Barbara and I greatly enjoyed our opportunity to travel to Texas for the South Central Regional Ministerial Conference, held January 19-21 at Lake Texoma near the Texas/Oklahoma border. This was the fourth regional conference in our current cycle, with just two more remaining in 2020, in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Once again, we had a very profitable conference and our elders expressed their appreciation for those of us at the home office who are committed to improving our service to God, to our ministry, and to all our brethren God is calling at this time. We at the home office also greatly appreciate the faithful and dedicated service from all our elders in the field and are very thankful for our brethren who have responded to God's call. Together we seek unity and peace and have a desire to please God the Father and Jesus Christ more fully.

Prior to the conference, Steve Myers gave the sermon in the Dallas area and I traveled down to speak to our congregation in Waco, Texas. Barbara stayed in Dallas to listen to Steve speak! Well, perhaps the real reason she stayed in Dallas was to spend more time with many close friends. Stan Erickson is our pastor in Waco and Coleman, Texas, but he and his wife, Judy, were out-of-state for the week to visit family and attend a family wedding. I greatly enjoyed meeting just about everyone in the relatively small Waco congregation and we had a wonderful Sabbath service there. I spoke about the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree and the importance of repentance and producing the fruit of God's Holy Spirit.

Since Waco meets in the morning, I was able to get back to Dallas by the end of services and, also, enjoyed spending time with our friends there.

During the conference, as regional pastor, I personally met with most of the pastors in the South Central region to discuss their self-assessments. This is something that all our regional pastors will be doing with the pastors in their respective regions over the course of the next several months. As Operation Manager for MMS, I will also be reviewing the assessments from all pastors in the U.S.—not face-to-face as the regional pastor might do, but I will read through all the assessments in due course.

I was happy to announce at the conference that Jim Tuck is replacing me as the new regional pastor for the South Central region, effective immediately. Jim is no longer pastoring the congregations in Arizona, as mentioned in the last eNews. He will remain the pastor for Hawaii in addition to helping as regional pastor now for both the Southwest and South Central regions.

I enjoyed making a trip to Big Sandy to spend some time with one of my Ambassador College professors, Don Ward, and his wife, Wanda. I greatly appreciated Dr. Ward as an instructor from 1974-1977 in Western Thought, Survey of the Gospels, Principles of Leadership, and one of the instructors in a class on Doctrines of the Bible. His faithfulness and stability, along with his wife by his side, have been invaluable to the Church of God throughout many years. I also greatly enjoyed a visit with Dr. Randy Urwiller, another former professor at Ambassador College, Big Sandy, and currently Assistant Pastor to Dr. Ward, serving the East Texas, Ruston (Louisiana), and Texarkana (Texas) congregations. Randy also travels to Cincinnati periodically to teach at Ambassador Bible College.

On the Sabbath of January 25, the congregations in Ft. Worth and Dallas combined and Stephen de Campos and I gave split-sermons. Stephen gave a very fine sermon entitled, "Choose Your God, but Choose Wisely." It was about the "Showdown on Mt. Carmel" featuring the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal. The Dallas congregation has a number of fine young men who serve well. I gave a sermon entitled "For You See Your Calling" and stressed the uniqueness and magnitude of our calling at this time as firstfruits.

Services were followed with a potluck and an annual family fun show that was greatly enjoyed by all. Barbara and I were grateful that we did not need to spend a single night in a motel (except for the conference), as we stayed with brethren.

We finished our stay with a few nights at Stan and Penny Martin's home and enjoyed sharing stories and getting to know them better. We greatly appreciate the love and the care they have for the members they serve in the Lawton (Oklahoma), Ft. Worth, and Dallas areas. Barbara and I flew back to Cincinnati the following day after a very enjoyable and rewarding trip! We look forward to staying home for a while!