Too Late to type last night!

Got in Thursday night at 11:30 Texas time - too tired to type. Thursday began with catching the shuttle bus from a nearby hotel . The conference is using a fleet of charter buses to help with the parking issue around the convention center. Its not too bad, but last night I had to run to catch mine ( not a pretty sight) or would have not gotten back to the hotel until an hour later.

Thursday morning I was posted up on the stage with the Bishops. I mostly spent the time take notes for one Bishop to another. A little difficult at first - the seating chart was ready when we first got there. So I felt like I was playing " Find the Bishop" for most of the morning. The cool part was that I had a great view of the morning session.

The morning session included several major keynote address. A sampling of three of them follow.

1. A first ever Young People’s with persons ranging in age from 16 - 29. One of the speakers Rev. Annie Arnoldy, 29, of Grand Junction, Colo "What I know about the church is that it yearns for young people,” said Arnoldy. “What I know about young adults is that they yearn for a place to belong. This seems like a pretty fruitful situation"

2.Lyn Powell, lay leader of the North Georgia Annual (regional) Conference, gave the laity address. "If the laity of The United Methodist Church want to reclaim the Methodist heritage of winning communities for Christ, they have to invite people to church, carry the name of Christ with them and claim a personal ministry."

3. Illinois Area Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher gave the Episcopal address.It was filled with songs and multimedia and multi-sensory images about how people received and experienced hope, gave hope, and were transformed by encounters with Christ. "All around this world there is physical, mental and spiritual hunger for the bread of life," she said.

On of the most interesting presentations of the morning for me personally centered around the nothing but nets campaign that is currently going on to raise funds to send bed nets to fight the spread of Malaria in Africa.

Katherine Commale learned at age 5 that—somewhere in the world—a child dies from mosquito-borne malaria every 30 seconds, she said, “Mom, we need to send them bed nets right away.”Her mother, Lynda, agreed. Now age 7, Katherine has collected more than $40,000 . Her goal is that everyone in Africa who needs net will get one.

It really gave me pause to think. If a 7 year old girl can raise over $40,000 to help others. What could and should we a Christs church being doing for others?

The evening was devoted to the various committees beginning their work. I was assigned to the Board of Church and society for the first night. The pages normally rotate between groups so i will most likely be in a different group this afternoon.

All in all in going well. Making new friends, renewing relationshipswith others. Trying to take it all in and not get too exhausted. Thanks for your prayers.

First Day is Over - for me!

It 910 pm Texas time on Wednesday. The day is over over me - but the evening session of General conference will most likely go on until about 11:00 pm.

The day began at 8:00 am at Forth Worth Convention center. Training went until 1230. We learned the dos and donts of Pages and Marshall's. Number one rule: smile! We had a short sensitivity session as apart of the training to help us remember we are dealing with a wide variety of cultures ( even with in our own country - I mean this is Texas you'all).

We spent about 1.5 hours practicing for the opening worship. Had a short break and then had to be at our station by 4:30pm. The evening was devoted to an hour of music before the service and then a two plus hour Communion service. It was incredible. The music, the visuals, the use of person praying in there native tongue, even the preaching wasn't all that bad.

I was amazed at how the organist could play everything form classic hymns to African spirituals to music that sounded and awful lot like funk! I didn't know an organ could do that.

I had the privilege of helping two of our bishops serve communion. Many of those who came to that station were the interpreters for the general conference. It was interesting to see all of the languages that they represented.

There are over 50 countries represented. 1000 delegates, about 250 support staff, lots of bishops and lots of visitors. All who need your prayers!

Speaking of prayers: right now I am sitting in my hotel while a huge thunder storm is overhead and a tornado watch is on for this area. So a prayer for Fort Worth would be helpful

My day starts and 5:30 tomorrow. The morning is spent up on the stage with the Bishops, the evening serving in a committee dealing with fiances of the church.

Good night to all!

Packing day !

It's Monday the 21 of April and that means it time to pack for General Conference. I leave tomorrow morning for Fort Worth Texas and 10 days of serving the larger church as volunteer page.

We begin bright and early Wednesday with training and then the real work begins. The first week is filled with legislative work in committees as well as worship, full sessions and other special events. The second week is devoted to full sessions from morning until night.

Please pray for the delegates who will be voting on issues that will affect our church for the next four years and beyond. Please pray for me and that I will be up to the tasks given to me. Please pray for my family as they go it alone with out me.

I hope to be able to log in and do some updates from on site, so be sure to check back!