The title says it all. That's what I did yesterday afternoon as I drove away from the local downtown post office after having express mailed the hardcopy; CD's with text, photos, and jacket cover layout; shipping instructions; and a copy of the signed contract for the printing of our church's history to the printer. As I drove to the rehab center to visit my mom who's recovering from a fall that left her with a fractured vertebrae, I couldn't help but praise the Lord for the strength and stamina to wrap up this project that has consumed about the last 10 months or so of my life. If I had begun two or three years back on it as I discovered after the fact was a more appropriate time frame for tackling such an undertaking, I would have done a few things differently--more investigation of secondary source information, more interviews with long-time members, and more of an interpretive approach and less chronicling of the events themselves. Hindsight is always 20/20 they say and I'm determined not to allow those misgivings to rob me of the joy I felt yesterday as I left the post office singing a full-throated rendition of "Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow." I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders and the rare sunny afternoon in the pattern of cold, gray days of late further lifted my spirits.
Now it's time to shift focus as I prepare to leave early tomorrow morning with a team of 11 for Totonicapan, Guatemala. We'll be working with two churches in VBS and leadership training events as well as speaking in public schools and distributing bags of food to needy families. Our church gave a generous offering of almost $1450 for this cause during our annual Souper Bowl of Caring on Super Bowl Sunday. I've got a lot of loose ends to tie up today before leaving tomorrow, but I'll do so with a bit of an added spring in my step with the church history project in the rearview mirror.
2 comments:
Thanks for all the work you put into the history book. I enjoy your writing very much and look forward to reading your book. May God bless the mission trip and use your book to encourage and edify the people of FBCLS. Just reading about the saints of the past helps me see how we fit into God's eternal plan. People were here before us and if Christ tarrys, there'll be folks after us!
Thanks, John, for your kind words and encouragement. We arrived safely tonight in Totonicapan about 9:00. We're all pretty well exhausted and ready to crash I think. We start with Sunday School tomorrow at the Horeb Baptist Church and then worship with the New Covenant church tomorrow evening.
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