Monday morning and October is officially one half over. It’s a chilly 48 degrees and thee sun has yet to be seen even though it is daylight. I think the forecaster said that these clouds may break up this afternoon for awhile. 

How was your weekend? We had a good one around here. This is the first weekend that Kate has felt well enough to to get out of the house go do some things. It was also her first theme back at church in some time. Everyone was happy to see her and she was really happy to be back. Being with our parishioners is the main thing that we will miss after I retire. For the past almost 20 years we have built a lifetime bond with them. Protocol dictates though that we not involve ourselves in those two churches for a lengthy period of time after we retire. It tends to interfere with the relationship that a new pastor is trying to build with the congregations. I understand the reasoning, but it isn’t easy. I wouldn’t want to interfere at all with their progress “post-me”. And —- they need to be open to new leadership and maybe even new ways of doing things.  However, many of these people have become very personal friends of ours. That will not change. 

Yesterday was a great day at my St. Paul’s church because we had an infant baptism. The church was pretty full. This event was actually a generational event. I knew the great-grandparents of the infant and even did their funerals. I confirmed the child’s father and his brothers, I married all three of the boys and now am baptizing their babies. Long pastorates will give you those opportunities occasionally and I have had several of them between the two churches. God blesses me every day with things like this. 

I’m looking over our calendar for this week and it is void of doctor visits this week with the exception of a dental cleaning for me tomorrow afternoon. What will we do for a social life???????

With that, I’m done for this morning. Have a blessed week. Stay in touch with God; pray for peace in this world.