My Insane Week

It all started on a nice Sunday afternoon. After the church service, my wife and I drove to Fargo, got "Chilis" to-go and watched the Superbowl in a hotel room. Monday morning we got up and drove the rest of the way to Minneapolis for the Desiring God Pastor's Conference. Monday night Pastor Mark Dever gave a talk on the necessity of understanding and communicating the gospel clearly and entirely in our evangelistic efforts. I also spent some time wandering through the book store and ended up making quite a few purchases (best Christian bookstore ever!).

However, that evening I also recieved a call that a member of our congregation had passed away. He was already suffering from some severe health problems when we first came to Underwood but I had had the chance to really get to know him and see some amazing fruit in his life in the last year and a half.

Tuesday at the conference was full of more great talks. Pastor Matt Chandler spoke on the impact of the gospel on "nominal" Christian congregations. Mark Dever spoke twice on the Pastor and evangelism and the Church and evenaglism. And Pastor John Piper gave a talk on the life and ministry of one of Christianty's greatest evangelists, George Whitefield. In addition, my wife and I had a chance to swing by the Mall of America during the afternoon break.

Since the fuenral was scheduled for Thursday, we headed out early Wednesday morning (skippping the last couple conference talks) and made it back to Underwood in the late afternoon. I was able then to finally meet with the bereaved family and go over some important funeral details. After bible study that night I was up late working on the funeral sermon.

I arrived at the church building Thursday morning to help get things organized and to be with the family. The service started at ten am and was followed by a lunch in the fellowship hall. That afternoon I had basketball practice and then tried to get some things together in preparation for Sunday. On Friday I continued to work on the sermon and Sunday School lesson, with an afternoon break for basketball practice. Saturday afternoon the church book club met to discuss the first half of C.J. Mahaney's "The Cross-Centered Life." Then Saturday evening I visited the family again and put the final touches on the preparations for Sunday morning.

You might think that would be enough but on Sunday morning as I was getting ready for the worship service, I received a call from another congregant that his mother had passed away. So my heart was heavy again as I led the congregation on Sunday morning. After the services we had our annual meeting and then I jetted down to Washburn to meet this family at the funeral home to begin the planning to lay to rest their mother.

God did provide my wife and I some much needed rest Sunday evening and I certainly felt His graciousness through all of the trials of this past week. Please pray for me to continue trusting God's timing of events in my life and to grow in ministering to those He has called me to care for.

By God's Grace, Jeff