Our drive home yesterday was uneventful. As we headed up through the Sandhills, we could see the smoke plume from the Fairfield Creek Fire. As we entered Cherry County, we commented on the sign that proclaims: “Valentine and Cherry County – A Vacation Paradise!” It is nice to see a billboard that proclaims that you chose the right destination for your vacation. We might not have known that we were in paradise without the billboard. The temperature was about 85 degrees when we started driving, but was into the 90’s before we got to Valentine. The businesses that promote tubing and canoeing on the Niobrara River didn’t have any crowds or cars in the parking lots. A 14-mile stretch of the river is closed because of the firefighting operations, but those businesses aren’t exactly hopping on midweek days anyway.

The airport in Valentine was busy with two firefighting helicopters on the ground. There are a total of four helicopters and over 200 firefighters working the blaze. We saw several brush trucks and water haulers in town getting fuel or replenishing water and other supplies. As we headed north out of town, we counted four other brush trucks heading toward Valentine, including a large water tender being hauled on a flatbed semi trailer. We were looking for the smoke plume from the Longhorn complex, but couldn’t make out a single plume. The entire area is filled with smoke. Mission didn’t have the firefighting activity that we had witnessed in Valentine.

We decided to follow highway 44 home from White River. There wasn’t much traffic and just a short delay for a chip sealing operation through Badlands National Park between Interior and Scenic. We stopped at Cowboy Corner in Interior to get a cold drink and were reminded of the near 100 degree conditions as we stepped out of our air-conditioned pickup.

It took us most of the afternoon to get out house aired out and cooled down. We have window air conditioners in the upstairs bedrooms, but most of the time we don’t need air conditioning as it cools off at night and we can open up the house at night and close it up in the day to maintain the temperature. A couple weeks of being away allowed the house to trap heat and so we turned on the air conditioners and fans and by bedtime it was cool enough outside to open the windows and sleep comfortably.

This morning I’m going over my “to do” lists for work. There are several things that need to be accomplished in the next couple of weeks. We have a major planning event for church leaders on August 4. I am not a huge fan of formal planning events. I find that much of what we do in the church is to remain sensitive to needs and to allow ministries to emerge from the interests and passions of our members. Planning events tend to force ministries and sometimes the programs envisioned are not fully supported by the congregation. It seems to be a better investment of my time to listen carefully to the members and to help them with their projects.

However, from time to time, it makes sense for church leaders to coordinate their work, to review schedule, and to get a general sense that they are all heading in the same direction. Of course we are never really heading in the same direction, but when we know where others are, we can better support their vision and work.

So we’ll meet for a morning in August to make some plans for fall programs.

Susan and I have preferred to take our vacation in the fall, but that isn’t always the best time for a church to have the minister gone, so we are planning to be here with our “noses to the grindstone” throughout the fall to work for the success of the programs of the church.

The first day back from a vacation involves following up on messages, sorting through mail, and dealing with the accumulation of items on our desks. There are people to contact and it will take us most of the day to catch up on the things that have happened in our absence. There is always a sense of “shifting gears” as we transition from the pace and activities of vacation to the pace and activities of a busy church office. I’m sure that there are calls to be made and people in need of visits. We have a wedding this weekend and our usual worship, which means a certain amount of time needs to be devoted to sitting at the computer and getting all of the necessary documents in place.

Since I am in that “in between place” being at home and not yet having been to the church, I don’t have much news for today’s blog. Rather than stretch things out, I’ll quit a few words short of my usual and get on with my day. Hopefully I’ll have something interesting for you to read tomorrow.

But, according to the sign, we did visit paradise on our vacation. Funny, it was a lot hotter than I expected.

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