 You know, I've thought a great deal about that. Of course, I'm grateful to the North Texas Conference. I'm grateful to all the colleagues and friends that have worked with me and challenged me and nurtured me and mentored me along the way. But I think I'm most grateful for the people that I met beyond the local church, those people that have a different perspective that challenged me in a new way. In many instances, there are voices and stories that don't get told that aren't heard. And it was a blessing that they allowed me to walk that journey with them and changed my normal. I don't think I would have fully understood God and God's nature and really understood Christ's walk on earth had I not met the people out in the world that I had the opportunity to work with. Well, I am most grateful not for a what, but for whom, for people. Certainly, I'm most grateful to my wife, Naomi. She and I were married in 1969 the same year that I was ordained deacon under the old discipline of the United Methodist Church and the Methodist Church that preceded it. So we've been married for 49 years and I've been an ordained minister for 49 years. But I'm also grateful for a host of people who made my ministry possible, opened doors for me. I've often said to friends and potential candidates for ministry, I never walked through a door in my life unless somebody else opened it from the other side or kicked it in on my behalf. I've had tremendous mentors, teachers, colleagues in ministry, and I've had privileges that are extraordinary, unlike anything in any other career. One of my mentors, the late Bishop James K. Matthews, used to say, ministry is not what you have to do, it's what you get to do, and I've gotten to do an awful lot of really interesting things. But my wife and I have moved 11 times in 49 years of marriage in a variety of places, met an amazing number of people and all of those people collectively have influenced me. So when I come to the stage of retirement for more ordained ministry, I'm really reflecting a great deal on the people who made it possible. I think to the new ordinance I would say, don't get too comfortable behind your desk. Don't get too comfortable in the pulpit. Go into places that are messy and challenging and that will push you to think in new ways. My advice to people who are beginning ministry or being ordained as the next stage in their continuing ministry is listen to the church. However, I wanna qualify that because a lot of times I hear people say, we just have to listen to the church and what they mean is the current congregation they're serving, the cabinet on which they are members, the annual conference to which they belong, maybe a subgroup of friends who are important and my view is listening to the church means not simply some circle within which one functions but rather the whole longitudinal history of the church. So listening to the church means not only listening to the people with whom one interacts from time to time but listening to the church also means listening to Augustine and Aquinas and Wesley and Luther and Teresa of Avila and everyone in the history of the church who has unfolded what it is that we experience but listen also to the church that is not yet present with us. Listen to the church that is about to become. Listen to the church that is yet to be born. Who are the people who are gonna hear the gospel 50 and 100 years from now? What should we be doing in our time to prepare the world and the church and the ministries of Christ for those people? Well that's pretty easy. My husband and I are going to realize a lifelong dream literally since we were teenagers dating we are building a home and going to move to Colorado. So you're all invited, just call ahead and we're looking forward to being a part of that. I also have a new grand baby and wanna spend time with family in a way that often in ministry or in work in general you just don't have that time to immerse yourself with the kids and family. So I'm looking forward to that as well. Well I've had the privilege of doing a number of things in ministry and some of them required that I set aside some of the things I hoped to be able to do until an opportunity came along. For example in the 14 years that I was the dean at Perkins School of Theology I had a tremendously satisfying experience in serving what I consider the most fulfilling appointment I've ever had. However it meant that the work of the office of the dean required that I set aside some research interest and writing interest that I had. So when I left the dean's office I left with an expectation or hope that I'd be able to do some writing and I finished one of the four books that I hope to write before I'm no longer able to put words on a page and on a personal level my wife and I hope to do a little bit of traveling but we also hope to spend a great deal of time watching our grandchildren grow up.