1. Oct. 22 -- First UMC, Junction City, KS
   785-238-2156 am worship services
2. Oct. 22 -- UMC, Spring Hill, KS
   913-686-3668 4:30 pm concert
3. Oct. 29 -- Bethel UMC, Prince William, VA
   703-670-4929 am worship services/ pm concert
4. Nov. 5 -- St. Paul's UMC, Manchester, NH
   603-647-7322 am worship service/pm concert
5. Nov. 11 -- District UM Men Event, Winfield, KS
   316-221-6207 concert
6. Nov. 12 -- Pleasant Valley UMC, Wichita, KS
   316-838-8104 am worship service
7. Nov. 12 -- Valley UMC, Marion, KS
   316-382-3142 pm concert
8. Nov. 18 -- Ive's Chapel UMC, Baldwin City, KS
   785-449-2821 pm worship service
9. Nov. 19 -- College Avenue UMC, Manhattan, KS
   785-539-4191 am worship service
10. Nov. 26 -- Woodland UMC, Wichita, KS
    316-265-6669 am worship service

Also, Norma is booking dates for teaching and speaking in 2001. In addition to the weekends she and I work together, Norma conducts a variety of stewardship, quality of life, and spiritual growth workshops.

NEW LINKS ON WEBSITE

We hope you'll check out two new links on the website. One is "Norma's Link" which gives info on the weekend stewardship education event we do together. The second is "Photos" which is my first feeble attempts at photography when I'm on tour. An old Polaroid hopefully will give way to a digital camera in 2001. So far, all pictures are of me and were taken by innocent bystanders. The next ones will be less egocentric, I promise!

THIS MONTH'S READING

Lee: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI, by Paramahansa Yogananda. As I've continued to read the historian Will Durant's account of India's culture, I've been led to read this book which has been sitting in my bookcase for fifteen years. Yogananda was born in 1893 and left this plane of life in 1952 in Los Angeles. He grew up near Calcutta on the eastern side of India. This is his account of his spiritual journey which eventually led him, under the tutelage of his guru, to be a kind of "missionary" to the United States in the 1940's. His writing reveals him to be a wonderful, light-filled spirit. I'm humbled by his openness to God working through all the world's religious traditions. He is a great admirer of Jesus. He also made a pilgrammage to Bavaria to meet the Catholic stigmatist and saint, Therese Neumann. This is a very readable book for people like me, who need to keep things simple.

BHAGAVAD GITA -- This is a brand new translation by Stephen Mitchell of this ancient holy writing of India. Bhagavad Gita means "The Song of the Blessed One." (It is Book Six of India's national epic, the Mahabharata, a long, long poem -- eight times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined!) I'm still reading the Introduction, so can't comment on this very much. I know so little about Eastern religious thought that I hope to become better informed in mind and heart by letting this classic sink into my oft-timed rigid, Westernized soul.

THIS MONTH'S FAVORITE QUOTE:

[Souls who love God] "...know one another by smell, like horses. Though one be in the East and the other in the West, they still feel joy and comfort in each other's talk, and one who lives in a later generation than the other is instructed and consoled by the words of his friend." -- an ancient Sufi master

FROM NORMA: Unlike Lee, my current reading is more contemporary. I just finished James Lee Burke's new novel, PURPLE CANE ROAD. For luxury of description, Burke can't be beat! I've also discovered art galleries on the Internet. When you have some time to breathe, browse through. My favorite for today is the Van Gogh Gallery.

Enjoy autumn and each other.

Peace,
Lee & Norma