24th Anniversary!

Wow...seems like time is always just flying by. We are celebrating our 24th anniversary today and we were able to get away for the weekend to St. Louis enjoying a leisurely walk down S. Main Street in St. Charles, MO. Lots of quaint little shops down a real brick road. After returning home and visiting my folks we learned that they used to live on that street before I and my brother Charlie were born. To think that we were walking where my parents once walked without knowing it was kinda cool.

We are all walking where others have walked before. Are we aware of it? Our thoughts, and feelings, frustrations, successes, ambitions, jealousies, endeavors, loves, interests... on and on... is there anything that others haven't thought, felt, been frustrated about, succeeded in... etc.? Am I really so unique thinking this could only happen to me when we have a great cloud of witnesses looking down upon us and ribbing each other in the side, saying, "Look at him! I did that once and broke my leg too!". Or, "Yeah, that happened to me once and I was depressed for a year...". Or, "Remember that time when we could barely make ends meet?". Others have gone before, whether we know it or not. And the one thing that was true then, as it is true now, is that God was faithful then, as he is now. He is walking with us. Where we are. Now. He is and was and will be wherever we are, were or will be. Now. Every year is an anniversary of his faithfulness to us. Even if we feel we are walking along the road alone.

Harvesters Retreat & Braymer Revival

We had 32 students attend our planning retreat at West Central Christian Service Camp this weekend and it went very well. Lots of new ideas for the semester and the unique observation from our Student Leader Jessie Lowe that most of the freshman, for the first time, were mission majors that attended. More and more students are specifically choosing Central because of the mission emphasis the school now has!

We took the new Central worship group, One Accord, with us to Braymer Christian Church for a mission revival as well. We returned from the retreat, and turned around and went to Braymer for a very full and busy weekend. I preached three times and led 3 workshops in less than 24 hours! The 13 students attending and participating were a big help and it is so exciting to see so many get involved in promoting missions along with us in the area churches. The minister at Braymer, Ashton and his wife Amber, are still planning to go to East Asia and have a specific Business as Mission Plan to implement once they depart. It is exciting to see our past students still focusing on the goal of reaching the Chinese for the Lord in out of the box type of methods.