Once Wednesday evening service is over I am out of here. That is not a statement against the church or anyone, it is a sign of relief. The past three summers we have had time away from the routine, but not in the form of a true vacation. The kids were graduating and so we used vacation days to attend those events. Nephews and nieces were getting married and more days were used for that. It was time away but you know how those things go. Your always around family and so you have to be on as a minister. Especially when some of the family are not Christian. You run in and out of homes and venues with little or no down time except to sleep a bit. It takes us two days to travel to any of the family’s homes, so there goes four days of your vacation time in the car. If we could just have gotten them to schedule graduation and weddings back to back and when we had open space on the church calendar, then I am sure we would have been able to have worked in some r&r.
Well this year we are going to head to the Southern Baptist pastor’s convention and then to the girl’s homes. We will be able to see our oldest, Rachel and Ben, and next Naarah and Kyle and of course our grandson. That is down time folks! We will also take in a day for mom and dad while in Southern Illinois. I have high hopes of doing some fishing with one of my good friends and if that does not work out, I will go by myself and rediscover what quiet is again.
I use to always think I could not leave the church for more than a week or ten days at a time. Well I am leaving town for over two weeks and if the Lord moves me I may stay away three weeks. I actually will be gone from the pulpit for three weeks in a row. That is a first for me since entering the ministry. My dear wife is at Children’s camp through Wednesday night and will come home and pack for the trip. Pray for her as she will be very worn out before we get started. If she gets to feeling to bad I will just mention that grandbaby and she will perk up. I look forward to the excellent preaching at the pastor’s convention when we are able to go. It has been several years since we have attended this event and I hope to see many friends there. Thank you church for allowing us to be away for this time of spiritual refreshing and relaxation. See you when we get back. Pastor Steve