What do Alaska, Florida, retirement centers and giant
Post-It posters have in common? Echo
Ranch Winter Meetings! Every year, the
staff at Echo Ranch choose somewhere in the United States to have a week of intense,
strategic team meetings to both plan out the next summer and see where they are
as a team and ministry. We have been
blessed to attend the last two, this year’s being in central Florida. Most of the team resides in Juneau for the
winter, but some travel all over the US and recruit volunteers and
counselors. This year, the national CCCA
(Christian Camp and Conference Association) Conference was held in Orlando, FL
and the entire team, minus the Regiers (we will attend once we are full-time
missionaries with Echo Ranch) attended the conference. Our in-town staff couple lives in a suburb of
Orlando in a retirement home, so it was decided that we would hold the meetings
in the guest housing of the retirement village.
A local pastor of a church that supports Echo Ranch came each day to
lead a devotion and pray with us. Many
times the scriptures discussed would lead our discussion on the topics of the
day. Here is a picture of what our
entire week looked like:
It isn’t too exciting, but it shows a huge part of what goes
on behind the scenes of Echo Ranch. The
backbone. The planning. Setting in motion the things that go on from
April to October. And it requires a huge
amount of wisdom from the One for Whose glory it’s all for. God has it all planned, but we get the
privilege of playing it out. And we need
His help. We spent much time in
devotions and prayer, imploring the Lord for wisdom and right hearts to work
together in unity and love. We always,
with every discussion from scheduling to housing to lighting options, came back
to this: “Is this our ministry focus? What facilitates our goal to reach
Southeast Alaska for Christ best? Does
this show God’s love to believers? To
unbelievers? Does this enable the health
of each person and the team?”
We also identified several areas of personnel needs for the
summer. These include:
- · Mechanic
- · Maintenance and construction workers
- · Nurse and assistant
- · Kitchen help
- · Counselors
If you feel the Lord leading you to serve in any of these
areas (and want to spend a summer on the Alaskan coast!), please go to www.echoranch.org to inquire and apply.
Finally, we want to extend a huge thank you to the Church at
South Lake in Clermont, FL, and Pastor Brian Hammond and family. They provided nearly every meal, picked
several up and brought it to us, took us all over town, and offered all-around
amazing hospitality! You guys rock! Check out their website:
Also thanks to the AIM (Africa Inland Missions) retirement
center and Bob and Mary Ehmann! The accommodations
were wonderful!
