Weekend Chill Out Time

Friday, Parker Daryl and I took a beach walk. Parker was home overnight for the first time in two months so he could vote. 

Saturday after yoga I took myself to the Bay Park downtown and sat to journal and wandered around the water's edge. And then I made sure to visit a labyrinth on the way home. 

 

Week in Review

Last Sunday I worshipped at Grace UMC in Venice with Daryl and Sarah for their State of the Church address. 

Grace's new values. 

We came back after lunch with my aunt and uncle for the Sarasota County Mission Field Charge Conference. 

Then on Monday I drove to Orlando to spend some time with my covenant group. Tuesday night we went to the arena on UCF's campus to see CeCe Wiaanas. She had some other artists with her on this Come Worship Tour. It was a wonderful 3 hours of singing and praising. 

On Thursday I spent time in Lee County to meet up with all the pastors there individually for clergy consultations. Here are the clergywomen. 

And so glad to see Abdel who is the current pastor at Tice. 

 

Family Time

Sunday we had a visit from family which was wonderful. My dad's little sister and her husband (my Aunt Susie and Uncle Rich) came down to Florida from Indiana this week. They were staying on the east coast but made sure to come over and visit us for worship at Grace UMC Venice. It was lovely to see them again and to be able to worship and go out to lunch together afterwards. The last time we saw them in person was before Covid when we lived in Fruitland Park. Back then Davis was just 7 and now he is driving!!

 

Rays WS Watch Party

Wesley went to the Trop with a friend on Friday night to watch the Rays play the first game of the World Series in Milwaukee - there was a huge watch party on the field and he got to play catch on the field too! 

 

The Weekly Work Update

Last Saturday was the funeral for one of the youth directors in the district who passed away. Russ worked for Trinity UMC in Sarasota and used to be on camp leadership team. 

Sunday I worshipped at Cornerstone UMC in Naples. Cornerstone is a congregation that is very involved in social justice work, including advocacy for farm workers, immigrant justice and advocacy for the LGBTQ community. 

There are also into creation care and just installed solar panels on the church roof. 

In the afternoon, we were back for the Southernmost Mission Field Charge Conference with seven churches from Collier County and two churches from Lee County. 

Monday was spent in Punta Gorda meeting pastors from Charlotte County and Lee County for their clergy 1:1s. 

Tuesday I had the opportunity to meet up with Rev. Beth Bostrom for lunch downtown. 

And then on Wednesday, Lynn and I spent time coaching a group of church leaders in Palmetto on some growth planning. 

 

Disney Concert

Tuesday afternoon I took off with Amy for a little Disney magic trip. We checked into Pop Century and then went over to Epcot. We had dinner and then went to the Ben Rector concert. We actually caught the tail end of the 2nd show from outside the theater as we were lining up for the last show. 

We were so close in the 4th row and he gave a great concert, full of favorite music and lots of energy. 

Afterwards we hung out to see the full fireworks show, Symphony of Us.

And then we caught the Skyliner back to our resort. Parker was working the unloading portion of the main station. He saw us and waved - and then his supervisor got his station covered for a few minutes so I could get a hug and say Hi! It was so good to see him at work. He just recently got the offer to extend his time and will be staying at Disney through next June (instead of ending in January).