In autumn of 2006, John  received a grant from Lilly Endowment for a "Clergy Renewal Leave", a kind of  sabbatical, that provides "an opportunity for pastors to step away briefly from the persistent obligations of daily parish life and to engage in a period of renewal and reflection. Renewal periods are not vacations, but times for intentional exploration and reflection, for drinking again from God's life-giving waters, for regaining enthusiasm and creativity for ministry."

John imagined three routes to answer the grant proposal's question:   "What Will Make Your Heart Sing?" 

Carving Lesson - Virginia/North Carolina
South Africa
Connecting with our children

1) Carving Lesson.
John loves to woodcarve and often allows his mind to think freely as his hands work carefully.  Master wood-carver, Tom Wolfe, whose books John has used for characters,  lives in North Carolina and has agreed to some private tutoring for John. That is scheduled around June 12, depending on the weather atop the location of his "office", Grandfather Mountain.

2) South Africa
June 18, we fly to South Africa for six weeks. John's study theme is "Justice and Reconciliation", paying attention to life after apartheid, and anything we might learn for life at home. 

About thirty people (so far)  from our church  have studied Trevor Hudson's book, A Mile in My Shoes, Cultivating Compassion, and are mindful of his admonition toward a "pilgrim attitude", to "come as pilgrims, not as tourists; as learners, not as teachers; as receivers, not as givers; as listeners, not as talkers'.  We are looking for a balance.

We fly from Detroit to Dulles International Airport (Washington D.C.), then Dulles to Johannesburg (17 hours), and then Johannesburg to Cape Town, where we begin. We are basically (with some contacts) on our own there for a couple weeks. 

We join a commercial tour for two weeks that will take us up the Indian Ocean coast, visiting various places (including Kruger National Park), concluding in Johannesburg.

Then we are somewhat on our own again for a couple weeks. (We will actually be hosted by John Wesley College in Pretoria.)   We will rent a car for various jaunts, including museums and going back to Kruger, the more northern arid part this time, as Laura especially wants to see baobab trees. She read about them back in her 11th grade French class in the book, Le Petit Prince.   Baobab trees do not grow rings that can be counted, but some have been carbon-dated to be thousands of years old.  And when they die, they disintegrate from the inside and just implode!   Fascinating trees. We also expect to see amazing birds there.   While we are back at Kruger, we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary on July 23.

We return home July 30-31 (just in time for "Dearborn's Homecoming August 4).

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3) Connecting with our Children and Personal Retreat Time
Then we reconnect with our children. Carrie will fly in from Philadelphia where she lives/works, and along with James who lives with us, we four will fly to northern California, where we will explore some National Parks.

After a few days, Carrie and Laura leave John and James for a little backbacking.   Then James comes home, leaving John there for some contemplative time.  John will return to his everyday job at the end of August.

The grant also provides for a "substitute" pastor while we are away. John was very pleased that the Rev. Bill Ritter  agreed to be the managing pastor of the congregation  during this period. He is a recently-retired pastor, known for being an excellent preacher, and was John's youth pastor many years ago.

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