Wednesday, August 4, 2004

5:19 PM Click here to read the latest update from the Mount Hermon Dallas Seminary conference. 4:19 PM All is well at Mount Hermon, with the possible exception of extremely slow Internet connections. Other than that, we’re having a wonderful time. The day began with a pancake breakfast at Pancake Ridge at the top of the hill. Over 150 joined the fun as DTS president Mark Bailey helped flip the pancakes on the huge outdoor grill. The pancakes were enormous, the size of dinner plates. We sat on timber benches on the hillside and enjoyed God’s creation and the crisp morning air. Question: What’s the difference a redwood and a sequoia? I’m told the huge trees on the conference center are redwoods, but there is a stand of sequoias not far away? I know they are both very tall trees, but are the completely different or somewhat related? I don’t know the answer to that. Yesterday Marlene and I took an afternoon trip down Highway 1 to Monterey and Carmel. We took off our shoes and walked in the sand by the beach and let the cold Pacific water run over our toes. The beach was not crowded, and it was a perfect day to be there. When I laid down on the sand, the combination of cool breeze and warm sand lulled me to sleep. Marlene said I started snoring. It’s the most relaxed I’ve been in a long time. This week has been extremely profitable to me personally because I’m getting to hear 12 sermons by the other speakers. Each message has been excellent in its own well, and several have spoken to us personally. I feel like God wanted us to be here as much for what we could gain as for what we could give to others. In the ministry you spend so much time giving out that you tend to forget that you need to receive yourself. We have been richly fed this week, and there are two more days left before we come home. A friend who shall remain nameless included this in an email today: “You are making me nervous being out there in California hobnobbin’ – Ray Pritchard, Pastor to the Stars.” I’m on the lookout for Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez, but I don’t they are likely to show up at Mount Hermon this week.