Day Two of the C-I-Y Trip

Monday, June 18, 2007 Tim's Birthday

Happy 47th birthday to my younger bro, Tim. I called him last night from the motel knowing that I would be on the road and busy getting us started at Conference today.

Our morning meeting with sponsors, breakfast and topping off gas tanks before heading back on I 26 West went as smoothly as possible. Now traveling with 33 total people in five vehicles, we knew we would be in for plenty of "pit stops" along the way, and we made several. My goal was to get us through Ashville, find a spot for lunch and then cruise on in to Milligan. We almost pulled that plan off without incident. However, the passenger side front wheel of the van Amos was driving decided it didn't want to travel all the way to Tennessee, so it jumped off the van. On the Interstate, with lots of students and luggage in it. No one was hurt in any way whatsoever, and because Southside had plenty of room in their van for extra passengers and luggage, they were loaded onto that van, and we found aspot for lunch. While Amos called AAA, we ate lunch and made plans to take the rest of the group on in to Milligan (about 50 miles away at this point), get everyone registered and settled in, and then we could come back for Amos if need be. Amos was agreeable with that plan, so I helped Julia go through registration to get the South Haven crew taken care of at Conference. Amos kept me posted as to the progress with the van getting picked up and taken to an auto repair place. God was so good during this whole process. The van was easily repaired, with no damage other than to the wheel, and Amos was able to join us at Milligan in time for the Adult Sponsors' meeting at 6:00 p.m.!

The theme this week is ONES with a subtheme of "We were never meant to be alone." What a great practical demonstration of that subtheme! Since we were traveling with two other church groups, WHEN something unexpected happened, we had plenty of help from brothers and sisters in Christ. We were not meant to be alone as individuals, but neither were we meant to be alone as congregations. As the body of Christ, we need to realize that each congregation is not a body, but a body part. Southside certainly played the role of helping hands for South Haven today. Thank You Lord for being so good, for keeping everyone safe, and for giving us a practical application for the Conference subtheme before we even got to Conference.

Celebration rocked! The open illusion was powerful as the story of the Creation of Man and the Fall from Grace was read from Genesis. Robin's message was right on target as always, and the bar for the week has been set extremely high. It's gonna be a GREAT WEEK! It has already been off to a GREAT START!