HANNIBAL-- Welcome to Friday evening of this long Independence Day weekend. 

And welcome back to my blog.  It's been far too long, I think, in battling a week without an Internet connection at all, to other assorted pitfalls that come with moving, and especially moving to a very small town.  I now live in Bucklin, Missouri, population of roughly 500, about eleven miles east of Brookfield, and pastor Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.  Actually, I live about ten miles north of Bucklin.  It's dark at night, beautiful actually... you can hear the coyotes howling and even occasional bobcats, a predatory cat that's making an enormous comeback in north Missouri.  All my neighbors are cattle farmers.  I wondered how I'd like it, and after a month, I actually love it. 

But tonight, I'm in Hannibal.  I didn't wake up this morning completely expecting to be here, but I'm glad to be here nonetheless.  At noon today, I took my grandmother out to Pizza Hut for lunch, and that's always an experience.  Right before I left, I checked my voicemail to find out from our chairman of deacons that the Pee Wee League doubleheader back in Bucklin that I was supposed to umpire tonight had been cancelled, and I didn't get a reason for that.  So I just decided to take another day in Hannibal; Sunday is ready to go and nobody's in the hospital. 

And friends, those are the two enormous governing factors to the daily life of a pastor.  A good Campus Crusade friend of mine, actually a subscriber to this blog (you know who you are), mused when I told him that I was entering full-time pastoral ministry, "Wow... all day in the Word."  Nothing could be further from the truth about ministry life, and to be honest, I'm glad about that.  Otherwise, pastors would be monks, and that's not a healthy thing.  What's been on my mind this week?  Oh, definitely II John.  I finish that short series up Sunday morning with a message that the Lord has just been remarkably clear about with me: how to effectively communicate with God's people.  Always a timely topic.  But also we have a guest speaker Sunday night, Lyle Witcher, Youth Evangelism Specialist with the Missouri Baptist Convention.  Special guests require special thinking.  So that's been on my mind.  And other things too, like where do we want to put a chair lift in the church?  Will we continue the same mowing arrangement next year with the church lawn?  Do any members currently request special visits?  How will we ever follow up all those Vacation Bible School decisions, not to mention track these kids down in the first place?  How can we put an effective couple of outreach events together this summer?  And so this is what we do as pastors.  It's an extremely involved calling, a simply exhilarating one actually.  And the nice thing personally is that you can relax and escape for a weekend whenever you want, provided two things: Sunday's done and nobody's in the hospital.  If either of those stipulations aren't met, you're on call.  And I'm fine with that as well.  Because I love writing and delivering sermons, and I actually love hospital visits.  Hospitals are healing centers in my book, and it's just great to be on the spiritual end of the healing business.

So anyway, Grandma and I went to Pizza Hut for lunch today.  It was packed (of course, they have the buffet and most people were off today).  I rather enjoyed my chicken taco-ish pizza, although it just ain't what it used to be there.  I don't know.  There were three kids, obviously siblings, eating in front of the buffet with their grandparents, all wearing matching T-shirts that said, "Camp Grandma" on the back.  It was amusing, and they looked like they were just having a great time.  It reminded me of those times in the summers when I was a kid, spending time with my paternal grandparents in Rolla for a week or two at a time, driving down to Arkansas with them for family reunions and driving all over Missouri with Grandpop in sometimes-exotic cars as he arranged dealer trades for the local Chrysler dealer in Rolla.  They're some of the happiest memories of my life.  It was a little poignant for me as well; Grandpop is now probably in the sunset of his life, bravely but waningly battling cancer that has spread to his bones.  I'll be down there in Rolla to see him and Grandma very soon.

It was a nice time reading Scripture on the patio this afternoon with the dog (until the neighbor kid started shooting firecrackers).  I've been in Revelation recently, and the more I read Revelation, the more of the character of God I see that I can apply to my everyday life.  Revelation is looking less and less like the Bible's prototype of science fiction to me and more like an applicable book, albeit one that speaks of literal future events in large part.  God is just, but so patient, and especially so protective of His people.  I do so appreciate knowing that God is concerned about me when the world is crashing in all around His church, in this turbulent time.  Indeed, God is good.

I picked up a sandwich, then ate dinner at the overlook at Riverview Park.  What a stunningly beautiful scene.  Then, I met family for the Bethel Association's patriotic concert at HLG's soccer field.  A nice evening, truly.  A perfect one for sitting outside, and good to hear good and heartfelt (if slightly overdone) music that exalts our Creator and hearkens us back to what made America great in the first place: His grace, goodness, and providence.  And even the fireworks after were great!  I can safely say now that I saw a fireworks show this year!

Oh, life is good.  Tomorrow's plans?  I don't know.  Go to my aunt and uncle's house out in the country to go swimming in what is supposed to be a hot (but seasonably so) afternoon.  A nice dinner out?  And probably drive back to Bucklin to close this fine weekend with time in the Lord's house Sunday.

Until tomorrow night...