So this Sunday saw a lot of emotional teenaged girls in attendance, here at First Covenant Church...

Before I forget, let me thank all of you for all of your hard work and prayer on behalf of our annual Vacation Bible School last week.  We had several children make a commitment to the Lord (whether in accepting Him as their Saviour or simply rededicating themselves to a genuine relationship with Him) -- including some of the teens who were serving as volunteers during the week...

As I write this, our church family is smack-dab in the middle of this year’s Mount Everest-themed Vacation Bible School.  That means that every day, I’m wearing a parka... on days with heat advisories... in a room filled with active, energetic children.  Suffice it to say that I’ve probably lost about 417 pounds of water weight this week...

I wish I could just leave things where they lay in my last Update, but to truly begin to heal the wounds in our country -- and in our world -- our work needs to be an ongoing activity.  It’s just such an up-hill battle sometimes...

My family and I have been traveling a lot lately, between taking our daughter up to Chicago one weekend, then going to Kansas City for the denominational Annual Conference this past week.  But it was worth it, if only to go to Joe’s Kansas City BBQ (that place is amazing...).  But in the two weeks between my pulpit chats, a lot has gone on in the world...

Kyle Gregory’s soulful trumpet solo Be Thou our Vision provided our call to worship. We enjoyed a short dramedy video on fatherhood legacy...

I hope that this Update finds you healthy and happy -- and if not either or both of those, I hope that you can find joy wherever you find yourself today, since it’s not dependent on either of those fickle situations...

After having a fairly mild Summer so far, it’s supposed to hike up into “Condition 90” weather several times this week -- so we’ve got that to look forward to.  For my neighbor with the pool, that sounds great.  For those of us who have to mow our lawns in the heat, that’s no fun at all...

Hello there!  I hope that this Update finds you healthy and happy, and that you were able to spend some quality time worshiping the Lord this week wherever you found yourself.  We had a lot of fun this week, because Sunday marked a birthday for both Scott Christianson and my own wife, Wendy.  Happy birthday, guys!

Before I forget, thank you to everyone who came in on Saturday and helped with the start of prepping out our Vacation Bible School decorations.  Those mountains in particular look incredible!  I always look forward to seeing what our church building is transformed into every year -- and this year’s Himalayan theme is already off to a great start...

Wendy and Megan and I spent the weekend in Chicago, and I was reminded of all of the things that I love and hate about Chicago.  We got to spend time with my aunt and uncle (whom I love), and eat at That Pasta Place (which I love), and sit in traffic for hours (which I really hate).  We got home Saturday night, enjoyed a morning of worship with the First Covenant Church family, and then ran back to Morton for Megan’s graduation ceremony that afternoon...

I knew that April would be busy, but I foolishly thought that things might let up a bit in May.  Foolish, foolish Kevin...  Between graduation preparations, awards nights, Mother’s Day preparations, prepping for Summer classes, etc., things are still pretty much hopping around here...

We’re in the home stretch for the school year, and -- as a parent of a high school senior -- I can tell you that the kids are ready to be done.  So what about you parents?  What I mean is, are you ready for the Summer with your kids?

People are complaining that it’s getting cooler out, but I’m loving it.  What I’m not loving is how much my lawn has grown while I was waiting for my lawnmower blades to get sharpened.  Lots of bagging of grass for Pastor Kevin later on today...