We left Greensboro, NC yesterday morning at 6:00 am and were in Portland, Maine before my folks were out of bed. The trip was not without adventure, including a race across LaGuardia to change concourses, carriers and planes. We made it just before the doors shut.
We landed in this marvelous state and were greeted my mist and 62 degrees. By the time we traveled to Moosehead Lake, 3 1/2 hours into the northern timber country, the sun had broken the skies and the mercury was topping out in the lower 80's. We stopped for directions at the local country store were the Mainers were wiping their brows and complaining, "We only get about four of these days a year! Can you stand it?!" I chuckled, but only to myself. folks really talk funny up here.
We reached the Olson's cabin in time for a late supper. They were astonished that we saw no moose along the way and promised a dozen or so sitings before we leave. This morning was spent (as was yesterday's plane trip) engaged with The Missional Leader, a marvelous book that chronicles the style, gifts and approaches necessary for successfully leading a congregation through discontinuous change. I knocked the book out at a couple of sittings, mostly because it was so compelling. Kudos to the authors. (Note that I have added to this site the link for Missional Leadership Institute.)
This afternoon was spent lunching with our marvelous hosts aboard their pontoon boat in the middle this nearly 800 square mile lake. It is immense! ...and just as beautiful as it is large. (I will work to attach pictures to this blog but am struggling with the dial-up service here. Eric says that we can venture about 20 miles into town where someone he knows has a faster computer for rent...cheap. I passed.) We caught a lake salmon that looks postured for the grill here momentarily. The Olsens are members of my former congregation in North Myrtle Beach, SC where they winter beginning in October, just before the lake here begins to develop what will eventually become over a yard of ice. Go figure.
God was surely in a more artsy and creative mood when He fashioned this part of the vineyard. This evening we will spend on the deck overlooking the lake, talking about old times, ministry, our congregations and the way God is working in our respective lives. They will be good times, the stuff that memories are made of. And all the while I shall be thinking of my congregation back in Kansas, wishing that I could share this first hand. Who knows? Maybe a congregational retreat next year?
May the kind of peace that passes the world's understanding be with you this day.
We landed in this marvelous state and were greeted my mist and 62 degrees. By the time we traveled to Moosehead Lake, 3 1/2 hours into the northern timber country, the sun had broken the skies and the mercury was topping out in the lower 80's. We stopped for directions at the local country store were the Mainers were wiping their brows and complaining, "We only get about four of these days a year! Can you stand it?!" I chuckled, but only to myself. folks really talk funny up here.
We reached the Olson's cabin in time for a late supper. They were astonished that we saw no moose along the way and promised a dozen or so sitings before we leave. This morning was spent (as was yesterday's plane trip) engaged with The Missional Leader, a marvelous book that chronicles the style, gifts and approaches necessary for successfully leading a congregation through discontinuous change. I knocked the book out at a couple of sittings, mostly because it was so compelling. Kudos to the authors. (Note that I have added to this site the link for Missional Leadership Institute.)
This afternoon was spent lunching with our marvelous hosts aboard their pontoon boat in the middle this nearly 800 square mile lake. It is immense! ...and just as beautiful as it is large. (I will work to attach pictures to this blog but am struggling with the dial-up service here. Eric says that we can venture about 20 miles into town where someone he knows has a faster computer for rent...cheap. I passed.) We caught a lake salmon that looks postured for the grill here momentarily. The Olsens are members of my former congregation in North Myrtle Beach, SC where they winter beginning in October, just before the lake here begins to develop what will eventually become over a yard of ice. Go figure.
God was surely in a more artsy and creative mood when He fashioned this part of the vineyard. This evening we will spend on the deck overlooking the lake, talking about old times, ministry, our congregations and the way God is working in our respective lives. They will be good times, the stuff that memories are made of. And all the while I shall be thinking of my congregation back in Kansas, wishing that I could share this first hand. Who knows? Maybe a congregational retreat next year?
May the kind of peace that passes the world's understanding be with you this day.
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