We finished out our school year the last week of May. As we mentioned in one of our last posts (here), one of the highlights of that week was our annual pastor's conference. But besides the conference we had many other things going on that week. The conference began Sunday, May 20 and ran through Wednesday the 23. On the Saturday before (May 19th) the BJU Spanish Mission Team arrived to help us for a week. Dr. Ken Casillas who led the group ministered for us as one of the keynote speakers at our Pastor's conference. The team was a great blessing. The first part of the week they held special children's classes in the mission in which we serve. Later in the week they did evangelistic work and held a youth rally in the mission led by our colleagues, Matt & Susan Bixby. God blessed and many children and young people attended and heard very clear presentations of the Gospel. Here's some photos of the team from the youth rally they held in the neighborhood of Santa Monica:
In addition to the mission team and the pastor's conference, on Wednesday of that week was UCLA's graduation day. We were blessed to see another generation of graduates finish their formal preparation at the university and be sent out to serve the Lord. It was especially a treat to have our first international graduate from the theology program, Daniel Salvatierra from Chili. Daniel is now back at his home in Chile where he is he
lping his pastor in his local church. Please pray for Daniel as he serves the Lord in Chile. Here's a picture of me with Daniel and his brother, Angelo who, Lord willing, will graduate next year from our theology program (click on picture for a larger version).To add to an already busy week (conference, mission team and graduation), on Thursday Ruth flew to PA for 5 days to attend her sister, Anna's wedding. So Jonathan, Christian and I were "home alone" for a few days to finish up the week. Ruth returned on Monday (May 28), just in time for me to participate in a two (full) day strategic planning meeting for the university. Then, on Thursday we left Monterrey to begin furlough.
Although we only had about six weeks to travel in the U.S. we were able to visit nine of our thirteen supporting churches. Lord willing, we will visit our other churches within the next year. This was our first furlough experience, so we were not sure what to expect. But we can truly say that it was a wonderful experience. We were greatly blessed to visit friends and family. We really could not have asked for a more enjoyable and refreshing time, both spiritually and physically. Here's a few statistics from our trip: 46 days (6 1/2 weeks), 26 states and 8,800 miles traveled. And still it was restful and refreshing! Praise the Lord for "Prophet's chambers" made available to us to make our trip more restful! I'm not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, and I work for a non-prophet organization, but I'm always glad to stay in a prophet's chamber. :)
One other thing. One of the highlights of the summer was
attending the Whetstone Conference at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC. The Whetstone Conference is a pastor's/preacher's conference hosted by MCBC about every four years. This year's conference just happened to coincide with our visit to Greenville. The theme of the conference this year was "A Closer Walk with God." Ruth and I enjoyed the conference immensely and wish to thank Pastor Mark Minnick and the dear people of Mount Calvary for this wonderful ministry. I was deeply blessed and challenged.Well, I guess that about wraps up our summary of the last two months. I will soon post a prayer request list for this next semester which begins August 6.
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