Ahhhh Vacation!
I have been on vacation for the last couple of weeks. We traveled up to Minneapolis, Minnesota with "Nomad" and "Babe" the Blue Ox. Eventhough we had a bout with migraine headeaches and another bout with strep throat it was still good to be off work and together as a family. Minnesota is a wonderful place with lots of energy, and the Mall of America may just be responsible for 10% of America's Gross National Product. I can't believe how busy the Mall was. We had a long day driving home on Saturday. It took 12 hours to get home and we were exhausted when we got there. But, the two days recovery time before going back to work on Monday was worth it.

While on vacation I finished Andrew Careaga's book eMinistry. What a great read. He has inspired me to try harder to make my ministry more effective to the Net Generation and to begin a hard-core Internet ministry. There is no reason why the church can't be more effective in ministering via an electronic community. All we have to do is make up our collective minds that this is where we are headed, invest in the future of our faith, and forge ahead. We can begin the process by beginning individually if we can proceed collectively.

The other books I read on vacation were John Brickerhoff Jackson's Discovering The Vernacular Landscape and I am about half way through John Fraser Hart's The Rural Landscape. I am pursuing a PhD in American Studies at Saint Louis University and am doing my dissertation research on the Landscape of Consumption in California's Central Valley, 1848-2002. these two books are "classics" on the art of landscape analysis. I highly recommend them to anyone interested in studying the Cultural (or manmade) Landscape.

Daily Bible Reading
2 Chronicles 25-27
Psalm 147
2 Thessalonians 2
Luke 12

Bible Verse of the Day
1 Thess 2:3-4-- For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts