Courageous Joy

Day 14- 17 CONVENTION Spokane, WA
28 June - 1 July (Photos will follow - sometime)

Quote of the Week: Lots of remember when type comments….. The funniest to me personally has to do with folks not remembering me. One night, I needed out of our aisle and it was apparent that folks were tired of letting others out…so I told Mike I was going over the top of the chairs. He watched in amusement as I began to climb over seats. I was half over the first set when a lady said, “De’Etta T…. is that YOU?” and by the time I got to the back of the room THREE folks had recognized me. How funny that they didn’t recognize me with a name tag….but when I began climbing over chairs something clicked!

I’ll try to summarize convention in one entry rather than take it day by day. We had a blast. It was exhausting and exhilarating. We’ve not been able to make it to a conference for over 10 years. We’ve learned the “system” now. Another chaplain explained how she approaches it. It appears that most travel on orders like Mike did this time….and we will certainly be attempting to do this again.

Highlights:
New Direction: Our denomination is in a process of redefining structure. I won’t go into that as it won’t interest most of y’all….but it was exciting to us. We believe the new direction is Biblical. We were thrilled to see the team spirit and Christ-like spirit exhibited in the long and grueling business meetings necessary to change denominational by-laws.

New Leaders: What a blessing to see so many young emerging leaders. This gives me great hope for our denomination. The young uns are stepping up and the seasoned pastors are graciously mentoring. Too cool!

Children’s Activities: Superb job! I was worried about Zander. The girls had paved the way well and these folks were wonderful with him. He went to the children’s activities, he wore a wrist band that identified he had food allergies and they only let him eat from the little goodie cooler that I sent with him daily. He, Nolan, and Arielle were in this program. They were busy all day!!!! They had devotions, Bible Studies and cool field trips every day. They went to parks, roller skating, u-pick farms, petting zoos, and a lion/tiger zoo.

Nursery: Jared and Jamin took turns in the nursery with Stacia. All tried to win her over. Near the end of the week she was coming around but then the convention was over. Krista supervised the nursery so the boys got to visit with her during the services…..

Master’s Commission: We were blessed to see several worship tools that the girls participated in. MC students also wore the backbone of the work force to pull off the convention. It was wonderful to see them serving.

Friends: I got to visit several times with my sister/friend Julie. I reconnected with college friends I’d lost contact with. Betty, was a dear college friend and I got to meet her husband and little daughter. I lived with Gary and Joneille when I returned from the Philippines for college ahead of my family. Mike and Mona were part of our “game nights” when we were in college. Fun to see everyone again.

New Dreams: God lovingly deposited new dreams and visions into our hearts. Encouragement galore. We felt very loved and cared for.

Speakers: Rick C from Canada spoke on the 12 foundation stones of Open Bible. It was a good reminder. Ron Luce, founder of Teen Mania/Acquire the Fire was a speaker. Awesome stuff. Lloyd Ziegler (?), founder of Master’s Commission International in Phoenix was here. He was great as well. He and other are conducting a 3 day MC convention that began the day after the National convention ended. Busy week for those local MC students.

Family: Of course, having Mom and Dad and all the children in the same city was BIG. Saying goodbye was tough - but I’m not up to that point in entries yet, am I? ::snort::