September 20 – “We are not at home”

We are not at home.  That certainly has an ominous ring to it, doesn’t it?  Kind of like “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”  It’s certainly not that kind of a crisis.  On the contrary.  We are on what will have to pass as a vacation for the next few days.  Jennifer and Bryan are staying with Mom.  Check.  Mike is preaching for me on Sunday.  Check.  Fire department has been notified, so Kel is on call there.  Check.  And off we go.  We are spending the weekend in Waco.  This will be Josh’s first Sunday as pastor at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church.  It is also parents’ weekend for Baylor students, so it is only right that we should show up, too.  We were even invited to stay with our good friends Robert and Melinda Creech while we were in town.  That was a God-send, because all those Baylor parents have gobbled up all the hotel rooms in the area.  Add that to the fact that Josh and Christi and their boys are having to spend their first few weeks in Waco at a long-term stay hotel, and you have the makings of some “amazing coincidences” coming together to make this trip possible.  They are signing papers this morning to close on the house they are buying, but they can’t take occupancy until the people they are buying from close on their house, which had some problems show up in their final survey which revealed the property to be partially in a flood plain that will require massive amounts of flood insurance, so they are appealing the requirement which pushes their closing back at least another week … whew.  There is more, but suffice it to say, they are living in a hotel room, so we can’t stay with them.  So … we are staying with Robert and Melinda who live in one of the dorms at Baylor University as residence advisors of some sort.  They have a four bedroom apartment, so we have our very own bedroom.  It’s not exactly the same as when Robert and I were suite-mates at Houston Baptist University, but there have already been some moments of recall.  He introduced me to several of the student resident advisor-types and warned them to treat each other well, because in 40 years they might find themselves spending the weekend together.  Funny stuff.

I’ll start with my actual log of events tomorrow.  Right now I think I’ll just go play with a few grandkids.

Psalms 112:1 says, “Praise the Lord.  Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands.”

Father, thank you for the safe journey up here.  And thank you for the sleep Chris had last night.  Didn’t have to get out of bed once.  Amen.