Tuesday, November 16, 2004

6:20 PM We’re still looking for some volunteers to help make the sanctuary banners for 2005. For details, scroll down to the entry for Saturday, November 13. 6:16 PM We talked to Josh in Beijing about an hour ago. Since Beijing is 14 hours ahead of us, it’s now 8:16 AM on Thursday morning. We chatted with him just before he left for his teaching assignment. He and Pat McGuin are part of a team that is teaching English at a private school in Beijing. He sounded great and said that they had just finished midterms. He gave his students oral exams and most of them did very well. It’s obvious that he enjoys his students and his teaching and is having a great time in China. Meanwhile our plans are moving forward for our trip to China. We’ll be in Beijing two months from today. We have our plane tickets and we’re applying soon for our visas. Then we’ll make our hotel reservations and we’ll be ready to go. 6:10 PM Today’s entry in the Crosswalk weblog is called The Pastors Retreat—Day 2. 5:48 PM The pastors had a great time at our overnight retreat in McHenry. We spent several hours last night talking about the “DNA” of Calvary: What makes our church unique? That’s a good question because there isn’t one right answer. We spent lots of time dreaming together about God’s vision for our church. All our sessions were punctuated by laughter and funny stories. Even though we stayed up late and got up early, I think we all came back exhilerated about the possibilities for the future. 5:45 PM Calling all men! Don’t forget about First Watch for men this Thursday morning. The breakfast menu includes hot cinnamon rolls, bagel, egg and cheese sandwiches, bacon and plenty of good Starbucks coffee. We start serving at 5:55 AM. I’ll be speaking on “The Battle for Spiritual Growth.” 5:44 PM 3073 miles.