My mom came to visit last week and I think the universe decided to mock me. We woke up to wet carpet and something wrong with the HVAC condenser line. Since I started as bishop, I have mentioned several times that I am grateful to not be dealing with a church HVAC system. I had to bleed to system in rural Iowa on Sunday mornings. The heat pumps at Trinity, Nampa were temperamental. But now here I am dealing with my home system. But I am eternally grateful for people to call and to be a home owner. And it turns out that it’s great mom is in town when service people need a two-hour window to stop by.

This week I also got to connect with the head of Lutheran Community Services Northwest, a Presbyterian pastor friend back from sabbatical, the United Church of Christ United Pacific Coast Conference Minister (whose geography goes from the Oregon Coast to the Idaho/Wyoming border), our fabulous Luther Heights camp staff, and the Episcopal Bishop here in Southern Idaho. I also got to reconnect on Zoom with the Idaho Nonprofit Leaders I was with in May. We had two mornings on Conflict with Professor Michelle Bennett from Boise State University. Bennett will, coincidentally, be on the panel at my former congregation’s Tough Conversation event at the end of October. To say I appreciate the connections with these other Idaho nonprofit leaders would be a drastic understatement.

Saturday I spent the morning with members of Immaneul Lutheran and King of Glory Lutheran, Boise at a Feed the Hunger event coordinated by the Multi-Faith Action Project (MAP). The many workers also included LDS, Presbyterians, and Baptists. I got to work alongside Pastor Michael Ross (St. Paul Baptist) and his wife and it was fun to reconnect after having served on the MAP advisory team together last year.

Sunday morning I drove early to Boise for the first Interfaith Worship at Boise Pride Festival. I went back to the festival after worship to visit booths and say hello to many friends.

The bulk of the morning was spent preaching and presiding at Immanuel Lutheran in downtown Boise, a church I can drive to without GPS (even with construction) thanks to collaboration, hosted events, and simply the many years of being in the same cluster. Worship was followed by Messy Church (intergenerational faith formation).