Will Ye No’ Come Back Again…?” The final strains of our affectionate farewell at Oxbridge had hardly faded into history before one heard the heartfelt refrain – “See you in 2011!”

And from a Summer Seminar sojourner to The Kilns: our time together brought forth “a few notes of the ‘central music in every pure experience’ that we had almost recaptured and one day will recapture. It was the echo of Joy.”

One could hardly put it better. And whether spoken by the doctoral student from Eastern Europe who was so deeply moved by her participation in our Faculty Forum gathering at the University of Colorado at Boulder last year or by the single parent I visited with at the close of our Southwest Regional Retreat in Texas just a few months ago, the message is the same: “I encountered God here, and I’m leaving a changed person.”

As you read the posts on our blog and visit our website, we invite you to join us in thanksgiving for God’s love and grace expressed in so very many ways over the course of these past months and years. If you’ve been a partner with us in helping to advance this strategic work, please receive our heartfelt thanks. If you are new or have not yet taken the opportunity to “join our ranks,” please know that you have a warm invitation to do just that in 2009 as we venture, “Further up and further in!”

Yours for the journey,

J. Stanley Mattson
Founder and President
C.S. Lewis Foundation