Upcoming event: Saturday, March 13th

Next Saturday, March 13th, we are having a one day men's retreat/conference at our church. Since this whole thing was my idea, I hope it goes well: I really don't want to get tarred and feathered by folks I know.

The day is centered around marriage and relationships and goes from morning until the evening. The deal starts at 9:30 AM with an introduction/orientation. from 10-11, and from 11-12, there are two speakers who will talk for about 45 minutes each. At lunch there'll be "build your own" sandwiches, chips, punch and coffee. At 1PM a local group will play music. They'll go until 2 O'Clock. From 3-4 and from 4-5 there are two more speakers. At 5 PM there will be a dinner and the wives are invited to that. The men will cook, serve and clean up. At 6:30 PM there will be a two hour concert featuring the Kate White Band from the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area. The concert is open to the entire community and there is no admission charge. There is also no additional charge for the wives to join their husbands for dinner. The cost of the day, for the men, will be $20...pretty reasonable I would think. We will do a "pass the hat" thing during the concert to help defray the hard costs of the day. I believe it will be a good event and I sure hope it's well attended.

What is for dinner? Well, we're having something I developed. We start with skinless chicken breast. Then we cut a pita pocket in the meat. After that we throw it in a bowl and soak it in apple juice over night. The next day we put garlic powder inside the pocket and stuff it with a mix of apples, onions, celery and pecans (run through a food processor first). Next we season the outside of the chicken and place it in a baking pan. It's cooked for 30-40 minutes. At that point we smear a honey glaze over it and put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes or so. When it's removed from the oven it gets another dash of honey glaze sauce. That will be coupled with potatoes, carrots, celery and onions...seasoned up and slow cooked in large roasters. Sound good?

The band that will be playing is OUTSTANDING!!! Here's a YouTube video of them doing a song I really like called "I Will Rise".

One of the speakers for Saturday is a man named Jerry Broomfield. He's one of the pastors at one of the black churches down in Weed (about 20 miles south of us). I had never met him before asking him to speak, but he came highly recommended by another guy in our church who I know well. In fact, Jerry was a student of the guy in our church (Frank) back when he was in high school

When I went down to meet Jerry, and take him some fliers for the event, I got to talk with him for awhile. Frank, the guy in our church, had said Jerry had had some tough issues in his life: he wasn't lying. Jerry said he went into the hospital to have his right leg removed below the knee...and was released eight months later. When they removed his leg, below the knee, something went wrong and a few days later they had to go back and remove it above the knee. When he was in the second surgery he suffered a heart attack. After that he ended up with severe liver problems. Wow!

I met Jerry at his place of business: a thrift store/food bank. While I was there talking with him a lady came up with some pillows she wanted to buy. I think they were marked $3, or maybe it was $4. There was another person at the cash register when the lady brought up her pillows and she was handling the transaction. The lady started off the conversation by saying the pillows were soiled and that she was going to have to clean them up. She then said she was thinking of paying $1 each for them. The person handling the register paused and looked at Jerry to see what he wanted to do. Jerry just smiled, put out his hand to the lady and said, "That'll be just fine."

Jerry told me that Frank had been a tough teacher and was hard on Jerry and his friends. But, he said, that was exactly what they needed. He then said something to me that impressed me more than anything has in many years. After he told me Frank had been hard on them he said that because of that Jerry and his friends had all grown up to be successful.

I was talking to a guy who didn't have all his body parts, and the parts he did have left didn't function all that well. I was talking to a guy who was not at the top of the employment heap: he was just a guy who was barely getting by. I was talking to a guy who was selling $1 pillows to people. And he told me, without hesitation or reservation, that he was successful.

I have never been so humbled in my life.

I am very much looking forward to hearing Jerry speak this coming Saturday.