T4G 2008 #4

The ride home from T4G went great! It was a beautiful day to drive and take in some lovely American countryside and the fellowship in the van made the 12 hours feel like two.

The highlight of this conference in my eyes took place late Wednesday night. Tim Challies and I had the idea of gathering together all of the Canadian registrants for a few minutes of meeting each other and forging relationships. I was greatly encouraged when (by my rough count) 60 or so men from over 20 churches met us in the hardly visible Room 112... not to be confused with Room 110 where I had told a whole whack of guys to meet us.

I gave a few words of thanks and introduction, and then each person told us their name, church name and where in our country they had come from. All we had hoped to do next was gather some email addresses to further our communication down the road and leave a few minutes for fellowship. But the few minutes went on for over an hour.

I was thrilled to meet some guys I had only heard of before, and to watch as others (some who lived in the same neighbourhood) got connected. I was also glad to meet Francois Picard, the director of SEMBEQ, the seminary of the Fellowship Baptists in Quebec. The Lord had done some remarkable things in Quebec over the last 20 years and I have always wanted to pray more intelligently for that part of my country. Initiating a friendship with Francois is a great first step to that goal.

Much thanks to the T4G team for allowing us to use the room in the convention centre.

This morning I was met with the smiling faces of 3 of my 4 kids (one is on a school trip and gets back today, d.v.). We all sat around the bed while I told them about the conference. My son wanted to know if there were any sheriffs preaching! I think John Piper would be the most likely to be a sheriff if not a pastor... a good sense of justice and all that.

And now, a full day in the study, pre-marital counseling all of tomorrow morning, some time with the family in the afternoon and then our favorite day of the week with my favorite church in the world.

T4G 2008 #3

This is one of those conferences that gets better as it progresses. MacArthur, Dever and Sproul today and it seemed each one was drawing us closer to Jesus. I am praying that it only continues. challies.com has his regular summaries of the messages and my friend Darryl has been posting reflections at dashhouse.com.

Right now most of our guys have split into meetings, the book room, the deck or fellowship somewhere. I hate to miss fellowship, so this is all I choose to post now! (Sorry for the exclamation mark, David!!!!)

T4G 2008 - #2

Well, we are here! The 9 hour trip was closer to 12 hours... As far as I know, PMac should be getting close to Kentucky now!

The time in the vans was great. Somebody brought Brian Regan along and we laughed hard a few times. Lots of discussion about the state of evangelicalism in Canada and every guy got to tell how the Lord saved him.

Tomorrow the conference begins, but before that my roommate for the week has to speak at a conference for bloggers. The Band of Bloggers first met at T4G 2006 and will meet again this year. Tim is one of the main speakers.

I am glad to be here... but tired.

T4G 2008 - #1

Well, we are in Ohio. We should be in Louisville by now, but scattered swine on the 401, a snarly INS dude entering America, and PMac blowing an alternator have slowed things down a tad! So far, there has been great conversation in the car, although I cannot get these guys to throw a football. Very sad.
We are just grabbing dinner at Panera and then we are back on the road with 3 hours to go.
Great to see all these guys talking together and forging new friendships.

[Edit: And YES, we have the Challies!]