Papa Dan's Pastoral Days

ENJOYED THE JOURNEY Dan & Leona - Enjoying the journey I have enjoyed life's journey.  My journey with my parents, siblings, relatives, youth  and  college friends, followed by my journey with my wife, children, grandchildren and now a great grandchild with another one on the way.  Also my pastoral journey has been most enjoyable, traveling with the host of people that I've met and interacted with over the past sixty years. You may be asking, "Would I choose to be a pastor if I had to go back some sixty years?"  The answer is a resounding  "YES!"  I don't think that I could have had any other kind of job or profession that would have brought me as much satisfaction, fulfillment and enjoyment.  Did I get rich?  "No!"  Did I sometimes feel like quitting?   "Yes!"  Was I satisfied with all of my preaching, visiting, counseling, etc?  "No!"  Would I devote more time to my family?  "Yes!"...

BITS & PIECES Dan a t Ho Rd and Hum Rd - Carefree, AZ By now some of you maybe saying HO HUM, which is an expression for feeling bored.  I don't blame you.  I've rambled for almost a year and a half.  You may have gathered that I didn't have any outline as to what I was going to write.  I didn't.  I simply relied on my memory, starting back in my pre-school days, to the present, and wrote what came to my mind.  I was off course a few times, departing from my original goal of sharing my spiritual journey and my pastoral journey.  Forgive me.  The end of this blog is on the horizon. For the want of a better title to this posting, I've called it BITS & PIECES.  It is just that.  This post is a compilation of things that have come to my mind since I wrote the previous posts.  Since I did not want to go back and try to insert these bits and pieces into the respective time period and post, I decided to simply lump ...

MY LAST SERMON - April 22, 2016 Dan speaking at Dallas Valley Ranch Camp I've called this post my last sermon.  It is the last full length message that I have preached, to date.  I have been giving brief devotionals since November 2015 at four nursing homes and assisted living homes each month, interspersed with songs by the Prime Time Singers , a seniors choir.  I have also given a brief talk a couple of times at a dinner meeting and a couple of senior luncheons.  The message in this post is the last one that I would consider a sermon.  I was given a full 45 minutes to deliver the same.  This was shared at the Northern Canada Evangelical Mission’s Central Field Conference (Saskatchewan, Manitoba & Northwestern Ontario) at Dallas Valley Ranch Camp, 15 miles NW of Regina, SK on April 22, 2016.   This was the fourth and final message of a four day conference.  NCEM flew Leona and me to this conference.  I was invited to be t...