• Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! (Ps 107:1-2)
• Thank God for his Son - a gift too wonderful for words! (2Corinthians 9:15)
• In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1Thessalonians 5:18)

Off to Omaha. Today Cliff and I and four of our elders (Chris Larsen, Bruce McCormick, Kevin Balbi, and Lynda Gantenbein) are flying to Omaha for the Presbytery of the West meeting (of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church). Fair Oaks Pres has applied to transfer from the New Wineskins Presbytery to the Presbytery of the West (POTW). New Wineskins is a temporary transitional presbytery for churches exiting the PCUSA; POTW will be a more permanent home. In mid-September the POTW examined our Session-was everybody a Christian and was their theology solid? And our whole Session passed "with flying colors." (Our Presbygelicalism class was designed as a crash course on Presbyterian beliefs.) Cliff and I were examined separately as pastors and recommended for membership. On Saturday the POTW will vote; we'll be back on Sunday to share the results.

It's Friday morning and I'm suffering from a Shakespeare hangover. 30 years ago when I was a grad student, I dreamed of being a literature professor. I am especially addicted to all things Shakespeare. So I flew down yesterday afternoon to San Diego and took my dad, who turns 90 this week, to Twelfth Night at the Old Globe. What a fantastic show! But we got home late and then I flew home this morning and I'm feeling hungover from the sleep deprivation and break in routine.

The Big News this week is the Prayer Walk on Sunday. There's huge excitement as we get ready to walk the church grounds and contend for the property and the privilege of continuing to worship here and do the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. (Regular worship times - 9:00 and 10:39 - we start in the Sanctuary.)

Laila and I had a long drive through South Carolina farm fields to catch a flight home, we are passing a lot of churches with funny names - the Christian Fortress, Great Present Church, Bibleway Temple, Upon This Rock Church, New Millennium Apostolic Church, Mount Zero Missionary Church, Home Branch Church of God Prophecy. Presbyterian doesn't sound so bad now.

This Sunday Dr. David Githii, the former moderator of the four-million-member Presbyterian Church of East Africa, will be preaching. David heard we were preaching through the Lord's Prayer and asked if he could speak about how prayer has been key to the growth and vitality of the Kenyan church. Sure! His text is 2Chronicles 20, which happens to be one of our readings next week as we work our way through the Bible. David will also be teaching a prayer seminar Monday evening for anyone interested in serving in our prayer ministry.

Hi everyone!

This is me being silly. Which is what a lot of Summer Blast was about. Being silly for Jesus. With our kids. [I played Olympic-champion Scooter Schwarzengruber in the Game Show Spectacular skits.]

What a terrific job Wendy Roberts-Campbell (our children's director) did putting the whole week together-including the adult classes that attracted 200+ grownups as well as all the kids. The list of volunteers that made all the Bible teaching, singing, drama, food, and games possible is almost as long as the church directory. Way to go, Team Church! During the "in between" times when we were enjoying the food and refreshments, I ran into dozens of community folks who came because they heard about Summer Blast from a friend or saw a flier. Summer Blast is an easy way to do evangelism-getting people to venture onto our church campus for something "non-threatening" (like to hear Assemblyman Roger Niello or attend a seminar on barbecuing led by Chef Jacques) and then discovering a friendly group of people who are fun and happen to love God. People everywhere are hungry for a community of friends like that.

Hi everyone!

The campus has been overrun this week by little munchkins who are here for Adventure Camp (preschoolers) and Music Camp (K-6). I just watched the first dress rehearsal of the Friday night show (yes, tonight! at 7!) -and I was hugely moved to see a hundred kids singing and dancing and clapping and stomping and shouting as they sang about "We are united in Jesus Christ! We are the soldiers of the light!" Their voices filled the sanctuary and together they became something impressive and mighty as they followed Sara Noah's direction.

Ed Longabaugh took this picture last night of the leadership team our church sent to Detroit this week-first to the New Wineskins presbytery meeting on Tuesday, and then from Wednesday through Saturday to the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), our new denominational home. (Ed is a former associate pastor at our church, now pastoring in Kansas City, Missouri at a New Wineskins Church.) The team is Pastor Cliff and me, and Elders Jim Clifton, Lynda Gantenbein, Chris Larsen, and Chris Patterson. (Laila was our team mom.)

Tomatoes. I appreciate all you backyard gardeners who have come up to me and told me you already have ripe tomatoes. Some of you are brimming with the irrepressible excitement of a true farmer experiencing your firstfruits. But I know most of you are gloating. Because backyard tomato-farming really is a competition. Who has the first tomato? Who has the biggest tomato? Who can grow the most tomatoes in the smallest patch of ground? Ron Jones grows tomatoes upside down out of kitty litter bins. Imagine if this were an Olympic sport. It would be at least as exciting as curling. The marathon takes hours to run; tomato harvesting takes about 80 days.