Needed: Some R & R
Travel
Audio By Carbonatix
By Kevin McCullough
Who encourages the person who is always encouraging everyone else?
We call our pastors when life falls apart. We ask them to pray, teach, counsel, visit, comfort, and somehow find the right words when we have none. Their spouses share that weight in ways a congregation never sees.
They need rest, too.
That is why this week’s travel invitation carries a little more meaning. The Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove, in Asheville, North Carolina, is a Christian conference center and retreat where time away can include biblical teaching, worship, and space for reflection. Its purpose gives a getaway a different center of gravity: an opportunity to attend to the soul as well as the calendar.
The Cove offers several ways to visit. Guests can attend scheduled ministry events, groups can arrange their own Christian conferences or retreats, and visitors can explore the Chatlos Memorial Chapel and Ruth’s Prayer Garden. The chapel offers tours, while the garden invites the kind of quiet many of us keep promising ourselves we will find later.
Later has a habit of never arriving.
There is always another deadline, another need, another message that seems too important to leave unanswered. For someone in ministry, even taking time away can come with the uncomfortable feeling that somebody might need them.
Perhaps the most loving response from a congregation is to help make that time possible.
At That KEVIN Show, we are pointing readers toward an opportunity to win for their pastor and spouse. Visit the contest page for the entry instructions, eligibility requirements, and official prize details. Then think about the couple whose service has made a difference in your life.
Maybe they stood beside your family during a loss. Maybe they patiently answered your questions. Maybe their faithfulness has been so consistent that you have almost stopped noticing how much they give.
Notice it this week.
Whether or not a contest entry results in a trip, appreciation can begin. Write the note. Offer practical help. Encourage a day off. Ask what would make a weekend possible, and listen to the answer.
For your visit to The Cove, explore the event calendar and confirm registration, lodging, and visitor arrangements before making plans.
Travel can give us beauty, adventure, and stories worth telling. Sometimes its greatest gift is the chance to breathe deeply, pray without watching the clock, and return home ready to love people again.
