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I'm supposed to be on a plane headed to Atlanta and then on to Tel Aviv. A trip that I have dreamed of taking for years. It was to be the highlight of my Renewal. That all changed of course when war broke out. I am grateful however that I was not there when this all happened. My tour company offered me a refund, minus a few fees and hopefully peace will return to the region and one day I will be able to go. Everything happens for a reason and God always has a plan. Sometimes that plan is very clear and other times it is harder to understand. My disappointment and inconvenience pales in comparison to the heartache and disruption of the lives of all of those in Israel. I know that God has a plan for this land and it's people and I pray that peace will return soon. I have my family and we were all able to be together in Galena, IL for the weekend. The colors were beautiful and we had a great time together. We slipped over to the Field of Dreams and I was able to have a catch with my boys. We walked out of the cornfield and ran the bases. What a treasure we have in Iowa. There were families there enjoying the same thing. I appreciate the fact that the decision was made to not commercialize this but keep it simple for families to enjoy for generations. We played a lot of golf, ate a lot of good food, played games and just enjoyed our time together. We all went to a local church together on Sunday. During the greeting time a gentleman was asking where we were from, I shared that we were all able to get together here during my Renewal. He was very excited to hear that and we had a great conversation afterward as they are working on a Sabbatical plan for their pastoral staff and I was able to share some great information with him. Through everything God is good. In his plan for me not being able to travel to the Holy Land made me available to conduct a funeral tomorrow. I guess God knew that I was needed here. He always knows best and I'm glad he leads my life.

It has been harder than I thought to disconnect from church. I find myself wanting to go over to the church and just be there. I want to go over on Wednesday nights and check in on everything. I am starting to get there and it has been good to take some trips. We had a wonderful time in Michigan seeing good friends. I spent a little over 5 years serving in Fremont, MI. Our friends have moved on to a different church so it was great to worship with them in their new church home. It was baptism morning and we got to witness baptisms in several age groups. It still brings tears to my eyes to witness this moving experience. The weather was not so cooperative as it was rainy and overcast for most of our time there. We were able to take a color tour Sunday afternoon to Traverse City. The colors were beautiful. God's creation never disappoints no matter the season. I have been journeying through the book of Acts. It is amazing to me how the Spirit would embolden the followers of Jesus to speak his truth. How amazing the transformation of Saul as a hater of Jesus to Paul as a believer and preacher of Jesus. I want to be that open to the Spirit moving in my life. I know that I feel it and at times embrace it and other times stifle it. Why is it that we are so afraid of the world? My verse of the day today was "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you." - Isaiah 54:10. Oh what a beautiful promise from the Lord our God.

Well, I'm one week into my Renewal and it has been an interesting week. This morning I waited until the sun was up to go for a nice 4 mile run and I'm sitting by my fire pit enjoying it's warmth as well as the warmth of the sun. I was sure not expecting to spend a couple of days in Iowa City with Jer and Jodi but I was so glad that I didn't have to think about preparing for Sunday so I could just be present with them and Keegan. What a reminder of how quickly life can change. I marveled at the care given to Keegan by the staff at the Children's Hospital there in Iowa CIty. I also marveled at the love and care of our heavenly father for Keegan and his family. To see the faith of so many and the family of God lift everyone up in prayer was such a blessing. Missi and I were able to travel out to Indiana on Friday to spend the weekend with Tyler and Bailey. It was good to see them and spend some time there. We were able to attend church with them and be challenged by their pastor. He started with the words from Acts 15:19, "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God". It gave Missi and I some good conversation for the drive home. Do we make it hard for people to come into the church and find Jesus? The other crazy part of this first week was the war breaking out in Israel. I am sure glad that I was not there when this happened. Unfortunately, it leaves the status of my trip up in the air. I have not heard from my tour company yet and I am sure they are trying to figure things out as well. It is horrible what has happened and prayers for peace and justice trump my desires to travel to the Holy Land. It has been hard disconnecting from church for several reasons and hopefully this week is a little bit more uneventful. I have some home projects that I hope to get to this week and we plan to travel to Michigan this weekend to spend time with friends and worship with them on Sunday. We are hoping for nice weather as the colors of fall in Michigan can be quite spectacular. Until next time I leave you with the words of Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

This day started just like any other Monday with taking Trooper for a walk and then a run for myself. It was nice to relax on the deck after my run with a nice cool breeze. Today is getting some loose ends tied up at church. Payson was good enough to send me his preaching plan so I could get all of the live streams set while he is preaching. I am excited for him to continue the journey in Genesis. I spent some time on tech support getting all of our domain stuff switched over so we can launch our new website. Hopefully, I got everything done right and Boxcast can do what they need for our new site to launch. If you are reading this then it worked, lol. I need to get some praise sets put together and a couple of other things and then I will be done with stuff at church. Things don't feel very different yet other than not thinking about what to preach on and beginning research/study. Time to get back at it and get those things finished up.