Our conference pastors meet regularly in all seven of our conferences. But only two have regular meetings of both clergy and lay members. One is the Latino conference that has no geographical boundaries. The other is the Panhandle conference, which has extremely wide-spread geography.

It took me a while, but I finally made it to one of their meetings, which they hold twice a year. This time it was hosted by the congregation at St. John in Wilson (just outside Lubbock).

Opening worship served to introduce The Generosity Project, a stewardship education program of the ELCA. It was a good and meaningful worship, with an excellent sermon from Vicar Eric Saed, who is a candidate for ministry doing his seminary work at Lutheran Seminary Program of the Southwest in Austin, while serving our congregation in Clovis, NM (Trinity).

But if I am honest, my favorite part of the whole day was meeting three month old Lydia, daughter of Pr. Amanda and Pr. Jeremy Ullrich. Not pictured above – the good hour+ that I got to hold her as she napped. Nothing sweeter than snuggling a sleeping baby.

Of course, the folks in Wilson put on a good spread too, which featured some fine homemade sausage and a ton of lovely desserts. So much for watching carbs this day. Good food, good program, excellent work by all of these Panhandle leaders!