Greetings From the West Coast!!

 After an incredible weekend with Lynn and our five great kids in the Grand Canyon last week, I took a very fast paced journey up the West Coast.

It began with a great visit with some former Woodlake members, Mike and Maureen Kapral who now live in Las Vegas.  We had a great dinner together and they shared with me a great story about the power of God’s provision in the midst of job transitions.  It was great to see old friends again!

The next day, I drove through the Nevada desert….

And made my way into beautiful Yosemite National Park….

  

I was also able to spend the night in Menlo Park California, just outside of San Francisco.  I spent some time at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, a church whose pastor, John Ortberg, has been very helpful to me over the years.  I visited with Nicole Laubausch….

It was great to hear of the powerful things this church is doing in the midst of a very intense academic community (adjacent to Stanford University) and Silicon Valley.  She described the challenges of offering Christ in the midst of “smart skeptics”.  Yet, the church is thriving and God is blessing the work there. 

Then, I headed over the Golden Gate bridge….

And headed up to Seattle.  Right now,  I am enjoying some time with my sister Catherine and my nephews.  Tonight we had a great "guys" dinner together in downtown Seattle.   

Yesterday, I had the chance to meet with an old teacher, Doug Strong.  Doug was one of my readers on my Doctoral Project at Wesley Seminary, and is now the Dean at a new Seminary at Seattle Pacific University.  We had a great conversation, and I was struck with his vision of establishing a United Methodist presence in Seattle.  He described the challenges with some detail.  There are currently 22 United Methodist Churches in the Seattle area.  Only one of them has a weekly attendance of over 100.  It is a very different world in the Pacific Northwest.  It is intensely beautiful, but also very secular.  I appreciate the way God has filled Doug with such a vision.

I also had the chance to visit, in the words of Steely Dan, “My Old School”, the University of Washington.  It is as beautiful as ever!  (That’s Mt. Ranier in the background).

 Miss all of you!  Tomorrow, I am headed off to Spokane Washington....