Quest Ranch

Like they say, there is frost on the pumpkin this morning. To be more correct, there is ice on the steps and boardwalk down here at Quest Ranch close to Canyon Lake, TX. It is still drizzling and the temperatures have dipped well below freezing.  I made it down yesterday evening to join some of our members on a mission trip.

It ironic. I have been here two other times. Once I preached a camp here and the other I brought a group of students here including my sons. On one of those trip,s I talked with Corky who owns the place. Somehow in the conversation he brought up the fact that a church in Weatherford, TX came twice a year to help with projects around the camp. Quest Ranch is an independent camp ground.

I asked Corky which church, since I served at Spring Creek many years ago as youth minister. You could have pushed me off the chair with a feather when he said Spring Creek Baptist Church. He went on to explain their pastor had recently resigned to take another position. We are talking about five or six years ago. Right there I prayed that God might take me to Spring Creek as their pastor. I had a vacation Sunday, and without telling Brenda my intentions, we attended worship services one Sunday morning. My hope was that during that visit someone might mention that they were looking for a pastor and to see if I were interested. The time was not right. While we rejoiced to see old friends not one person mentioned they were looking for a pastor of asked if I was interested.

I recommended my good friend Jase Waller for the position. They chose Jase to be their pastor where he served faithfully for three years before taking another church. Well by now, you know the rest of the story. Now, I sit in this dining hall all alone collecting my thoughts. It is surreal that I am here now serving as the pastor of Spring Creek. Just sitting here taking all that in humbles me how the good hand of God worked and preserved Brenda and I for this church at this time. It brings a joy I cannot describe.

I forgot about all of that until we were all talking over dinner last night. The memories came flooding back. In some ways, coming to Quest Ranch is like coming full circle. While I had the desire to always come back to Spring Creek, the truth is somewhere along the way that dream died. It was here at Quest Ranch talking to Corky all those years ago God resurrected that dream. Now I am getting to live it. It has been a dream.

. We only served that church in youth ministry for two years. Two short years but the impression those people made on us went much deeper. I returned once to preach a funeral of a dear friend named Junior Barton. I returned to visit a grieving widow after her deacon husband, Benny Barrett, passed away. We attended a meeting there when they celebrated their 135th anniversary as a church.

Now, in the goodness of God, He allows me to stand in that pulpit behind that sacred desk to deliver His word. He graciously saw fit to allow me to sit in that holy of holies pastor office where I get to meet with Him. He has entrusted me with a loving flock to feed and care for.

I thank God for meeting me here at Quest Ranch all those years ago and this morning. One night when I preached that camp here, I got face down on the concrete after a message about fully surrendering to the call of God. I gave Him all of me in that moment surrendering to His will whatever that might be and wherever it might lead. All these years later I sit humbled and blessed to know God intended me for Spring Creek even back then.

God, thank you for Spring Creek. Thank you for Quest Ranch. They are blessings I can barely take in.