NEXT

Jim & I volunteered to work the registration table last night at NEXT.

The 2009 Conference is being held in Baltimore this year.
Over 2500 young people (+ some oldies) have come to hear
the Word of God preached and to fellowship with others.
I checked in 2 people from Australia who did not know each other,

nor that they had both traveled halfway around the planet

to draw closer to Christ.

Christina flew in from Jacksonville for the conference... Abby's friend Tiffany & her mom Shelly arrived from Florida.

It was great to see them again.

We were able to attend the first general session to hear

Josh Harris preach on Christ's Preeminence.

Notes from all the speakers can be read Here.

There were enough volunteers today---so we

enjoyed a Bar B-Que with Bowers (pictures later).

But we are so grateful son Sam is benefitting from teachings

by Josh Harris, C.J. Mahaney, Sinclair Ferguson,

D.A. Carson and Kevin DeYoung

A Few Pictures in case Abby checks the Blog

Though Sadie spends most of her time sleeping and having fun...

The rest of us have been a little busy...
Jocelyn's wedding where the flower girls did a petal dump...
A beautiful bride between her good looking parents...
Lynn and I at the reception...

A lucky woman between two good looking men...

Mothers' Day dessert----"take out" from the Cheesecake Factory

Chocolate Brownie Sundae Cheesecake

Then my son let me look at his Facebook!!!!

MOTHERS' DAY

Her children arise and call her blessed.

To our two favorite mothers...

On this Mother's Day

We are grateful to the Lord for His blessings.

I BEAT SARA!!!

OKAY....NINE a.m. and we're at the starting line...

several hundred of us.

There's Sara in purple

slinking not far behind Zack--who BTW won the whole thing.

This is the two of us BEFORE the race....rarin' to go!!
What is going on with the headmaster???

He stopped every quarter mile and did these!!

Despite her complaints about sore hips

and the fact that I have a few years on her....

I beat her by many minutes. (repeat "minutes"....not seconds)

But Charlotte beat both of us,

and...

SHE

RAN!!!

of course she didn't do push ups along the way!!

Twenty Four---not the series---the birthday...

Okay, allow me to take that walk down memory lane...

Twenty-four years ago today I officially became a mother.

She was precious to me then...
And even more so now...
The 2nd year in a row we've missed celebrating with her.
But we are thankful for cell phones that can call Panama...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As long as I am posting Then and Now pictures....

How about these two???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We continue to keep our connections to American despite Abby's absence

Our two favorite A.U. co-eds came up to spend the weekend. Sarah & Lauren finish up their finals this week

and then leave campus for the summer.

We look forward to seeing them again in the fall.

Speaking of higher education---

who is this guy giving a college information talk

to a bunch of high school students at the U. of MD last week??

Thanks to my colleague John for sending this photo of my favorite son.