We made a second campus visit to St. Leo University today with Wesley. This time to meet the jumps coach and tour the athletic facilities. They have some great spaces and we were very impressed with Coach Emily Olson. This next year will be St Leo's second year with a track and field team and they already invested 1.4 million in building a new track on campus.
Weight Room - there is a specific lifts coach for the track team and specific work out time. The jumps coach works directly with them on the workouts.
We also got to visit the Business Building because Wesley is thinking of majoring in business in college.
It was a good day and Wesley is getting closer to a college decision everyday.
We finally got to see the official pictures from Senior Night at IMG. The first picture is all of the seniors on the track team. Wesley is in the back in the middle.
Daryl and I are with Wesley, along with Coach Napier (the head of the track team) and Coach Iryna (the jumps coach).
Saturday afternoon was Parker's graduation from Florida Southern College. His graduation was held at the FP Funding Center (the old Lakeland Convention Center) where we used to attend Annual Conference and where Daryl and I both were ordained.
Parker and his roomate Eddie before the ceremony started.
Grandmommy was able to join us for the big day.
It was FSC's largest ever graduating class! And in the program Parker was recognized for graduating "summa cum laude."
Processing in.
On stage is retired Bishop Bob Fannin (who we went to England with in 2011) and the current Bishop's assistant Alex Shanks, who is a member of the FSC Board of Trustees. Bishop Fannin gave the invocation.
And here is the video of Parker's name being called and him walking across the stage.
After the ceremony it was raining outside so we took all our pictures inside the convention center.
We went to dinner as a family at one of Parker's favorites - Harry's in downtown Lakeland. Then everyone else went home and Parker and I worked on packing up his apartment. After running some furniture for storage to Grandmommy's, we came back and went to the Joinery for May Day Ice Cream.
We finished packing a little in the morning and got the cars about half loaded. Then we cleaned up and went to church at First UMC in Auburndale where the Hill family is. Parker has worshipped here while at school over the last four years. Today was youth Sunday so we got to see the whole Hill family in action. It was a wonderful service!
After church we went back and finished loading the cars just in time for Parker's check out appointment.
So for one last Lakeland treat, I took him to Lovebird Chicken for lunch.
My week in review. Things started on Saturday in Orlando - I attended a meeting with the GBHEM planning team for the Exploration event in Orlando in November. One of our former summer pastoral interns, Whitney Wheeler is on the planning team.
Sunday found me in Bradenton, worshipping with Faith UMC in Bradenton, led by retired pastor Dr. Sam Wright (I followed Sam at Tice years ago). I had a nice lunch after with him and his wife.
Monday and Tuesday were big Zoom days, including leading a seminar online for all the moving pastors and also one for the SPRC chairs. Wednesday found me in Naples for several meetings and a checkin at Cornerstone UMC in Naples. Loved this art piece in their yard!
Thursday was lunch with our mission field pastors in Port Charlotte and then I stopped by Trinity UMC in North Port for my mobile office time.
The Allen Family was established in 1999 and currently resides in Fruitland Park, Florida. Debbie and Daryl are both ordained pastors in the United Methodist Church. They have three sons: Parker, Wesley and Davis. Join us for our Allen Family Adventures!
