After a Long Gap, My Final Tinkering

I can hardly believe it.  It's been over a month since I last posted.  So much has happened, and it has been such a rich time.

My last post was upon my arrival in England.  The ensuing two weeks were amazing.  Old churches, beautiful pasture-scapes, tight narrow hedge-hemmed roads, heart-pounding drives on the left side of the road, castles, cathedrals, holy wells, sunsets and cloud spreads, sheep and cows, walking paths through pastures, Stonyhurst, Holywell, St. Beunos, St. Asaphs, Conway, Ruthin, Dublin...I've got a bunch of pictures and I hope you will give me a chance to share with you my slide show some time in the fall ahead!

Also, some time this fall be sure to ask me about the "five thoughts" that cemented during my travels, and that I am bringing back with me, five thoughts that will provide rich fodder for much more thinking in the months ahead.

It was so great to come home to my family after two weeks abroad.  John Henry Newman, in his autobiographical work Apologia Pro Su Vita, writes how foreign travel "has a way of throwing you back into yourself."  I would say that was very true for me.  But two weeks alone, away from Susan and the kids, made me miss them so much.  The reunion home was great.

We travelled afterwards up to Washington where we had wonderful times with family and friends.  I was able to get up on water skis after about ten falls, with Kelly Ballard (former Hillside worship pastor) at the helm of the boat in the Willamette River south of Portland.  Most memorably:  I helped build a prairie fence on my sister-in-law's 5 acres, cutting through thick bush, and digging post holes in the oddest of places.

I am so excited to say that I have finished 3 significant poetry projects this summer.  One work is called The Cast.  It is a long poem with a commentary that portrays characters from the Bible in order to tell the whole story of redemption in a creative way.  I am seeing in this work a possible fresh approach to teaching theology!  The second work is called The Ascension Window.  It is also a long poem with commentary portraying the great East Window of St. Asaph's Cathedral in St. Asaph, North Wales.  It is full of Bible stories, theology, history, all tied together by this amazing window.  The third work is called Waking Up in Wales: Old and New Poems.  This is a collection of many of my favorite poems over the last many years, with a large selection of poems written over this past year.  I have self-published these three little books and they are all available on a website called lulu.com where they can be ordered (for a cost) or downloaded (for free).

I am now beginning my re-entry preparations.  It has been an unbelievably rich and healing time to be away.  Now my excitement is building to come "home" to my family and rejoin you all on the journey you have been on.  I will be a little different, and you will be a little different, and the fresh mix, I have no doubt,  will be a good chemistry for all of us!

I will be back in the office August 26-29 for three re-orientation days.  I am officially back at my post on Tuesday, September 2, and will be in church again for the first time on Sunday, September 7.

It will be a joy to be together again!