Pastor Dan Martin from Kennewick Story Point Community Church sent this note in an email to DS Randy Craker following the Fall Leadership Team Retreat:

On Tuesday I walked into our hotel room and I did what most retreating lazy folks do when they arrive at their destination. I tossed my luggage aside and I looked for the television remote. I looked by the TV. I looked on the end table. I looked on the bed, under the bed, in every drawer—no luck. In my hunt I discovered something else that frustrated me. The alarm clock on the end table wasn’t working properly. I tried to fix it—again, no luck. So, every time we entered the room it was 10:15AM. When we left for the service that night the clock read 10:15AM. When we woke up on Thursday morning it was 10:15AM. That’s when it hit me. We had obviously entered some sort of temporal rip where the normal rules regarding time didn’t apply.  I looked around and realized that this strange anomaly extended beyond our room. It wasn’t just the clocks and television remotes that were goofy. The whole day seemed to slow. People all over the place were dressed in old school clothing. Even the architecture looked like it was from the past. People were nice and they made us omelets.

That was exactly what we needed. Time has been moving really quickly in our lives lately. Things at church are going a mile a minute. Our kids are growing faster than light travels. My wife and I are both about to turn 40! So, one slow day was perfect. We were able to relax, praise God, and catch up with the Thompsons. By the end of the retreat I was happy that the silly alarm clock was broken. This morning as we gathered our things to leave the hotel I smiled at the clock one last time. I picked up our suitcase and noticed the television remote had been under the bag the whole time. I guess time marches on but I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you for pressing the pause button for us.

Grace and Peace, Dan.