Thank you so much for the time off for our family vacation -- we had a great time of fun, rest, and relaxation, but it’s also good to be back home with everyone that we love.  We made it a point to kind of drop off the face of the planet for two weeks and enjoy swimming, caving, and snuggling in large chunks of time...

Man, everyone is still more or less fried from VBS, but it was totally worth it.  But my family is going on vacation for the next two weeks, so we should have plenty of time to rest up and recuperate from all of the fun and excitement...

We had a wonderful week at our Vacation Bible School here at First Covenant Church!  We had the most volunteer workers that we’ve ever had for a VBS -- which turned out to be crucially important, since A) we also ended up with a record number of children in attendance, and B) several of our VBS workers developed major issues at the last minute...

Today was our first day of this year’s Vacation Bible School, and everyone seems to be holding up okay.  Well, Kristi’s cold is leaving her ears plugged up and her throat raspy, so she’s fielding her share of “deaf-mute” issues today (and, for that matter, the silly voice that I’m doing in the Finale each day kinda leaves my own throat a little sore), but other than that, we’re doing okay so far...

We’re in the home stretch of preparing for our annual Vacation Bible School here at First Covenant!  Due to last-minute health and family issues, several of our key leadership positions have just suddenly switched around, so please be praying for leaders who are now suddenly preparing for completely different duties than they’d originally planned to be in charge of.  On the plus side, everyone’s going to come at things from a decidedly fresh perspective...

Before I forget, let me retroactively wish all of you reading this a Happy Independence Day!  Hopefully, you had the opportunity to blow things up (or at least watch things being blown up) in honor of our freedom here in America.  We often take that freedom for granted -- especially freedom of religion -- and tend to forget the value of things that we take for granted...

Welcome to Summer!  (Note: I’m writing this on an overcast day whose temperatures are the lowest in the past month, so I think that the people who are labeling the seasons are clearly confused -- in fact, we got a hailstorm on Monday, so I fully expect a balmy Winter to balance things out...)...

Before I forget, let me retroactively wish all of you reading this a Happy Father’s Day!  This year, we took inspiration from our Youth Group’s Mother’s Day service back in May (when they prepared a video of each of the kids sharing about their Moms) and opened the morning up for testimonies from people about their Dads (or “father figures”), and how God has used those men to bring them to where they’re at today.

I made the mistake of wishing someone a happy Summer the other day in a store, and he tersely corrected me that Summer doesn’t start until Tuesday, June 20.  So please ignore the Condition 90 temperatures and high humidity that we’ve been experiencing this week, and remind yourself that we’re still just enjoying a perky Spring...

Thank you for your prayers for our Haiti Missions Team!  They got back safe and sound late this Monday night (well, mostly safe and sound -- Caleb apparently fell while climbing the ruins of an old fortress on Saturday and scuffed himself up a bit, but no serious injuries came from the week), and they are praising God for the ministry that they were able to perform while on the island.  In fact, they’ll be sharing about that in our service next Sunday, so please come join us if you can...

Our Haiti Missions Team is halfway through their time serving the church down in Haiti!  They’re actually unable to connect with us here in the United States for two more days, but the last time we heard from them, they were finding it very rewarding to be able to help in meaningful ways, and really felt the power and leading of God in what they were doing there.  Please do keep praying for them for the rest of the week, and for their safe trip back on Memorial Day...

Before I forget, let me retroactively wish all of you reading this a Happy Mother’s Day!  As we do every year, we turned the Mother’s Day service over to our Youth Group, who all did a wonderful job.  Alex and Dakota joined the Worship Team, Dougie and Arielle greeted people, Joe shared the prayer, the rest of the Youth Group took up the offering, etc...

We had a great day this Sunday, filled with lots of praises and prayer requests...