2026 Water Advance: March 6-7, 2026

Where: The Salish Seaside Escapes

327 Sunset Avenue
Eastsound, WA 98245

Cost: $500 per person or $950 per couple.

This fee includes 6 meals for the 2 days. You are responsible for your own lodging.

Speaker: Byron Borger

Before opening the Hearts & Minds Bookstore, Byron worked in college ministry for the CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach), working on staff of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in McKeesport, PA, as well as working on various peace and justice issues while being an Associate Director of The Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh. In 1982 he and his wife, Beth, opened Hearts & Minds, an independent bookstore in Dallastown, PA. Besides managing the small town shop, he has served congregations, denominations, and organizations as conference booksellers, has spoken extensively about relating Christian faith to culture at clergy convocations, colleges, church retreats, and events such as the Calvin Festival of Faith & Writing. He has worked in social change organizations and has written for several print and on-line journals, including Comment, Sojourners, and CPJ’s Capitol Commentary. They have set up large book displays at conferences for CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts), Evangelicals for Social Action,  The Redeemer Center for Faith and Work, Q,  The Christian Legal Society, Bread for the World, the C.S. Lewis Institute, and the CCOs annual Pittsburgh-based Jubilee Conference, although most days they labor in the world of small businesses in small-town central PA. He has edited a book for college graduates called Serious Dreams: Big Ideas for the Rest of Your Life (Square Halo Books) and has a chapter (about working in retail) in Ordinary Saints: Living Everyday Life to the Glory of God (edited by Ned Bustard, published by Square Halo Books.) Byron reviews books regularly at BookNotes, the almost weekly newsletter of Hearts & Minds. (www.heartsandmindsbooks.com.) He attends First Presbyterian Church, York, PA.