So as you may have heard, this Sunday is kind of a big one in my life…I’ll be teaching for the last time as lead pastor of a church we planted 13 years ago. (Notice I said last time as lead pastor, because I’m hoping they’ll invite be back down the road!) So as you might imagine, this is not the easiest message to prepare….more for the emotion than anything.

That said to say I’m having enough difficulty working on the message, so I’m not planning on doing anything here on the blog…although I reserve the right to change my mind if inspiration strikes.

Free Book

I wanted to announce our two winners for the free copies of “[amazon_link id=”1434702103″ target=”_blank” ]Speaking of Jesus: the Art of Not Evangelism[/amazon_link].” The first winner was the  50th person to sign up for the Dublin Church Plant eNewsletter…And that was David McIntyre, a member here at the Ithaca Vineyard. The second book went to Kayla Altland. Kayla was part of the Vineyard while a student at Cornell.  For the second book, we took the names of everyone on the Dublin Church Plant eNewsletter and everyone who has “liked” the Dublin Church Plant on Facebook and picked one.  There is still an opportunity for one more free copy of “[amazon_link id=”1434702103″ target=”_blank” ]Speaking of Jesus: the Art of Not Evangelism[/amazon_link],” simply be the 100th person to sign up for the eNewsletter (deadline is May 31 though).

Looking Forward to Saying Words With the Letter S.

I think I’ve improved quite substantially over the past 4.5 weeks, but I am really looking forward to getting the splint out of my mouth tomorrow. I was going to put up a picture, but most of the ones that illustrate what is does show the inside of people’s mouths & who wants to see that.

Elsewhere on the post surgery front…I still have a lot of numbness, especially from my lower lip to my chin, and my gums. The inside of my lips do not feel numb, and in fact are quite sore from the surgical hooks on my braces…here’s hoping they come out tomorrow as well. Finally, while my upper lip & nose aren’t numb, they still feel a bit “tingly” are strange when I touch them.

I still can’t open my mouth very wide (Méabh gave me her cold, and the cough drops just fit in between to give you some idea). But that is normal I’ve been told and full range of motion should return soon.  (So you’ll probably notice me cutting my food into tiny bite-sized bits on Sunday…that is for me, not Méabh.)

Back to Work…

Well, I guess I eventually need to write this thing…a prayer or three would be appreciated!