Once More Into The Breach...

Back from Wichita. Tomorrow morning I will preach our three services, have lunch with my darling wife, and then on to Canada. I will be taking one of the Rochester College students with me. He lives near Beamsville, Ontario (the site of the Great Lakes Lectureship). He'll pick up his car and drive home later. I am to deliver the keynote Sunday evening ("In No Other Name but Jesus") and then give a plenary lesson on Monday ("The Importance of Church Planting") before turning around and driving back to Michigan.

The trip to Wichita went well. The minister of the Westlink congregation, Gary Richardson, and his lovely wife, Susan, were wonderful hosts. The morning was spent giving the sermon and the class for that congregation as they renewed their mission pledge for the coming year. This medium sized congregation of about 250 seems -- to my eye -- to be primarily middle and lower-middle class but they contribute over $40,000 a year to missions. All of that money was pledged that Sunday morning, which they assure me had never been done before. In excess of $12,000 was given as a down payment on their pledges. God is at work at Westlink!

That evening was the area wide worship. We met on the campus of Wichita State University and basically filled the auditorium. I've received a couple of "thank you" emails but it was hard for me to know if I reached the main group or not. I hope I did some good for my brothers and sisters in Kansas.

When I get back from Canada on Monday evening I will have just one day at home -- long enough to vote! And then I am off to Indianapolis where I speak to one of the mega-churches there, Kingsway Christian Church. This will be my second time there and I am looking forward to it.

Back Thursday afternoon in time to be off again on Saturday for Florida for a three day meeting.
My mother is doing well and thanks all for their prayers. My father is still in Guyana, way up river and out of contact. On the way down there his airline, British West Indies Airways, was making its last trip... and just in time. His plane kept breaking and had to set down to be repaired... twice! He stayed on it even as others left in fear at the thought of crossing over water at night in an aging and unreliable plane. He was to arrive at 8PM but got in at 2:45AM. Two hours of sleep and he got up to catch a ride on a boat into the interior. Did I mention he is 75 and has all the usual health problems one attaches to that age group? Being raised by Dad was like being raised in an Indiana Jones movie... except that the credits never rolled...

Snow flurries here again today. Christmas music is now being played 24/7 on WNCI, one of our FM powerhouses in Detroit. Andy Williams is advertising Branson, Missouri on TV. It might be three weeks from Thanksgiving, but Christmas is in the air.

And that's fine with me.