Okay, here we go!

We left for Colorado on Thursday morning, a week and a half ago. It's been long enough that I don't remember much about the trip. I do remember (only because of the picture) that Joe had brought along a pack of those long skinny balloons that you're supposed to be able to make animals out of. The balloons are so cheap, though, that if you blow them up past half way they just burst. So James put just a little bit of air in one and created the tiniest balloon poodle of all time! Ha! I thought it was SO GREAT!

We had a really good Minister's Meeting in Colorado, although most of the folks there were still holding a grudge over our cancelling the usual Retreat that we have with the entire Region. James and I were talking about it and how amazing it is that our people would rather drive 8 hours to be together with everybody in the Region than drive 2 hours and be with only part of them instead of all! They're not interested in the ease or convenience of it--we're family and everybody wants to be TOGETHER. So I think we've had our first and last Minister's "Meeting" and will be back to a central Retreat next year!

Anyway, even though it WASN'T a Retreat, the meeting seemed to go well and hopefully it was a blessing. We only had one message, but Jon preached a good one on feeding the flock of God. Good stuff. Lots of good boosts, too, especially Brother VanDeventer's. He's our ABM guy and this year he's wanting us to really focus on winning back the souls who have strayed from our churches in recent years. I'm excited to see the results of the ABM work in the coming year!

Dustin & Jamey Hays made it to the meeting, along with Isaac, Aleah, and 3 day old Lillie. All I can says is WHAT A WOMAN!!! Jamey deserves some sort of prize and that's all there is to it. Not only did she deliver a ten and a half pound baby, she came to the Minister's Meeting 3 days later! I know she was exhausted, but I'm soooooooo glad she came! It was so great to see her and the baby. Don't ask me how, but I managed to not take a single picture of Lillie. Is that dumb, or what?! Anyway, Jamey had a bit of a rough night on Friday, so Dustin left her and the baby at the motel room to rest for a while that morning. We ran into him and the kids at the Patio (best breakfast joint in Salida!) and asked him to join us at our table with the VanDeventers, but Isaac wasn't interested. After a while Katie went over to join them at their table. I generally don't have much sympathy reserved for Dustin, but since I can relate to being a PEOPLE PERSON, I felt bad for him being "all alone" with his kids instead of at the table with the rest of us. That's when I looked up and noticed how enthralled he was with whatever Katie happened to be sharing. Ha! A guy who loves PEOPLE will take whatever company he can get, I guess!


Here's Brother Van, giving that great boost I mentioned a minute ago. :-)


James brought a bunch of Church paraphernalia to pass out to the ministers as a thank you for all of the work that they do. (He was trying to help clear out some of the stock from HQ that they haven't been able to sell, too! Ha!) He had Church of God everything--hats, mouse pads, pens, license plate coveres and several other things, including my personal favorite: the 100th Anniversary of the Arise, Shine pocket knife! Ha! Gotta love that!!! (Who got those, anyway?!)

I tried to get a picture of Sister Karen in her Church of God hat, but she's too fast for me. :-)