POST FLORIDA-CONFERENCE ADVENTURE #3

Paul at Bob Evans restaurant, Port Charlotte.

When I heard that Paul would be coming down here to play a week of baseball, I just knew I had to stick around and wait for him. (It was pretty good timing, I would say.) The conference finished on Sunday, but Paul would not be arriving until the following Sunday. Could I manage to occupy my time in the great state of Florida for seven whole days? Yes—and in the meantime find great fellowship with some really fine people. 

It was just so cool to meet my son down here in Florida; what a rendezvous. The last time we were in Florida together was 1997, when Paul was only 5 years-old. 1997 was the third year of a three-year stint teaching at a Concordant conference in Melbourne on the east coast, down the beach from Cape Canaveral. This time, Paul would be doing all the work and I would be watching.

In his sophomore year, my son is a starting pitcher for the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops. Here we are outside his hotel in Port Charlotte on Monday night:

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

We won the first game on Monday, with Paul pitching three innings. He started the game on Thursday, a game we unfortunately lost. We also managed to lose on Tuesday and Thursday, but won Friday. Today we took both games of a double-header, leaving us with a 4-3 record for Florida, which is a winning record in anyone’s book.

Here are some of the good times with Paul:

Paul warming up with his pitching coach.

Nice wind-up, kid.

Buff dude at the beach.

The wind-blown look.

Father and son.

Two pelicans on the prowl.

Gulf of Mexico at Blind Pass Beach, Englewood.

She sells these at the seashore.

At the Mango Bistro, Englewood, FL.

After Paul's last game earlier this afternoon.

Under the tent.

This bald eagle sat atop the center-field light pole most of the second game.

The Battling Bishops pack up for a long ride back to Ohio.

Paul is such a happy kid. I love him like crazy.

I feel like a resident of Florida now, as I have been here for over two weeks. I really like this state, and hope to end up here someday. In the meantime, God has a lot of work for me to do in Pennsylvania with my one-of-a-kind family there.

I am heading home early tomorrow morning, will spend a night on the road, and arrive home Monday evening. I will resume my audio show on 2 Timothy on Wednesday. Thank you so much for your patience! I needed this mental unwind very badly.

See you back in Pennsylvania! Many adventures ahead; stay tuned.

© 2013 by Martin Zender

POST FLORIDA-CONFERENCE ADVENTURE #2

Atlas Agena D launching Lunar
Orbiter 4 on May 4, 1967.

Maury Wilson and his wife Ruth are long-time truth-believers—solid as rocks. They live in Englewood, Florida, in the environs of Port Charlotte, with their daughter Maura and her husband Richard.

Maury worked in aviation most his life. For 23 years this meant clocking in at Cape Canaveral during its formative years and contributing to the Navaho and Atlas Agena rocket projects. He was a launch technician and guidance expert. These rockets—and the guidance technology utilized by them—were forerunners of the Apollo rockets that eventually took us to the moon.

Maury is one smart dude.

I have spent mornings here, before dawn, with Maury, in front of his computer. Maury is not only interested in aviation and aerospace, but in end-time theology. God has given him much insight into the workings of the bestial world system and its operation in accord with the prince of the power of the air, namely, Satan. This is one reason God has brought me here, to glean from Maury some important considerations that will inform my upcoming Revelation series and related book. I thank God for sending me here.

Additionally, I’ve had wonderful times of fellowship around the breakfast and dinner table; Ruth and Maura are great cooks. have been made to feel a part of this family, and will surely miss them when I leave here early tomorrow morning.

Maury Wilson in his favorite chair, in front of his computer.
(Click photos to enlarge.)

Maury, Maura and Ruth around the dinner table.

Thursday evening, I was invited to the home of Brian Curtis and his wife Colette for good old barbeque ribs, Brian Curtis style. You will remember that this couple, along with a young man named Ryan, drove across the state to visit me at Waylan Dabbs' house in Coral Springs in January. Brian also wanted me to meet his pastor Tony and his wife: what a nice couple. Also at the dinner was a woman named Chris and her son and daughter. We all had good fellowship.

Tony and his wife, and Brian (in yellow shirt.)

Chris and her daughter; Collette in the background.

Chris's daughter draws a portrait of The World's Most Outspoken Bible Scholar.

When I haven been with Maury in front of the computer, or with the family at the dining room table, I have been shuttling between here and Port Charlotte to watch my son Paul play baseball. (He has played a game every day, Monday-Friday, and two games today—Saturday.) The field, it turns out, is only a 15-minute drive from this house.

How is that for divine planning?

POST FLORIDA-CONFERENCE, ADVENTURE #1

Alligator Alley.
(Click to enlarge photos.)

My youngest son Paul would be coming to Florida on March 10 to play a week of baseball with his team from Ohio Weslyan University in Delaware, OH, so I had to find something to do in the meantime. As I already told you, my mind was strained from constantly thinking about the evangel and related topics, so I decided I would visit some saints and shut the brain down as much as I possibly could. (Easier said than done.)

A man I’d never met, Bob Wigden, sat a row in front of me at the Dania Beach conference, and he turned around on Saturday afternoon, handed me a business card and said, “If you need a place to stay over on the west coast (The Florida gulf coast), consider looking me up."

Be careful when you say this to me, folks, because I just might take you up on it. Sure enough, I drove across the state on Alligator Alley (Interstate 75), then drove up the coast a ways to Sarasota to see Bob.

I spent three nights with him, and had a great time (yet another lazy phrase—“had a great time”—I’m sorry.) Bob showed me the town, took me to dinner and breakfast, and cooked two really fine dinners at home. In addition, we toured the circus museum (I highly recommend it), and the John Ringling mansion.

Sarasota was the winter home for the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus for years. As you can probably already guess, I really relate to the circus. In fact, one of my uncles (I never met him; he died before I was born; it was my dad’s oldest brother) ran away with the circus continually at a young age, and had to be captured, continually, by his father and returned home. This uncle (his name was Lloyd), eventually married the “Sheep-Haired Woman” from the sideshow, and had a daughter with her, whom my sister still stays in contact with. (I have no idea what her hair looks like, sorry. I imagine it is quite woolly.)

Bob at Bob's house, Sarasota, FL.
That's the Zendermobile, a 1999 Ford Contour.

Front of Bob's House.

Bob took me to lunch at the Hob Nob, a noted outdoor Sarasota eatery.
(You can have anything you want, as long as it's hamburgers and french fries.)

Sign at the Circus Museum. Bob thought the wording fit my ministry
to a "T," and insisted I take a photo of it. (Can't argue with him.)

The John Ringling mansion.

Besides all the fun touring we did, Bob and I enjoyed great times of fellowship. It turns out I can never shut my mind off completely, not that I would ever want to. 

After visiting with Bob, it was off to the home of Maury and Ruth Wilson. Thanks for coming along with me!

© 2013 by Martin Zender 

DANIA BEACH CONFERENCE

Zender & Sheridan enter the Great State. Governor
Scott does not know what he's in for.
(Click photos to enlarge.)

The conference at Dania Beach was a good time for everybody.

There is no way I would ever write this sentence with the phrase “was a good time for everybody,” except I am not in the writing mode now, and am being lazy about it. Because, you see, “was a good time for everybody” is an extreme example of not observing. It is not that I failed to observe at the conference, but that I am failing, now, to dig very deeply into my soul and mine the deeper impressions. Anyone who writes, “was a good time for everybody” instead of writing, say, “provided a platform of unity upon which believers bared their souls,” is tired. But take heart, because my energy is returning to Zender-like proportions.  

Yes, very soon, I shall once again write sparkling sentences for you, bringing to life heretofore unmined truths and sentiments. It’s what I do, and will do. But since I am in rest mode, the best I can do on this particular blog is, “was a good time for everybody.” (That statement is so poor, you see, that I spend two paragraphs apologizing for it, expending more energy than I would have fixing it.)

Don’t give up on me; I’m going to show you a thing or two in the near future.

In the meantime, here are some photos from the Dania Beach conference, which in fact provided a platform of unity upon which believers bared their souls:

Recording the "Zender/Sheridan Show" the day before the conference,
at the home of Waylan Dabbs, Coral Springs.

Sheridan schmoozes at the "Meet & Greet" on Friday night.

Dan Sheridan charms and enthralls the ladies with a
vast repertoire of Scriptural know-how.

Clyde Pilkington heralding the Word at Dania Beach.

Saturday night group meal at the hotel.
Sheree Morris departs by unorthodox means on the back of Regina Dabbs.
Clyde Lynn Pilkington III has a laugh; Ashley McKnight is mildly amused.

C3, Kate Horne, and Laura Johnston outside the hotel.
(Kate organized the Dania Beach conference; Laura came down from Alabama, and is
sponsoring the Birmingham meeting in May.)

Group shot outside hotel. Dan Baker at right. Josh McKnight, back left.

Nathan Pilkington relaxes at Waylan Dabbs' house.
This is the first time he has needed sunglasses in three years.

Laura Johnston and Sheree Morris enjoy the sun.

Terry Clemems, from Canada (he had never seen a palm tree), and
Clyde Pilkington. Aaron Locker's white legs grace the foreground.

Not sure whose leg graces the foreground in this shot. It's not mine, I know that.
I would never wear white-soled shoes like these. Please.

Clyde, Dan and Waylan talk theology on the patio.

Oops. Forgot this photo of Dan Baker (Sioux Falls, SD) and Waylan Dabbs, outside the hotel.

Regena Dabbs snaps incriminating photos of people relaxing.

Going over my notes for my last talk on Sunday.

At the end of the conference, with Laura Johnston and Kristine Baker.

Trying to out-schmooze Sheridan.

Some of the conference attendees at Tigertail Lake, site of the Dania Beach
Conference of 2013. Hope to be back next year.

Laura Johnston and Sheree Morris hang out for an extra day.
Sheree works on a vat of Margarita at Spazio, Ft. Lauderdale Beach.

I'm just a red wine guy.

Whether it's your birthday or not, Lester's Diner is a great place
for an inexpensive (read, "cheap") breakfast in Ft. Lauderdale.

I am leaving Florida tomorrow. I miss the gang in Pennsylvania. I wish we could all eventually move down here. I have found a place (Florida) where I believe I would eventually like to live. I just want to be warm until I either die or get snatched away. I like life, and there is plenty of it here. Things grow and fly and swim and crawl and sway in the breeze. It is life-affirming rather than death-affirming, and this suits my nature.

"It’s a good time for everybody," as tired people are wont to say.

© 2013 by Martin Zender