First, a note for our Middle Tennessee readers: I will be layspeaking at Mt. Olivet UMC (my father’s church) on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Come hear me, and you own pastor will sound that much better the following week by comparison.

Speaking of layspeaking, I posted here back in December about running into C. Don Ladd at the district layspeaker dinner, and being moved when he used my mission trips as part of his talk. Well, I got two nice reactions to that post this week. One was from Emily Austin, the wife of our district layleader, who had stumbled across this site by mistake. She then tipped off Don Ladd, who also sent me a nice note.

I really needed the encouragement this week. It’s been a busy and stressful week, and I’m not completely certain why. We’re working on a special section at the newspaper which has required a lot of busy work, and a lot of rushing around. I’ve been worried about finances — both my own and for the Kenya trip (although there’s good news on the latter front below). I’ve just been in one of my moods.

I’ve been reading “My Utmost For His Highest” every night at bedtime, and good ol’ Oswald said the other night that I need to get off my self-pity and focus on God. I’m trying.

Yesterday, I guess I had too much caffeine or something. I stayed up a few minutes later than normal to see something on television, but when I finally hit the bed I just laid there, sleepless, for about an hour.

Today, of course, I had an hour ( an hour and a half, counting the TV time) less sleep, and that only exascerbated the angst and stress I’d been feeling all week.

There have been some bright spots, though. I found out today that I placed (not first, but I placed) in one category in some state journalism awards; I can’t give you the specifics until the award luncheon in July. I got a generous mission trip donation from a local business today, and someone else asked me about how much I had left to raise in a way that makes me think this person has something up his sleeve.