I am delighted to announce that Jonathan Hobbs has been appointed to head up the Youth Ministry Department at Eastern University starting this fall. Sadly, this means he will no longer be serving here on our staff, but Kimberly Lindquist will take over the leadership of our Family Ministries, and Brynn Schmidt will be leading our Youth Ministries.  

I spent the majority of my sabbatical walking 700 miles through northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago. I walked the 'French' route - across the Pyrenees and through Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Then the 'Primitive' route - from the city of Oviedo.

Once upon a time, teaching religion to fourth graders, I’d given them this passage to read from Ecclesiastes: “For everything there is a season, / and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; / a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; / a time to kill, and a time to heal; / a time to break down, and a time to build up; / a time to weep, and a time to laugh; / a time to mourn, and a time to dan