Slow Train Coming!

I received a last minute request to speak and present our ministry at both services at a church downstate. The pastor was off to visit his brand new granddaugthter and thought this would be a good time to introduce River North Baptist Church to his flock for future consideration of support. It is a five hour drive which I did not relish in the face of an oncoming snowstorm and single digit temperatures. So Amtrak became my best option at $66 round trip. I could sit and work on the stuff I needed to finish before Monday! After waiting 90 minutes to leave it was a pretty uneventful trip except for one little problem. It was dark and I could only see an occasional light whiz by so I didn't really think too much when the train came to a slow stop. I thought it was just another station. When the train began to move backwards I got a little concerned. "Don't worry folks!" the conductor announced, "we hit the brakes a couple miles back and slid to a stop due to ice on the tracks, we slid passed the station and have to go back." Huh? A two mile skid? ok now I was worried; but we got along fine and eventually made it to our stop 2 hours late. I was so grateful for Brett, Ryan and Mark who filled in for me Sunday and Dan, a grad student at Moody, who preached. Tamra also stayed behind to be the ring leader for our morning worship. We had 30 in attendance with four new visitors, thank the Lord!