It's time to re-engage with the blogosphere. I guess I'm a streaky blogger (which has to be better than being a streaky dresser.) Or I could blame my little hiatus on August being vacation month. In any case, it was nice to take a little break.
Meanwhile...
Had a great time at our team's annual play and pray retreat (props to Mark for the name). We use these 2 days to bid farewell to our summer interns. We don't do any business. We just play hard and pray hard.
On Monday we played really hard. For starters, Phil and Don joined me in a grand vision of building the largest sand castle in the history of Lost Lake. This is the curse of being a dreamer. I have a hard time doing things like this average.
The first hour was just spent digging and piling sand. It was the dirty, pre-launch work. We almost lost Don. I had to passionately explain to him twice that piling the sand was like gathering a core group:) Only a few people can see the finished product. Everyone else just gives you wierd looks, wondering why your working so hard on something that looks so rough. But when that church sand castle starts to take shape, weird looks change to inspired looks and the help increases. Sure enough, Emily and Eddie jumped into help. And then the people started coming by with their questions.
How long did it take you to build it?
How did you start?
Can we get our picture with it?
One piece of advice. If you decide to build the largest sand castle in the history of your particular lake, don't also try to simultaneously build the largest mote in history. It will destroy your sand castle:)
Here's the church plant sand castle (after some reconstructive surgery from the mote incident).
After building the sand castle I continued with getting carried away. I challenged myself to swim across the lake and back (1/2 mile). Tal kept me company. Then we played frisbee and volleyball until the sunset. I can tell I'm almost 28. This stuff causes more pain than it used to:)
The highlight for me was our prayer times. We prayed for each other and we prayed over our dream. I could feel movement in heaven.
Happy Birthday to your church and wonderful congregation.
I wish I could have been with you on the beach helping you to build the world's largest sand castle.
I thought of the chorus we used to sing about the foolish man building his house upon the sand and how it got knocked down when the storms came. Brad...you and your staff are helping people build their lives on the "Rock Solid Foundation, Jesus." Keep up the good work. I will continue to pray for you.
Posted by: Audrey Clay | August 15, 2006 at 09:46 PM
Happy Birthday to your church and wonderful congregation.
I wish I could have been with you on the beach helping you to build the world's largest sand castle.
I thought of the chorus we used to sing about the foolish man building his house upon the sand and how it got knocked down when the storms came. Brad...you and your staff are helping people build their lives on the "Rock Solid Foundation, Jesus." Keep up the good work. I will continue to pray for you.
Posted by: Audrey Clay | August 15, 2006 at 09:46 PM