A Happy Rested Pastor

Buongiorno! (That is good morning in Italian.)  I just returned on Tuesday from a ten day vacation to Southern Italy which has been on my bucket list for many years. As someone who loves history, it was incredible to immerse myself in the past.  To walk on the same paving stones that the Romans drove their chariots and see the groves caused by those chariots was mind boggling.  The one thing that I came home with, that I wish I hadn’t, was strep throat.  My husband Jon was also diagnosed and we have been recovering from the illness and the jet lag.  We are assuming that we were exposed on the air plane.  I was able to make it in to the office for a couple hours on Thursday and am doing even better today.  By Sunday, I should be back to 100%.

I watched worship from last Sunday and was so impressed with the leadership of our youth and Claire especially.  What incredible wisdom from someone so young!  If you missed it, I encourage you to go to our website and watch.  This Sunday is Mother’s Day and I will be sharing the story of Priscilla from the Bible.  I visited the property just outside Rome that she donated to create the first Christian catacombs.  They were built underground in the year 79AD.  They are from the first wave of Christians as it grew from the Jesus movement into an authorized state religion.  Priscilla is a mother of our faith who many of us don’t know much about but I hope to change that on Sunday.

In case you haven’t heard, Annual Conference will be in Tulsa this month with the over 300 churches who are in the state gathering together to worship, celebrate and vote on church business.  We are excited to share that our Pastor Seungrok Kim will be ordained during this year’s Annual Conference! The worship service will take place at Boston Avenue UMC on Wednesday, May 24 at 7pm. We are providing transportation to anyone who would like to ride down in the church van.  Just call the church office or send an email to mland@faithtulsa.org and reserve a seat.

I am so happy to have been able to take a step away knowing that the incredible talent of our staff and volunteers would be excellent for all of you.  We are so lucky to have talented clergy associated with our congregation who could step in and make sure the sacrament of communion was still offered.  The rest and time away have been good for my very tired soul. I know that I can NOT encourage you to take sabbath time and care for your souls, if I do not model that same behavior.  Taking time away can sometimes feel like it is not worth the trouble, but we know better.  People who take vacations have brighter outlooks and a deeper sense of happiness.  I look forward to sharing some of the stories from our faith that I learned on my trip.

Chow!