Every year for 38 years I have come to the annual North West Conservative Baptist Association meetings. They used to be held in many different places all over the North West but for the last 4 or 5 years they have been at Seaside, Oregon. In the early years of ministry I came because I felt it was my duty to come because of the help the Association gave to us financially when we were a small church. But then I started coming because of the good friends I had made with other pastors who I only saw a couple times each year and the annual meetings being one of them. Tonight I hung out with a group after the regular meetings were over until 11 pm. I have some really good friends who I am very close with in our church, but there is something special about “pastor” friends even if I only see them a couple times a year. Pastors have a unique kind of job with unique pressures and it creates a special kind of bonding between us. Some of my friends that I haven’t seen since last year have gotten Cancer and aren’t doing well at all. One of them has been so ravaged by chemo that he didn’t recognize or remember me. Another was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but is doing much worse than I am. Life is sort of funny how it just keeps marching on and things change. Conversations with my friends that are getting old, sick, retiring are all ended with the same comment. I sure hope Jesus comes back soon. Me to. I can’t wait for my new body!