We are in the heart of our Summer schedule right now and it has been a productive season. We have attended 3 Vineyard Regional Conferences, and we have ministered in 5 churches over the last 7 weeks.
First, and most importantly, we visited our son Reid, Megan, and the grandkids in Palm Desert, CA to celebrate his graduation from his physician residency program and to meet
our newest granddaughter, Delaney. Delaney was born just the week before graduation so it was a double blessing to get to see everyone. Delaney's sisters, Brave and Emmy, got to spend time with Papa Duke and Nana in the pool almost every day which made Nana Marie very happy and quite tired.
In July we had the honor of ministering in several churches. We were in North Alabama where we spent time with the Mackeys in Florence. They have had a challenging year and have just restarted their church. We met some of their new leaders and were impressed with what God is doing there. We also met our good friends, David and Gia Downs in Huntsville and spoke at their church. David and Gia have recently announced their retirement and we talked about transitions with their leadership team as they consider what's next for their church.
We had a tremendous weekend in Miami at the Doral Vineyard with Abdy and Marie Sellas. We were able to take their team through two days of teaching and equipping as we modeled and activated them in prophetic and healing ministry. We saw a couple of healings and heard reports of prophetic words having a significant impact on a number of people. We absolutely loved their church and are excited about their next season.
We were also in Mississippi this past weekend with our friend Matthew Helland. It's always a treat to be back in Brandon at the Vineyard. Beau and Rachel Burnham are doing an outstanding job as they lead the church we love so dearly. We also got to minister at The Pointe where our friend Jim Taylor pastors. They are always an encouragement to us.
Our Vineyard Missions role has taken us to the Midwest Central Regional Conference in Davenport, IA, the Southern California Regional in Corona, CA, and the Gulf Coast Regional in Cape Coral, FL. We have been very pleased with these gatherings as there has been an intentional focus on relationship and unity. Most of these areas have been realigned this year, so many of the pastors and leaders have not historically been together. These meetings have also allowed everyone to get to know some of our new national leadership.
The regions Marie and I serve are led by Joel Seymour from Lancaster, Ohio. We did not know Joel well when he took this national leadership position but we have thoroughly enjoyed working with him and getting to know him and his wife, Kristi. New National Director, Jay Pathak, has been very effective in laying out and clarifying the Vineyard's unique heritage as he calls us forward into this next season. All in all, we feel very encouraged for the movement we have given our lives to and feel very privileged to be playing a small part.
We will be traveling to Pennsylvania and Virginia towards the end of August. We will be in Philadelphia at Conshohocken Vineyard, then at the Vineyard Church of the Peninsula in Williamsburg before ending our tour in the Richmond area at the Harmony Vineyard. We then are scheduled for the Vineyard National Missions Leader Meeting in New Braunfels, Texas near the end of September.
We are grateful for you who are supporting us so that we can be available to serve the churches the way we do. Thank you. If you would like to partner with us in this mission please consider a monthly contribution to this ministry. Every gift helps. https://www.metronministries.org/giving
