Tuesday, March 18, 2008

 

Promise Kept

David and I did make it to Promise Keepers last weekend. Colleen was a stow-away in the back seat. Suzanne picked her up in Edmonton. David and I went on to the meetings, after stopping at House of Tools first (go figure)!

There were about 400 men at Promise Keepers, a lot less than the thousands that gathered at the Coliseum a few years ago. (In fact one time I took Brent and Jon and met Ron here in Grande Prairie for a PK gathering of 600.)

But the weekend was great and we had some notable speakers.







David is pictured here with Ted DiBiase. Yes, "The Million Dollar Man" of WWF fame! He had an awesome testimony and struck a cord with David.






I related more with Ron Estay, pictured here. He was a lineman for the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1970's when they won 5 Grey Cups in a row. He still holds the league record for Quarterback sacks. His messages focused on being champions in Christ. We also learned that most football players only play 9 minutes per game. To us the challenge is to be trained and ready for those moments of witness or discipleship that can come at any (unexpected) moment.

Then I had another promise to keep. So after the weekend we headed off to Camrose to see the Dumont family, and to pick up Colleen.

Roger is growing and doing well. He loved it when Grandpa held him. Our time with him and the other grand-kids was all too short.

In the car between Camrose and Edmonton, David and I had a good time or sharing man to man. (So this is my 9 minutes!) Keep praying for him. He has had a rather colorful life so far.


Sunday, March 09, 2008

 

Men's Retreat

I just got back from our Evangelical Free Church Men's Retreat. There were about 80 men there at Camp Nakamun, just north of Edmonton.




I traveled down with Peter in this contraption. He took his trailer on to Edmonton after the conference. He will be attending a 7 week trade training course there.
Waldie and Sharon Neufeld were the speakers. Waldie is president here at PRBI and Sharon is a Prof. They talked about being men of integrity. The four messages were:
Know who you are: You are accepted in Christ.
Know how to live: Live with an eternal perspective.
Know how to die: Die to yourself.
Know how to serve: Lead by serving.
Sharon only spoke once, the bulk of the second message. It was excellent.
I got reacquainted with some old friends, many whom I did non recognize. I also made some new friends.
One new friend was this cowboy. Kevin is the Pastor of a Cowboy Church in Sherwood Park. They meet on Friday evenings and have an exciting ministry to the people who would not normally attend church: inner city people, truckers, and yes, cowboys too.
This is Ed. He is also a part of the Cowboy Church. We knew him and his wife some 20 years ago. They were in Ponoka when we came out of Whitehorse back then. It was great to reconnect with him . Yes, that is a pink shirt he is wearing. Under his vest it says 'Wrangler." And on the collar it says "Tough enough to wear pink." One night at the Canadian Finals rodeo all the cowboys wear them in support of breast cancer research.

This is Camp Nakamun. The picture above is of the main building which includes the dining hall, the chapel, the gym, the indoor swimming pool, and several rooms. Saturday afternoon we had lots of fun playing water basketball. Dan, our pastor. tried to drown two of his parishioners!

The picture below is of the lodge where we slept, four guys to a room. Eight of us had come from our Clairmont Community Church. The first night we had a snoring contest in the room I was in. But last night we had to sleep fast because of the time change.









































































































































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