Wonderful Weekend!

Saturday was absolutely glorious. Warm. Fragrant. Springtime. Relaxed. And totally refreshing.

Margo had an all-day meeting preparing for the upcoming Tres Dias weekend, and the kids worked all day at Chik-Fil-A. So I pretty much had the day to myself. I dropped the kids off at work, and was surprised to run into Bob Burkhart grabbing a quick breakfast before heading to a meeting. So we ate together, laughed, and kicked off the day well. I puttered about and worked on some projects, and the time just flew by. After picking up the kids and doing a little shopping (Margo's birthday is coming up this week!), we stumbled across a copy of Galaxy Quest for $7, snagged it, and laughed ourselves silly until bedtime.

Sadly, our warm weather took a break today in exchange for gray overcast. But the warmth sure overflowed at Hope this morning!

As we were headed out the door, we got a call that both Steve and Gavin were staying home sick. So, in about 2 minutes, we had to scramble for a new approach to worship this morning. After a couple of phone calls and a bunch of whatever-it-takes responses, everything came together. I was amazed to watch the wonderful teamwork and flexibility during the rushed rehearsal before service, and there was such a sweet spirit in the music.

I also enjoyed hearing what Kiefer, Josh, Bart, and Eden will be up to with their upcoming ministry trips; it's exciting to see God working in the lives of the people at Hope as they seek ways to grow in their faith and share God's love with others.

It was fun closing our series on Galatians this morning; I really enjoyed a somewhat different approach to the passage about the "fruits of the Spirit" (seeing it in the context of righteousness and relationships), and I'm looking forward to moving in a new direction in a couple of weeks.

But what really blowed me away was the sense of harmony and enthusiasm that was so prevalent in our church family as we briefly thought through the implications of our upcoming "exodus" from Auburn Middle School out into the great unknown of God's blessing. I feel so honored to share life's adventure with this great group of people, and I'm absolutely confident that God has something very special in store for us. In the meantime, I think we'll enjoy an opportunity to stretch our faith and challenge our commitment, and Hope will flourish through the process.