Difficult to Blog in Summer

More reasons for not blogging consistently in the summer time:

- I helped chaperone a group of teens and young adults whitewater rafting. That's me trying to get up on the front edge so that I can "ride the bull" on our raft. The guide in the back is trying to jump up and bounce me out but he didn't succeed - although he was tossed from the raft.

- Also had company a couple of times recently. Deb's cousin Angie and her daughter from Tuscaloosa (checking out UAH as a potential college), and my cousin Jason from Maryland. Enjoyed their visits but forgot to take pictures!

- Yard work is killing me. When the shrubs around this house need trimming its all at once - and there are bushes on all four sides of the house. I came home almost every evening for a while and stayed in the yard for some time working on trimming. I love yard work - but not all at once!

- The trustees of the church and I have been looking around town for a possible new location for the church since the owner of the building we are currently leasing wants to raise his rent when our current lease is up in October. Our ideal answered prayer is to have a building of our own, but nothing has come to our attention so far that will work for us. Please pray with us about this matter.

- Summer is also leisure reading time. Nothing good is usually on TV and it's often too hot to recreate outside - unless you're in the water - and Deb and I only dream about having a pool in the back yard. So there's reading - and I have been reading too many different books to mention but enjoying it immensely.

- Lastly, I'm praying and giving a lot of thought and writing to our fall spiritual and numerical growth campaign. It will be one of those 40 days things, beginning in mid-October and going to the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Right now I'm calling it, A Season of Surrender. So many great things happen in our lives when we surrender to God.