. . . but I love our church. God has definitely blessed us with some wonderful people to partner with at Echo. Tonight I had a great time teaching from Samuel, trying a different approach to get things going, and everyone stuck with me. Throughout the message people were really into the text we were breaking down. Additionally, the stage was full of gifts for our adopted family. We asked for more than twice as much this year and the church responded generously.
Plus, we have some incredibly faithful people who do all of our tear down so that I can have some pastoral time. I never have to worry about everything getting put away.
I've had a great couple of days really appreciating what God has done with Echo so far. And I'm feeling really great about 2008. This was almost like a getaway weekend, as many in our church are transient and won't be back until after Christmas and . . . honestly, I'm going to miss people.
[insert smile emoticon here]