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Phew…..it’s been a full week and a very full day today!

• Things always seem to happen in 3’s around here:

1. Air Conditioning was DOA in Sanctuary when I arrived. It was 93 degrees. Yuck.
2. Received a call that one of our long-time members passed away early this morning. She had suffered for many years from Alzheimer, so the news was bittersweet.
3. The van that picks up the students for our Sunday School class for developmentally disabled folks quit in the middle of the road.

• We made the decision to move the service into the Chapel. It seats about 50 so we were comfortable.
• It provided a very close, intimate setting for communion.
• We had a bunch of guests today. Several of them were first-time guests.
• I preached from Genesis 32:22-32 about Jacob wrestling with God.
• It was great to not be confined to a pulpit today.
• We have one of our members who is in Romania on a mission trip–and he stopped in here when he got there (thanks, SiteMeter analytics)!  Pray for Vann Underwood and his mission team!
• I was up in Fredericksburg for a wedding this past weekend. It was outdoors, and it was HOT!
• The Groom was a cadet when I was the Wing Chaplain in Virginia. I felt old.
• I was commenting to Catherine on how young everyone seemed, and she reminded me that we were their exact same ages when we got married. I didn’t need to be reminded of that, cause then I felt VERY old!
• While driving up to Fredericksburg on Thursday I got to participate in a great conference call about needs assessment for compassion ministries with David Mills from Compassion by Design.
• We’re going to be meeting next week in Richmond to talk more about church-based compassion ministries, and AngelFood Ministries.
• On Friday I got to have breakfast with my good friends Kermit Jones and Jim Ailor. Jim is the Northern Region Kingdom Advance Field Strategist for Virginia Baptist Mission Board.  Kermit is the interim pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Fredericksburg. Great food, and Jim was giving away free books. I like this dude!
• After breakfast, Kermit and I retreated to a neighborhood coffee shop with free wi-fi and spent about 6 hours talking and visioning together.
• Kermit has an incredible vision for ministry with OpenTech Ministries. He’s helping churches “do” cutting edge things with software that’s FREE!
• He’s got a ton of cool tricks up his sleeve–but the one that has captured my imagination is one that would allow churches doing multi-site ministry to replicate their teaching so all their volunteers in all their sites get the same training.  And that’s just ONE of his ideas……
• As I was walking out the door to the wedding on Friday evening, I got a call from Dave Grey at Lamson Road Community Church in Phoenix, NY.  They brought a group down for World Changers this summer.
• Dave was calling to tell me that some of their youth had stayed up and went online to the World Changers website at 12:01 a.m. on August 1 to be the FIRST CHURCH TO REGISTER to come back to Portsmouth in 2009!  I’m seriously pumped about this!
• On Saturday I met with about 15 of the key leaders from Friendship Baptist Church to talk with them about re-dreaming for their future and developing a process for growing healthy disciples of Jesus Christ.
• I also had a call last week from a fellow who can get backbacks for our Pack-to-School outreach for $2 each!  This is an incredible answer to prayer!
• We’re going to be able to provide a free backpack and some school supplies for every student when they come to Cradock Middle School on the first day of school this year!  This is a such a God-thing!
• It’s been a wild-and-crazy day week……so I think I’m gonna wrap this up and get ready for what God has in store for us tomorrow!