WINDERMERE - A PLACE TO EXPERIENCE GOD

Windermere Conference Center, located on the shores of the Niangua arm of the Lake of the Ozarks is a place where thousands of decisions for Christ have been made in the 50 years the ministry has been in existence. I believe my first experience there was in 1961 when I took a group of young people (I was young then, too) from First Baptist Church, Springfield, MO to have a retreat. My friend Gordon Kingsley was the featured speaker and we even had a quartet to bring some inspirational music.

A little later, I became pastor of the Lakeland Baptist Church of Sunrise Beach, MO and we would go to Windermere often when they would bring in special speakers. One time, we loaded up Harold Klee's cruiser and took a long boat ride to hear the greatest orator-preacher in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. R.G. Lee preached his famous sermon "Pay Day Some Day." Through the years, I have heard that sermon several times and through the word pictures that Dr. Lee painted, you were in the middle of what was going on. I have never heard a preacher with the command of the English language like Dr. Lee. Somewhere I have the video of the 1,200th preaching of that sermon.

In the 1980's, One Accord had the privilege of singing at Windermere numerous times and being there, hearing the word, enjoying the fellowship and experiencing the lake were always great times in the Lord. On one of our albums, there is an insert picture of Jamie, Rick, and Holly at Windermere when they were little kids wearing shirts with the title of a song Sue wrote for them entitled "Father, Can You use a Child Like Me?" I told Sue that we also have a picture of our bus parked next to the Harding Auditorium where we sang so many times.

This past weekend, so many memories came flooding my mind as Sue and I participated in the weekend retreat of the Windermere Board of Advisors. A good friend of mine from college days is Dan Bench and he is the administrator-CEO of Windermere. I had not seen Dan in 50 years. That was great. Dr. Arthur Mallory is chairman of the Board and he invited Sue and me to participate in the activities. Sue sang "Over and Over," and "Mary, For a While" and did a great job. I spoke to the group about some things on my heart and so it was a time of giving and a time of receiving. Christianity is a lot like that. Windermere is a special place to experience it.