Back in September 2015 they found melanoma in a mole on my forehead. In November Dr. Wilson and team removed a big patch of forehead skin and the downstream lymph node in which they found a “micropresence” of melanoma. In January they removed the rest of the downstream lymph nodes, finding no cancer there.

Last week I met with Dr. Wilson to review my recent CT scan. I now have medical confirmation of the widely held belief that there is nothing interesting in or on my head. That news gave me freedom to return to the Red Cross and donate blood, literally the gift of life, something I have been doing since 1972. Giving double reds means I only have to go through the hassles of screening and getting attached half as often. And I get to lay in a much more comfortable couch to boot! I am somewhere over 100 units donated. Want to come join me?

We discovered that hackers or spammers or someone had been using my website to do their stuff, so Ed Aw, an alum and friend from whom I buy web hosting, redid the whole site to kick them out and put up a lot of extra security. Now I get a weekly report saying that people from China, Russia, and all sorts of places try to access the site, all unsuccessfully I hope. The spammers and some challenges in getting everything reset did freak me out more than a bit which is a big reason for no posts for quite a while.

Travel is a bigger part of my life now. I was in Mexico for a weekend to help out with some controversy about Hebrew Roots and theonomy that threatened to divide their community. A couple of weeks ago I went to Fort Worth to teach church planters associated with Soma Sending. I taught until 10 pm on Thursday and departed at 5 am Friday to teach there all afternoon and hang out in the evening and then flew back after spending the morning with the folk. Quick trips are the order of the day with all I am doing here.

Evangelical Theological Society is next week so I leave Sunday morning for meetings on Monday and the conference Tuesday through Thursday and then fly back Thursday night.

There is some relaxing too: Sherry and I had lupper at Olive Garden this afternoon, just hanging out and enjoying being married.

Nicole’s 16th birthday included a shopping trip to Portland with Hannah and Emily, her two best friends, accompanied by David, Samantha and Joy. Cyndee was also here for the weekend so it was a full house and full of fun. They had to record the beginning of the adventure for posterity. I wonder what will happen if/when Nicole or Joy leaves home for college. It is a big change but with today’s technology one can connect regularly which is very good.