Good afternoon, friends. This is Pastor Don. I want to start this call by letting you know that Mary Ann and I will be in church as usual this coming Sunday, but after worship is over, we are headed out for two weeks of vacation. The first week, we will spend visiting friends and poking around Ashville, North Carolina. The second week, we will be on Tybee Island in Georgia. So, there will be none of my regular One Calls during that time nor will there be Facebook Live on Sunday mornings. Ministry and Worship is arranging for people to lead the service in my absence.
Sometimes, I wonder why it is so important for me to get away like this. It certainly isn’t to get away from you all, because you are all dear to us both. But the experience of seeing new places and people never fails to jar my senses into remembering what I tend to forget.
Unfamiliar places and people always remind me that my little corner of the world is not the only great place, nor the only place of beauty. My friends are not the only wonderful people in the world and my ways are not the only good ways to do things. So, when I come home, I can be so glad to be home, but I’m also so much more understanding about why other people love their towns, cities, or countries so much and why other people choose to do things differently from me.
So hopefully, vacations make me a little more open and a little less judgmental than I would be otherwise. So blessings on us both for these couple of weeks and I’ll be in touch when I return.
Let’s Pray: Thank you, O God, for this amazing world. Thanks for so many wonderful people in our lives. Amen.
