NRB, CEF, & AFR

#cefjacksontn – Early this week, I had an opportunity to attend the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention in Nasville. I was invited to attend by Dr. Jerry Drace who has a national radio program on American Family Radio (AFR). Through the gracious folks at AFR, I was able to get an expo pass to get in and enjoy the day. This was an awesome exhibition of religious broadcasters, TV and radio and supporting services, from all over the world. It was a sea of positivity with new experiences around every corner. Little did I know what was to come as we enjoyed our time there.

Dr. Drace and I rode together to the event and he told me that Bert Harper wanted to do a radio interview with me about CEF and my time overseas with IMB. Bert and his son, Nathan, host a weekly radio show called “Exploring Missions.” They interviewed me and wanted to get a local view about CEF and connect that to the story of my life and how I came to be a foreign missionary, then a CEF local director in West Tennessee. They were gracious hosts and immediately, I felt a connection to them and their ministry. I never dreamed that I’d be sitting in that chair, that day, talking about my life and how God has impacted me all along the way. When I find out when they will air the interview, I’ll try to list it on our website – in case you are interested.

We also had a lovely opportunity to have lunch with Pastor Harper and his dear wife, Jan. Even with their busy schedule, they made time to share life and a meal with us. During the course of the day, I bumped into an old friend, Marshall Greenman. As we walked along, I heard a fellow say… “buna dimineaţa,” which is “good morning” in the Romanian language. God truly decided to bless me on this day through such, seemingly random, happenings. You see, I have not seen Marshall, face to face, in about 15 years and the last time was in Romania where we both served. We got to catch up a bit and it was a wonderful “accident.” Later, we also visited the CEF exhibit and enjoyed talking with Jeff Nichols, Callise Caudill, and two sweet young ladies from our headquarters. Jeff is our current state director but will transition soon to be the USA Director… how cool is that?

Now, I could go on and on about meeting Dr. Alex McFarland and Barry Meguiar or how Jerry Drace was on the radio LIVE with Barry Meguiar while I sat and watched, but I’ll wrap up this post by simply saying that God is good, all the time!

Here are a few photos that I took during the day: