REFLECTING

I'm sitting in a hotel room in D.C. right now and thinking about last night's missions banquet. Here are some random thoughts -

1. It was amazing to be able to spend an evening with so many outward focused people.

2. I can't believe the guest band came in, set up and played and all for nothing. Why didn't they rip us off like most bands do???

3. Pity they ran out of Penne a la vodka. The food was outstanding, but the tail end of the buffet line got jipped on one of my favorites!

4. Marie DiCola did a superb job putting all this together, backed up all the way by Charlotte Engel of course.

5. The videos of some of our missions projects brought it home to me that we have been part of some remarkable stuff and continue to be.

6. We acknowledge over 30 people who have been on short term missions trips - and that's only around half of them!

7. We had special guests there from South Africa and India, both of who expressed tremendous gratitude for our support - their tears were genuine and so were ours. What a privilege to partner with real people doing a real job of sharing God's love.

8. That was our first banquet, but we should do it again. We can build on last night.

9. Around $6,000 came in to jump start our special project of getting a new van for our Grace Care food pantry and soup kitchen and for bringing our friends from the rooming houses to church on Sundays.

10. I appreciated Kathy Von Staden saying that our church demonstrates Christianity as far more than a philosophy - hey folks, it's a life to be lived!