De Colores! Walk to Emmaus #157

And they said to one another, Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way and while He opened the Scriptures to us? [Luke 24:32]

I've been pretty busy since I last posted. I was serving on the team for a
Walk to Emmaus weekend which ran from last Thursday evening through Sunday evening. And I've been recovering since.

As a member of the talk team, I served as one of two table leaders; we helped facilitate the learnings at our table of six pilgrims. I must say it was a very gratifying weekend as I watched these men grow in their Christian faith. We are all in different places in our experience and knowledge, but nonetheless, we are all on the same path towards Christ's throne.

The Walk to Emmaus experience is typically a very good vehicle for Christian growth, especially the pilgrims (a term used to refer to those attending for the first time). I've calculated that I've participated on these weekends sixteen times (including my pilgrim walk in February 1993). I still walk away from these weekends learning something new and a little bit stronger in my own faith. The bonds I form with the other participants are also most precious.

It's kind of funny how this all came about on this particular Walk. I had been praying for some time that I be on the talk team again. I felt I had a story to share; God was telling me yes, but wait - the story was still being written. That particular story involved a boy I had been working with at music camp for the last couple of summers. The story came to a happy ending. Ironically, I got the call to serve just a couple of days after camp was over. Well, maybe not so ironic - after all, God has a splendid sense of timing, and I had the sense to recognize it.

Not that it was an easy decision to say "yes." As much as I wanted to serve, I was praying about it just as my wife S went to the hospital with her latest bout of pancreatitis. With my wife's health a concern, I decided not to play the "what if" game and entrust her health to God. I decided to just trust God completely to God and do what I was called to do.

I have to say that it was the most blessed experience I've had for quite some time. There have been many times I've served on a team with other distractions (including my wife's health) going on, and this was no exception. But during the two-and-a-half months of preparation up to and then including the actual weekend, I said an overwhelming sense of peace flowing over me. And the weekend itself was a wonderful exclamation point to punctuate the end of the whole process.

This particular weekend has been an abundant blessing to me. My fellow table leader, T, and the other men at my table - B, T, D, C, J, and J - were a tremendous blessing to me. It is my hope and prayer that it was and will continue to be so for them as well.