Third full day started off with the long anticipated discussion on patient meds from, who else, a doctor. For those who worry about counselors meddling with meds let me tell you the first and last statements this doc had to say. Never start or stop a counselee's meds. Pretty simple. This was a great session. As usual, too tired to explain why.
Not to leave you with the impression that everyone who who comes here is just a sponge taking whatever answer is spilled out or that our church simply mimics everything our leaders see here (you'd be really surprised at the similarities though). There have been plenty of examples to the contrary. After our track 1 lesson on "Forgiveness", almost everyone from our group in that track formed a blockade around Pastor Daniel wanting answers about something FBC mentioned about forgiveness being "conditional". I also had a brief convo with one of our pastors tonight about some possibly large differences in how (and how often) our churches carry out the exact same biblical steps regarding church (member) discipline. And let me tell you, review sessions were not going late just because of a long meal :-)

Finally got Lisa in a picture!

Spent some time checking out the other tracks during breaks. The speakers rotate alot. Many of them are speaking all day and simply go from one session to another. Most of the guys who speak with us have also been heard in other tracks

This is a session in track three where the guys and gals split up.

Before lunch was a session on Husbands. After, Pastor Viars had the session on Wives.
Linda, being the attentive, submissive wife she is, found it to be the appropriate time to doodle in her notebook. ;-)

Tonight's option session for me was a session on Jeremiah 2 by Stuart Scott, the fellow who is coming to my church this weekend to speak at a half-day marriage seminar. He's getting quite popular after the previous night's session (which I should have gone to). The room was packed. I find it amusing that since he's going straight from this conference to our seminar, he's just hitching a ride back with one of our pastors.

It is becoming very clear to me after posting all of these pictures of lecturers that no one looks happy when they are teaching in my pictures. I assure you, not only are these all people who thoroughly enjoy what they are doing, nearly all of them have had us, at some point, falling out of our chair laughing.

Dinner tonight was a little less organized as the weather turned nasty with heavy rain, winds and plummeting (but not bad) temps. Most people ate in at the hotel, but Josh and I headed out with Pastor Joey and his wife Kari to a new place (for me). Charley's

Where apparently

We had a session today on depression, and I find myself probing scripture for the verses we studied on that because of something weighing very heavy on my heart.

This pie, which Joan will NOT be happy about if it is still here when I leave, is the closest thing I have ever found to my wonderful mother's mint chocolate pie that she can no longer make now that the mix is no longer available. I'm sad because not only is this not a homemade pie with a recipe I can obtain (it's store bought). It is also clearly seasonal (was recently thawed) and will not be found again at the local Meijer (which we don't have) until next year...if that.

:-( Good night