Glorieta-Day 3

Oh, I'm just so thrilled to be back in North Texas. I absolutely love dragging my butt out of bed at 5:00 AM to get to work before 7:30 (which is our official start time) because my immediate supervisor thinks if you get there at 7:30, you're late. And today's forecast is for sunny with 100 degrees. The temperature never reached 80 in Glorieta. We also had thunder showers nearly every day.

Tuesday, 7/12. We had another beautiful morning in New Mexico. It's so nice to get up and not have it be 83 degrees as the low for the day.

The guest speaker for the conference this year is Dr. Ergun (that is not a spelling error) Caner. Dr. Caner is a Turkish immigrant and a converted Muslim. He's also a full professor of Theology and Church History at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. This man puts a whole new perspective on what it means to be a Christian. Originally, Dr. Caner became a Baptist minister, but according to him, a very bad one.

I haven't laughed so much in years. This morning, Dr. Caner related his years as a young minister in a town of 115 people in the back woods of Virginia. After his first sermon, the congregation decided they liked "that Yankee, Jew boy".

One morning when the church was preparing for a youth pageant, he developed a cough and thought he was not going to be able to preach. One of the elders said, "I have some cough medicine out in my truck." The medicine came in a mason jar and looked like water. The Elder told Dr. Caner to hold his breath, take three big gulps and the cough would go away. Well, it was moonshine and after the third sip, he was too numb to feel anything, so he finished the jar.

Dr. Caner's wife told him he preached a great sermon that morning although he couldn't remember a thing about it. Especially the part about running across the front of the church and imitating James Brown.

If you should get a chance to hear Dr. Caner preach, or read his books, you will truly be blessed. I can't wait to hear tomorrow's message.