October in Pictures

To say October was a busy month would be an understatement. I feel I am just now catching my breath enough to look forward to what is coming next. To make it a little less overwhelming, here is a quick pictorial guide for our past four weeks.

First stop: New York City to meet with my teammates Sandy, Angie, and Julie (who lives there) to finish up a strategic plan for our Leadership Development team. Since we typically have to collaborate from a distance, it was nice to be face to face.  We felt really good about our efficiency in the 2 days we were able to meet...so much easier than doing it over the internet!  We also got to spend a little time sightseeing while we were there, including this view from Central Park and a visit to the 911 Memorial.

   

After returning home, I got to spend a week sucking on cough drops and taking Nyquil to try to get over a bad cold as quickly as possible...so that I could run a half marathon that Sunday morning. I did start to feel better at the end of the week, thankfully, and completed the race. I even met my goal time...and definitely felt it at the end!

   

The next morning I headed off to Orlando for our annual Campus Finance meetings. We spent most of our time going over a new budget and allocation process that we will start using for next year.  I also had the opportunity to have a fun dinner with Paul's grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins since they were visiting Orlando at the same time.

 

Finally, I made it up to our West Coast Destino Fall Retreat (a day late because of the Orlando trip) to join Paul and other staff and students from around the state. The retreat continues to grow and God continues to do some amazing things in the lives of students there. Our students were encouraged to see that God could bring restoration to their own lives and use them to point others to restoration in Christ.

We finished this last week with a visit from Paul's parents.  We took it easy while they were here, but we had a good time and plenty of good food!

In the midst of all of this, we continued to finish up our move. We aren't completely settled in yet, but we are on our way.  Thank you for praying for us during this crazy time...we definitely felt God sustain us through it all!

And now, it's Paul's turn. He heads to Orlando next week for the Destino Missional Team Leader conference. Then we will have a couple of weeks of rest before the holiday travel begins.