I am amazed at the magnificence of God’s timing that would allow Sara and I to spend a month with my father after the passing of my mom. It not only allowed us to help him with all the details of her passing, planning her celebration, and dealing with the endless paperwork, but also allowed some amazing fellowship with him as his life gets rearranged. Today we have to head for home and it will not be easy. We have enjoyed this season and God’s timing. (For those that wanted to see the video commemorating my mom’s life that I referred to in my last blog, you can view it here.)
It actualliy seemed like months ago when we arrived. I had two weeks to finish Finding Church when I arrived amidst everything else going on and was able to get it ready to send to the copy editor. When I get home I’ll be working to finalize the cover and finish all the copy so we can get it to the printer. I’ve sent it to a number of people to get their reviews of it and am excited about the feedback I’ve been getting. As we get closer to publication, I will also be sending out copies to those who would like to do reviews on their blogs or an interview on their podcasts about the book. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we’ll be able to open up pre-orders for the book. We are hoping for books by September 20, but will probably aim for an October 15 release date.
I’ve been glad to have that out of my head for a couple of weeks of celebrating my mom with family and friends that came in from every season of my parents’ lives. I also have a lot of connections in this area having lived in the Central Valley of California for 47 years, so that means we get to catch-up with old friends, help encourage people on this amazing journey of learning to live in his love and love others in the same way. We even had an all-day Saturday gathering in Clovis to explore that life and many other personal encounters.
All and all this has been an amazing month. I’m not sure I got all the rest in that I hoped for, or all the books read that I wanted to, but I have a sense that we did what pleased Jesus. It will be good to get back home and get back to a more consistent routine, which will include trips this fall to Lake Tahoe, Bakersfield, CA, Lexington, KY, northeast Ohio, and south Texas. I look forward to those engagements and whatever else God chooses to unfold. Blessings to you all!
