Back from Abilene and On with Life

Well, Friday afternoon I made the long and boring drive from Abilene, TX to Tucson, AZ. Actually the view gets better the further west you go and by the time you hit AZ there are beautiful mountains ... the sunset on the mountains is quite stunning.

I had a wonderful time at the ACU Lectures. I met fellow blogger Frank Bellizzi in the Center for Restoration Studies. It was a very providential meeting.

I took in Mike Casey's class on Garfield Todd. Todd was a Disciples minister in Rhodesia, Africa. He became Prime Minister and became heavily involved in justice for the African people. His is a great story. John Willis' lectures on Micah were great. I was sadly disappointed that Tom Olbricht was not able to make the lectures. I highly recommend getting the CDs to Willis' class (these can be ordered from Gaylor Multimedia).

Most of the keynote addresses are worth ordering copies of. Jerry Taylor, Landon Saunders and Jeff Walling exceeded their own high standards. Walling's sermon was, possibly, the best sermon I have ever heard him preach.

Thursday evening, a day after the lectures, I visited with Randy Harris and made plans PV's men's retreat he will be doing in April of 2008.

I visited with Fran Moser Winkles and her husband Dub several times. These are wonderful people. Thursday while at the Winkles I made a "providential" discovery. I found a book that at first looked simply like a bound copy of The Gist of Romans (that is what it said on the spine). But upon opening the book it was rather a alphabetical listing of every preacher and preacher student (from ACC, Harding, OCC, York, FHC, Pepperdine) that Moser sent a copy of his book to. The info included the name, location and date of the recipient. It was fascinating to see names as diverse as Bill Love and Hugo McCord listed. This is a little goldmine ...

I am slowly but surely coming to a deeper appreciation of Moser's life and one day this will express itself in a theological biography of the man.

I was glad to pull into the drive way late Friday night. I decided to go to bed ... and then at 5 am my lovely wife decided to go for a run (she is training for a marathon!!) so I got up and went with her. I was nearly dead afterwards ...

I continued my class called "A Gathered People" only now those who wanted a book can have one. This afternoon I was at Southside Church of Christ here in Tucson and will be preaching for a gospel meeting beginning tomorrow. This is a small, largely African American congregation with wonderful fellowship. Our song leader is a blind brother, and to tell the truth he was awesome!

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine