posted by Esther on 08/2/10
What a great conference! There was such unity as we met with old friends and many new friends of like heart! Dad had a chance to share with the first time families, Robert played a piano special with 
Clayton, James spoke on his trip to Peru, Daniel testified of God’s work through the Bible Bee, and I worked with the Commit girls but we all received way more then we could have ever given. What great insight was gained under the teaching of Bill Gothard, Gil Bates, Tom Harrmon, Paul and Jenny Speed, Phil Downer, Jim Logan and others.
One session on discipleship was especially good. How do you make disciples? Dad was
reviewing his notes with us on the way home in the van and asked “How should you view yourself as a disciple maker? “A servant?”, we guessed. No. “A father?” Close! The way Paul pictured himself as a disciple maker is given in 1 Thess. 2:7: “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children.” The answer is that Paul looked at himself as a mother caring for her child. She expects messes and struggles as the 
baby grows. This is the first of the four M’s of discipleship: Messes. Making a disciple means caring enough about the messes in life to do something to clean them up. The next M stands for Milk: this is when you teach someone the everyday steps of Christian life. The third M stands for Meat: this is when you teach them how to feed on the deeper things of the Word of God for themselves instead of you teaching them everything. The last M is for multiplication where you help them to begin teaching others. We were all motivated to make disciples!
We thank the Lord that we were able to go and be encouraged in our walk with the Lord. “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).
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Earlier this month I joined the Christiansen’s, Gomezes and Julie for a relaxing staff retreat in the beautiful countryside of MN. I’d never been there before and enjoyed my stay immensely! We had a grand celebration for Norm and Marlys’s 40th wedding 
anniversary, went hiking at national parks, boated down the St. Croix river that separates Wisconsin from Minnesota, toured the beautiful farmland by hayride, visited great people, studied the prayer of Jabez, and sat around envisioning and discussing our plans for this new ministry. This is going to be an exciting semester serving the Lord together! Please keep us in your prayers as we make the final preparations for the session to begin.
