Good evening all!!! We hath returneth from the land where hospitality knoweth no endeth! The North Carolina trip was extremely extreme in every aspect. We in the MB faith have an absolutely amazing extended family. I was raised Lutheran and I can say with pretty decent confidence that no other denomination has the family-like connection as the Mennonite Brethren. It was so amazing to see people from 6 different districts (Pac, Central, Southern, NC, LAMB, and Canada) showing love and appreciation for each other in a way that is consistent with that of Christ Jesus, our Lord. We as a group were blessed beyond our wildest dreams as we were able to go the the Bushtown MB Church in Lenoir, NC on Sunday morning and experience a worship service like we had never been to or seen. We were able to then enjoy more of the famous southeast U.S. cooking and then we were able to set up and perform a program of our own for their congregation and for those who were able to stick around long enough after the convention was over. It was such an honor to be in the presence of God in the Holy Spirit with those people. We had an amazing experience praising our Father together and we now possess a fervent love for those people and all of the historical struggles that they went through to get where they are now in the North Carolina District. Please pray for their continual growth and for the 6 churches there to thrive and blossom in the years to come.

It also hit home to me that the North Carolina District is the only MB district east of the Mississippi River. That is a very sad thought. We are missing out on so many opportunities to minister to and show Christ's love to the lost and the living in areas where we are not represented.

I don't have a scripture to reflect on today, but I was powerfully moved by the idea of memorizing scripture when I heard Dennis Fast (pastor from a church in the Pacific District) speak on Sunday morning. If you try to hold a bible on just your pinky, you can't do it. It falls time and time and time again. That represents knowing that the Bible is the living word of God. If you know the Bible as truth and study it very little it is like holding the Bible between your thumb and pinky finger. You grasp it, but Satan and temptation can easily take it away from you and you from it. Acknowledging and studying it deeper and meditating on it is like your thumb, pinky, and ring finger. Your grasp is a little tighter, but with a little more work and the like, you will still have the same result. By doing all of that plus finding other resources to more clearly explain things and knowing where things are at in the scriptures; again, your grip gets tighter, but Satan can usually still find a way to get at you and get you distracted and side-tracked so that you lose your place. But by doing all of those things and committing scripture to memory, not Satan or any other person, place, thing, or idea can take it away from you or you from it. That is a straight up challenge for us to study, meditate on, and memorize scripture. That isn't exactly how Dennis put it, but the main idea is the same. We all need to work to memorize the Word of God.

Next weekend we are off to Nebraska again, but to the eastern end of the state. Henderson, NE at the Henderson City Park on Friday night and then two places in Omaha, NE on Sunday. I am looking forward to it because I have many great friends from those places. God Bless and have a great week!!!!