I think somebody took my Wednesday. Where did it go? Maybe it was the whole August 1st thing and I just didn’t get around to writing. However, here it is, Thursday and it is sunny, and it is beautiful outside,and the birds are singing all of which makes it another fine morning, brought to me courtesy of an amazing God. So, let’s start the day with a heaping helping of gratitude and praise for blessings received.

Actually, my Wednesday was a little busy. I had office hours and staff meeting first thing yesterday and then Pastor Art and I spent another hour just talking about “stuff”. We talked philosophy, and theology, and the direction the national church is taking and what we DOD and don’t like about that. We talked about how we think our church is going and our hopes and prayers for whomever they find as the new settled pastor. We don’t forget that we are only interim pastors for the church, holding down the fort until they hire permanent pastor. But we both are of the mindset that we aren’t there to just hold the door open but rather to keep the faith strong and advance God’s work. So, we stay busy and try to insure the church is always looking forward. Pastoral search is a hard job, especially when your church isn’t particularly wealthy or large. Zoar, our church, is in the midst of its third year and doesn’t seem to be any closer than they were three years ago. So, I ask you to keep us all in prayer. Art and I absolutely love what we are doing but —- we’d like to get on with our retirement too.

The feeders are all full in the backyard buffet. My usual guests are in and out. The wrens, finches, cardinals, and woodpeckers are my main guests so far this morning. So far the squirrels haven’t come tromping across the roof and taking over the feeders. Hey! — The good news is that Wild Birds and Things has put out a notice that theey are going to re-open soon. I am happy to see that, although I must admit my work-around solutions to feeding my birds has worked very well and has been a lot less expensive. The “Bark Butter” paste that I was paying a king’s ransom for has been replaced by jars of “store-brand” chunky peanut butter at abou a third of the price and the “bark-butter-bits” that they all love has been replaced by another local brand of the same stuff. So, we’ll see what happens. If other Wild Birds customer have found the same work-arounds, the new management may have a tough time re-establishing themselves.

I spent a good deal of my time working on liturgy last evening. We have a couple of baptisms coming up and the people wanting baptism are also wanting to become members of our church. So, I work of that last night. It was joyful work.

We never did get out to pick up a cantaloupe and I want to do that today. But right now, I have a new case starting today on the Criminal Case computer game I play and I want to start that. So, I’m out of here. I hope you have a most blessed day. Peace.