Monday!

Are you ready for this? A new week! The last 2 weeks for me have been "partial" weeks. What do I mean by that? Well, the week before last, I left early, early on Wednesday morning to go to Honduras, and last week I returned home on early, early Wednesday morning. The trip required me adjust 2 weeks, which was fine. I am, however, looking forward to a full, regular week this week. Of course "full" and "regular," especially that later word, is very hard to define.

It sure was an interesting weekend! Friday was a busy day. I needed to finish my sermon and all the stuff that goes along with it, plus I needed to run 20 miles. If you remember Friday, then you remember that it was a day of wild weather, and it began early. I took off to run around 8:30, after watching the radar; looked good, I thought. I got less than a mile from my truck when the lightning and thunder started. Time to change plans, so I went back home and worked for a while, watching the ground turn white with hail. Good move.

I went back out around 11 a.m. and got 10 miles in before I had to be somewhere else. Oh well. I decided I would run another 10 on Saturday. The rest of the day was busy with various things, including getting ready for Sunday. Friday evening Kedra and I took advantage of Ben going to the sectional basketball game in Washington to have a really hot date: Bloomington, Olive Garden, and then, wait for it(!), Sam's club. Yes, we went clubbing!

We ate out on a gift card that we received at Christmas, shared a meal, drank water, and walked away for a total of the face value of the card: $25, which included a $3.97 tip. That's was good. On our way to Sam's, Greg McBride from Tulip Street church called, saying that we needed to do something to help the tornado victims just to our south and east. Greg and I have worked together on various things, and he went with me to Alabama last April to help with tornado relief.

Long story short, we planned a quick and simple effort that would take place on Saturday. We got the word out on Friday evening, mostly via Facebook. Amazing! That's how I would describe what happened. The word spread rapidly, and by Noon on Saturday, there were literally truckloads of supplies on the way to Pekin. Facebook has its problems, etc., but it sure is a powerful communication tool!

I could not help with the collection and delivery on Saturday, due to a commitment to drive the bus for Larry M and the track team. We went to DePauw University in Greencastle for a huge indoor meet. I got the bus at 7:30 a.m. and parked it at 8:00 p.m. Long day! While there I ran 10 miles. It was cold, windy, and a few snowflakes fell on me!

Yesterday was a good day at church, and one of the coolest things that happened, in my opinion, was the "tweeting" that took place during the sermon. I have been thinking for quite a while about encouraging sermon interactivity, and that kinda happened yesterday. I would like to evolve to the point that people can text statements/questions during the sermon that I would take the time to answer at the end. Yesterday a few guys simply tweeted some thoughts and ideas, some were funny and some were serious. The hash tag is #mcoc, if you want to see what happened.

OK, off to work...