Hometown Holiday

When you have a work conference in your hometown (St. Louis, MO)...you take "vacation" the week before and cram in as many of your favorite people and places as you can! I use the term vacation loosely, since I found myself in prep mode for said conference one way or another most days: emailing the care team volunteers, making a Sam's Club run, assembling welcome bags, sorting T-shirts. 

"Vacation" or vacation, I was ready to get out of the DR. The day before my flight, I realized my oh-so-adorable cat had peed in my suitcase! Stop laughing. I scrubbed it with Resolve, vinegar, baking soda, and Lysol; doused it in Febreze; and set it outside to bake in the blazing sun...and in the end, brought a different suitcase. It's deodorizing in my back room while I'm gone. 

Trying to leave for the airport at 4:30 am the morning of my flight, my sliding portón fell - thankfully not ON my car. It's currently being held in place by Nylon rope; I'll deal with it when I get home. 

See what I mean? St. Louis refreshingly felt like a million miles away. I was too busy soaking up summer to document much of what kept me busy, but the short list would include a pool party, IMO's pizza, ice skating with my 9 yr. old nephew, a Scrabble meet-up, coffee with friends, pub trivia, and Dear Evan Hansen at the Muny (an 11,000-seat outdoor theater).

Plus...

The Rawlings HQ museum/retail store

Legendary Cardinal Ozzie Smith's Gold Glove award shrine. 

Batting cages! PSA: You need closed-toed shoes, hence my nephew's Crocs.

Back in work mode...

I did have an assistant for welcome bags and T-shirts. OK, I had several, but this one was the cuddliest.  

Immediately preceding the conference, I was part of a 2-day regional leadership meeting with colleagues from the DR, Belize, Panama, and Puerto Rico. Concordia Historical Institute had remodeled the room pictured just for us.

The bona fide vacation commenced post-conference: tripoley and a Cardinals game with the best possible outcome after an hourlong rain delay. All in all, I was blessed to attend my home church 3x and was offered the opportunity to do a Ministry Minute my final week. 

My spiel referenced the conference and its theme verses, Psalm 105:1,8: 

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!...He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations.

I concluded like this: 

A thousand generations sounds like a long time. A thousand generations IS a long time. One hundred twenty-five years seems like a drop in the bucket, and the seven years I marked last week a mere 5.6% of that time. The passage isn’t a discouragement, though; it’s a promise! What a comfort to know that our faithful Lord will remember His covenant and continue to accomplish His purposes with His Word for 125 more years and beyond. Together with you, I look forward to thanking Him, calling upon Him, and making His deeds known for as many more generations as He desires to use me. 

Until next time, blessings in Christ!