So then...

It was time for Minister's Convention. I was so glad when it finally arrived because it meant that we'd "made it" and would probably live through it. Ha! It seems like as much--no, MORE time and work and preparation goes into this Convention (on my part--don't know about James) than State Convention. I really do enjoy it all, but there for a few days I was working hard to keep my head above water and found myself wondering, "Is it wrong to enter a Church function with your strongest feeling being: I'll be glad when this is over!" HA! Of course, once we got INTO Convention I didn't feel that way at all--I enjoyed every bit of it.

We were to have a pot-luck on Saturday of the Convention as well as Sunday night up in Moulton, so that meant lots of cooking and baking to be done before and during Convention. It felt so good to actually be able to participate and bring some things to a pot-luck. Made me very happy. :-)

There was so much to be done that I actually let James go pick Brother Dustin up at the airport without me. Under normal circumstances, that would NEVER happen. I'm going to BE with the company--whoever they are--and the thought of staying home doesn't set well at all. But it was just Brother Dustin (*ahem*) and there was still too much to be done. ;-) I sent the boys with James, and Katie and I stayed here to cook and clean and change sheets and all that jazz. We did load up and meet James, Brother Dustin, and the boys at Jim 'N Nicks for lunch. Couldn't miss out on THAT. :-)

We came home and got Mr. Guest Speaker all settled in, got ready for church, put some raspberry glaze icing on the almond cookies (yeah--they're as good as they sound), and headed to Bessemer for the first night of Convention.

Sister Bishop preached on Preparing to Feed Our Flock, then Brother Dustin preached on Ministerial Priorities--and neither pulled any punches. ;-) We heard some good, solid, straight preaching that night, the kind that makes you stop and examine yourself and see if you're measuring up and where you might be failing. Good stuff. I hope it "takes." ;-) In all of us.

When we got home that night I frosted the pumpkin roll while we hung out and talked, then stayed up going over my class until about 1:30.

The first thing on program the next morning was the class time: Brother Dustin taught the Pastors' Class: Conflict Resolution; I taught the Pastors' Wives-Turned-Anybody's-Wives Class: Fulfilling Our Ministry; and Brother Jeremy taught everybody else: Every Member a Worker and a Special Work for Every One. I would have liked to have listened in on both of the other classes. I felt like mine went well, all things considered. I learned some things while studying it and they've stuck with me and affected my life, I think. I need more of that. :-) I want to be a good wife, an encouragement to my husband and a benefit to him in his ministry, not a hindrance in any way.

I missed part of Brother Hoffman's class, though I can't remember why. I thoroughly enjoyed the part that I heard, however, regarding the differences between guile and integrity, which he defined as opposites. He likened integrity to when you bite into a big juicy red apple and you get just what you expected, pure and tasty apple the whole way through. Guile is when you expect that, but you end up with a worm or a bad spot--it's when something (someone) appears to be one thing, but it's feigned; deep down they are something else, something other than what they appeared to be. It was another one of those "examine yourself" moments for me.

Our pot-luck at lunch time turned out nice and we enjoyed the fellowship. Since we were having a soup dinner (with sandwiches), I took corn chowder and a BIG pot of taco soup (which was devoured), along with the goodies I couldn't keep myself from making--snickerdoodles, chocolate-peanutbutter-marshmallow-krispy bars, pumpkin roll, and raspberry almond cookies. We finally got a chance to try Sister Hopkins' five-bean soup that we keep hearing about (it was very good), but didn't get a chance to try all of the other soups the other ladies' brought. That's the trouble with soup pot-lucks. It's tough to try a little of everything!

The afternoon session was excellent from the very beginning when we had our song service. The Lord was really moving and James switched up the schedule a bit and we headed straight into our prayer groups before going on to the class and "Overseer's Time" that was to follow. By the time we made it through the prayer worship, prayer time, and auxiliary mini-boosts, James' time was running low so he told us he'd just "hit the high points." His pal Brother Dustin was sure to point out that all of his points were apparently "high points" because looking at his outline we couldn't see what he had skipped over. HA! Still, it was good. He does so well at "directing," if that makes any sense. He sees the needs or deficiencies, sets a plan of action to remedy them, and then gives focused directions on how it should be done, but without (I hope--ha!) appearing too pushy or bossy. Every now and again, he makes me proud. ;-)

After the Convention ended we had to wait around for quite some time until the "very short committee meetings" (we all know there is no such thing) ended. Then we still visited for a while before heading to the Mexican restaurant with some church folk for some more visiting. :-) James kept looking at all of the strange looking people coming and going and finally asked what in the world was going on. "It's like it's Halloween or something--what is wrong with these people?" There was an Alabama game that day and everybody was covered over in red and white, head to toe, skin included. Weird-o's. Surely... surely we Bronco fans weren't so weird and obsessive back in the day! Ple-e-e-e-e-e-ease tell me we weren't...

We got home at about 9:00 that night. We played a game of I Buy, but it just wasn't the same without Jamey. For starters, we kept getting distracted talking about serious stuff. That's no way to play a game! (We really, really needed you here, Jamey!) After the game we visited a while longer, then I finished putting my Sunday School class together before heading to bed--at 1:30 again.

Sunday morning I got up and made a dump cake to take to the Moulton pot-luck (along with the left-over cookies from the first pot-luck) and we STILL beat the Ridlespurges to church. HA! We love it that we pass their house on the way. Especially if they're just getting into the truck and we can honk at them as we pass and wave. ;-)

I taught the kids about the body of Christ and being members in particular. It was a fun one. :-) Brother Dustin preached a good message that day on the fire of God and how it consumes you in one way or another, good or bad. We went to Bojangles for lunch with the Washburns and Ridlespurges and sat and visited for a good long while, mostly because Brother Dustin was sharing the merger story. HA! It started out simple enough, but then the details started coming out and it went on and on... and on... and on... Poor Brother Washburn was all glazed over and about to slide right out of his chair onto the floor. We finally pulled Brother Dustin out the door still rattling on about it so we could shove him in the van and get him to Moulton in time for service. Okay, so it didn't happen exactly like that, but it was the beginning of LOTS of laughs about the never-ending Merger Story. Yes, let's capitalize it as a title. It's earned it. (The Colorado Springs and Pueblo churches were recently merged into one church that will now be meeting in Fountain, Colorado. That's the basis of the Merger Story.)

We left in plenty of time to make it to Moulton. If there hadn't been an accident on the Interstate in Bessemer that traffic backed up for quite a while. And then another accident north of town that had everything at a dead stand-still for miles. I always try to pray for the people involved in accidents when I'm stuck in traffic like that. And then you get to wondering if perhaps you would have left a little sooner if you might have been involved in it. Could it be that the Merger Story might have saved our lives??? Ya' never can tell, I guess. ;-)

This was the stationary scene we stared at for a long, long, long time...


Brother Dustin walked back to the trucker behind us to see if he knew what was going on and why everything was at a stand-still. Truckers know everything.


Enjoying a nice, little chat. It seemed to go on and on and on. (I wonder if he broke out the Merger Story to use on the poor guy???)


Out of the blue the traffic started moving and we had a decision to make. We decided not to wait for Brother Dustin to catch up--we just left him back there with the trucker and rushed to keep the flow of traffic moving. Ha! It was great fun watching him race back to the van. I couldn't get to my camera soon enough to get any good pictures, but this is when he finally caught up to us. Then everything stopped and we had a while longer to wait before it really broke loose for good.


We had to call Brother Rollins and keep him updated on our progress, or lack of it. They went ahead and started the service at 5:00 as scheduled. Things finally started moving for us again, but we were about an hour late making it to Moulton. They had just been singing and testifying and singing some more, waiting for the guest speaker to arrive. I can't imagine having to walk into the building and straight to the pulpit to preach without being able to get your thoughts together or anything, but that's pretty much what Brother Dustin had to do. I was so, so, so blessed by his message that night. His message was entitled "I Want it All" and he read from the passage in 2 Peter that says to add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, etc., then from Ezekiel about the waters flowing from the altar, first up to his ankles, then his knees, then his loins, then waters to swim in. He preached about digging in and going the next step with God, then the next, then the next--and that there will always be a next step, something deeper, something richer, something more than what you've already experienced. I was dumbfounded. I'd been feeling soooooo overwhelmed with the goodness of God, the Spirit and presence of God, the love and mercy of God, the fellowship of the saints in His Church--like what I expressed from that night at IYC--and feeling like God is just SO GOOD to me that I'm just going to explode; I can't possibly handle any more. And then to think... there's MORE??? I know--easy concept that shouldn't be new to a Church girl (!), but something about it just sort of engulfed me and I again felt so little, so unworthy, so overwhelmed by God's love and so, so, soooooo thankful! I have grown to love the Lord so much more these past few months, through varying experiences. And to think... there's more. Incredible.

We had a wonderful time of prayer that night that lasted a good while. In fact several people had to leave before it was finished. (The service had been opened up for all of the churches in the Northern District to attend since the General VLB guy was on to preach.) When we finally ended those of us who were left went to the fellowship hall to enjoy the pot-luck. Good food, good fellowship. We enjoyed ourselves and I was happy to meet Josh & Britney Anders' new baby girl, Addison, though I missed seeing Josh there that night. :-) And the boys enjoyed catching slimy little green tree frogs outside. Nice. I got a few more Ladies' Retreat applications that night (wa-hoo! Need some more of them SERIOUSLY about now! Ha!) and we headed home about 10:00, I think, getting us here sometime after midnight. We put the kids to bed, played a game of I Buy, then moved to the living room and talked and talked and talked until way, way, way, way, way too late. Or too early. Or not so early at all. Whatever. I'm actually ashamed to say how long we were up. We're not as young as we used to be, but judging by who fizzled out first I'm obviously much younger than Brother Dustin, despite what our birth certificates may say. ;-)

Monday morning I managed to do some house cleaning before we left at 9:30 to take Brother Dustin to the airport. It was quite a fiasco trying to locate a lunch location and we finally ended up just going to the airport and paying an arm and a leg to eat there just outside the security gate. It was more expensive, but nice and quiet and relaxing--and we didn't have to worry about getting him anywhere on time because we were already there. Good choice. We had a round of somber goodbyes and I'm pretty sure I could hear Brother Dustin sniffling in the security line as we walked out. ;-) Maybe it was the lack of sleep that had affected us, but it was a very un-fun goodbye--I know that much. For starters, I HATE dropping people off at the airport. It always seems so final or something. ~Bleagh~ And then there was the letter that Sam wrote to Isaac the week before, in which he said, "I can't wait to see you at the Assembly next year." Our sons had realized something that the rest of us hadn't consciously thought of before. The Assembly next year?! Might it be that long??? It's suddenly HORRIBLE to think of all of the people I love so much that I might not see for that long! Then I think of the Powells... and I just can't make myself complain or feel any self-pity at all. :-) We're blessed. But still--the goodbyes are a real drag! Ha!

We stopped at the Christian bookstore on our way home. We had to. Christmas cards were on sale and it was September--we HAD to buy some. :-) We should be all set for this year. I talked to Mom and on the phone while we were at the store and on our way home, trying to catch up since we'd barely spoken for several days due to the crazy schedules.

We got home and I crashed on the couch for a nice, long, much-needed nap. It's been a long time since sleep felt that sweet. :-) We had left-over corn chowder for dinner and did a few house things, and I made it to bed by about 10:00 that night and slept good and sound all night long. ~Aaaahhh~ And that seemed to perfectly make up for the extreme lack of sleep from the previous several days.