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“Yes, I feel like traveling on, I feel like traveling on;
My heav’nly home is bright and fair,
I feel like traveling on.”

I’m sure that a number of us remember this old hymn.  I found myself singing it today as I look at my upcoming calendar.  I don’t plan on going to my heavenly home anytime soon (but neither the date of my departure nor that of the Lord’s return falls within my purview), but over the next couple of months, I’m going to be doing some “traveling on” on this mortal coil. 

I am writing this on Thursday, September 27.  After church this Sunday, August 30, I will be traveling to Nashville and returning on Thursday.  Our middle grandson, 9-year-old Titan, will be having surgery on his sinuses and lungs on Monday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and I’m going to stay a few days to help out with the surgery and his recovery.  He and Elizabeth are already there, having gone for appointments this week.  My plan is to return on Thursday, September 3.  Hopefully, Titan will be sufficiently recovered to travel home by that time.

Just 8 days later, I will be on the road again, this time to Chattanooga for my annual conference week.  I am looking forward to this time of worship, preaching and fellowship with friends I usually see only once a year.  I will leave on Saturday, September 12, and return on Thursday, September 17.  God has used this conference time over the last 25 years or so to sharpen my ax and refocus my spirit each year.  Pray that this year’s conference will have the same or even greater impact.

Speaking of traveling on, Mikel and Lemuel will be traveling to Germany September 27 - October 6 with the Tennessee Men’s Chorale for a mission trip.  They will be ministering in a number of venues in song and service there in the nation of Germany.

Then, on September 19-26, Heidi and I will be traveling to Georgia.  Carol Strickland has been a part of our lives for a long time.  Heidi taught her when she was in Middle School, and she was and still is a member of my first church after seminary, Sand Hill Baptist Church in Guyton, Georgia, where I pastored from 1988 to 1997.  She and her fiancé, Steven Jarrell, surprised us with a visit a few months ago, and then returned for pre-marital counseling this past weekend.  Their wedding will be on the 24th, and I am honored to conduct their ceremony alongside an old friend from college days, Derward Poole, who currently pastors Sand Hill.  The next day, Derward has invited me to preach at Sand Hill as part of their Refresh/Renew series.  We are also looking forward to seeing family and friends during this time in Georgia.  It looks to be a busy week, but a rewarding one.

That’s all the travel I anticipate this year, but I am planning to take some vacation days in November when our daughter Elizabeth has knee surgery.  

Looking further down the line, Heidi and I will be traveling to Tampa next April.  My nephew, my brother’s only child, will be getting married at 44 years of age after all these years as a bachelor.  We are planning to turn that trip into an actual vacation of the type we haven’t had since about 2008, as our vacation times since then have mostly revolved around visiting family.

Please pray for us in our travels.  Pray for safety, rest, recreation and renewal.

Numbers 6:24-26,

Bro. Donnie