Wednesday, July 29, 2009

I Shall Return

I have a number of things on my mind that I would really like to blog about, but in case you didn't notice, I've been a little busy this summer. Some would probably chalk it up to the fact that I'm a new father. That would be a mistake, however. Summers are very busy for me and I am away from home more than I am home.

Just to give you an indication of what my summer schedule has been thus far, here is what I've been up to and will be up to for the next month or so:

May 24: We welcomed Camden Shawn into the world
June 19-24: Camp Pitch - Freeport, Maine
June 24-July 4: Northern New England Camp Meeting
July 5-6: Camp Strike
July 7-11: HOME
July 12: Performed a wedding at one of my churches
July 12-18: Camp Pastor for Junior Camp at Camp Lawroweld - Weld, Maine
July 18: Drove three hours to Vermont in the afternoon to perform a baptism (a wonderful one at at) and then drove three hours back to Maine to finish serving as camp pastor
July 19-25: HOME, but stayed relatively busy, enjoying the company of my mother-in-law at our place for the week. Was also joined by my sister-in-law and brother-in-law midway through the week as well
July 26-27: Spent time on Cape Cod with family on Sunday (was supposed to go to Martha's Vineyard), and went to Red Sox game on Monday night for Camille's birthday present
July 28-August 1: HOME
August 2-5: Atlantic Union Pastors' & Teachers' Conference - Providence, Rhode Island
August 9-19: Vacation to Nova Scotia, Canada

And there are three other things to consider: 1.) I don't have a functioning laptop as of right now (though this is being remedied soon). Thus, my Internet access is limited when I'm away from home. 2.) When you are home on and off, and for only a few days or a week at a time, you have to do all the "catch-up" things that comes with returning home (mail, e-mail, unpacking, re-packing, trying to connect with my members again, etc.). 3.) Most significantly, we are in the process of moving out of our current residence and moving closer to our churches by August 23. That takes up a lot of time and energy!

All this is to say that come September, I should be back to the "normal" routine of life. Usually from about September to May, things are normal, but when summer comes around, all bets are off.

I hope you don't lose any of my audience on the meantime.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

It's Me Again!

If anyone is interested, here are a few links to the presentations I did last week at the Northern New England Camp Meeting. For the most part, the presentations are similar to my book, though they are a little more in-depth with less "fluff."

I had a great time with the seminar and God really blessed. I don't get the chance to "teach" very often. Usually I am in more of a homiletical mode. But I really enjoyed this format and I don't think many people in the audience had glazed eyes.

The first presentation, "The Delayed Wedding," is here.

The second presentation, "The Waiting Groom," is here.

And the thrid presentation, "The Responsive Bride," is here. For my money, I think the last presentation perhaps went the best. There certainly was a lot of interaction - mostly positive.

I would love to hear anyone's reaction to the presentations.