A Year in the Life
A year ago on this date my wife and I headed out of the parking lot for the last time of the church I had been pastor of for two and a half years. The service was anticlimactic. The last people we passed on our way out could barely be bothered to even say goodbye. We stopped at a bagel shop and then hit the 101 headed south towards Arizona and an undetermined length of unemployment. I didn't blog about it here, but it was the first entry in a blog that would span the next six months, 30 states, and over 17,000 miles.
A year later finds me the pastor of a church barely 45 miles away from my last parish in Camarillo. Living in a beautiful little surf town. We've been amazed by God's grace and goodness. Humbled by it in so many ways. Close enough to still visit with our Camarillo friends every month or so. Reasonably close to family. Making new friends and becoming part of a church family. Getting our bearings in a myriad of ways in this slice of paradise.
We could never have imagined we would end up here. We can barely imagine ending up anywhere else, now. The six months in between were a wonderful time of adventures, healing, restoration, and preparation for where we are now. For the first time since we sold our home in Arizona and moved to St. Louis, the prospects seem good that we'll be able to settle in one place for a while.
We don't deserve any of this (well, maybe my wife does!), but we're very grateful. Thanks to those of you who have been along for the ride, so to speak, as well as those who have joined the caravan more recently. I look forward to our virtual journey here, where the horizons are limited only by the coming Son-rise. It's going to be a glorious day.
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