15 September 2006

Another Week

This is being written from yet another hotel room. I've been in this town for a month now, and this is the third hotel I've stayed in. The first two were paid paid the company, so they were a bit ''upscale''. This one is being paid for, by me, so it definitely is not. One of those 'by-the-week' extended stay joints, populated by four-illegals-to-a-room, single moms on the lam, and a remarkable collection of empty beer cans in the trash. For $30 a day, I guess that's what you expect. Generally, once I get out of work, I head back to the room and stay there until the 04:30 alarm goes off. Sometimes I stop at Wally World and pick up the el-cheapo food stuff to eat, but for most of the time, that's as exciting as it gets.

We recently ''celebrated'' our wedding anniversary with phone calls. This is not what I'd call a romantic way to celebrate the milestones of our life.

With a relocation comes the need to establish oneself. Get the right car plates, driver license, find a bank. Those are easy, if a pain. Find a new church. Now that is hard. Those of you in church leadership need to give the matter some prayerful consideration. As one in the midst of the matter, I can assure you that it is a stressful and difficult matter. Too many churches are more or less family reunion/weekly social club arrangements. Oh, God is involved surely. But it's a rather closed society, limited by family ties, or social condition, or race, or background, or other criteria.