Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

Buenos dias! Bon dia! Kalimera! Guten morgen! That’s “good morning” in Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, and German! Some of you may know that, I really enjoy learning and being able use even a few phrases in another language. In fact, when my children were young, because I could throw out a word or phrase here and there from a few other languages, they thought that their dad was multi-lingual. It wasn’t long until they learned I was not!   Currently, however, I can carry on some conversation in Spanish. This year I’ve been trying to learn a little bit of Brazilian Portuguese.   And, most recently I’ve been learning more phrases in Greek (I only learned a few growing up from my dad and relatives).     For me, learning a language is not just about learning a new vocabulary but about connecting with people around me, both here at home and as I travel.   For example, when I go into our local bagel place I can greet the workers and even place my order in Spanish, and as I

It was last year’s Labor Day that I ran my first 5K Race.   I began running back in June of that year, setting a goal for myself to be able to run my first race on Labor Day at a 9 minute pace.   That may not sound too fast to some, but for me that was a reasonable goal.   Although I hit that pace during some practice runs in August, I fell short on race day itself, having run a 9:07 pace (5K in 28:13).   This year, however, has been a different story.   I’ve now run four races this summer, having broken the 9 minute pace a couple of times.   And in fact, on Labor Day of this year, I hit a personal record, running the same race as last year at an 8:44 pace (5K in 27:06 minutes)!   Now I will tell you, running is not my favorite thing to do. In fact, as I’m running a race I sometimes begin thinking to myself, “Why am I doing this?” or, “This is going to be my last race!”   When the exhaustion begins to set in I want to give up and say, “I just can’t do this.”   But, I k