Vaccines

I was finally able to find a place to get my egg free flu shot and my Covid shot in Sarasota over the weekend. While both my arms are sore, I'm so grateful to have been able to get this done still.

 

 

Saturday Around the Town

Davis got a haircut! 

 

Daryl and the cat took a Saturday afternoon nap. 

And I went to yoga, walked a labyrinth and got some laps in around the neighborhood. 

 

 

 

Homecoming Prep

Friday night we went shopping at Men's Wearhouse for Wesley's homecoming outfit.  

And on Saturday Wesley drove up to Fruitland Park to see Lydia and "officially" ask her to go to Homecoming with him. They're going to her homecoming at the Villages Charter school next weekend. 

 

 

Week in Review

 I started the week off worshipping at Hope UMC in Cape Coral. They have a new pastor, Anthony DiRemiggio who has brought tremendous energy to the church. It felt like a different place than the first time I walked in there some three years ago. 

Monday I spent at the Conference Office for several meetings and Latricia was in the building as well for another meeting (along with Daryl). She popped by my office downstairs to say Hi! 

Thursday was a big day. We had the fall clergy gathering (with lay leaders included) to talk about finances and stewardship and how to leverage our buildings for our ministry. 

The traditional music leaders from Trinity UMC Bradenton led our morning worship

I had the opportunity to preach before the group this morning. 

Elena Nicholas and Ed New from the Florida United Methodist Foundation. 

  

Erica Allen from Horizons Stewardship 

 

And Carlin Beekman from Foundry Commercial 

 

We closed the day with communion and four of our newest pastors serving the elements. 

 

And we held a silent auction today for handmade things from our Zoe Empowers group in Kenya - we raised $600 for our group! 

 

Disney Time

 Sunday after work in Cape Coral, I took off to Disney with Amy. Months ago I found out one of my favorite musicians Ben Rector was going to be at Epcot as part of the Eat to the Beat series. I made reservations to eat at Rose and Crown for guaranteed concert tickets. Amy and I enjoyed strolling around browsing and shopping, with some mimosa flights. We rode Living with the Land too. 

Our dinner at Rose and Crown was delicious. They have great allergy options. Tikki Marsala and non-dairy gelato, along with a cider. So good! 

We ended up in the fourth row - so so close. This was the first time I had seen Ben Rector in person and he has such a genuine stage presence and a love for performing and for his fans. It was SO good! 

Then Amy and I  found a quiet place to watch the fireworks before heading home.  

 

Rays Game

Saturday night we went to a Rays home game at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. The season is almost over and next year we'll be back playing in St. Petersburg. It was nice to go one more time to sit outside. Parker met us there with one of his roommates. 

 

 

Life in the SWD

 Sunday, I worshipped out on Pine Island at the UMC there to support their new pastor, Rev. Elan Miavitz-Brown who was appointed in July. They have a great praise band with some new members - with three generations. 

 On Tuesday, we had DCOM at Faith UMC in Fort Myers. I saw one of our candidacy mentors praying with a candidate in the parking lot before the interviews. 

 

Anthony was later certified as a candidate!  

David was certified as a lay minister too! Here he is with his senior pastor Marcus Zillman. 

I'm grateful for our district lay leader who serves as the hospitality host for our DCOM meetings. 

 

And this is our wonderful team. They are quite terrific!