We begin again with a whole new week. This one has started of magnificently. It is only seventy seven degrees this morning and the temperature is to max out at eighty three or so.  The best part is that the humidity will be dropping al day due to a cold don't moving in.

Ms. Kate and I have a few things that we need to get done this week prior to heading out on vacation on Sunday for a week. There is packing of the suitcases, packing of the car and determining what we will really need to take with us and what will just be extra stuff that we won't use anyway. Invariably when I pack for a vacation I always pack along too much unneeded stuff. I get my suitcase packed and then I see stuff that I think I might need and I throw that in too. The next thing I know the suitcase is stuffed. And with the girls and their families all bringing stuff too ---- yeh, we'll all over pack.

I had a very relaxing Father's Day, but then almost all of my days are relaxed days. We went to church at Crossroads Christian again, It was a nice service with a good message. This was the third in their series on marriage and yesterday it felt with the role of sex in the marriage and God's place in that. The church was full; partially I suspect because it was Father's Day. They claim a congregation of 3000 people and I can believe it. They do three services on a weekend and soon they will be opening up a new campus/church on the west side of town. I'm not sure how that will affect them. But --- mega-churches do that and sometimes it works, and some times they find that they have bitten off more than they can chew. I think this was our fourth visit to this church and we have enjoyed each experience. I think a person could be as involved or uninvolved in that church as they want to be. It certainly is a place where one can just go, attend a service of worship and leave without anyone asking anything of you or even knowing or caring if you are there or not. And as nice as that may seem; (and I know many people who want nothing more than that) --- I have to ask myself if that is what it is all about. I guess I would compare it to going to a buffet where everything is laid out for you  and you just pick and choose what you want to eat; ---- or having a home cooked family meal where everybody pitches in to help. You get fed either way; but I think the joy of eating and or worshipping with family adds a dimension of fullness to the soul. There is much to be said for small intimate congregations and worship. So, Ms. Kate and I will probably bounce around from church to church until we are allowed by the constraints of of our denomination to return to the two churches where I was the pastor. (What a stupid man-made rule for a church to have).

Time to do something besides watch birds; most of them have gone by now anyway. Bandit, (the raccoon) was here again last night. I run him off three times. It's cute but I don't need it tearing up and or stealing my feeders.

Have a blessed week. Shalomn.