I apologize for the lack of any posts this past week, but it was a rather busy week for me. I got up in the wee hours of Monday morning (3:30 a.m.) to catch an early flight to Dallas for a meeting of the board of trustees for WorldconneX at a hotel near Love Field. This was my initial meeting with the board and it was a good time, meeting with folks who have a passion for missions and even some who have shared a very similar pilgrimage as mine in terms of service with the IMB and subsequent resignation over the BF&M 2000 issue. It was great to see a former missions professor of mine, Dr. Justice Anderson, and also to get to visit with Dr. Albert Reyes, former president of the Baptist Univ. of the Americas and now working with Buckner. There were some important deliberations and decisions made during the two-day meeting, but I don’t want to preempt the official news release of some of those so I’ll just wait and direct you to the appropriate channels when those become official.
On Tuesday afternoon, I was able to meet with several folks who participate in the Guatemala Affinity Group, a loosely-knit group of churches and institutions who are actively involved in missions work in Guatemala. We met at the WorldconneX offices and shared updates of what our individual ministries were currently engaged in doing in Guatemala. It was a helpful gathering with some good interchange of ideas and networking taking place. I caught an 8:30 flight back that night to Kansas City and got to observe a beautiful lightning display as thunderstorms were active out to the west.
I had planned on working just Wednesday this past week, but wound up going in on Thursday morning as well as most of the other staff were scheduled to be out of the office. My wife invited me to travel with her to the Lake of the Ozarks for a conference for speech teachers that she was attending on Thursday through Saturday. It was held at a very nice resort hotel in the town of Lake Ozark and we enjoyed a nice boat ride on Thursday night on the lake. I’ve never seen such extravagant yachts as those that were moored at the marina there. I glanced through a magazine listing prices of some that were for sale and found prices as high as $700,000 and many in the $200,000 - $300,000 range. That blew me away. I had no idea that folks paid more for a boat than we’re paying for our home.
On Friday evening we skipped out on the banquet and drove the 2 hours to Springfield to be with our 3rd son, Joshua, for an activity that he has been planning for several months. It was a benefit fundraiser for the Children’s Miracle Network. They held a dance marathon from 9:00 p.m. until 9:00 a.m. and had more than 100 university students dancing. Each had raised pledges to support the work with kids who face some very serious medical challenges. Several families were there on Friday night to share their stories about their struggles and progress in combating these health issues. Josh had hoped to raise around $10,000. He was ecstatic when the totals were announced the next morning--$16,742.00. We helped serve pizza, drinks, ice cream, and snacks until about 1:30 when we left to drive back to the resort, getting in around 3:30 a.m. It was a short night, needless to say. Annetta Marie wrapped up her conference and we got home that evening around 6:30 or so. It was a tiring, but enjoyable week with a change in scenery and activities from the normal pace around here.
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