or recommitments to the Lord.” Alex reports that he and BJ and Misty will be going to Sweden to participate in 3 Christian hockey camps… Here’s the Legacy Campaign prayer request for today: “Pray for flexibility and creativity in dealing with the ministry complications of construction.” … Please remember to pray for our Allied Force team in Costa Rica. Tomorrow is their last full day in the country. They arrive back in Chicago on Monday night.

10:31 AM Got home about two hours ago, pretty tired and very glad to be off the road. Had a fine closing service yesterday AM at Living Waters, then drove through Maine (stopping once for a final meal of fried clams), then through the coastal region of New Hampshire, then along the western suburbs of Boston and on into Albany. After sleeping 4-5 hours, we got to the Albany Airport at 4:30 AM, turned in our rental car, checked in, and basically tried to keep our eyes open while waiting for our flight. We were so tired that at one point I started laughing and couldn’t stop and then Marlene started laughing and she couldn’t stop. We survived the fight back and made it home okay. Now we’re in the “read the mail, water the plants, put the dog out, wash the clothes, and clean up the house after being gone two weeks” mode. In a few minutes, I’m going to go over the church and check on the construction.