Relaxing...

What a wonderful three weeks we had in Colorado. The first week was spent at Snow Mountain Ranch at Winter Park, Colorado. We had our congregational retreat. There were 161 members of the Lord's body that went with us. It was a time for building faith and bringing families together. It was just incredible. I cannot say enough about it. I had one young person yesterday at the assembly come up to me and tell me that it was the best family vacation time they had ever spent! (And this family had been to some incredible places for other vacations.) We are talking about being without television and much of the media and entertainment that most young people have at their disposal. Another brother shared with me they had never started every morning with a devotional and ended the day with study of God's word while during the in between time it was spent with just his family and other members of Christ body with a like mind set. They hiked together, talked and everything they did was together. It strengthened their family unit. Others talked to me about how they got to know some they never knew before. Lovely brothers and sisters in Christ, reaching out to one another as Christ would want. I watched the few outside of Christ that went with us be drawn in. The young people that went, and there was a good number of them, worked with the adults and reaching out to other young people that they did not know as well. It was an event that I am thankful the Lord opened the door of opportunity for us to take full advantage of. I have not heard one negative about the retreat. We are planning this retreat again in five years. Several have asked me not to wait that long but I am afraid this old man cannot put together another one any sooner. It's time consuming and wears you out physically! I think I slept the first three days of my vacation just to recuperate!

The past two weeks were spent camping in the middle of the mountains in Colorado. The nearest town to us is about 35 miles away. It is quiet, beautiful and relaxing at an altitude of 9481 feet. The cool days, and many never reached 65 degrees, were refreshing. At night it would drop to around 40 which is great for sleeping. I fished a lot and did we catch a lot of trout! I think it is the most we ever caught. One afternoon, I sat down on the bank of Twin Lakes with my sons and within a short period of time caught 30 trout! I am a catch and release person! Nearly everywhere we went fishing was just like that. It was a great time of relaxing, reading God's word and praying. I know why they Lord would often slip away by Himself. Most people that I know of, when they vacation just recreate and not renew the inner person. I need my inner person renewed. I get to read this two weeks for my building up and recharging my batteries. It was wonderful. The relaxing is over and now I have hit the road running...