DRY CREEK CONVENTION REPORT 2014

And now a brief report on our yearly Dry Creek Convention 2014, thanks to Sarah Jepsen for the concise wrap-up.

Hello,

Convention weather was relatively mild - mostly above zero weather.  It was bearable for our guests.  :)  Since convention, we had a couple of days of gusty cool wind keeping the temperatures in the above zero teens.  Tonight, the temperature has dipped to -10* and will probably get a little colder before the night is over.  

The convention was excellent with a very few guests.  We were pleasantly surprised to see most of the Delta church group show up for our meetings.  We enjoyed them immensely.  

Thomas led worship for our first service on Wednesday morning.  As usual, the first service is a little rough, but that wasn’t Thomas’ fault - no one’s fault but our own.  Bill Grier opened the convention by greeting everyone before having Joy Beebe Keller give a testimony.  Joy has one boy and has since had five miscarriages.  She talked about how in the first month or six weeks of pregnancy, the woman’s body supplies everything for the baby, till the placenta takes over.  She talked about if one part of her body didn’t do it’s part, the pregnancy would abort.  Joy likened that to our spiritual walk.  Bro Buddy followed with a word on God’s love being conditional and about vertigo and not trusting our senses - Only God can change us.  Bro Joe closed the meeting with an exhortation on “Come let us reason together’ meaning that we should listen to God’s opinions.

Thomas led worship for the second meeting on Wednesday before Bro Bill Grier preached out of Isaiah 45:11 "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.”  He said we should command God as well as praising and adoring Him.  Bro Buddy preached again concerning being taught by God and giving up everything, including our lives, in order to keep that which we cannot lose.  

Thursday morning began with Ben leading the praise.  Bro Ernest preached first on our calling - he reminded us that we are never fully aware of when our call comes nor of how much it will require of us.  He talked about a book, A Higher Calling 

by

 

Adam Makos & 

Larry Alexander.  He exhorted us to differentiate when to move in either the spirit of the Lamb or the spirit of the Lion.  David DiGloria preached next on the wisdom of God in ordering our steps through the laboratory of life in the mundane.  He urged us to “continually resort” in God’s habitation as talked about in Ps 71:3.  Bro Bill closed the service by reminding us to get up front in the war and to stay there.  We had some special moments of prayer for George Harris and Andy Trotter when the meeting ended. 

Ben and Bonnie led worship for Friday’s second meeting.  The John’s preached on this evening.  John Basalyga preached on the corporate call on our lives, reminding us to get engaged with what is happening around us.  John Jeffreys followed with a sermon on God inclining His ear; his text being 

Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  He mentioned that our reasonable service is one that we have reasoned out and made a conscious choice to do.  Bro Joe closed the meeting talking about us having more personal government over ourselves.  At the end of this meeting, we had a special moment of prayer for my brother in law, Greg Joss, who after a few days of having the flu started having seizures with a high temperature of 105*.  

Tom and Jeni led worship for the last meeting.  Bro Joe’s text was from the Song of Solomon.  His sermon was quite involved, but his theme was on keeping our own vineyards - we can have the knowledge of God in our head, but do we know Him? Our focus needs to be on God.  Bro Buddy closed the convention with a very short exhortation on “does God know you?”.  We can Know God, we can know ALL things, we can have all the gifts, and we can do mighty things, but does God know us?  He closed with “God is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.”

Remember, my summarization of the meetings is MY ruminations of what I heard and gleaned from the meetings; my summarizations may not necessarily be the intended theme of the preacher.  (my disclaimer)

Debbi’s husband, Greg, was released today from ICU to a less icu-ish room. The doctors feel like Greg has meningitis caused by the herpes simplex virus.  Greg’s temperature is stabilized  his seizures quit after 12 hours, and his soft restraints have been taken off.  His heart beat is very erratic (35 - 150 bpm).  We are praying for a full recovery.

We had Saturday and Sunday off for family days - for rest and recuperation.  The ministry left early on Sunday morning, chauffeured by Garth Milliron.  If I understand correctly, the Haines convention should be over.  The Hoonah convention begins this coming Friday.  

I need my beauty sleep.  Talk to you more another day.  Love, Sarah

Hello!  Every day we have a few more minutes of precious daylight, and we are seeing a little bit more sunshine each day too!  It’s good for the spirit!  Despite the extra sunlight and daylight, we still have had some temperatures plunging into the -30’s but mostly staying in the -20’s.  Each day, it warms up to 0* or 6*, but drops below zero again at night.  We did receive around 2 and 1/2 inches of snow last week which covered up some of the debris from that wind storm we’d had in January.

Buongiorne news: Pat continues with his Macomb Piano work and keeps busy with that, taking as many jobs as he can. Some that take him away from the farm for a few days, trying to generate funds…aren’t we all!! Especially with the soon-to-be-implemented Obama Care which sounds like a nightmare, good to know that God is in control and He will take care of us as we put our trust in HIM! 

I continue to try and get my humble translation business up and running, but it is proving to be a very competitive market. I do enjoy pro Bono work with a large Gospel International outfit and audio recording for Livrivox which are quite enjoyable. Of course, most of my week is busy teaching Rob with the help of some excellent professionals from the AGSD and the REACH (Resources for teaching Alaska Children at Home) Academy who provide us with many resources for teaching a student like Rob. I am very thankful for these excellent providers. 

They also include Rob and myself in their spring field trip, which usually takes us to places in Alaska I would never be able to visit on my own. So far we have been in SE Alaska, Juneau, Haines, Homer, Yukon, visited salmon hatcheries and Alaska native heritage places, travelled on ferries and small boats. Last year we went to the Seward Marine Center, which is very well done and has a state-of-the-art research facility as well as an aquarium. This April the plan is to ride the picturesque White Pass Yukon Railroad, you can find info on it here

http://www.wpyr.com/

Recently finished recording the popular "Martin Fierro" which is considered "the" Shakespeare of Argentina. Two fellow Argentinians were doing it with me so it was fun! I got to practice my very rusty "porteño" for those who are wondering what that is, it's the type of Argentinian Spanish spoken by folks who are from Buenos Aires. The other 2 readers were from the province of Entre Rios, where my mother Stella Leeson still resides.