bits and pieces

I have missed blogging for a few weeks due to a couple of events of some importance to me--enough that I will draw attention to them here.

I attended a pastors' conference at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois and was encouraged and uplifted after four days of listening and learning.

As a listener, I focused on taking in the Word and benefitting from the wisdom of others. As a learner, I owned a spirit of teachability and am seeking now to apply some of things I heard.

I participated at a men's retreat in the foothills of Northern California with about 35 guys from our church this weekend. I was not the leader so I got to be a participant and a "pray-er".

As a participant, I sat with the men and sang with them, worshipped with them, competed with them, ate with them, laughed and cried with them, and slept with them. As a "pray-er", I had the privilege of sitting with a few of them one-on-one and sharing with them the hope of God's Word and the help of the Holy Spirit.

I later returned to a church burglary, a volatile situation where someone reported a church incident to the local police, a death, and a reports of declining church income.

I reluctantly had to put on my pastor's "hat" and go to work, but the bits and pieces of ecnouragement and enrichment I found at the conference and retreat have kept me focused on God's goodness and inexhaustible resources.