Weekend To Remember

For several years, I have heard about Family Life’s Weekend To Remember event. This is a marriage retreat and conference designed to help build and reinforce healthy marriages. I have wanted to attend with my wife for quite some time, but have never had the opportunity due to schedule conflicts.

Family Life realizes that these events are important for all marriages, but they also realize the challenges that come for those in full time ministry. As a result, they have chosen to offer these events for free to ministers.

So, for the first time, Heather and I are able to attend one of these conferences. I am looking forward to it, and excited to see how it will impact our marriage and our relationship with each other.

Heather and I have been married for twenty-six years. We have, in my opinion, a strong and vibrant marriage. But as with anything else, there is always room for us to grow stronger together, room to improve. I expect this weekend to give us some good ideas on how to achieve that.

Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to honor God even better with our marriage.

Preaching Teaching Convention

Each year, my alma mater, Ozark Christian College, hosts the Preaching-Teaching Convention. This year looks to be an exceptional opportunity to be fed spiritually for a few days. With a focus on the book of Acts, and a lineup of great speakers and workshops, I’m looking forward to attending.

This is an opportunity I take advantage of each year. Ozark’s campus is in Joplin, MO, so it’s a short trip to make for a few days of renewal and refreshing for my soul, and reconnecting with friends, old and new.

If you re planning on going, let me know so we can connect. If you aren’t going, but are close enough, you should consider it. It’s an excellent opportunity to soak up some good teaching form God’s Word, and to see what God is doing through the ministry of Ozark Christian College.

Not only did my wife and I both attend, but one of my kids is there now, with another planning on going this fall. I’m excited about the legacy of ministry that is forming in my family, and look forward to seeing what God will do in the generations yet to come.

I encourage you to take advantage of the Preaching-Teaching Convention if you are able to. It will be well worth your time.

Vacation!

For the first time in several years, my family is taking a vacation for a week. Before you start in on me about the need for regular vacations, let me assure you, I have already heard it.

Our problem for the past few years has been our efforts to eliminate debt and get rid of that weight hanging over us. We have made some incredible progress in that area, thanks in large part to Financial Peace University, and have decided to celebrate with a week at the lake.

Our goal is to do as little as possible. We are headed to Branson, Missouri, to spend the week with some of our best friends. We will probably take in Silver Dollar City one day, but for the most part, I plan on sitting on the dock, or on the deck, or in the lake. That’s it.

Maybe I’ll do a little reading. Maybe a nap or two. Who knows? Either way, it will be relaxing.

I hope you have a great week! I’ll see you back here in a few days!

A Broken Arm

Last weekend, our church went on a Men’s Retreat to Discovery Ministries, in Eminence, MO. It was an excellent weekend together, with some great relationships, fun times, a strong challenge to be the men God wants us to be…. And a broken arm.

I fell. I’d like to have a good story to explain what happened, like rescuing a kitten from a raging torrent at the river, or saving a peanut butter sandwich before it hit the mud, or something. But I don’t. I slipped on some wet moss and went down – hard – on my elbow.

So after the weekend, I went to the ER to confirm the injury I suspected had happened, and then to an orthopedic specialist. Needless to say, the simple things are now hard to accomplish, like tying my shoes and buttoning my shirt. And typing.

For the next few weeks, I will have to simplify my life in order to let this heal. I’ll be pausing most of the activity here for a few days as well. I apologize for that, and wish I could write more, and post more, and create more. But this elbow needs to heal.

Stick around though. Things will pick back up soon, I promise. Thanks for understanding. And thanks for any prayers you might send my way. I appreciate them.

Parkview Men’s Retreat

This weekend, several of the men from our church are headed to Eminence, MO, to Discovery Ministries for a weekend retreat.

I am pretty excited about this opportunity, looking forward to the quality time spent with several of the guys in our church family. We will spend a few hours floating the Current River, sitting around and talking, and learning what it means to overcome the obstacles we face as men striving to be the best men, the best husbands, and the best dads that we can be.

I would appreciate your prayers for us as we go, that we can have an impacting weekend!

Preaching-Teaching Convention

It is starting to feel like I just cannot get onto a regular writing schedule right now. It’s actually kind of amusing to me that I feel so frustrated that my routine isn’t what I want it to be right now.

The last week has been a whirlwind. Between hospital visits and funeral planning, along with the normal weekly stuff, the last few days have gone by fast.

And next week will be just as filled. On Monday, our youth minister and I will head to Ozark Christian College, in Joplin, Missouri, for the Preaching-Teaching Convention. I always look forward to this event, because I get to visit with my oldest daughter, who is a student there, and I get to reconnect with several friends that I have had since my college days.

The fellowship will be good. The teaching will be encouraging. And the worship will be filling. I’m looking forward to it.

In the meantime, hang in there with me. I’ll get back to a normal writing schedule sometime.

Summer Madness

Summer vacation has arrived, the kids are out of school, and things just got pretty crazy.

This summer, my daughter has the opportunity to serve as an intern at American Indian Christian Mission, serving the White River Apache Nation in Arizona. Our plans originally were for her to drive out with a couple of very close friends of our family, who would get her settled in and then they would return home. They know AICM as well as we do, having gone with us more than once on short term mission trips there.

However, do to a tragic loss in their family, they are unable to go as planned. So today, I am headed out to Arizona with my daughter and then flying back home later this week. I’m hesitant to let her travel all that way alone, and I feel like it would be safer for her to have someone traveling with her.

I return home on Saturday, only to reload my suitcase and head to high school week at our church camp. That will also be a great week, but I wasn’t quite ready to have two busy weeks back to back.

So, for the next couple of weeks, things will be pretty quiet around here. Saturday’s quote posts are scheduled and ready to go, but most of the rest of what I do will be on hold until after I get back home. I hope to post an update or two in the meantime, much like this one, but I’m not sure just how possible even that will be.

Thanks for understanding, and for hanging out with me on this wild ride we are taking together. I appreciate you more than you know!