From Hawaii

From Hawaii The past two months have been monster months in terms of time constraints. The Capranica Villa is here and we now have the county o.k. to move in. We’ve spent countless hours finalizing, preparing and painting. The actual move is yet to come. We continue to have major ups and downs with selling our current home. This latter issue is a saga in and of itself that will one day, once it is all finalized (could be months), will need to comprise a long blog post of its own. I have finished a DMin seminar and am working on another due in January. I have continued to preach in the evening services. Revelation was completed in September and Malachi was completed at the end of October. I have begun a new series using texts required from the next DMin seminar. Our choir is in full swing in preparation for the largest Christmas concert in which our church has ever been engaged. Normal church responsibilities continue as well. With all of this there have also been countless dropped and missed opportunities for ministry. I deeply regret these. Blogging has been null and void. Though the times have been hectic, they have also been good. I thoroughly enjoy the ministry. The business always causes me to try and find some time away from the pace and rethink my priorities and time management. I am hoping that the next ten days will provide some good opportunity for me to stop, relax and prepare myself to jump back into the work, but with a renewed commitment to and strategy to achieve what is most important. How will I do this? Well, I had to leave the mainland. What? That’s right. I am sitting in a recliner in a bed and breakfast in Honolulu, Hawaii. Just now am I starting to come down from the stress of the past few days. How and Why? Kelly and I are about to embark on a cruise of the Hawaiian islands with about twenty-two others from her side of the family. All of this has been a trip the family has wanted to take over the past few years, and we have actively been planning to do this for the past year and a half. It is finally here. The impetus for the trip came with Kelly and her siblings desired to have a memorial service for their late mother and dispose of her remains. They have all wanted to do this in Hawaii, but the opportunity was never right until now. So, I plan to take the next few days to catch up on some blogging, reading, relaxing, as well as future planning, thinking and reworking of my schedule and commitments. This along with time spent with treasured family members. If I have internet access, I hope to post some thoughts and pictures of the goings on.