Today.

Today was a long day.

It began with my son asking if he could get up terribly early.

Later I discovered I had left the interior lights on in the van yesterday and it didn't start.  Great.

Also, today was my last day as the pastor of Tisdale Alliance Church.  I went relatively early to the church to get the powerpoint and things setup for the service.  

The service was amazing really.  The high point really for me was a song that was written and sung by a woman on our worship team (who also cleans the church).  

I got to preach on the end of Mark 6 where Jesus walks on water and the disciples are described as hard hearted.  

We then had a potluck lunch.  Feast is a more appropriate word.  Some folks shared some very kind words and they gave us an extravagant gift (the one that always fits).  Some tears, lots of hugs and handshakes.  It is sad to see this chapter of our life come to an end, but I feel at peace.  

As often seems the way, had some wonderful connections with people in the 'margins' of the day if you know what I mean.  Snippets and short exchanges here and there that were a very real encouragement.

As we were finishing, we received some encouraging news concerning some of the details of our move.  Then as we were leaving we got a boost for the van (thanks Jonathan!) and we got some snacks and took a little drive as the house was being shown this afternoon.  On our drive we saw a pair of moose come out of a small stand of trees off the highway.  We stopped and both Tara and I were able to take some pictures of the pair.

Here's one of him:

The four of us quite enjoyed watching them for a few minutes (Olivia was sound asleep).  It's been a long time since either Tara or I saw one.

An excellent day really, and now I'm terribly tired.