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A week ago at this time I was just arriving back from Wesley Woods, still savoring the crisp Wisconsin morning air, bright blue waters of Lake Geneva, and boisterous voices of children and teens that are all a part of our congregation's annual church camp.  

It was, as always, a joy to work with John Smoke and Howie Snyder, and the great team of volunteers from our church; to enjoy seeing the campers zoom down the slip-and-slide, take turns kayaking, or share stories of the day over the dining hall tables.

Hello from Guatemala City!

The weather is great up here on the techo ("roof," actually the 4th floor of the UPAVIM building), and I have a nice view of the La Esperanza neighborhood. I am sharing the volunteer living space with Elena (who works in the clinic and the Montessori classrooms), Matt (one of the English teachers), and their two sons, Sam and Michele (who attend 1st and 3rd grade at the UPAVIM school). They gave me a warm welcome on Monday and they've taught me many useful skills, like how to wash my clothes by hand, how to take the bus to the market, and where to buy the best bread and fruit. I've also met three of the four young women that teach English, but they live in a house nearby, not on the roof.

The scripture this Sunday is John 5:2-18 and tells the story of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath who had waited 38 years to be healed as he lay by a pool of water. I hope to tease some meanings from it for today as we listen to Jesus ask the guy, "what do you want?"

Thank you to everyone who came out Monday evening to hear the Pure Sound Youth Choir from Bethany United Methodist Church in Austin, TX, a small, but powerful ensemble of singers.

Hello DGFUMC family!

I just wanted to let you know that I arrived safely in Guatemala City yesterday. I have a cute little room on the top floor of the UPAVIM building. The other volunteers are very friendly and helpful. Today I took a tour of the UPAVIM building and met many of the UPAVIM members and their children (some of whom I met last July, since I was part of the North-to-South delegation). I also started helping with the Reforzamiento tutoring program. Tomorrow morning I will start working in the clinic as well.

Father's Day is an opportunity for each of us to show our love and appreciation to those men in our lives who have nurtured and cared for us; a moment to honor our fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers and husbands who have guided us through sunny days and stormy nights. This Father's Day my sermon will focus on Luke 8:22-25, which tells the story of Jesus calming a storm. I will reflect on my experience of watching my dad set sail into some stormy weather and focus on how faith, hope and trust help us to negotiate the storms we all face along life's journey.

For many of us, summer unofficially begins after Memorial Day weekend - but for Jim and me, summer starts when we arrive back home from our United Methodist Annual Conference, held again this year in St. Charles.

Conference was Sunday through Tuesday of this past week, and as always, it was a refreshing and inspiring time with good sermons, services, and teaching; news about the ministries and missions we are connected with as Northern Illinois United Methodists; and meeting and reconnecting with some great people.

Welcome to June!  We will kick off the new month by moving to our summer worship times of 8:30 and 10:00 a.m., beginning this Sunday, June 5.

A very special part of this Sunday's 10:00 service will be the Recognition of graduating high school seniors in our congregation.  We'll celebrate with them this milestone in their life, and bless them as they step into the future.

We'll reflect on the scripture account, in Acts 13:1-3, of Paul and Barnabas being prayed for by their church as they embarked on a new journey, with the message You Are Called.

This week as the temperatures rose, we were giving a reminder of what summers in Chicago are really like; a surprising reminder after a cool spring.

With the warmer weather, comes the job of dusting off the winter debris. I want to thank the 20 plus volunteers from DGFUMC who joined in cleaning up a stretch of the St. Joseph Creek as part of the annual DuPage River Sweep last Saturday.

Last Sunday's special service, celebrating and dedicating our new sanctuary stained glass windows, ended with the Chapel and Chancel Choirs singing the powerful anthem, There Is a River in Judea. That anthem lifted our vision to God's ultimate purposes of love and healing for humanity.

This Sunday's worship will include a celebration and dedication of the new stained glass windows that have been added to our church sanctuary over the past two years. As we'll be reminded on Sunday, they tell a story of the "Hymns of Praise" that teach and inspire us as a congregation. But they remind us of other stories of our life together, too.