Note: This is Laurie (Arlin and Nancy's daughter).  I've hijacked Dad's blog temporarily and want to share some thoughts about the Weekend on the Farm.   It follows the Service Management Summit event.  The dates are August 17-19, 2012.  It also precedes the HTG Leadership Track session which is August 20-21.  So it fits sandwiched in between two HTG events, and the best part, you're invited to attend. 

The Story of the Weekend on the Farm

When I need a reminder that everything in life is based on God's grace, and that grace is a gift lavished so freely by the One who delights in the giving, I don't have to look any further than the Weekend on the Farm.  The Weekend on the Farm is a "God-Thing."  It's one of those spectacular you'd-never-believe-it-if-I-told-you miracles that our God faithfully works so often if we'll only have eyes to see and then commit to remember.

The Weekend on the Farm was born somewhat accidentally like most things dad does.  In 2004, Dad started e-mailing a few men in his small group at church each morning.  His e-mails would contain the notes of his morning time in the Bible and were one way he was accountable to those men.  Over time, people would ask permission to forward his e-mails or would mention them to others who would ask to receive them as well, and the Morning List Family was born.  Now over 900 people receive Dad's "Thoughts from the Farm" e-mail six days a week and journey with him on his walk with Jesus.

People began to express how much they wanted to meet others on the list, how they wished there were a way to take the community happening on-line and make it more real.  So, in 2008 Dad and Mom invited everyone on the morning list to come to our farm in Iowa for a weekend.  We had such a wonderful time that it has become an annual tradition.  Fifty people showed up that first year, and last year we had over 110 with projections being  well over 150 for 2012.

People from all over the US and Canada converge on the farm, and we just spend time together meeting with God.  We sing together, spend time examining the Bible about a topic, and eat lots of good food.  We spend time talking and laughing with brothers and sisters of all ages and from many different places.  We share deeply and love freely, rejoicing together over the joys of the past year and encouraging one another in the trials that some have endured.

It's nothing elaborate.  Just a big white tent in the front yard.  But every year as two or three (or 150) gather, He's there among us, and it's sweet fellowship.

What's Weekend?  Weekend is HIM.  Weekend is community.  Weekend is gathering.  Weekend is faith.  Weekend is growth.  Weekend is YOU.

You're invited.  Food's ordered.  The tent will be up.  Agenda is pretty well set.  We'd love to have you join us.  Register today!