Day 4 – 7/25/08

Wow! What a difference a soft bed, clean bedding, and an ice cold room can do for a wonderful nights sleep. Although I did not get to sleep until probably 1AM, I woke up at 6:15AM feeling wonderful. Oh yea, and a shower…I have not had one of those in a couple of days because we stayed in churches that I could just freshen up in not shower. It felt so good. After being refreshed I finished up my journal from yesterday and surprisingly at 7:30AM I got a text message from Alex letting me know he, Ben, and Tyler were eating breakfast. That was a bit of a wake up call for me because I heard those guys making quite a ruckus in the room next to our room until I fell asleep at 1AM.

I do want to take a moment to mention something about my group. Unlike other groups from what I have heard, my group has been terrific in keeping in touch with me. Throughout the day and not even being asked, they all have been sending me text messages letting me know where they are and what they are doing. They also find me at meal times to let me know what they have been doing. It is amazing how friendships form sometimes. I have met so many new people in a day and trust me, having name tags makes it so much easier to get to know them quickly.

Ok, back on track. I headed down to the dining hall for breakfast and to my surprise I saw June Boutwell. June has been a great support person for me while she was the Interim Associate Conference Minister in Maine. She helped me out for the Evening Sandwich program, helped me get on the OMC, and has supported me through the decision to go to Seminary. She is now the Associate conference Minister for the Southwest conference and has moved to California. It was nice to see her and know she is doing well, and…she will always be a reference for me. Thanks June!

After I got my food, I headed over to a table with Nicole (another advisor) from Machias. Afterwards we made our way down to the arena for some more activities. Valerie Tutson who is an awesome person and story teller read today’s scripture and talked about Living Love. She stressed something that Bryan at PL taught us: Love God, Love yourself, and Love your neighbor. It is as simple as that folks! Following this she told the story of Miriam and when she assisted in saving Moses by suggesting to Pharaoh’s daughter that she would bring him to a Hebrew woman to care for him who we all know was their mother. When Valerie tells a story it is almost like she puts herself into the story and becomes one of the people which this one she was Miriam. When I first heard Valerie tell a story it was at General Synod last year and at that time I said to my self, “wow, I would love to have just one ounce of that talent.” Yes, she is that good.

After the Plenary, I headed over to the Art and Architecture hall for the first of today’s workshops which for me was Youth Ministry as a Vital Component. There was a lot I already knew about, but listening to the discussions I realized I was not alone in the frustrations. A majority of the folks in this workshop were adult youth leaders and we discussed the importance of youth groups and how they make it work. In today’s world Sunday is not what it used to be. School sports and other activities seem to be taking over our children’s entire week. Sometimes these kids need to choose to make practice so they can play in a game that week, or come to church and participate in the youth group. From what I heard, the leaders need to grow and work with the changing times to find out what we can offer to the kids that they don’t get elsewhere. It is time to regain that time slot on Sunday after church and offer to the kids, an opportunity to become the disciples we so try to teach them to be. Technology seems to be the language they understand, so MySpace pages/groups, Facebook, YouthRoots, and blogs are the way these kids learn and live now. Following this work shop I headed over to the dining hall for lunch.

I had some down time finally to make some phone calls to relatives. I set up times to meet my Uncle Paul, Uncle Herman, and Aunt Marilyn. So over the next couple of days I plan to spend some time with them. I am really looking forward to seeing them. It seems that since I have become an adult, unfortunately the only time I see the family down here in Knoxville is at funerals. Finally I have a chance to visit on happier terms even if it is only for a few hours. I finished just in time to head over to the Alumni building to go to my next workshop which was Telling Sacred stories by guess who…Valerie Tutson.

This was a different workshop, and I do not need to go into how awesome she is again because she just is. She started out by asking for groups to come up to the stage to sing a song that is special to them. It could be out of a hymnal or other church song or something they learned from camp. As you can imagine, most sang camp songs which I just love to do. There is something about camp songs that brings me to that moment in time at PL when God came to me to tell me where he wanted me to be. Valerie pointed something out to us. That when we sing these songs, we are carrying on the word and tradition of a sacred story, and how we tell it makes it sacred to us.

After the workshop, it was downtime for the advisors again and Joel and I headed down to the University Center to check out the exhibits. I picked up a bunch of free stuff and talked to Bill at the BTS booth for a while. I browsed through the many books that were for sale and I went to the Adult recreation room that was a place for the adults to wind down a bit with some snacks and coffee. I didn’t see anything that I wanted to buy, so I headed out to the dining hall for dinner. I realized that Nicole and I had our schedule synced today for meals because I ate every meal with her today. We had a good discussion on the adoption process, and the state system.

Next on the plate following dinner was the evening worship and like Synod the worship services were awesome. They are full of song and fun, tonight even during the scripture reading there was music playing and it was in tune to the reading. The sermon tonight really hit home for me. There was a very brave girl that talked about her experience as a foster child and eventually she found her forever home. It filled my eyes with tears and made me really miss being home with Carl and the boys. I think I was the first in the arena to pop up and give her a standing ovation when she finished.

I ended up swimming after the service for a while and swam a few laps; it was a nice way to tire myself out even more. It is now 12:23AM and I am sitting outside the doors of two rooms of boys that seem to think staying up until 3AM is a good idea. Susie knocked on my door to have me sit here. It is no biggy, kind of like home. So before the battery on my laptop dies, I am going to end for now and post more in the morning. Good night y’all!