President's Day Summary

I have just a few minutes before I have to head off to a finance committee for a local school.  But since it has been almost two weeks since the last time I blogged I thought it might be a good investment in my time this afternoon of President’s Day.

I just took Penny to the airport to fly back to California.  It sure was nice having her around over a weekend!  In fact I have spent the better side of a week and a half with her either here or in Seattle where I had some meetings to attend.  My meetings aligned with her teaching furlough time from work in California, thanks to Governor Brown.  She spent the remainder of her time off here in Scottsdale.

Last week was amazing in a couple of ways!  First of all, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I was able to attend some meetings in Seattle.  I must confess I am not even sure what the official nomenclature of the meetings was, but it had to do with Jesus and One.  Regardless of the name given, the theme was quite clear, which is why I chose to accept the invitation to go.  It was about placing Jesus squarely in the middle of all we do and preach in the Adventist Church.  That may seem like one of those things that we should take for granted in our system, but it’s not.  It needs to be.  I was blessed, together with my wife, my daughter, and my son-in-law, who took the time off work to join us for the meetings.  Around 700 people attended the “gathering,” which is what I believe they would rather be called—in short, a gathering of great and passionate praise experiences, powerful presentations, followed by great discussion and prayer.  Nothing else really mattered.

It did not matter at all that the whole time in Seattle was rainy and cold.  We did not do any sightseeing or visiting.  We just spent two days soaking in people who wanted more of their spiritual experience.  I only hope all will not fade away as so many other meetings before, but will lead to real and practical change in our church here in Arizona and beyond.

I had only a day to get ready for the weekend which included a marvelous 75^th anniversary celebration at Glenview Academy.  It began Friday night and went into Saturday night.  It was inspirational and encouraging.  Many accounts of the impact of Adventist Education were shared as well as some great preaching from our own Tony Anobile.  Oh yes, violinist Jaime Jorge gave some incredible renditions of some old classic hymns.  Somewhere in the middle of all that I was able to squeeze in a little Sabbath School In-Service on Sabbath afternoon.  I had a great time sharing a presentation entitled, “Seven Secrets to Ruin your Sabbath School Class.”  There was much discussion and many questions from the Sabbath School teachers that had come to the in-service.  The week promises to pick up the pace beginning tomorrow!  Gotta go.  Finances await! (226.2)