Location and date are set!!!

Pastor John Casper from the Dowagiac United Methodist Church called me yesterday afternoon to inform me that their Church Board would be "delighted to host Decolores" #87.  It's one thing for a church to say yes; totally another thing for them to say they'd be delighted.  The dates are October 8th through the 11th.  

I've narrowed my theme song list down to 2.  Chis Tomlin's "Jesus Messiah" and News Boys "He Reigns".  

I'm listening to a series of teachings by Ray Vander Laan (RVL) that were recorded during 10 Sunday night services at the Third Christian Reformed Church in Kalamazoo.  My friend Todd has loaned me the CDs.  RVL is a high school teacher at a Christian Reformed School.  He spent time at a Jewish Seminary  and as a disciple to a Rabbi and teaches an Old Testament perspective to the Gospel.  It adds another dimension when you have a better understanding of the culture and traditions during the time of Jesus.  There is a ton of teaching materials at his website at www.followtherabbi.com that has also consumed some of my time along with my daily reading of the NT that I mentioned in the last post.  Take a look at his site.  

Minor developments

It's been a couple of weeks since my initial post with only a few new developments.:

• Discussed the church location with the Pastor, he has to get clearance from the church board.  I'll post the location as soon as I get confirmation.
• Shooting for a date of October 8th -11th
• Awaiting a meeting to receive "the book" and final instructions as to team selection. That should happen sometime during the week of the 18th of May.  
• I received the excel sheet from Harold detailing the history of the weekends.  What a neat spreadsheet.  And to boot, it's really great to see all of the data as to the themes, songs, team members and candidates.  
• I'm continuing to pray for guidance in selecting a theme, song and verse. 

There's an Ultreya this weekend; Sally and I are looking forward to attending that.  We both enjoy the "genuineness" (is that even a word?) of the curistias'. Many times in the Church we all put on our "church face", sing the songs, make the offering, listen to the message, etc.  But at an Ultreya there is a feeling of brother hood, of love for each other and love for Jesus.  

 
In one of the podcasts that I subscribe to the speaker challenged the group to read a Gospel a week for the next month.  Well it's been a while since the Gospels have been on my study list so I accpeted that challenge.  After a week I've decided to go through the New Testament prior to the start of the team meetings in addition to the original challenge. 

I'm teaching an adult class at my home Church and most of my sturdy time has been in preparation for the lessons.  I picked up the class in last November and it's been a bit of a challenge in preparing lessons and then getting the 20-25 attendees to participate in class discussion.  Some Sundays are good, some not so good. 

 

Taking shape

Once I put my name in for consideration I began to think about team members, theme, song and location.  I'm told that this is normal.  And at that point I was treating it as just another project or event to plan.  That was until the Closing of Decolores 86 when Aaron ( my co-rector) and I were walking out of the sanctuary and all the eyes of the community that were in attendance were fixed upon us.  Men that I have served weekends with, prayed with and cried with.  Men who had helped bring me to this point; that have mentored me and been mentored by me.  And a few women that I know and also many that I don't who have prayed for me.  All are trusting me to be prayerful and faithful in my walk and studies in preparation for this weekend.

I don't remember where I heard it or read it but someone once said that the more you learn the more you realize how much more you have to learn.  While I had "made" Weekend #25 many years ago, my wife Sally (#28) and I were somewhat active in Utreya's and I in a reunion group, increased responsibility within our home church, starting a business and raising our children kept us from participating in anything more than prayer for the weekends up until Weekend #79.  I have come to realize how little I know of the many workings of the weekends so I asked my friend Aaron Mallo to be my co-rector and Harold Davis Sr. to be Head Coordinator.  There probably isn't anything these two guys don't know about the operation of a weekend, so from a logistical perspective we're well covered.  

The Holy Spirit told Harry Carter that he had better start preparing a menu a week before I asked him to head the kitchen crew.  Pretty cool right? 

As for Spiritual Directors we are blessed to be able to reunite the team of Brad Hieple and Dennis Slattery.  Both were very enthusiastic for the opportunity to serve together again and both reach men in differing ways.  These two served on Weekend #29 that Aaron was a candidate on ( I was at Aaron's table and did the Environment Rollo).  Den was my Pastor and mentor for the first years after my commitment to Jesus, in fact the man who lead me to the right door and showed me how to open it.

If you want to know more about Den he has several books published.  One that I give away to Marines that I come in contact with is called "From the Point to the Cross" and is available on Amazon.  The story reaches different people in different ways and I highly recommed it.  By the way Den's name should be prefixed with his earned title of Doctor, although I think that he discourages it.

At the April Ultreya we heard that Rashawn Crawford had been injured in Iraq.  He had attended a Decotec and Decolores 79 prior to his depolyment and I came to really love that young man and had been praying for his safety.  Word was that he was at Walter Read Hospital.  I contaced the Chaplain services as I had no other idea of how to send my thoughts of gratitude and encouragement to him.  Chaplian Hiscock retruned my call and shared with me that he had been a spiritual director on a Decolores weekend and had picked up my message based on Decolores being within the message.  Again pretty cool, right? Anyway because of HIPPA regulations he wasn't able to even confirm that Rashawn was a patient there, but would give him my contact information if he found him.  So prayers for Rashawn.