On Sunday morning we went into town to go to church at Redeemer Lutheran. We were warmly received and invited to stay for a pot luck lunch following service. During the service the handbell choir played, the voice choir sang, and a man sang a solo during the offering. He did a moving rendition of “Where You There When They Crucified My Lord?” I thought to myself, “That guy has a professional voice.” And he does. Turns out it was Dave Anderson of the Dave and Barb Anderson duo.
Dave and Barb were key players in the early contemporary music movement in the Lutheran church. Go to www.thefellowship.com and click “About” to read more on the Andersons and their music ministry. And check out their miraculous rescue from the Bearing Sea. I was quite familiar with Dave & Barb's work from those early days, so I was surprised to find Dave in this small church on Sunday morning.
After service we had a chance to visit with Dave, and so discovered a newer ministry that Dave & Barb spearhead. It's based, are you ready, in Wickenburg, AZ. You can visit www.ShepherdsCanyonRetreat.org to learn more about this ministry.
Shepherd's Canyon Retreat is the first Lutheran-based ministry-of-its-kind to provide counseling retreats for burned out and emotionally wounded church workers and their spouses.
Because of events and circumstances in my own pastoral experience, I know this ministry is sorely needed. I asked Dave if we could talk about it. He invited us to bring our RV and come out to Standing Stones Retreat Center which is the home of Shepherds Canyon Retreats. Go to www.standingstonesaz.org to read more about the retreat center.
I mentioned in my last blog that something changed the next 2 weeks of our lives. Well when we arrived at Standing Stones we found it under construction mostly totally by volunteer labor. Those who work on the project get a camping spot with full hook-ups in exchange for their labors.
And in the case of Standing Stones, the use of the beautiful patio, pool, hot tub, and outdoor kitchen that came with the original property. We decided to participate and support the retreat ministry with our labor.
I worked last week and we are planning to work this next week, too. We will begin our eastward trek toward home early in the week after Easter.
Don't jump to the conclusion that Dave just goes around inviting random RVers to help build a retreat center. When we arrived we found about a dozen other Rvs parked on the place and their occupants hard at work building the Center's first “Casita.” All these men and women (many highly skilled tradesmen) belonged to one of two groups, either: Sowers or MBI. All are retired Christians with a heart to support the church at large with their time and talents by volunteering to literally build the Kingdom. All they receive for their labors is a campsite with full hook-ups so they can live and work on the project at hand.
More information about these organizations can be found at:
www.sowerministry.org or www.missionbuilders.org
Remember that I hinted that something might change our lives in the future? You guessed it. We are considering joining one of these groups to spend some retirement and RV time building God's Kingdom. Your thoughts and prayers on the subject will help us make these important decisions.
But all work and no play … well, you know how that goes. So Saturday, most of us working here took a field trip to Robson's Mining World. That's the subject of my next post. See you then.
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