Green Lake Conference Center Special Edition 2013 | Page 5

room, and now God can be more clearly heard. You thank God for bringing you here to enjoy one of His sacred places, and declare yourself open to the movement of the Holy Spirit over the time of your stay. Then, feeling a bit hungry, you wander into the dining room for dinner. Finding an open seat at a table, you sit down and introduce yourself. You are quickly immersed in a conversation. A young woman is pursuing her call to serve other women who have been the victim of human trafficking. A middle-aged man is pursuing his pastoral calling in an American Baptist church in a rural community struggling with poverty. A young man is the worship pastor at a large suburban independent church struggling with complacency. An urban pastor is troubled by immigration issues for his apostolic congregation. A college student is wondering what on earth God might be calling her to do. The conversations ebb and flow as the promises of God come into tension with the falleness of humankind. What pervades is an intensity about faithfully pursuing God’s call and seeking the power of the Holy Spirit moving in the realms each person serves. The urban pastor pauses the conversation to speak a prayer which sends tingles down your spine – you have not heard a prayer with such power and intensity in some time. Then someone jokes about a calcium deficiency and you all rise to pay a pilgrimage to the ice cream bar to create a unique concoction of flavors and toppings. WHAT GOD IS UP TO By Ben Mott, President/CEO in Green Lake, Wisconsin As you drive through the iconic red brick gates you experience a wave of God’s peace rolling over you. Winding down Lawson Drive, the beauty of God’s creation stirs your senses as you see a Red-tailed Hawk stare down from an oak tree, a doe and her fawns gaze and scamper by in front of you, and the majestic waters of Green Lake stretched out before you. pull into the circle and check in, met by the warm smile of a member of our team who seeks to share a little of Christ’s warmth as they check you in. So begins your time at Green Lake as we seek to provide for you (and tens of thousands of others each year) a great experience and “a closer walk with God” (our motto since 1944). After getting settled in your room, you step out of the hotel and slowly walk along Memory Lane and behind Roger Williams Inn to sit on the end of Lone Tree Point. The world slows down, the cell phone and iPad are back in the You marvel at the architectural genius of Jessie Lawson and her team as you guide your car over the stone bridge and past the Swiss-inspired boathouse with its exquisite roof. You 3