Hot streak continues!

still can’t get over how amazing life is, amazing in so many ways. If I were publishing a newspaper, a magazine, or a bulletin, the headline would probably read: “Valrico Man’s Hot Streak Continues!”

This week, the features would look something like this:

SON HITS JACKPOT: Saturday, around noon, I dropped off Andrew and Alicia at Tampa International Airport. They flew back to Europe together before heading to Italy and the Ukraine.

At The Columbia the other day I offered a toast to the happy couple that said, essentially, “It took Andrew 30 years to bring a girl home; but when he did he got it exactly right. Thank you, Alicia, for bringing such joy and grace into our family.”

I can’t even begin to express the depth of the joy Rebekah and I experienced all week long. We are too blessed for words.

DAUGHTER SHARES WORLD’S MOST ADORABLE 1-YEAR-OLD: Unwilling to be outdone by the purity and beauty of nascent love, Naomi and Craig Campbell showed up with unprecedented cuteness on board. Then they left him with us!

Our grandson, David Henry, may be a lot of work, but he is so full of sunshine and so in love with life that he raises the happiness index for the entire house.

Plus David seems to truly love his grandparents, and that makes everything that much the sweeter.

AWESOME BRANDON CHURCH! Things have been so busy since the children( and everyone else) started rolling into town that I haven’t had time or space to write much about how blessed we are to be a part of the vibrant life of faith at First Presbyterian Church of Brandon.

In Sunday’s message, Rebekah talked about the day the disciple Andrew met Jesus. Andrew had been part of a group who had been following Jesus at a distance. Eventually, Jesus turned around and spoke to them.

All he said was, “What do you want?”

“MORE AND BETTER LIFE!” What people want is a deeper experience of life. We want to live life to its fullest. We want to know that our existence counts for something.

The people we hang around at First Presbyterian are engaging faith at that level; they’re growing; they’re moving forward; and it’s a privilege to be around.

Peace and Promise – DEREK