My last posting on July 28, spoke of my excitement about going to spend some time with Stan Ott. I did make it to DC on Sunday the 28th, and met my brother at Dulles Airport. We then made the quick trip to the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum. We toured the excellent facility and later went to have Thai for dinner. It was great to have some time with my brother.
Monday morning arrived, and Stan picked me up at my hotel and took me to the Vienna Presbyterian Church to sit in on a pastor staff meeting. Afterwards, we debriefed the meeting and then began working on a number of items I wanted help with. We talked about how to lead volunteers, ways to develop discipleship and leadership in the church, and ministry time management techniques.
Following a full day, we had a delicious meal at the Chart House Restaurant in Alexandria. It was a "lingering" meal on the Potomic.
Unfortuneately, it was this evening that I received a call from my wife informing me that they thought her father may have had a stroke. We decided to talk in the morning and figure out our plan then. The next morning, Stan and I met and went to his office. We began discussing some of the "Dynamic Shifts" that First Presbyterian wanted to emphasize. We had just got into the meat of it, when I received another call from my wife. She thought I needed to get home as soon as possible. The airlines were no help. They offered to cancel my ticket for $200 and then credit the remaining $35 toward a rescheduled flight for $630. Well, I rented a car and began the drive to Lexington.
I arrived around 7 p.m. and things were not looking good. Brooke's sisters arrived soon after I did, and we were all convinced that this was going to be the night her dad entered glory. As it turned out, he did not die until Friday morning.
Throughout this turn of events, it became obvious that my sabbatical plans were not as important as being there for my family. We planned the funeral, took care of a bunch of things around my parents in law's home, and then participated in the funeral on Monday. The rest of the week was filled with helping my mother-in-law take care of some legal and estate issues. I then decided to take my children to the beach to help them begin to deal with their grief.
As of today, August 16th, I have two weeks left of my sabbatical break. My plans are to finish up some of my "forward looking" "wings" reflections and plans. One of the "casualties" of my change of plans was the amount of time I was planning on spending in song writing and recording. These just ceased to be important. I am going to set aside a little time each week in the fall to attend to this part that got pushed to the side.
I am looking forward to getting back "in the saddle." I have some specific plans to carry the things I have learned into my ministry going forward.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support.
Lee
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