This weekend, over 40 SFCers around the Southwest Region gathered in Moab, UT for a weekend to enjoy the beautiful red rocks and play outside together. The weekend started with an uncharacteristically rainy night, then continued on with clear blue skies and tons of fun time outside!
The weekend kicked off with everyone doing their own thing. Some floated the Colorado River while others went on The Whole Enchilada, a famously intense MTB trail in Moab. Drew, the Southwest Regional Director, said they experienced all four seasons in one day!
After a long day of adventuring, Neil Richey, Brandon Schafer, and Ryan Borunda cooked dinner for everyone! The whole crew ate together, then gathered around the campfire for worship. Don Chastain interviewed Andrew Rostek and Tyler Stricklin, the leaders of SFC Summit. They shared about the different ways SFC Summit engages the community at Copper Mountain and the importance of relationships in ministry. Andrew talked about the value of personal, one on one relationships as well as how they’ve navigated changes in leadership and changes in their ministry due to COVID.
Early Saturday morning, Alie Heenan led a devotional about “the ministry of presence.” She shared from 1 Thessalonians 2:8, which reads “Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.” She shared that at SFC, much of our ministry is first and foremost a ministry of presence. It’s a ministry of showing up and simply sharing your life and what God is doing with those around you. Alie encouraged everyone to share their lives and reminders of the gospel with whoever they adventure with throughout the day.
The rest of the day was full of more mountain biking, some road biking, river floating, and playing around the campsite. The night ended with worship around the campfire where Drew Loring interviewed Katelyn Ivey and Caleb Casey from SFC Utah. Katelyn and Caleb shared how they got involved in SFC initially and what God has been stirring in the region recently. Drew visited Salt Lake City earlier this year and has been faithfully stewarding relationships in the area since. This was evident as many Utah SFCers came to the conference, some of them newly involved and others who’ve been involved since the beginning.
For some people, this conference was their first-ever event with SFC. Ryan Borunda from SFC Summit shared, “The part of the conference I enjoyed the most was the sense of inclusion that everyone had. Even though it was my first SFC event, everyone made me feel like I had been apart of the team for years.”
We are so grateful to Drew and everyone who helped make this Regional Conference happen. Even though we weren’t able to have a North American Conference this year due to COVID, we are confident that God is using these Regional Conferences to keep people connected and encouraged throughout the U.S.
If you would like to stay in the know about ministry in the Southwest, email [email protected] to be added to his regional email list!