An Awesome Oasis… And an Awesome Wife!

Angie and I arrived in Bentonville today just in time to pick our daughter up from school. We were tired from the week, yet SO refreshed! We’ve been to seven or eight Oases and this was, by far, the best yet! An oasis is defined as “a fertile place in a barren land.” More on that in a second…

It started Tuesday with Christian comedian, Nazareth, who reminded us about the contagious nature of joy. Tony Ellenburg led each of our worship sessions. He presents one of the most unassuming presences of any singer I’ve experienced. I wish everyone could have experienced Ken Medema, a musician blind from birth. He had a truly amazing voice – reminded Angie and I of Josh Groban at times, but he was hilarious too. Most impressive was his ability to take a personal story and compose a beautiful song from it on-the-fly! And the conference closed this morning with a motivational message by Randy Frazier.

Ronnie Floyd was the primary conference speaker and teacher and I was highly inspired by his words to return home and be more passionate than ever about Jesus, family, and pastoral ministry.

Wednesday night, Angie shared her heart with Donny Parrish, the leader of DiscipleGuide’s Conference Ministry, who in turn asked her to share our Oasis testimony with the entire crowd, so this morning, Angie addressed about 200 Pastors and their wives and shared how we came to the Oasis seven years ago devastated and broken by the news from our Doctor that we probably would never have children. At the Oasis that year, we were loved and ministered to and went home, not happy, but with a peaceful assurance that God was up to something in our lives. We found out just weeks later that we were pregnant with Ella!

I’m extremely proud of my wife. She was nervous all night about those few moments on stage, but I’m convinced God is putting her through kind of a school, training her to minister to others in some pretty amazing ways. She’s an excellent speaker, a good teacher, and has an overwhelming compassion for hurting people. I’d ask you to pray for her to sense God’s direction and will for her life. And I’d like to praise God for sending her into my life – she’s pretty awesome!

I thank God, DiscipleGuide, and my church for this great week – I’m re-charged! I’m blessed. I’m ready to grow more and give God the glory!