One Nice Surprise

Picture of the Day:
It was a day of surprises. One of them I can't talk about, and one of them I won't. But this one, the most pleasant one, I'm glad to describe and picture.
Long-time friends John and Mary Jane Burgess sold their farm last October and since then have been traveling the country. They've become sightseeing retirees without a home. They're in this area for a few days, and Mary Jane wrote this morning to see if we could meet them for dinner.
We met at Mimi's (Mimi's again!) at about 5:30 and sat and talked till after 8:00. It was great to hear about their travels west and south and east, including three months in a rental on Hilton Head Island.
I talked Evelyn and Mary Jane into posing for a picture as we got ready to leave.

Quote of the Day:

“Praise is often much more powerful than prayer, simply because praise is filled with faith, and prayer often isn’t.” 

—Alan Ahlgrim, in a newsletter to friends and supporters today.

Weekend Update

"April prepares her green traffic light, and the world thinks Go." I heard that quote from Christopher Morley Sunday, and I knew it couldn't have been more perfect for the beautiful, sunny day we were having. This is the time of the year when every lawn is green, and the flowering trees surrounded by daffodils and forsythia make every turn, every suburban neighborhood, another garden show.
To recap the weekend:
Saturday we Skyped with Wendy, and I paid bills. We decided to mow the lawn (for the record: mowing number 3), and Evelyn and I finished it just in time to get our showers and meet Bill and Verna Weber

Sev had a greeting for us
as we arrived Saturday.

to drive over to Paul and Sev Friskney's for a late afternoon meal. I think we're getting together now that the Webers are out of town more than we ever did when they were here! But it's good for all of us, and Bill and Verna come regularly to see Verna's mother at Mason Christian Village. And Verna was teaching a parenting class at White Oak Christian Church Sunday, so it worked out well for them to be here.
Sunday I hosted at the 9:00 service and was blessed by the worship and the sermon. We spent a lot of time after church talking with friends in the hallway. John and Mary Jane Burgess were visiting, and so were Bill and Joni Baker. John and Heather Turner have decided to remake Christ's Church their church home, and we got to see them for a few minutes Sunday too.
We grabbed breakfast at Bob Evans and were home and at work by 12:30.
Evelyn graded papers; I read through/edited the 40 profiles for our July "40 Leaders Under 40" issue and took some stabs at improving an editorial/column draft that I had started Friday. All of it together took me more than 3 hours.
We took our walk, had a nice long phone visit with Jennifer, and ate leftover ham and bean soup while we watched TV. 
Today I was busy finishing up the copy for that "40 Under 40" section to hand off to a designer, dealing with some web issues/problems, approving/tweaking an e-mail that's going out to 344 churches tomorrow, writing an e-mail number 2 that's going to about 150 churches to invite them to a special web seminar this week, writing a letter to those I've recruited to join our group for our cruise/tour this summer, and a couple of other things.

I decided at lunchtime to try to snap a picture of the beautiful blooming trees in the courtyard formed by my office building and the one next to it.

Finding the "Good" in Good-bye

It's a word I hate. "Good-bye." We had to say it again today as Tom and Kay Moll ended their fourteen-plus years ministry with Christ's Church at Mason (Ohio).
I didn't think saying the word would bring me to tears like it usually does. After all, this good-bye is a gateway to many good things things in the future.
Soon we'll say "hello" to Trevor DeVage and a new chapter in the service of our church. "I think the church's best days are ahead," Tom said in his final sermon this morning. Many of us would agree.
But today was a day for thinking briefly about the past. Kay gave a sweet and moving testimony to Tom's 50 years of ministry in a video tribute that preceded his appearance on the platform for his Sunday-morning sermon. She mentioned the thousands of Saturdays he spent calling, the uncounted nights he left home to help someone facing crisis, the commitment to uncovering  the truth in passages he was preaching.  The video reminded us of our church's growth from 600 to more than 3,000 members in his years at Mason, the three building programs, the church's growth in service to others as well as attendance within our walls on the weekends.
Considering the consistent, week-in-week-out faithfulness of this couple was the trigger for my tears. Remembering their lifetime of good choices and sacrifices, realizing the uncounted hours they've spent studying, preparing, and traveling to speak and serve--it's an example and challenge to all of us who know them and have been served by their goodness.
It's not that Evelyn and I have been close friends of Tom and Kay. We won't miss them the way we miss friends who move away. But thinking today about all they've given, not as perfect people but as perfectly committed people, helped us realize what we will remember about them for years to come.
And that's the "good," the very good, in this  "good-bye."

I snapped this picture of Mary Jane Burgess and Kay Moll at the lovely reception for Tom
and Kay hosted by our elders and their wives this afternoon at the church.
Mary Jane and her husband John came to hear Tom's last sermon this morning.
We enjoyed brunch with them after the early service and a brief visit at our place after that,
and then we got to the church a little after the reception's starting time, 2:00,
and waited in line 30 minutes or longer
before we could tell Tom and Kay thank-you face-to-face.

A Night at the Ballgame

The weather was delightful. The food was fine. The company was wonderful. The seats were perfect. The occasion was historic. The game was . . . disappointing.
We went to Great American Ballpark Friday night, the kickoff to Barry Larkin weekend and the last of this summer's Friday Night Fireworks. John and Mary Jane Burgess got great seats for us from the fellow they know in the Reds organization. We were about 25-30 rows off the ground on the first base line. It had been hot all day, but a nice breeze off the river made for comfort after the sun set. We walked through the crowds spilling out of the bars and restaurants in the developing Banks project and snagged wonderful hamburgers at the new Johnny Rockets that's part of the complex.
The game started well, but the Cardinals' combination of better hitting and pitching overpowered the Reds in a game that didn't end till well after 10:30. (Lots of walks and lots of hits by the Cardinals against the Reds.)
The after-game festivities featured several of Barry Larkin's former teammates being interviewed about their years with him and then a long speech of thank-yous from Barry himself.
The fireworks finally started around 11:00. We had met Burgesses at Christ's Church at Mason at 5:30 (Evelyn drove from home, and I drove from work). We were back there about midnight, home about 12:30 and not in bed much before 1 a.m.
It was a great night. But it would have better if the Reds had won!

The Perfect Day to Share a Perfect Sand Castle

I knew I wanted to share this picture sometime, and today (when I don't have a picture of anything interesting that happened today--so far!) is the perfect day.
This is a sand castle like none other I've ever seen! Sculpted from sand on the Copacabana beach not far from the hotel where we stayed in Rio de Janeiro last month. On our last morning there, Evelyn and I walked for quite awhile down the beach and then back up, toward our hotel on the sidewalk across the street from the beach, where we could find some shade. Just before we left the beach, we came across this remarkable sculpture. The man who made it was sitting beside it, asking for donations from those who wanted to take a picture. He tried to explain in halting English how he had built it and how he coated it with something to help preserve it.
I thought about posting this with something "inspirational" about building your house upon the sand vs. building it on the rock or something like that. But, dear readers, you've heard all that before. So I'll just say I wanted to post this remarkable handiwork for you to enjoy too, just for what it is.
Spent today catching up on correspondence, cleaning up my e-mail account (deleted HUNDREDS of unread e-mails--oh, what a mess I am!), and helping Diane Jones stuff mailings with a sample issue of the new monthly Christian Standard. I need to plan my work for next week before leaving at 5:00 to meet Evelyn and John and Mary Jane Burgess to go see the Reds play tonight. (THOSE pictures can be in TOMORROW'S post.)