Summer is here in Bethlehem, and the reward for writing this post is that I get to sit in our air conditioned living room. The past two weeks have been packed! I’d like to blame it all on Christopher, but that is not the whole truth.
I was in Dallas June 24-28 for the General Assembly of the PCA. The assembly debated several important issues without coming to a final conclusion – a plus in my opinion. People get weary of discussion, but it is better to consider important matters carefully and thoroughly than to rush to a decision – especially when the motive is impatience. These things will come up again next year, and additional wisdom can be brought to bear. I was present for some of these discussions – when not representing RUF to others. I met with a couple of people about our hope to establish a church and campus ministry in Stony Brook, Long Island, and attended the Mission to the World lunch in which Peter Dishman reported on his RUF ministry in Bogota, Columbia. I had dinner with Scott and Bonnie Mitchell, who used to be with RUF here at Lehigh but are now at a church in Oklahoma. I had lunch with Mark Lowrey, founder of RUF, and I had dinner with Matt Franchetti, our pastor in Allentown. Dallas was not yet blistering hot, so I enjoyed exercising outdoors.
A pastor friend in Connecticut called 12 men to fill his pulpit while he was on vacation – with no success. So on Saturday I drove to West Hartford and ministered at Christ Community Church on Sunday. Christopher had arrived while I was in Dallas, so I hustled back home and spent time with him early in the week. He announced that he needed to do some shopping, so he and Ruth spent all day Tuesday buying enough groceries to fill our guest room. The State Department will send movers to pack and ship it all to his next post in Wuhan, China. We said a temporary good-by to Christopher Wednesday morning and put him on a bus to Boston to visit friends there. We will see him again later this week. Meanwhile, I spent the rest of last week on performance reviews and various office projects. We took Thursday off to visit friends in New Jersey for an Independence Day picnic.
I will be in Maryland and Delaware on Wednesday and Thursday. Then Ruth and I will drive to West Virginia to visit Peter’s family and see our new granddaughter! Christopher and Benjamin plan to join us.
David Green 