Happy New Year, everyone.

I’m finishing two weeks away from the church today.  With the rest of the staff, I took a week’s vacation after Christmas.  (My Christmas Day sermon is here, if you’d like to read it.)  Jim and I flew down to Mexico for the week to visit his mother who lives on Lake Chapala outside of Guadalajara.  I conducted a memorial service on Zoom while we were there for Jim’s step-dad who died earlier in December after a long illness.  We comforted his mom and helped her with re-organizing her finances.

This week I’ve been on study leave.  I’ve been working from home doing some worship planning for the rest of the church year.  I’ve been thinking about staffing and budgets for next year.  (We will start drafting the church budget next month,)  And I’ve been thinking about how to re-start our children’s education program.  I’ve also been outlining a couple of adult religious education classes I’d like to offer, if there’s time.

Enjoy this Sunday with Rev. Berg, he’s a friend of mine.  I’ll be in the church office on Tuesday and back in the pulpit January 15 with a sermon for Martin Luther King day.