Wed Feb 8 – I am in the middle of my second week of working full time again. My schedule is about 40 hours a week for CIU and 16 hours of therapy and exercises spread over (Mon – Sat). I told Pandora yesterday that I felt very busy and was very tired by 8 PM each day but recovered well overnight and the pace seems sustainable. What is missing is my travel… Normal for several years has been at least 2 trips a month usually 3 to 4 days each and often over weekends. Add to that one or two International trips of 2+ weeks each and you add in quite a bit of planning travel, preparing messages and training, Skype and Phone calls to get to know the church, ministry or leader I was coaching, and it added several hours to every week. For 2012, because of blood clots and thinners to deal with them my travel is very limited. I have not been out of Columbia since the end of October — a record for nights home for the past 15 years.

But God surely knows what is good… because right now the work at CIU and therapy seems a full plate. HERE IS HOW YOU CAN PRAY FOR ME OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS!
Thurs Feb 23 – Speak in CIU chapel http://www.ciu.edu – Title – WHISPERS OF THE SPIRIT IN THE I.C.U. (10:50 to 11:40) open to everyone!
Sunday Feb 26 – Preach both services at Sandhills Community Church http://www.sandhillschurch.org (services: 9 and 10:45 AM) Title – LIVING THE LIFE GOD INTENDED FOR US! Both will be recorded and the audio will be available a few days after I speak for free download.

I continue to get calls or people coming by who have just heard that I had a serious medical stop out and they had missed it. They are very apologetic and want to know what has happened. So — here is my word to those folks AND just below you will find links in chronological order to the posts that will catch you up.

FIRST — let go of any guilt or disappointment that you missed out on this chapter of my journey. It is a very busy world and we all are living in our own story with the Father, Son and Spirit. We can simply not absorb everyone’s story that we may know or have served with at some point. My family and I were MORE than well cared for by God’s church. I am thankful there are ripples of some influence that have been granted by God’s grace to flow out through students, alumni and churches I have been privileged to give to of what God has given to me. But I don’t expect everyone to keep up with my rather fast changing complicated scene that the Father assigned to me. SO — relax..chill…and be blessed!

Here is the journey that started November 4 and will probably continue to influence my time and energy for most of 2012 — as predicted by my care providers.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three (includes a pdf you can download of Scripture that has encouraged me)
Part Four (includes a devotional by Henri Nouwen)
Part Five (I received more comments and calls from this post than any I have made in the past year!)
Part Six (includes two photos taken by my son during my time in ICU)

I welcome any comments and advise!