Friday with Friends

Yesterday I said good-bye to one friend and spent good time together with a couple of others.
I sold our Camry to Jim Nieman who bought it for his son, Craig, to drive to college. The car has served us well for 169,964 miles, and I think it will make the perfect auto for Craig's needs the next 2 or 3 years.

 Evelyn and I will drive her Corolla to Louisville for the NACC, and then we hope to go to Ashland and buy a car from a dealer there recommended to us by Evelyn's brother, Ken. Hopefully, we'll be making a new fuel-injected friend in about a week!

Last night we met Milt and Maribeth Pippenger for dinner at the Golden Lamb in Lebanon. They've been camping there this weekend on their way to the NACC in Louisville. We spent the day with them on the Fourth, and they're visiting with Dale and Judy McCann today. We plan to meet 'em at church tomorrow and all share lunch together.
After dinner (a very fine dinner), we followed them to the campsite and sat in their roomy fifth-wheel motor home and visited till 10 o'clock. We decided Thursday that it's been about a year and half since I had seen them and even longer since the four of us had been together.
We first met Milt and Maribeth in 1976--39 years ago!--when we stayed in their home while interviewing for the Christian education minister position at First Christian Church in Longmont. We became close to them there in a Bible study/prayer group that was a great support as each of us comtemplated major career moves--Milt to a teaching position at San Jose Bible College and I to the editorship of The Lookout at Standard Publishing. It's a great treasure to have lifetime friends like these.

The Duty's in the Details

Today was a day for correspondence. A letter to a reader who had sent me a photocopy of an old article in Christian Standard by W.F. Lown that told the story of the merger of Midwest Christian College and Ozark Bible College decades ago. (This in response to my column encouraging more such mergers today.) An e-mail to a reader /friend who wanted to talk with me and Paul Williams about a piece Paul had written decrying the preponderance of one DiSC profile among successful church planters.
And then e-mails recruiting people to help with projects I'm involved with.
One task is to find a few folks in Indianapolis who would participate in a committee to help make local arrangements for a meeting of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue in that city this October. The committee will be made up of church staff people from independent Christian churches, a cappella churches of Christ, and Disciples of Christ congregations. My job is to recruit the 4C's members. (Two have already said yes. One or two more, and I'll be there!) Next I needed to write e-mails to folks asking them to lead table discussions at the Networking Breakfasts co-sponsored by Milligan College and Standard Publishing at next summer's North American Christian Convention.
All this sounds simple when I describe it in just a couple of sentences. But finding the correct e-mail addresses, carefully writing the e-mail invitations and then copying and personalizing them for each new recipient--all this takes time. And it's a little mundane; I get bored and distracted easily, remembering other e-mails I'll need to write, checking a website for information I remember I want, and being distracted by something totally non-work-related that I find on one of those websites.
For an editor, I have a remarkably low interest in pursuing details. I've learned to tend to details in many ways, but I never relish it; and we've made some significant mistakes because I only glanced at something that should have been carefully examined.

I really didn't find anything to photograph today, but my day reminds me of a picture I snapped last week. This is the checklist that managing editor Jim Nieman pulls out just before we give each month's issue to the printer. I've seen it on the table with the proof more than once, but I'd never really read it before. As I thought about the painstaking care he gives each issue before we release it, I'm glad I work with someone with an instinct for details that exceeds my own.

Meetings and a House Guest

Spent the morning editing material for the February issue (not nearly done with it), ate lunch at my desk, and then drove over to Cinti Chr Univ for two meetings. Met at 2:00 with Steve Carr, Beth Rogers, and Chuck Abbott to talk about the school's desire to get out the message, "The reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated." They have a clear vision of the school's direction and the message they want to convey to constituents and prospective students, and they think advertising with The Lookout and Christian Standard is a good way to help get the message out. I agree!
At 3:00 met with Rick Cherok about the Cane Ridge Tour he will lead Monday afternoon before the opening session of the NACC next summer. I'm going to help him with it by helping to publicize it and probably hosting the brief program we'll have there. It will be great to work with him.

Evelyn is watching a video of Robert's beautiful
little girl on his computer.

Then at 3:30 I met Robert Mwangala to drive him to our place to spend the night. We became acquainted with Robert when he was a student at the school several years ago. Evelyn had him in class, and we've been giving some support to the ministry he's established in his native Kenya since he returned home after graduation. He's back in the states for six weeks to attend ICOM, touch base with supporters, and contact potential new supporters.
Evelyn fixed her wonderful chicken and dressing casserole for dinner, and we enjoyed visiting with him and hearing about his work. He's going to spend the day here resting tomorrow while we're at work, and stay again tomorrow night. Ken and Susan (Evelyn's brother) are spending the night with us tomorrow on their way to their winter gig in Montana, and we're guessing they'll enjoy getting acquainted with Robert.