Dearest Friends,

I write this on the Solstice, a day upon which many churches hold “Longest Night Services,” during which folks ponder the seasons and cycles of life, the love and loss, joy and sorrow, darkness and light, that make us human and make our lives complete.

I write this with a sense of all of those things, but particularly with a sense of love for you all, and a sense of loss for all the ways in which I have not been able to be with you in the most recent seasons of your lives.  I write this thinking of you all, and hoping you have felt my presence near.

December 30th marks the half-way point of my Internship, and I write this in joy for the Muncie church which I have grown to love, and those here who have embraced me so fully.  Here, they are much like you – wise, funny, generous and thoughtful, and like you, they are teaching me much.  I write this with joy for my experience here, and sorrow for all that I have missed with you.  It will be hard to leave, come May, and good to get home.

And on this longest night of the year, I write this rejoicing in the fact that in the midst of tonight’s long darkness, I can know that ever-growing light will begin tomorrow, to lead us into the rebirth and renewal of an assuring and glorious spring.

Blessed be, and with greatest affection,