The morning began a little hectic since we forgot to plug the computer in, which is our alarm, and we woke up 20 min late. We had the privilege of seeing Mike and Callie (Blythe) Gann for breakfast. What a cool house, fellowship, and wonderful breakfast.
The rest of the day was drive, drive, drive to pick up Socks (Amy's cat) from the Jones' house (thanks so much!). We arrived home at 5:00p to a 'Sold' house (just kidding, keep praying).
2000 miles on the car later, and we are glad to be home, but also sad that this wonderful time in Colorado came to an end. We will be sharing some things we learned in the up coming newsletters.Mike and Callie Gann ->
We headed out about 8:15a to see Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. The tour was interesting, seeing the radio and video studio and the area where all their counselors are answering phones. We ended in the Visitors Center to see Whits End, the area patterned after the radio show "Adventures in Odyssey" for kids. Amy got to slide down the three story slide and we ate lunch in Whit's End Soda Shop.
We headed to Trinidad so Charlotte could visit with her Dad's cousin. All the stories and history he shared was amazing. We finally ended up in Amarillo at 11:30p. The GPS took us to a field which was supposed to be a hotel. The hotel and street ended up being too new for the maps.
<- Fred Power, Charlotte's dad's cousin
This was the last day of our conference. The morning gave us some unexpected free time, so we took a drive directly west towards the mountains to see what we could find. We found Horsetooth Reservoir, which is about seven miles long. We also got some pics of Ft. Collins from above.
In the afternoon, we went to sessions on "Raising Healthy Kids on Staff", more on techniques of support raising, and a session on the Emergent Church and the evils of this movement. In case you are asking if CCC is buying into this movement, CCC does not want to have anything to do with it.
The evening session was mostly Praise and Worship. Keith Battle gave a final challenge to everyone challenging that, since many Christians are not evangelistic and want to stay inside their churches, we need to get out there and share Christ with others. Just like in a football game, the game is not played in the huddle, the play is executed by running the play, not just talking about it. We need to get out of our 'holy huddles' and "Just Run the Play".
The evening ended with lots of hugs, temporary good-byes (especially for all of us on our way to FamilyLife), fellowship time and, of course, yummy food.
Our day was filled much activity, as usual. The morning and evening session featured amazing stories of how the different ministries are reaching others for Christ, and we shed a few tears of joy again. We finally met the daughter of a couple we know in Tulsa and had dinner with the Whitehouses from our church in California, Redwood Chapel. The afternoon saw us meeting with our training group from May 2008 for a couple of hours in the afternoon for a reunion. This will probably be the last time together for this group, since one couple will be moving to Dallas instead of Little Rock.
Amy had her usual worship and Bible study in the morning and did a community service project by cleaning a local park. She was supposed to go to the mall for outreach, but the buses were already full. Her day ended dramatically, as we walked back to our dorm. The lack of sleep hit her to the point of tears and she just wanted to go home. This is Amy's first time away home for this long and she misses her kitten.
Today we've reached our last day of seminars and then head out in the morning to tour Focus on the Family on the way home. Amy should especially enjoy "Whit's End". We should arrive back in Tulsa about 4p on Friday. What a blessed time we have had! Thank you again for making this possible and for praying.
Hal
...Interesting way to begin a new week. We were led in Praise and Worship by Keynote, but this group was mostly black. They have a very different culture and way of singing. We didn't connect with all the new songs and not many other whites did either, but it was still praise to God. But, the exciting thing happened next when we were led in teaching by Keith Battle who is the founding Pastor of Zion Church in Landover, MD. What a dynamic speaker. He taught from Romans 8:28-30, which is all about our calling and the fact God has chosen us to be ministers of the gospel. Theologically, he was right on target. He also showed us that with all trials, there is good. God doesn't give all trials or all good things, we need the mix to grow us.
We were also treated to a complete performance of "The Witnesses". It was the follow up to The Rock & The Rabbi musical drama we had seen in Tulsa. "Peter" was telling his story from Pentecost and many years following, including Paul's conversion and missionary journeys. After Peter told some of his story, it was followed by song. It was even better than the Rock & Rabbi.
Lunch was with some of the FamilyLife Staff followed by our afternoon sessions. The first one Hal attended was about reaching the black culture with blacks, not whites, and how different the cultures are. Philip Abode from Crossover Bible Church (church plant of Tulsa Bible Church) would love this guy. The second session discussed Ministry Partner Development.
Amy met all morning for Worship and Bible Study. This has been a great education for her to have worship for her age, not with adults. She even 'raised her hands' in worship (based on scripture the band shared) just like Pastor John Barnett taught us, with open hands, palms up in offering ourselves to God. She then helped with packing food for Africa. Her team of four packed 648 bags while all the kids combined packed over 66,000. She then had to hang with us the rest of the evening.
We met up with Charlotte's childhood pastor, Pastor Eugene Petersen last night. It was fun to hear them recall her parents involvement in the church, her dad playing the organ, and their memories of her as a child. We finally got back to our room about 10p.
Two more long days then we head home. God has been so good to us through this conference and reconfirming our call to FamilyLife.
Pastor Eugene and Marge Petersen
Sunday, we left Ft. Collins and traveled south to Aurora, CO to attend church with the Crawfords (friends from TBC) and spent the afternoon at their lovely home, catching up and sharing about FamilyLife with them. Amy had a good time playing with their daughter, Holly. We left at about 4:30 from their house to enjoy visiting over dinner with a friend I traveled with when I worked for National Seminars. On the way back to Ft. Collins, Charlotte enjoyed catching pictures of giant cloud formations and the sun setting over the mountains. We finally arrived back at CSU around 9pm after putting about 200 miles on the car.
Hal
Mark, Dena, and Holly Crawford
Day five began as the previous days except Hal slept in until 6:30a. :-) So with renewed energy we went into a day off to catch up on laundry, make calls, etc. We had more time to get to know a few more FamilyLife staff, which gave us some insight into housing in Little Rock. Charlotte spent some time with her FamilyLife coach getting more information on home school and realizing she really has to get out of the rigid daily schedule of traditional school.
Amy went to her Bible study in the morning and decided to skip the food fight in the afernoon. We took about an hour before dinner to see Old Ft. Collins, a rebuilt area of shops, etc. This is where Ft. Collins started. Amy decided that if she had to live somewhere it would be here (now check out the logic) because there isn't much snow, it doesn't get too hot, and it seems like a nice town. I think she has been around the adults too much.
After dinner we had our last session of the week (Sunday is open). All of the 'new staff' sat together and took up most of the chairs on the main floor. Praise and Worship kicked it off followed by an interview of 2 boys in the kids program (under Jr. High age). The majority of the questions began with the typical; having fun? what did you like the best so far?, etc. The interview led to the mission project they were working on for the entire conference. They are raising money for one of the staff in Nupaul who is going to use is to help orphans get into homes. The money will buy them land, a house, food, and tuition for school. At the end, it was revealed that the 2 boys were also orphans from Russia. How fitting they would be the ones to tell about this project. The boys then went through the audience collecting money from everyone. They had it figured that if everyone in the audience (about 5000) would give $3-5, they would reach their goal that night. We will see in the next few days if they made it.
Steve Douglass (President of CCC) talked about all of the 'behind the sceens' things that most of us don't see. The majority of talk revolved around the people who came to know the Lord through the different ministries. What we found out also is how CCC and other mission organizations are partnering together to reach the world for Christ by 2020. With technology and manpower he showed how this could be a reality in our lifetime. Never before have we had the ability to reach everyone with the Gospel so quickly.
Lastly, all of the people who had accepted God's call on their lives since the last conference to join staff were introduced in a parade fassion across the stage. There were about 350 of the 1500 there to participate. Amy was also part of this since the Lord has called our FAMILY to FamilyLife.
After the session, our FamilyLife group from New Staff Training in May of 2008 got together for Starbucks (bet you'll never guess who's idea that was) and enjoyed each other's company until 10. When our day was complete we realized that we have the second half of the conference to look forward to.
Today we see the Crawfords from TBC and a friend Hal traveled with doing conferences with National Seminars.
More tomorrow.
We began our day, once again, with Praise & Worship, followed by Steve Douglass, President of CCC, presenting a talk on Adversity. His points showed us how to 'Grow Through Adversity' (I Peter 4:12), how to see with an 'Eye of Faith', and how to 'Draw from the Holy Spirit' through adversity. He was followed by an unusual multimedia presentation, since the voice over was all done personally by Tim McKenzie. He spoke from memory on the days of creation and the power of God. It was all scripture and lasted 45 minutes. Imagine reciting from memory for 45 min. As the band returned, Charlotte was thinking what song could possibly follow such a marvelous presentation and only "How Great Thou Art" came to mind. So, after we were all awed with the majesty of God, the Praise & Worship team lead us in 'How Great is Our God", which has the chorus of "How Great Thou Art" in the song. Of course, after all the pictures of creation and God's majesty, the tears came again. We were overwhelmed!
The afternoon breakout session took Hal to "How to Use Film Shorts in Evangelism". We would love to see Ryan Dunlap use his talents in creating the shorts for this ministry! Amy was at a Water Park all day where she connected with her new friends and brought back a good sunburn. Today she has her bible study and a food fight this afternoon. Oh, boy! Tomorrow she will be working on filling food bags for Africa to feed the hungry. GAIN (Global Aid Network) is one of the CCC ministries that provides humanitarian relief world wide.
Steve Sellers, VP of CCC, spoke in the evening, presenting a talk "Worthy of the Calling" based on Eph, 4:1. We ended the evening about 11:30 after 1:45 of Tim Hawkins comedian where we laughed for almost the entire time. It was good to laugh after all our serious days previously. We were blessed, beat, and bed was good.
Hal
The Praise and Worship was even better than the previous day. They also gave us an opportunity to give financially to help ethnic missionaries raising support reach their assignment. We learned about Impact Ministries, which is like Student Venture for high school students, except targeted at the black culture. Philip Abode at Crossover Bible would love this!
Tim Keller continued his talk on reaching the world for Christ. We had breakout sessions all afternoon, Charlotte went to a session on life-coachhing women, while I attended a session on Facebook and one by Josh McDowell. His session was mostly creating the case with stats on how we are losing our kids coming out of high school within the church. The most staggering stat was 91% of Christian kids do not believe there is absolute truth. Also, research indicates that most people have adopted their religious beliefs by age 12.
The day ended with a gathering of many FamilyLife families. We met so many new families my head was spinning. I can't even begin to remember all the names, but it really got us more excited about finishing support and getting to Little Rock. I did ask about many on their churches, and still haven't found TBC in Little Rock.
Hal
It began as any other day, get up, eat, and leave for our first general session. As we walked up to the arena, it was crowded, and everyone was handed the long awaited seminar book with our schedule. We flipped to page 6 and there it was, the TIMES for everything. Wow, now we know where to be and when! This was an important moment for trying to connect with Amy each day.
As we moved along into the CSU arena with the masses, we had to stop just to look around. I had been to many conferences, and this was so cool from my perspective, as a graphics and video person. Video screens everywhere, five cameras and a 'hand held' for recording every session, lighting like it should be done, everything had that Campus Crusade stamp of excellence on it for our Lord.
We met some new FamilyLife staff and wondered across to the other side of the arena and eventually planted ourselves. Of course, my mouth was still open still trying to take it all in. The two minute countdown started on the screens, and right at 9am, Keynote (music side of Campus Crusade) started playing. Our first half hour of Praise and Worship began. Then it hit, I couldn't sing. I was overwhelmed with emotion, the tears started, and all I could do is ask God "Why us? Why are we so fortunate to be the ones to receive such a blessing? Why have we been called to ministry and not others more qualified?" It was beyond words how thankful I was to be able to enjoy praising God with all the other thousands of missionaries in the arena at this time. How great and awesome our God is!
The remainder of the day proceeded like most conferences, hard seats, cramped areas for our legs, etc. but none of this seemed to matter, since our focus was elsewhere. We heard from Tim Keller, a pastor of a church in NYC talk about justification. Then we had a time of prayer, with times to ask forgiveness, sharing about what God is making us 'wait for', such as our move to Little Rock, and then we prayed about these specific things.
We had lunch, our afternoon session with Tim Keller, picked up Amy, dinner, then another highlight...Steve Sellers, Campus Crusade VP, shared the future of Campus Crusade. It is not an organization, but a tool to reach everyone for Christ. How refreshing to see such a large organization not losing sight of its original vision (DNA) like so many secular organizations have this past year and totally collapse from greed.
Most people would think that Amy had the most fun all day. She got to go to Six Flags and her asthma never bothered her. PTL! In actuality, she did have fun, but we received the biggest blessing in our meetings. God is good all the time, all the time, God is good!!
Hal
Tuesday was a lazy day getting settled in, finding our way around Colorado State University (CSU), hooking up with FamilyLife friends, and seeing Josh Geppelt in Denver at a Starbucks (where else?).
The conference started last night with a carnival for fun, & fellowship, where missionary folks, who only see each other every two years here, could re-unite. Amy finally got to do something she enjoyed and got me on one of the 'spinning' rides, which I survived just fine. Amy & I got to take 3 little kids with us whose parents didn't want to get sick on the ride! Charlotte got to go the second time with Amy since I was feeling a head- ache coming on (good excuse). They had burgers, corn dogs, and all the other 'stuff' to go with them, but it took 3 hours to get one! The line was forever long at 6p, so we waited until about 9p to get in line to eat. It only took 10 min. that way. We saw the rest of our FamilyLife friends and met many new ones we knew only through Twitter and Facebook.
Today starts the first general session with Tim Keller (a pastor in Manhattan), Praise & Worship, and time in the Word. We have a full slate of sessions to choose from this afternoon, while Amy spends the day at Elich Gardens (Six Flags). Many of the adults were trying to get Amy to trade places with them for the day!
Kristi heads to Guatemala on a mission trip today. Pray for safety and a good time of ministry for her.
More tomorrow ...
Hal
We made it to Ft. Collins with no issues and a smooth trip. Amy was able to entertain herself with school work and a couple of movies. Charlotte was able to stop at Lindsborg, KS to see a little of her Swedish heritage and bought a trivet with a saying on it that her mother repeated many times while she was growing up (in Swedish).
The trip started at 5:15a central time and ended right on schedule at 5:15p mountain time. We registered, settled into our dorm room on the CSU campus and started living the life of a college student again. How we survived those conditions I'll never know. I mean twin beds, common bath with next door neighbor (thank goodness it was Amy) hard matresses, etc.
Cell phones are great; we hooked up with one of our friends, the Davaults, and had dinner together. Guess what we talked about? Yeah. Getting to Little Rock as soon as possible and God's faithfullness in raising up partners for each of us.
The day ended at about 11:00, but we are excited.
Harold
Before we leave for the Campus Crusade conference, we are going to spend what could be our last time together as a family in Tulsa. Katie and Gage will be there, Joel, Jon, Kristi and Amy. We will only be missing David and Sarah Beth.
We will also be celebrating Charlotte's 29th birthday again while we are away. Pray that we will have quality time together as a family.
The Drivers are preparing to leave for Colorado on July 20, which means that Harold is back to traveling again. We plan on visiting friends and catching up with our training group. We will spend about 10 days with thousands of other Campus Crusade staff from all over the US for Bible studies, prayer, praise and worship time, plus encouraging seminars to help us in the ministry. In our case, many of the seminars we attend will be related to development of our partner team.
Harold
The morning began a little hectic since we forgot to plug the computer in, which is our alarm, and we woke up 20 min late. We had the privilege of seeing Mike and Callie (Blythe) Gann for breakfast. What a cool house, fellowship, and wonderful breakfast.
