Fifteen years after the destruction of the World Trade Center by terrorists, the day was marked by remembrances... and people complaining about remembrances.  It was significant how many people didn’t like that President Obama gave a pre-recorded address before a football game, or that a Wal-Mart put up a display using Coca-Cola products, or that Papa John’s sold pizzas at $9.11, or that players stood during (or didn’t stand during) the national anthem, or that Hillary Clinton didn’t tell people that she had pneumonia, etc.  Fifteen years later, and an amazing number of people were far more interested in feeling offended than they were in being moved, because it’s all about how they feel...

One more week to go before we start back up with our Sunday School classes for all ages!  Apart from that whole horrible “I have to come to church an hour earlier!” tragedy, everyone loves being part of these classes.  It’s not like a “school” school class, where you have to know stuff already, or you feel inadequate when the teacher asks you to write out the math equation on the board, this is purely a time to learn and interact with information that you probably didn’t know before -- and to do that with people whom you might not normally get to interact with...

Man, this has been a full week for people here at First Covenant (and around the Peoria area).  Lots going on, lots of emotional issues to work through, and yet, lots to look forward to...

My family and I had a wonderful vacation -- thank you all for letting us just get away for a couple of weeks and rest a bit before school started back up for Wendy and the kids...

I’m writing this Sunday Morning Update a little early this week, because we’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks.  So don’t feel bad if you don’t hear from us until mid-August -- no, it’s nothing personal...

Thank you, thank you, to all of you who were praying for our Vacation Bible School this past week.  Yes, the building looked amazing (and thank you to everyone who helped out with that), but more importantly, things ran very smoothly and everyone had a wonderful time.  But far more important than that, we had several children who were strongly affected by what we discussed throughout the week, and three who specifically gave their hearts to the Lord.  In an important addendum to that, I had some intensely constructive conversations with four different families at the Ice Cream Social this past Friday evening (I even got to pray with three of them), so our VBS continues to minister to people, even after the week is all over.  We can only attribute the effectiveness of the program to the Holy Spirit, going ahead, alongside, and after us at every step.  So thank you for praying!

So I’m sending this out right in the middle of our annual Vacation Bible School, and it’s exciting!  The whole church building is decorated like a series of giant caves (complete with a mining car and track that runs throughout the building), and it’s always a pick-me-up for our VBS workers whenever the children walk through the hallways ooh-ing and ahh-ing...

I am typing this after opening the windows to my car to try to get it to dry out after the interior was soaked in a huge rainstorm because we’d left the windows cracked open on a hot and sunny afternoon... which had been really humid, what with that big rainstorm early this morning...

Before I forget, let me belatedly wish everyone reading this a very Happy Independence Day!  Yes, I know that you’re reading this after the fact, but there was no way to do it differently this year, so... get over it and just appreciate the well-wishing...

Our family took Megan up to Chicago this week for her month-long Golden Apple training thingie, leaving her on the campus of St. Xavier University.  We’ll pick her up again at the end of July, right in the middle of VBS week (which, even with everyone’s careful planning, has retroactively turned out to fall on one of the worst weeks of the Summer for many of our volunteers)...

Before I forget, let me wish everyone out there reading this a very Happy Father’s Day!  And yes, even if you’re not a Dad, I can still hope that and wish that you have a happy Father’s Day (because otherwise, I’m wishing that you don’t have a good day -- how malicious would that be?).  But beyond that, as we said on Sunday morning, we can use the day as an opportunity to show our appreciation for any of the men who have invested their lives into ours and acted as mentors (“father-figures”) over the years...

Man, we live in a mixed-up world...  Early on Sunday morning, America experienced its worst mass shooting as a disturbed man opened fire in a nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and wounding dozens of others...

What a wonderful day in the Lord we had this weekend!  We hosted our annual Community Cook-Out this Sunday, and it was great not only because the weather was perfect (which it was), and the food was outstanding (special kudos for those pork chops, guys), and the fellowship was awesome (as usual), but particularly because we were able to welcome a couple of new, non-FCC families as well...