suburban hobos

Last week Maggie and I spent a few days in Phoenix as part of our denomination’s church planters assessment center.  Basically, we were observed, questioned, poked, and prodded for 4 days to assess our ability to be church planters.  It was a long few days, though not without its good moments.  It was particularly difficult to be apart from Eliot for four nights even though he was so well taken care of by my parents.

We had two things we were looking forward to on Saturday at the conclusion of the assessment center.  The first was lunch at In-N-Out Burger which was, handily enough, walking distance from our hotel.

Even better than a delicious lunch was spending the remainder of the day with our good friends Michelle and Mike who moved from Illinois to Prescott, AZ a couple of years back.  They took us on a great hike outside of Phoenix and then to a delicious dinner at a great Mexican restaurant.  We generally only get to see these guys at Christmas so this was a bonus visit.  They sent us home with some great outfits for Eliot.

Speaking of Eliot, it was awesome to reconnect with him on Sunday evening when we got home.  I’m sure he was glad to see us, though he clearly had a great time with his grandparents.

On Monday afternoon the three of us drove to be with the Draheims in Iowa.  I’ve had to do a bit of sermon work the past couple of days, but otherwise we’ve been enjoying our usual relaxed time with our family.  We may get the first snow of the year tonight, which would be a nice Thanksgiving day detail.

From us to you, have a great Thanksgiving.