Over forty Solid Rockers gathered for our 2006 National Conference at City of the Rocks early August. We had attendees from Mississippi, New York, Alaska and most western states and even had a member from Botswana. The biggest group (over 10) came from Elko, NV (do you know where that is?)! Thanks for your prayers. The conference was the biggest ever with many wonderful things happening.

One highlight was Kitty Calhoun’s presentation. As we climbed, we invited climbers around us to the slide presentation (*see amazing answer to prayer in next paragraph). I shared with the group that if anyone came, besides our group, it would be a miracle. God blessed as the seeds of the gospel were shared with about a dozen climbers who showed-up! Praise the Lord! Pastor Wendell McMahon and Grant Walker gave powerful devotionals that were very well received.

It was a “God thing” that Kitty’s presentation happened. When I was getting ready for the presentation, I plugged in the slide projector into the inverter that was attached to my car’s battery (there is no electricity at City of the Rocks). Well, I found out that it wouldn’t run because I failed to notice that the inverter was 160 watts and the projector was 300 watts. It was only a few hours from showtime and I was an hour from a town big enough where I might find a bigger inverter. Well, when I was fixing to make a last minute, desperate trip into town hoping to find one, a carload of Solid Rockers came back to the camp site. The reason they came back was because a “Life Flight” helicopter (an inexperienced climber was seriously hurt in a leader fall) had landed and taken-off close to where most of us were climbing. They sensed in their spirits to come back; they didn’t realize that it was all part of God’s timing! Well, I was already in my car leaving the campsite when our cars crossed and we stopped for a “what’s going on?” conversation. Amazingly, I found out Wendell, the Pastor from Mississippi who had arrived by plane, just happened to have included a 500 watt inverter in his bags. Praise the Lord! These are the great works of our mighty God!

The last highlight I would like to share was some time spent with a climber whom I will leave unnamed. He was a twenty-something year old with a bushy beard and dreadlocks, living out of his van. He was by himself and just got swept-up into our group. As partners shook-out for climbing, he and I ended up sharing an afternoon of climbing together. Through asking some open-ended questions, I found out that he was raised in a Jewish commune that emphasized their heritage’s ethics and not their religion. He came to a point where he hated all dogma. However, in recent times, he was beginning to re-consider his “close-mindedness.” Then he asked me, “So, what is an evangelical Christian?” After a dialogue on that with the gospel being shared, he stated that our conversation was the first positive one surrounding the term “evangelical.” Please pray that the seeds that were sown in his life will reap a harvest!

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Calvin Landrus