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Grace and peace, beloved St. Lukers.
I am back from my renewal leave and I’m so excited to be back. But first, I want to say thank you. Thank you to our staff parish relations committee. Thank you to our leadership team, and thank you to all of you St. Lukers who afforded me the time to step away and be renewed.
During this time, I also got to be just a dad. Right away after Easter, our son Lleyton had his senior recital up in Nashville. And then soon after that, Shelley and I began our pilgrimage on El Camino de Santiago. We walked 135 miles, or a little over 200 kilometers, from St. John Pied-de-Port in the south of France all the way down to a city called Lagroño in Spain. And our plan is to pick up where we left off in a year. And I’m so grateful for you all for allowing me for that time. We entered and prayed in many churches and in one in particular, we had a specific prayer for you all, the people of St.
Luke’s, where we put it on a post-it note and put it next to a crucifix.
So then after that, our daughter Lilly had her prom. Then our son Lleyton graduated from college, and then she graduated from high school. So it was great for me not only to be renewed, but to be a dad and be present with my family. Also, in the midst of that, I had a silent retreat, where I was at the beach. My phone was turned off and put away. All of those distractions and the weight of the world was put aside for me to pray and reflect and be renewed.
And so, here I am back on campus and it is alive today. All of the camps have started including Hadestown Windermere camp and our preschool camp. There are people here from throughout our community and there’s just wonderful, powerful energy, and that same energy and that same joy is going to be happening on Sunday as we step into the second of our core values, our prerequisites, and we talk about hospitality. And so I pray you’ll join us here in person or even online.
And maybe you’ll invite someone with the great hospitality of Christ to join you and join all of us in worship on Sunday.
We’ll see you then.
