Today we traveled a bit further afield (but not much compared to last week!) to the second-largest city in Arizona, Tucson. About 90 minutes to the south of us, Tucson has a population of about half a million people, and is home to one of Arizona’s three universities – the University of Arizona. Since my undergraduate work happened at Arizona State University in Tempe, I had the opportunity to joke with the members of Cross and Crown, a congregation that evolved out of a campus ministry at UofA. There’s a pretty big rivalry between ASU and UofA. Thankfully it was still a friendly and receptive group today.
Cross and Crown is a new congregation, founded in 2019. Pastor Palmer got in touch with me back in June, indicating he was interested in having us come and talk with their congregation. I was honored to be able to bring the Word of God to the saints at C&C this morning. What I didn’t know ahead of time is that today was also the baptism of Pastor Palmer’s eleventh child (and tenth son)! It was definitely a festive and joyous worship time together.
Afterwards we shared about LCMS work around the world and answered questions. People were welcoming and interested and collected a door-offering which we are thankful for.
The drive there and back is straight and pretty uneventful. A lot of desert, passing through the small town of Eloy (where I have a great-grandfather buried, and where Gena got to go skydiving many years ago) and past Picacho Peak, site of the second-most western battle (skirmish?) of the Civil War. We were grateful for air-conditioning, as it was well over 100 degrees outside!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 