Since tomorrow is a holiday (Veteran’s Day), I decided to take today as a vacation day and thus extend my weekend. This afternoon both closed a chapter in my life and revisited another.

About five years ago, upon leaving full-time pastoral ministry, a few of us in our newly-founded faith-community decided to start a wedding video business called inFocus Video Productions. This endeavor was to provide supplemental income for us as well as to provide a way to incarnate Christ’s presence through our lives and skills. Earlier this year, we decided to close our business. We filmed our last wedding in late October and officially closed our virtual doors early this month. Today, I cleaned and packed all of my video equipment to sell on Ebay. While being a wedding videographer was physically demanding and took me away from my family on many Saturdays, I enjoyed the last five years. I got to work closely with two of my best friends, hone my creative skills, and quietly serve and pray for the various couples on their wedding day. Now, as I type this, there is a vacant spot in a small corner of my bedroom where I stored my video equipment. I’m glad we decided to close our business, but today I’m also a bit sad that it’s over.

After packing my video equipment into my car, I drove to the Asian Access offices where I worked for three years after leaving professional ministry. Today, the office staff celebrated 25 years of wonderful service of the office receptionist, Ellen Hale. Ellen is an incredible person and is literally the voice of Asian Access as she answers the office phones. She has impacted hundreds, if not thousands, of people by incarnating Jesus’ life through her joy, her gentle disposition and her faithful prayer. I am so glad I was able to celebrate this great milestone with her. I was moved as I watched a video of Asian Access missionaries personally thank Ellen for her impact in their lives and ministry. This past year, I have missed my Asian Access friends. This afternoon was a nice time visiting with them as well as meeting Dana, who replaced me as the Staff Accountant, Joe, Silk and Margaret.