Thursday, September 07, 2006

Back from Maine Retreat

The retreat in Maine was interesting for many reasons. On the first night, we were sitting around the campfire, when all of a sudden, one of the men emerges from the darkness, very excited. I look and in his hands, he is holding a huge FROG! So I admired it, like everyone else, and then waited to see when he would let it go. He didn't. Instead, he took a butcher's knife and tried to cut it's head off! "We can make soup," he said. Fortunately, he missed and the frog jumped out of the way. So everyone else decided to keep the frog alive until they were hungry!??!

Speaking was new and challenging. I gave a set of talks on "Changes that Heal," which was the theme they had chosen. I know there's a book by that title, which I didn't read, but I chose to divide up the talks into these "changes":

1) Experiencing God's Grace through Others-- becoming vulnerable
2) Meeting Jesus in Suffering-- changing our understanding of pain
3) Trusting the God who Sees-- returning to our broken relationships
4) Everything is Rubbish (but You)-- fixing our eyes on Jesus, our joy

I got to pray for a few guys who connected to the messages. It was nice to be with the Vietnamese Church again, at least for a little while. I'm still praying for you guys.

Those of you who prayed for me, thanks. I felt prayed for!

1 comment:

Husband said...

You serious about those people wanting to eat the frog?!?!?

Oh man~ People have abandoned that practice even in China~ Can't believe you guys are continuing it.