I was overjoyed to reunite today with a couple of running buddies from my two year Transforming Community experience in Chicago. I met Dana and Billie on the first evening of the first TC retreat because they introduced themselves as living in Texas and, you know, we Texans like to stick together. I was so blessed by God to spend those nine retreats over those two years with these two wonderful sisters – to worship with them, to pray with them, to eat with them, to process Ruth’s teachings with them, to laugh with them, and to hang out in the airport together as we nervously held our breath wondering if the snow would strand us in Chicago. As we boarded our plane to Amarillo and they boarded theirs to Midland, I always wondered what it would be like to live where they do in West Texas.

Well, it’s high winds, brown skies, and lunch at Murray’s Deli.

I’m grateful to God today for the chance to catch up with Dana and Billie and their families and the work they do today with the Transforming Community. I’m encouraged to hear how our Lord is presently at work in their lives.  And I’m so glad we finally hooked up for lunch together and very easily picked up right where we left off – talking about our mutual TC experiences and friends, praising God for what he has done and is about to do in this city, and praying his blessings on each other and our ministries.

Dana and Billie are longtime faithful members of First Methodist Church here in Midland. And now it’s on me to get with their pastor, Steve Brooks, before they do.

Peace,

Allan