Times of Refreshing

This has been one of the most interesting Novembers that I can remember experiencing. And, it certainly has been one of the busiest months full of Atlanta-visits, meetings, retreats and special moments with family and friends. In the midst of it all, it’s been a special time of refreshing.

To begin, I was privileged to attend a leadership summit sponsored by the strategic partners of North Point Ministries. The summit was held at Winshape Retreat Center, which is on the largest college campus in the world. Seriously!!!
Berry College is located just north of Atlanta and the campus covers…get this, 28,000 acres. That’s right, 28K of acres for one college campus (feel free to check it out at www.berry.edu). It is also houses Winshape, which is one of the many kingdom-building designs of Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-Fil-A. North Point holds it’s annual strategic partner leader’s meetings there and I can’t begin to enumerate how beneficial it was for me to meet the guys who are already on the journey we’re embarking. (Winshape pictures above & below)

On the same day I was heading home from Winshape, Sam & Tina Dula were boarding a plane to meet Angie and I for a weekend in Little Rock. We had a blast! It was the first time Angie and Tina actually met, while also being a welcomed opportunity for Sam and I to discuss plans for the remainder of the year. Even the kids got a chance to meet their son, Myles and together, they ran themselves silly at Chuck-E-Cheese.

Five short days later, I boarded the plane for my final Atlanta visit of the year. Although I’ll actually be bringing in the New Year in “the A” this trip was my last opportunity to meet people and personally invite them to our vision-cast in January (more info about this event coming real soon). So, for four days, Amisho, Sam and I averaged anywhere between three or four meetings a day (I actually had FIVE on Friday…I know, CRAZY)! My good friend and mentor, Nolin Egbert also joined us in Atlanta that weekend.

Frankly, these were some of the most insightful and strategic meetings I’ve been in during this building phase. Some of the meetings were reconnects while the majority were brand new contacts (I didn’t know them & they didn’t know me)! Still, the Lord was truly with us and I’m sure several of our brand new contacts will become life-long friends. There’s no way I could put a price tag on the wisdom we received from these connections and I can’t wait to get settled in Atlanta to continue growing these relationships.

This was one of those months that in the midst of busy-ness, the Lord carved out moments of refreshing. As the holidays approach, let’s make time to connect with family and friends and be refreshing agents for them. There’s no way I could’ve predicted the encouragement I’d receive from the meetings we had in Atlanta. I’m pretty confident that most of our contacts didn’t realize how much they encouraged me. And, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Being an encouraging agent without the title and certainly without expecting anything in return. These are true times of refreshing, and believe me when I say, there’s nothing like it.