Muskegon, MI Thursday, 9/21/06

Today is the last day of the conference. Tonight we have started to pack for the trip home tomorrow. It has been a great week. Unless we have an adventure going home tomorrow I will go back to my usual posting frequency.

Now for an overview of today:

After breakfast Margaret set up her computer to show some folks this blog and other internet tools we utilize to communicate ministry and personal information. (left to right: Angie Moses, Brandi Moses, Margaret, David Weaver, Janis Kemp, and Chaplain Dan Stuckey)

Trisha Hoy and Chaplain Paul Leger provided accompaniment for the morning praise and worship.

Paul Leger, Jesse Deems (playing harmonica), Doug and Carolyn Young sang for us as part of the praise and worship. They sung part of one song in Russian for Peter and Lydia.

Dennis Finnamore, Canadian Director, was MC for the day.

The first business session of the day was conducted by Dwayne Johnson, shown in the top picture, Doug Kraus (left above) and Gary Nussbaum. They discussed their new roles at the TFC International Office (IO).

The last session of the day included a Q&A time for the folks with new IO roles. (Left to right: Bunny O'Hare, Doris and Cerwin High, Doug Kraus, Gary Nussbaum, and Scott Weidner. Chaplain David Roberts, aka "Green Onion" is sitting in the front row.)

Dinner was a banquet. Shown above, left to right: Margaret, Tom & Linda Kramer, Trisha & David Hoy.

Trisha & David Hoy and David Weaver.

Following dinner we returned to our meeting room for some special ceremonies. First Rallyn & Carolyn Van Beek were recognized for completing the Chaplain Training School (CTS) this summer.

Then Wayne & Rita Foreman were also recongnized for completing CTS this summer.

Next was a commissioning service for two chaplain couples: Peter & Lydia Vaprov who serve in Moscow, Russia, and Claude & Hugette Mathieu who serve in Canada. (Victor Kavsh, in the center, translated for Peter & Lydia).

Finally, TFC President Scott Weidner presented Inge Koenig a certificate in recognition of her faithful and "above and beyond" service at the IO.

Muskegon, MI Wednesday, 9/20/06

Today was a rest day with no work sessions scheduled. Before we all went off to various activities we had a prayer for TFC staff members who are currently dealing with serious issues in their lives. Check the Prayer Blog for details.

The Elkton chaplains opted to visit the local mall. It had been raining this morning and as we arrived at the mall we saw one of God's beautiful rainbows.

The first stop in the mall was the NASCAR shop for Chaplain David Hoy who is a big fan. Above is Trisha and David Hoy in the store.

The entire TFC Elkton Staff at the mall (left to right: David Hoy, David Weaver, Trisha Hoy, Margaret Houchins, Linda Kramer, Sam Houchins, and Tom Kramer)

Back at the conference center after dinner we had a 1950's party. Chaplain Jason and Shannon Nussbaum came in appropriate dress.

On the right is Office of Chaplain team leader Bunny O'Hare interviewing "Flex" a prospective volunteer chaplain (Chaplain Jim Harkless) - he didn't get the job.

One of the evening's activities was a contest to select the best hoola-hoop player. Shown above are (left to right) Doris High, Karen and Scott Weidner. Behind them you can see Angie Moses the MC for the night.

Another contest involved all Lead Chaplains. Each was given a paper plate with a piece of bubble gum covered with whipped cream. The first one to retrieve the bubble gum and blow a bubble was the winner. Pictured above are Chaplain David Hoy and Chaplain George Freeman.

There I am chewing the bubble gum. The winner was Chaplain Tom Kemp.

The last competition was the race car finals to determine the overall winner. Our own Chaplain Tom Kramer raced Chaplain Mike Hayden. Tom lost this race and Mike went on to beat all competition to become the overall champion.

Tomorrow it is back to work again!

Muskegon, MI Tuesday, 9/19/06

Gary Nussbaum led the praise and worship this morning.
Trisha Hoy provided the accompaniment.

TFC President Scott Weidner opened the first session of the day with prayer.

Pastor Dave (Dr. David Martin) completed his six session, three day series "Hermeneutics Extraordinaire". It was an awesome and fun course!
Brandi Moses, daughter of Howard and Angie, takes a turn at watching Emma Landis so Emma's mom, JJ, can have a break.

A popular leisure time activity is jigsaw puzzles. (left to right: Gertie Thomas, Sally Van Horn, and Peg O'Hare)

After Dr. Martin completed his seminar we had business meetings the rest of the morning and afternoon. Dinner time was for unwinding and Chaplain San Yuen is showing his wife Lucille how to lighten up.

The evening session was devoted to TFC's Russian ministry. Howard Jones, who was involved in the initial entry to Russia, opened the session with reflections and prayer.

Trisha Hoy and her sister Joy were instrumental in the effort to raise funds to bring a chaplain and wife team from Russia to attend this year's conference. Here she is reading a letter from Joy to the attendees.

The Russian ministry presented two trays to Trisha, one for her and one for her sister, to thank them for their assistance. (Left to right: Murray Scott, International Director; Trisha Hoy; Victor Kvash, translator; and Russian Chaplain Peter Vaprov)

After the presentation Peter shared praise reports about what had been happening on the Russian chapels.

Muskegon, MI Monday, 9/18/06

TFC's answer to NASCAR racing!

The chaplains from each region are competing against each other to determine the region's champion. At the end of the conference there will be a playoff to decide the overall winner. Chaplain Tom Kramer was the North East Region winner!

Each chaplain propels his matchbook car by blowing through a stray at the back of the car. The first car to go the length of two tables wins.

This was the South East Region competition. Chaplain Jim, on the right, lost to Chaplain Mike despite an early lead. Mike ended up as the SE champ.

John Schmid provided the music for worship again this morning. Chaplain John Mitchell was the moderator for the day.

Chaplain Ted Keller assisted John by leading some of the singing.

There is a break room across the hall from our meeting room where refreshments are available between sessions.

Tables have been set up in the back of our meeting room to display items for the silent auction fund raiser to be held Wednesday night.

Everyone was asked to bring a picture of themselves from the 1950's. The pictures are spread out on a table and we are to guess who is in the pictures. That's Laura "momma Laura" Hurtle, wife of Chaplain Dave Hurtle, in the red jacket.

Today we got to meet the Russian chaplain and his wife. Left to right, Victor Kvash, the interpreter, Lydia and Chaplain Peter who serve on one of the Russian chapels, and Murray Scott, International Director.

Muskegon, MI Sunday, 9/17

Margaret was up early this morning to put out the name badges for each of the attendees at the conference. That is Laura Hurtle, Nancy Freeman, and Mike Hurshberger helping.

This is just a portion of the cafeteria where we have our meals.

The praise and worship before the morning service was led by John Schmid. If you have listened to the TFC tape series "Eyes on the Son" you have heard John sing. He does the theme song for that.

This is the meeting room where we have most of our sessions.

JJ Landis and her family: husband Lee, and kids Alex, Esther, and baby Emma. JJ is the editor of the monthly magazine Highway News and Good News.

TFC President Scott Weidner introducing the guest speaker for the week.

Pastor David Martin our guest speaker for the week who delivered the morning message.

Margaret and Linda walked down to the lake front after lunch. You can see the lake behind them as they walk back to the lodge. The small chapel on the left is part of a garden along the walkway.

We got together by Region following the afternoon break to learn about organizational changes that are being implemented. Margaret and I are part of the North East Region. Our meeting was led by (left to right) Sam Rittenhouse, Assistant Regional Director, Doris and Cerwin High the Regional Director.

Back in the lodge Tish Jones was giving a rendition of Chop Stick for husband Howard while waiting for the evening meal.

We all had a wonderful surprise after the Pastor Dave's evening session! Driver and Elkton volunteer Jim Smalley was in the area and came by to visit all of us.

Other Muskegon & TFC Conference Information

There is another blogger at the TFC conference this week, Doris High. You can follow her blog at this link.

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You can see the site of our conference at the Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference facility's site.

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the official Muskegon, Michigan website is here.

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In His Name,

Chaplain Sam

Muskegon, MI Saturday, 9/16

We had a l-o-o-o-n-g day today.
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Linda & Chaplain Tom Kramer, Margaret at BWI airport 6:45 a.m. waiting to check our bags.

Where is our plane?
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Margaret napping while we wait for our plane at BWI airport.

At last, we're boarded for the flight to Detroit!

The first leg of the trip was to leave about 9:00 a.m. to take us to Detroit, MI where we switch to our commuter flight from Detroit to Muskegon, MI. That first plane was late arriving at BWI. We finally left BWI 35 minutes late cutting our layover time in Detroit from 60 minutes to only 25 minutes. The connecting flight in Detroit is in a different terminal than our arrival plus we are supposed to be onboard that flight 20 minutes before departure. This does not look promising!

As expected, we missed the flight to Muskegon. Chaplain Jeff DeShaw's inbound flight to Detroit had also been delayed so now there were five of us stuck until the next flight which was not until 3:15 p.m. so it was back to the main terminal for lunch.

Back in the commuter terminal killing time by sorting the name badges for the conference.

Jeff was able to get a seat on the 3:15 p.m. flight but the rest of us were on standby. That flight was full so we were stuck until the 7:30 p.m. flight!

The four of us finally got to the conference center in Muskegon just before 9:00 p.m. Margaret and I had gotten up at 5:30 a.m. this morning! It has been a long day and I was too tired to take any pictures of the conference center tonight.

There is WiFi in our room so I will be able to post pictures of the facility and our activities during our free times.

Thank you for your prayers!

Off To Muskegon, MI

We are on our way to Muskegon, MI for the annual TFC staff conference. This afternoon we drove to Baltimore to spend the night in Chaplain Tom & Linda Kramer's "guest bedroom" shown above. Tomorrow morning the four of us go to the BWI airport to begin our flight to Michigan. Tom and Linda let us park our car at their house while we are gone. They live only a few minutes from the airport. We do not return until next Friday.
The conference center where we will be has a WiFi hot spot so I should be able to post pictures during the time we are there.

Please keep all of the TFC staff who are traveling today and tomorrow in prayer for traveling mercies and for God's leading during our conference.

In His Name,

Chaplain Sam