Weekend in Texas

Robert and I had the opportunity to attend Youth Ministry Lab at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary this weekend.  It was great!  We left on Thursday and were able to spend the night with my aunt, uncle, and cousin outside of Dallas.  I had visited them there once at Thanksgiving a few years ago, but Robert had never been.  They welcomed us with a delicious dinner of smoked ribs which is always okay in Robert's book.  After that, we spent some time chatting, demoing my cousin's virtual reality simulator, and watching a movie called Bernie.  On Friday morning we explored downtown and finished up our time with Aunt Dana with some delicious burgers and pie.

Chocolate silk

We drove about an hour and a half to get to the seminary and got checked in.  We had some time before the conference actually started so we did some exploring.  It was definitely bigger than Southeastern, and it made us miss our time at seminary.

The chapel

Part of President Patterson's collection

We walked around campus and drove around a bit.  We found the duplexes where my parents lived when Dad went to Southwestern.

We ventured off campus and found Robert's first house.  He lived there until he was about four years old.

We got checked into our hotel and were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was.  La Quinta served us well!

The first two sessions were with JD Greear of The Summit.  We thought it was funny that we had to travel to Texas to hear a popular pastor from North Carolina.  We never did meet him when we lived there, but we made sure to introduce ourselves at the conference.  He spoke about the assurance of salvation, and we enjoyed listening to him.

Next up was Gary Thomas, author of Sacred Marriage.  We've been fans of Thomas for a few years.  We went through his book during our premarital counseling and again in our Sunday School class in NC.  He's such a mesmerizing speaker, and he brings great insights.  We heard him speak twice - Friday night and Saturday morning.  The funniest thing he said was, "You can't possibly expect to keep your spouse infatuated for six decades.  Nobody is that interested!"  Ha!  He said this in regard to the need to focus on God's Kingdom in order to have a long-lasting marriage.  If we are both more focused on God's Kingdom and loving each other well more than being loved, then we will have a God-honoring marriage and be loved well in the process.  It made me want to read more of his books!  That and the fact that we found out he's a Duke fan.

We got back to the hotel on Friday night and enjoyed having cable TV for a bit.  The next morning we had a tasty breakfast at the hotel.

Like I said, we heard Gary speak again on Saturday morning.  We also heard Johnny Derouen speak on having open doors for youth ministry and how to attract students.  He spoke about the extreme importance of prayer and asking the Holy Spirit to bring in students.  

We enjoyed lunch at Joe T. Garcia's, and Robert especially loved his fajitas.  After lunch, we hung out at the pool.  The pool wasn't heated, but Robert still hopped in.  I stuck with dipping my fit in the hot tub.

Robert had the idea to see a Rangers game, and we enjoyed watching them play the Astros.  We had seats on the absolute back row, but on the plus side, nobody can kick your chair when nobody is sitting behind you.  The weather was perfect for a game!

The Gingerbread Man made an appearance.

On Sunday, we went to The Village Church in hopes to hear Matt Chandler preach.  Unfortunately, he didn't preach, but the guest speaker did a very good job, and we still got to meet Matt after the service.  After church, we started the journey back home.  Thankfully, the hour drive from the hotel to church put us an hour closer to home, so the trip was broken up a bit.  We had lunch at Whataburger (my first time), and made it home safely.  Robert was awesome and drove the whole time.  I was able to crochet and read magazines.  I was also the DJ in charge of the iPod.  It's weird to think that this is one of the last road trips with just the two of us (Alabama in May).  When we got home, I made sure to crack out my souvenir: some peach salsa.