Randi Walle

The closing panel this morning for the East Focus Retreat included (seated, from left) Mike Brubaker, associate pastor at Frederick, MD; David Kennedy, pastor at Richmond, VA; and Rick Clark, pastor at Pike Grace Brethren Church in Johnstown, PA. Standing at left is Conference Coordinator Tom Avey, who emceed the panel and conducted the focus

This is the majority of the group of pastors and church leaders who are currently participating in the East Focus Retreat at Sandy Cove Retreat Center in North East, Maryland. The center is located at the tip of the Chesapeake Bay, which appears in the background of the photo. The retreat will conclude Wednesday morning

Pastor Dan White of the York, Pennsylvania, Grace Brethren Church, led the 1 p.m. session on “Others and My Heart…Friends and Family” with a challenge from scripture. The Focus Retreat will conclude at 11 a.m. Wednesday. 

Pastor Jeff Thornley, from the Waldorf, MD Grace Brethren Church, spoke during the Tuesday evening testimony time about the several-year struggle he and his family have had with Lyme’s Disease and God’s faithfulness through this and other trials.  

A praise and worship team from the Calvert County Grace Brethren Church in Owings, Maryland (Robert Wagner, pastor) led off the East Focus Retreat this afternoon (Monday) at the Sandy Cove Retreat Center near North East, Maryland. This is the second of five Focus Retreats this year, and the emphasis for pastors and church leaders

Pastor Dan Allan, FGBC Moderator for 2004-05, led off the Sandy Cove Focus Retreat with a challenge to “Guard Your Heart….The Wellspring of Life” based on Proverbs 4:23. The retreat, attended by approximately 50 pastors and church staff members and leaders from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other eastern states, will continue until about Wednesday noon. 

Grace alums from the mid-1960s may remember Erik (Rick) Auxt (left) of Hagerstown, Maryland, who married Tecca Wilging (right) of Mansfield, Ohio. Tonight (Saturday, October 23) their daughter, Erin, was married to J.R. Crain at Parkview Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Your Intrepid Blogger is off again, this time to the Chesapeake Bay and Sandy Cove Retreat Center in Maryland for the East Coast Focus Retreat (via a family wedding in Baton Rouge enroute). Do pray for longtime Grace Brethren pastor Gilbert Hawkins, who is currently in Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne for tests on his

Your Intrepid Blogger and wife are spending Thursday through Sunday at The Billy Graham Training Center, “The Cove,” near Asheville, North Carolina, with managers and CEOs of other Christian organizations. The retreat is sponsored by Christian Management Association–we are leading music for the worship sessions and enjoying meeting ministry peers from around the US and

The Chatlos Memorial Chapel, highlighted here in the late afternoon October sun, is one of the “jewel pieces” of The Cove Billy Graham Training Center, near Asheville. Set on 1,600 acres, the training property is just gorgeous this time of year. We’re here along with about 40 others in a four-day retreat sponsored by the