Heading to D.C.

Greetings from Washington D.C.!

Early this week, Gretchen and I returned from our retreat in Walnut Creek, Ohio, gathered the children, and began to get back to the "normal" to which we are becoming accustomed this month.  Just when we got back in the swing of things, it was time for me to pack up again and head to our nation's capital to attend an event called "The Weekender" (click on colored words to link to the event site) at Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

(Pictures in this post are from article on Capitol Hill Baptist Church in the 

Christian Science Monitor--click here for more pictures.)

The trip to Washington D.C. was a far cry from what I experienced in the Amish countryside last week as traffic made my progress into the city itself, a creeping, crawling trial! Upon arrival I joined my fellow "weekenders" (there are 75 attendees this time instead of the normal 50) in a "behind-closed-door" elder's meeting that was to prove fascinating.  The meeting lasted three and a half hours and was something to behold.  I'll share more on that topic after I've had more of a chance to gather more information about the "whys and wherefores" of it all.

Today the schedule of activities is packed full and there's much to learn and observe.  The sample schedule of the weekend is here.

Have a super weekend!

I'll be worshiping here...

...this Sunday.

I'll be encouraged to hear of my own church family worshiping together this Sunday as well!

I pray the words of Paul in Colossians...

that [your] hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge....For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Colossians 2:2-3,5

I'll post more from D.C. as my weekender continues.