Welcome Home

Yesterday I was fortunate to catch an earlier flight home after a marvelous time of sharing life with 1000 college students from all across the Southwest who had gathered for College Briefing at Forest Home Conference grounds.   The time there was stimulating, challenging, and incredibly heartening as I met students and heard of their passion, not only for knowing Jesus, but for embodying His life and character in the midst of a needy world.  They bring hope, energy, and sacrificial service to the table and I hold out great confidence that their generation will surpass my own in making a mark for Christ.  

Yet for all that, the earlier flight home, the chance to spend the evening with family (eating King Crab legs!) and prepare for today’s Bethany Staff Retreat, was a blessing.  I’ll be leaving in a few minutes for that retreat, and realize that it’s very good…. VERY GOOD to be home, and to feel that indeed, this is the primary field of harvest with which I’m entrusted.  The days ahead include a Sunday of reaching out to bless our neighbors (this coming Sunday), the REAL groundbreaking, a time of casting vision once more for what a privilege it is to invest our lives in God’s kingdom in every way (time, $).  Then I’ll be starting a series in Colossians, AND speaking each Wednesday night in October at Seattle Pacific’s mid-week worship.  There’s a sense of joy and anticipation in all of this, and something about the cooler fall air – the hope of the Hawk – and the sense that we are about to embark on the challenging whitewater that comes when we step into challenges that are bigger than our own capacities.  This is the kind of stuff that energizes me for ministry, and it’s a joy to be a part of it all.