News from John - July 2008

Greetings from your sponsored missionary who is somewhere in the United States - soon to be at a church near you! After spending the first half of June trying - with varying degrees of success - to finish up projects and tie up loose ends - I left Liberia on June 18th and flew from Monrovia to Brussels and then to New York City where I picked up a rental car and drove to Pennsylvania for the Upper Susquehanna Synod Assembly. What was I thinking - driving after such a long flight across the ocean? I don't know, but it went well. I was given time to speak to the Assembly about my work in Liberia and also conducted a workshop. There are a lot of folks in the Upper Susquehanna Synod who have been to Liberia or know a lot about it as they have been a long time sister synod to the Liberian Lutheran Church. After the Assembly, I preached at St. Luke's in Williamsport PA on Sunday morning and then drove back to New York, spent the night a the home of a seminary friend, got my favorite egg and cheese sandwich, and caught a plane for Chicago on Monday. In Chicago, I met with my new boss as well as the man who will be the Regional Representative for Development. He'll be living in Chennai which is not too far from where I will be based in Vellore so we will probably work together a lot. On Wednesday, I began a course that will accredit me to be a "trainer of trainers" in palliative care nursing. This will be part of what I will be doing in India. The first week and a half of July I will be back in New York preaching at supporting churches United Lutheran and Advent Lutheran, and then on to Trinity Lutheran in St. Petersburg, Florida. From there I go to my home church in Milaca Minnesota to preach at Zion Lutheran where I first climbed into the pulpit at age two to stand behind my father. My sister has booked me into Zion's WELCA and Senior Moments gatherings as well, so I will keep busy. After Milaca, it's back to Chicago for several more meetings,  the Summer Missionary Conference and then back to Milaca again for a few days before preaching at Zion Lutheran in Buffalo Lake MN the first Sunday in August. That will be my July. Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I travel from one city to the next, preaching at a different Lutheran church nearly every Sunday. It's a whole different kind of busyness than I have known over the past two years in Liberia, but it does come with electricity and running water 24/7! Amen to that!

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