Ugh. Challenging day . . . a little annoying. Not the worst day of my life, mind you . . . just annoying. I got up this morning to discover that a screw had found its way into a rear tire on my truck, so I got to change it. No worries, I need to replace all four tires anyway. Then I discovered that my in-laws' dogs had broken into my bedroom to terrorize our cats and eat their food. Then I drove to downtown San Diego for my denomination's annual USBH convention. Never heard of USBH? I'll clue you in - it's the Ugly Suit/Bad Hair convention . . . basically they don't let you in the door without one or the other. They used to require both, but in a nod toward progress they began only requiring one. Since I know you're wondering, here's what I chose:


Just kidding. I don't even know this poor soul . . . but I'm pretty sure I saw about six of his siblings today.


When I emerged from the chamber of fashion and follicle horrors, I sat through a monster traffic jam before finally arriving home.

O.k., enough of my whining. Now for the real reason for my post . . .

As Michelle and I are adjusting to life after the fires, we're realizing that since we're unlikely to move out of our current house/area for the forseeable future, we're looking at moving the location of our new church start. Things had been going pretty sporadically in the original area where we were trying to start (and planning to move), in part because we didn't actually live there. And since we definitely believe that it's important to live in the place we do church, it looks like we're going to give things a go right here where we've lived for the past couple of years.

That's definitely a change for us. We had planned to move in order to start the church for a couple of reasons - one was that we don't really fit into the community in which we live. Ramona is an unincorporated town - an outer suburb of San Diego, and really it's only considered a suburb because San Diego has grown so much over the past 20 years that the population center has moved closer and closer to this area. Ramona is basically a carbon copy of many small midwest/southern towns I've been in - lots of horses, some cows, a chicken ranch or two, open spaces, rednecks, rodeos, no fine dining establishments, no art galleries. Going to the grocery store is always an experience in people watching. But here we are. And it looks like we're staying. So it looks like we're gonna make ourselves available to all comers. And if that means I have to trade in my Doc Martens for cowboy boots, I guess I'll have to keep an open mind.

One of the things I'm going to be doing very very soon to try to get something going is host a series of Sunday afternoon/evening Advent gatherings in our home. Our neighborhood has come together well to support the one family that lost their home in the fire. I would like to keep them together during an important time of the year. So I'm going to be out and about meeting my neighbors and inviting them to come and participate in the season of Advent. We'll do a short devotional each week around the lighting of the candles and just see what God wants to do with it. It may become a springboard for further relationship development. I'm open to whatever. Mostly I am just looking forward to meeting more people. I used to know all of our immediate surrounding neighbors, but in the past couple of months two of the homes have had a change in ownership, and even as I write, a family across the street is packing up and moving away. New opportunities are all around us.

Sorry for the long post. I guess I just felt like writing. If anyone has any ideas about elements I can build into the Advent gatherings, drop me a line.