Last night in Alaska. As you can imagine we are pretty tired and excited to see our families and friends back home. Today we went to 4 different churches in Anchorage - Turnagin, Chugiak, Anchor Park and Samoan UMC. Three of us preached in those congregations.

I had the honor of preaching at Turnagin UMC. I talked about how it has been a struggle within our group to embrace that our purpose is to build relationships and not do work. It is hard to exlain to folks that our mission is to just be with people, especially when there is so much work and attention needed at home. We are so good at doing but not as good at just being. Being is uncomfortable, makes us face one anothers rough edges, and can feel like we are not accomplishing a thing. But while doing can give us some commanality, it cannot make up for sharing stories, reaching across differences, and being vulnerable with one another. As United Methodists, connectionalism is who we are. And after experiencing this being trip, I am realizing that our connectionalism is only as strong as our ability to just be together. It is an learning that I will take back to Blaine Memorial and to my own spiritual life.

As this will surely be my last posting, I wanted to make sure to say that I'm so grateful for the opportunity to get to know the 11 other people I've traveled with. We have pushed one another's buttons and have loved onle another through it. Many of these people I would never had had the opportunity to get to know and certainly not this well. My life has been enriched by the stories, life experirences, laughter, wisdom and depth of my friends.

Peace out
Kathleen