Rambly and Thankful

It's the end of a good weekend. Toni and I feel positive about the progress that's been made in the process of getting our house ready for the big show and tell. We'll meet sometime this week with a realtor and get the house on the market. (If someone wants to see it before that happens let us know!)

On Saturday night Toni asked if it felt strange not be preparing for Sunday morning. It didn't feel strange to me because since mid April I haven't been the main speaker. I'm thankful for the time of transition that Crossroads provided with several different speakers.

See the "transitions" series on the Crossroads website... I'm not working on that site anymore but, at least for now that series and the previous series are available online. It will be Crossroads' choice about how they will continue to maintain or change that online presence. I'm available to help out if they want me but I'm not not leading anything there. I dropped off my key this weekend.

I'm not planning on backing off from friendships, however! Several friends (brothers in Christ!) from the Crossroads family have helped us with parts of our own transition since we "left" our roles in that particular body last week. I mentioned last Monday night that a friend made himself available to give me rides from Cokato to training and back. That friend is a part of the Crossroads family. Then today four other Crossroads brothers helped us move mattresses from the basement to the garage. And I've been talking in one way or another with some Crossroads sisters.

I'm praising God for the continuation of sweet relationships. As the song that Diann surprised us with at the end of worship on May 31, "the welcome will not end." That's good thing. (See "Forever Friends Can Be True.")

This morning we went to a neighboring town for worship. It was good to be in the presence of other brothers and sisters (and a few friends we've known for years) as we praised God and prayed together. Yesterday some friends (a brother and sister in the Lord) stopped by to see us from the Wisconsin town where we lived many years ago. Others we didn't see but we'll look forward to seeing them later. In addition to all that, I've been wondering who the Lord will lead me to relate to as brothers and sisters in Christ at Metro Transit. I'm praying about that now.

In Christ, friends and brothers and sisters are never subtracted. Addition goes on. Always. Amen! I hope my friends and brothers and sisters everywhere will always know they can call on me. The welcome will not end from this side either. You may need to leave a message if you call me, but I will call you back.

This is kind of a ramble-ly sort of writing, but it's just my way of saying how important friends are, and how I don't plan on letting them go. (I'm actually waiting for my clothes to dry so I can hang them up and get to bed! At MT I need to have clean clothes. Dress codes rule.)

Tomorrow morning I'll head in to MT's training center. If I take the bus I'll leave my sister's house between 5:30 and 5:45AM, walk to the bus stop, take a "Plymouth Metrolink" express bus at 6:07 to downtown and get a quick transfer. That will get me to my destination about 45 minutes early. I'll use that time to do some studying there before our on-the-road training begins at 7:30.

God's perfect peace to you all. Give me a call or connect with me however you want to. If we've known one another at any time, we're not strangers anymore.