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Hi everyone! I trust you’re enjoying the summer sunshine!

This week, I found myself thinking about a very famous, now well-established book by Gary Chapman called The 5 Love Languages. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it. The book talks about how people tend to express and appreciate love in various ways: through acts of service, gift-giving and receiving, sharing quality time, speaking/hearing words of affirmation, and physical touch. It has become a classic relationship resource, and is a good read for spouses, parents, kids, church members, and anyone in a relationship where there is expression of love for one another.

Some years ago, I attended a seminar that built on this theme, but in that case, the topic was about the different “worship languages” people have. The point of the seminar was that there are various ways to worship, and here too, people tend to gravitate to certain approaches that they find especially helpful. Some people worship best through music. Some are led to worship through beauty and the arts. For some, it is encouraged by study and the stimulation of powerful ideas. For some, it is bound up with service and ministry. For some, it happens best in nature. I think there were other ways as well, though I don’t remember them all now and am not sure where I put the notes I took. 

I found that worship seminar helpful. It got me thinking about my own ways of worshipping, and why I think and act the way I do. (It might be an interesting exercise to reflect on the preferred ways of worship in our congregation as well. I see evidence that we attempt to maintain a pretty good balance, bringing in these and other dimensions on a regular basis.)   Personally, I find that I respond to several of the “worship languages” described in the seminar, but one of my strongest is worship stimulated by nature. I suppose that’s one of the big reasons why I so enjoy living here on the North Shore!

It's also one of the reasons I enjoy camping.   I notice that sometimes when Diane and I tell people that we plan to go camping, they get a puzzled look on their faces, as though we must be just a little crazy. Perhaps in part that’s because they think we’re planning to sleep in a tent on the hard ground, cooking over a fire while we swat mosquitoes, trying to stay dry when it drizzles. There was a time when we did all those things, but these days our version of “camping” is much more civilized and comfortable, making it a restful way to take a break. But beyond that, we find that camping puts us in a place where we’re immersed in nature. And for me (and for Diane as well), that actually stimulates worship. It’s a wonderful reminder of God’s glorious, creative activity in making our world, and of His continual work to breathe life and beauty into what He has made.

We’re going to be doing a little camping/resting/worshipping in the next few weeks as part of our regular summer time off. For us, camping also means getting away from phone and internet service, so you may notice that we’re not just absent, but also offline and unresponsive to anything that isn’t an emergency. Please know that this is not because we’re eager to get away from WVBC and our wonderful church family! We’ll miss you all, and look forward to reconnecting again in a couple of weeks. But part of staying healthy - spiritually as well as physically - is finding time to rest, and also finding time to worship in ways that connect deeply with our souls. That’s what we’ll be doing. 

I hope you all have good opportunities to do the same over this summer and fall.

Of course, the church is in good hands while I’m gone. The rest of our staff team will be around, as well as a good representation of our church’s leadership in various areas. We’ll also have wonderful preaching ministry from Matt Kitchner and Aldo Zeng over the Sundays we are away. I’m sorry to miss what they’ll be sharing - though not sorry enough to cancel our travel plans. I know you’ll all be welcoming to them as they open God’s Word each week.

In the meantime, I’m still here this Sunday, and am getting ready for one last message in our series on the prophets from 1-2 Samual and 1-2 Kings. This week, we’re going to close with the story of Elisha’s final days, from 2 Kings 13:14-21. It’s a touching and intriguing narrative, and short enough that it’s easy to read ahead if you have a few minutes this week.

It’s also a fitting conclusion to the series. As I mentioned last week, after Elisha steps off the stage, we really don’t get any more extended accounts of the lives and ministries of other prophets. Instead, as the situation grows gradually worse in the nations of Israel and Judah, we begin to get more written material from the prophets, and so the prophetic leaders who become famous do so, not because of their many miracles, but rather because they wrote the books that we find between Isaiah and Malachi.

Well, that’s my update for this week. I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday. Beyond that, I trust you’ll all have a couple of wonderful weeks as July turns into August, and we’ll connect again after that. In the meantime, may your work, your rest, and your worship all be blessed!

- Pastor Ken