We thought we'd better pass on the news that Claire and I are not going to do an interview with Focus on the Family after all. Yes, everything had been set up for August 29 -- after they had rescheduled 3 times -- and we had set everything up here, at church, with the nursing homes, and with friends and family in Colorado. Focus had kept in touch with us and had sent both a hotel reservation number and an explanation of what to expect once we got to the Focus studio. The interview was to be about our ministries in nursing homes, "When Swing Was King," and other services to seniors. We were looking forward to it a great deal. We know that many of you were looking forward to it too and have been praying for the interview's effectiveness in stimulating others around the country to engage in such activities.
That's why we thought it was necessary to let you know about the cancellation.
Well, that's one reason. The other is that this cancellation will affect some of you more directly. For instance, we were going to have a mini-vacation to bookend the interview in order to see friends and family members who live along the Front Range (and there's really a lot of them!) but we will probably have to drop that now. We're really sorry.
There are, of course, a few other things that we regret. Because we were expecting to be in Colorado, I had turned down a speaking engagement at a conference and I told another friend who is looking at surgery that I couldn't help teach his classes at a Christian college. However, we're very pleased that we didn't have to cancel any of our "When Swing Was King" presentations because of the proposed Colorado trip. Claire managed to just move the dates around. That's good.
I would tell you why the interview was cancelled but the fact is that I don't know. We received an e-mail note yesterday from a Focus producer that simply stated, "Due to a change in direction for our programming needs airing in the near future, we’re going to have to cancel this radio broadcast taping." The writer then apologized for any inconvenience it caused us, reminded us that Focus stands behind us in our pro-life work, and told us that listening to the "practice interview" had encouraged his own family to pursue ministries to seniors. That's cool and, though a further explanation for the cancellation would certainly have been welcome, we appreciated his remarks. And we continue to wish Focus on the Family the very best. They have long been an important force for the Kingdom and we pray that the Lord will continue to use their various ministries in wonderful ways.
Again, we're sorry to disappoint those of you who were excited with us about the Focus on the Family interview as well as those who had been praying for the event and the trip. God clearly has something else for us to be doing during those few days and, though it probably won't have the aura of a national radio program, we're kinda' excited to see just what it will be.
