Friends,

The time between Christmas and school going back is somewhat nerve-racking, exciting, and overall, a good season in the life of the Church.

We just got done with one of our busiest weeks of the year, if not the busiest, and we can enjoy a bit of rest knowing that things went really well. I haven’t seen the Church so full at a 5:00 pm Christmas Eve service before and the overall mood was incredibly joyful. There is a lot coming up that I am excited about such as the new work outreach, sacred ground and EfM are beginning. If you want to know what these esoteric things mean, then I encourage to dig deep into our e-news! We also have another ambitious Lenten season ahead of us with another Bishop’s visit at the Easter Vigil, which is something I thought I would never get to see again.

It is too early for me to get in the weeds with that stuff yet, and I am about to enjoy some time away with my family. Professor Ross Kane from Virginia Theological Seminary will be covering on Sunday and our Christian Education Minister, Courtney Jukuri, will be leading the “burning of the greens” on Sunday evening at 5:00 pm. This is one of my favorite things of the year, and while I regret missing it, I can’t wait to hear how Courtney handles everything. Please go to support her, to burn some of your Christmas greens and to have a bit of fun to mark the end of the Christmas season.

In our time away we are going to take back something that was taken away from us by the pandemic. In 2019 I asked my brother if I could plan a trip for his 30th birthday party. The initial plan was for the two of us to drive through Oaxaca Mexico. Then he kept adding more family members to the trip, and it morphed into a family-wide trip to Belize. We were set to leave in late March of 2020. The gracious person we were renting the house from has given us a rain check every single year, and we are finally making it work in this in-between time in the life of the Church.

I am beyond excited to be going on adventures again with my family. Going out and doing things outside of our routine fill my soul. I hope to return ready to hit the ground running with the wonderful things we have in store for this spring. Before we know it, we will be getting ready for the barbecue weekend with Easter in our rearview mirror. Time can feel like a blur, and I hope you take some time to get out of the routine, go on an adventure and realize how sacred and special our time together can be.

Blessings,

Nick