Pastor of Fishing

Well, in a nutshell today was an experience of a lifetime for me as a youth worker.  We left our quaint community of Schwenksville to hit the open road on a journey across state lines to Columbus Ohio to experience a week with the greater Mennonite body and the Holy Spirit all wrapped into one.  The theme for the week is Breathe and be filled.

Some of the basic items happend on the trip that are normal…pee breaks, food stops, and the occasional malfunction of a vehicle (nothing bad some warning lights came then disapeared (miraculous car healing?))  It was a great ride out and we ended up in Columbus around 3:00pm.  This is where my pateince was tested and my skills at dealing with the mistakes of my humaness.

Ahh the dratted screwed up hotel reservations…my fault of course I had us arriving a day earlier…sometimes I hate computers and the calendar entry stuff hahaha.  Needless to say Todd at the front desk was able to have us all together and actually the rooming situation turned out better than I had set it up previously…God covers my butt AGAIN!

Then we hit registration…now I will say it is my Rookie year and there is a lot to learn.  My buddy Jason went down to give moral support since I was pretty razzed after the long drive and the narrow parking garage (yeah 6’8 clearance in a rental 15 passenger van…not alot of headroom, found myself ducking inside as I drove).  Once we got down there we had some snafus with registration.  Nothing that wasn’t resolved and this time it wasn’t my fault…but hey Jason kept me calm and we worked through the issues.  God was good in all this cause I really was rather tired.

Well we got our stuff and worked out our logistics on how the night would go with the Youth.  We set up our boundries for the evening and poof…off to dinner and then worship.  Some ate Chinese, some had Italian…and others had Subway(nationality help?).  Great first meal the Chinese I had was EXCELLENT!

After dinner we rolled over to the Nationwide Arena…yes the Arena.  This place is a good sized indoor arena where the Youth Worship was taking place.  Mama spoke about getting the Holy Spirit to refresh us in our lives.  To give up the crap and get refreshment in our souls…it was very powerful.  Tonight at our small groups the reactions were inspiring to hear on the first night.  I thank God we were able to hear her in time…just was one of those late getting to it.

After worship the kids went off into the Convention Center for free time.  Ryan and I hit up a Youth Sponsor’s orientation and some of the Adults took in things for the “older” folk.  Slowly people trickled to bed and the contingent group that was left we walked back to our hotel.

I am giving you a brief overview of this time.  I am anxious for tomorrow to dig into some seminars and interact with others of faith here @ MCUSA09.  I highly encourage you to joing up on Twitter .  We are going to be hitting up it heavy with being out the door @ 6:30am…of course I am still up till lights out of 1:00am…the joys of being the “adult in charge”.

Overall thoughts are amazing…just amazing…its something everyone needs to experience in their life…just so powerful.  I am thankful my wife and son are on this trip to experience it first hand with me…a note of just thoughts…My wife was noticing another child around our son’s age and it hit her…in 16 years he could be interacting with her at Convention…so intriguing how the concept of generation discipling can happen.

My prayer for the night into tomorrow:  May God continue to breath into me as I am here this week.  May I be a vessel to exhale love to those around me and touch the lives  of those in my care.  May the group continue to build unity and let there not be a feeling of being left behind.  Thank you Lord for this opportunity.  Thank you Lord…thank you!

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Its been an amazing day just plugging away and getting the last few logistics ironed out for our trip across the state.  Its going to be an experience that I am looking forward to.  Seeing how the youth react and what it will be like in such a large group of worship.  I am finding day by day as it draws near how the amazing interactions and knowledge that will be gathered in one place.  I look forward to bloggin more about the trip on a daily basis.  Keep up with me on Pastoroffishing on Twitter.  If you have Facebook you can find me there as well.  Here is the link to what Convention is all about!

More will be posted as time goes on.  Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter cause you definitely will get more updates that way!!

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So its going to start with one blog at a time.  Lately a course that I am taking has really pushed me to take the concept of a blog to God.  Its something that I wondered about for a while and dabbled in here and there.  In the end nothing really took hold.  I wondered why?  Why have I not taken the time to pose thoughts and comments to create interactions among those that I know?  Well in the end I think it was just the timing of it all.  The timing I feel is right…so why a blog?

People within my world have been banging into each other more and more.  The whole Facebook phenomena has really pushed me to look at what is going on within my world.  I have such a diverse group of friends and family that it is only write to start sharing my life more with them.  The hope is that the writings and videos that I will share over time will only spur on a deeper desire to answer the question, “Why…?”  Recently this has been a nagging question to many things I do and say.  Why do I feel this way?  Why do I act like this?  Why can’t I get this right?  Many times I get frustrated, but do I really take a step forward?

The most recent class I have been taking has opened my eyes to the power of public acknowledgment.  It creates a means of accountability that is unlike anything I have experienced.  When you write something down for others to see it creates a mark that others can see.  My hope is that through my public blah blah blah people will interact and start to really look at our worlds…

Hopefully this will help people not be alone…a place that people can express themselves and chit chat about well..whatever.  I look forward to the future and what happens…in the mean time…ENJOY!

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