Wednesday night was great. Jason and Brooke are fabulous hosts to all comers. It was great to see Randy Buist and Joel McClure from the Water's Edge community in Michigan. I had met Randy last May at Seed Stories, but had only read Joel's writings. Good guys - I really wish I had more time to talk with both of them. They have watched God work in and through them in unexpected ways, and they have a tangible, deep sense of what true community is. I also met Eric from the Water's Edge family and another Michiganer (or is that Michiganite? Michiganian? Michigani?) named Tom, who is a church planter. Oh yea, there was also Paul Kortman and his girlfriend Becky from the Breakpoint community in Michigan. All great folks - looks like God's up to something up there!!

In addition to these fine people, Jim Henderson from Off the Map stopped in with his wife and a couple of friends. I didn't get to talk to them beyond a quick hello.

I think the highlight for me for the night (I'm guessing I'm not alone in this) was when Tom and Lollie shared their story with us. They are from South Africa via Colorado Springs. We got to pray for them and encourage them. Soooo good to be a part of this worldwide family. Humbling and joyful.

It was cool to see Trey and Kristina from the Matthew's House family again too. Trey and some of his college buds wrote the book Four Souls, which is an awesome adventure that I've been enjoying on my PDA.

Whew, what a night! I'd love to have about eight more of them.

Thank you God for new friends and a new glimpse of how big the Kingdom life is.