Week in Review

I spent most of last week in Lakeland. This is the room where it happens, where we meet and make appointments. And the view of Lake Mirror from the office. 

I finished up the week at Harvest UMC in Lakewood Ranch for our district congregational vitality event, Stir! We were focused on helping churches connect to their community. It was a great day with a lot of people from 24 of our 41 churches. 

 

Tuesday In the LIfe

On Tuesday night, the guys all went to see the Gators play basketball. They were given great seats by one of the Grace church members - they were just two rows behind Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel. They have had an amazing time. 

Meanwhile I was in Lakeland for Cabinet and went to the Strawberry Festival for dinner with Amy. 

 

Last Week's Track Meet

Last Saturday was a track meet held at IMG sponsored by VTO Sports. Wesley competed in the 100m dash and came in 4th in his heat. 

He also finished first in the high jump for the day! 

Here he is getting his medal and getting interviewed. 

 

District Youth Laser Tag

Three church youth groups came together at Grace UMC Venice on Sunday night for laser tag fun - Harvest in Lakewood Ranch, Grace Venice and Cornerstone from Naples. It was really nice to hang out with them all and boy were they competitive! I got to give the devotional over dinner too. 

Sarasota Wildlife

In the last few days we have seen an opossum, a turtle and a deer in our yard. So much fun to see all this wildlife! 

  

A Week of Driving - 800 miles!

Sunday morning started with worship and a special called charge conference at Wesley Memorial UMC  in Fort Myers. The church has come to the end of its life cycle and voted to close at the end of May. We had a special time of prayer together after the vote. 

Then I drove to a meeting with one of our ministry candidates in Naples before heading into the Everglades for another prayer vigil across the street from the Alligator Alcatraz detention center. This week marked #30 of the prayer vigils and the third time I have been at the site. We sponsored the vigil from the South West district and set up a chartered bus to pick up people along I75 on the way down and back. Kayln Wiley, one of the pastors at Cypress Lake UMC wrote our liturgy for the vigil this week.

This couple from Cornerstone UMC in Naples sang

Kris Wise is a candidate for deacon in the UMC and an associate organizer with SURE in Sarasota. He's been helping to lead vigils in Sarasota each week at the same time as the Everglades ones and brought a word from the folks there. 

Dottie Johns is the pastor at Trinity UMC North Port and read a prayer. 

Rev. Ben Richards from First UMC Bonita Springs also led a moment of silence and a prayer. 

Roland Heinrich is the lay leader at Cornerstone UMC and will be attending a vigil in Washington DC this week as a representative of our district. 

With the buses, we had a large crowd of about 200 people in attendance. Grateful for everyone who came out to be a witness. 

Monday I was in meetings and worked from my office space in Lakeland. I got it mostly decorated - just waiting on a print of Laughing Black Jesus for the top of my desk. 

Monday night I drove over to Winter Park and spent some time in the hotel gym before going to bed. 

Tuesday morning I worked from First UMC in Orlando for several Zooms before teaching on clergy wellness with all of the Residents in Ministry. After teaching time, we all went out to dinner at Cocina 214 in Winter Park. 

Wednesday I was back out to DCOM in Fort Myers and I finished out the week at our office in Sarasota.