Lena and I have been in a lot of meetings since we have been in the USA. We are back in Nashville, by the way, and had a great meeting with some leaders of Otter Creek tonight. We are again enjoying the Prills hospitality. I think on Thursday we actually have nothing planned to do!! Praise the Lord. There was a baptism at Otter Creek tonight, I guess the last one in that building for Otter Creek. It was really wonderful, such a huge crowd, meaningful hearfelt worship, parents blessed to see their daughter born again. It was kingdom rich.

I do have a few observations about Americans and meetings. I realize I have a US passport but sometimes I wonder what country I am from. We have had some very serious discussions with a host of people on lots of different topics. There are some odd things I don't quite understand. Very often, we are talking to people and they decide to do something else like read their email, read a newspaper, or call someone on their cell phone. I understand people have responsibilities but it seems sometimes that it's hard to get 30 uninterrupted minutes. Something just seems terribly wrong with all this invasive technology. Why do electronic pieces of data win out over real live human beings in the room??? Apparently, it's perfectly acceptable in this culture and we have just tried to negotiate the culture and smile and act like we think it's normal. But it's really not normal for us. It's odd. Anyone else notice this or bothered by it or not have any idea what I am talking about?

And church seems like the worst place to talk to someone since it seems everyone has about 20 people they need to talk to on Sundays. I love big churches but it seems there is a huge downside. Or at least I wonder if that's just normal discourse and everyone knows and accepts and I have just forgotten my own culture.