This morning we are all at the campus where there is a youth conference beginning!
There are all the older kids from all the Asia's Hope homes as well as outside youth hearing the name of God proclaimed right now.
There are tales of local pastors here bringing lost youth in from the community. They all get Asia's Hope T-shirts and lunch and to hear the Word of The Lord for 3 days!! One of our homes here on campus just did praise dance, it was amazing!
One of our jobs today is to entertain the younger children while the youth attend the conference.
The little ones ...Jesus loves the little children - all the children of the world....
I am sitting among the children and they are precious indeed.
These are the
men that will speak at the conference, pastors, business men, teaches - all men that love The Lord and love the children!
Soooo, we started at 6:00 a.m. this morning to get to the Cleveland Airport on time! No traffic, amazing. We arrived in plenty of time only to wait, and wait, and wait some more!
As our plane arrived at Cleveland to take us the first leg of our journey to Chicago, they decided it needed maintenance work! So off to the hanger it went. We got several updates on the progress of the engine work or rather the lack of progress and finally I decided I needed to talk to the stewards. They graciously changed our flight realizing there was no way we would meet our connecting flight, and we got to go straight through to Minneapolis! This required us to sit until 12:55, but we actually arrived about the same time we would have originally. That was even with the President flying in to Cleveland Hopkins and stopping all air traffic, so we stood and watched Air force One land (cannot explain it but I felt a great sadness as I watched the plane land) I digress... (Joci finally gave up and went to sleep on the floor!)
Anyway we finally arrived for Jocelyn's Associated Press Conference and took a shuttle and drug our suitcases down street after street until arriving at our dorm room at about 4:30 p.m. Ohio time! TIRED! Can I just tell you though, tonight's meal made it all worth while - truly one of the best of my life. We ate at this old Drug Store, with open wall sections to the outside (80 degrees and sunny), live sax player and fabulous very affordable food to die for!
We just hiked the 2 miles back to the dorm and I am now going to pass out! Bye for now!
What a great plan, attend a conference, visit new friends in Michigan, return to my day off. Perfect planning!
As I return to the comfort of my own living room to write this I sit here reviewing what I have experienced and what I have learned. The breakdown goes something like this, new insights into the 'workings' of mega church, discussions with various staff from Saddleback, unusual workshops leading to new understandings of things I thought had no connection to my ministry but do, new family era - realization that in the next few years my kids are going to be 'really' gone...
I know, a rather strange description, but the best I can do.
I learned things God wanted me to learn, many of which appear to have no connection to what my ministry is directly. Still obviously things God wanted me to know and experience.
One workshop totally supported the passion I have been feeling about connecting the next generation to Crossroads. Now, part of this stirring I am sure is simply God reminding me over the past months about my age! ha ha But, we must be very intentional in the development of the next generation or there will be no young adults fully formed and ready to be involved in key roles of Crossroads. Pastor Tim has been encouraging us to really work to identify young leaders and this workshop supported that encouragement. (Pray for our new College Bible Study that begins next week, I think it has the potential to be ministry changing, much excitement connected to this study). Anyway, the workshop I attended had people slightly older than myself talking about their conversion stories, their past and how people would look in their eyes and say "I want what you have", what they saw of course was Jesus in their lives, but it was challenging to consider what people see when they really look at me... and how I can show that to the younger people at Crossroads. How can they see Jesus so much in us that they want to serve him too?
I also enjoyed private conversations with staff which made we realize that we are not so different at Crossroads then they. Same struggles, similar ratio of staff compared to congregation size, technology that is old the minute your purchase it (after saving money for it for so long!), and I saw the desperate emptiness that other leaders feel around the country who have the responsibilities of leading week in and week out. I also saw discouragement as people became overwhelmed at the amount of information we recieved which represented all the change they needed to go home and make.
So I guess I return with a willingness to look at our ministry, evaluate and make changes if they are needed, but honestly more than anything, I come back valuing our ministry more. Realizing with newly opened eyes what we have at Crossroads. When you see something everyday you stop seeing it in a sense, but to all of you who have Crossroads just know that attendees, worship leaders and church staff across America would count it a privilege to be where we are at this time in our ministry. God has richly blessed Crossroads and I return with a new appreciation for and excitement about what God is doing in Mansfield, Ohio - funny I had to go all the way to California to find it!
The end to nearly anything is bittersweet. This is an ending that has come all too soon. New friends, new lessons, newly discovered artists all about to be left behind. Rumors of conferences becoming a thing of the past...maybe the end of an era - who knows. I always wonder if this will be the last time that I will ever see acquaintances this side of heaven.
But what I take back to our ministry with me is probably not what I expected. I take back new awareness of this generation and the desperate need to connect them to our ministry. It burned in me previous to this conference, it consumes me now. Jesus made real to the next generation...the only legacy we should worry about leaving.
As I returned to work today after attending one session of a local conference, I had a very unexpected reaction. The speaker said nothing I had not already heard before, although he was very well spoken. But I realized as I looked over the crowd of 200+ church leaders that I felt isolated somehow.
Isolated by the never ending to-do list, by the demands of managing well, by limited time to touch others lives.
I constantly search for new blogs, websites, books anything that makes me feel connected to anything related to my position. So, in this way I stay in touch but still, I feel isolated. Maybe it is just the nature of my job. Most churches don't even have my position on staff. Director of Programming - I plan the services. Most ministries don't consider this position necessary I guess.
Because I feel this way, I delayed returning to the church, and so I sit a write... maybe what I felt at the session is that I wanted to know the attendees stories, talk to them personally. Not just listen to a speaker. I don't know why, but I had a feeling I probably could encourage some of them. Our ministry is larger than most in this area, we forget that some times. It is good to get out and gain an appreciation for what we have at Crossroads.
I love our town and am satisfied to always be here if that is what God calls me to. To do life with our Crossroads staff is an honor!
Isolated... I know it is not God's will for us to do life alone, so I guess I need to start watching for God opportunities and connect!
These are the 
Music - the universal language.
Youth entering the conference
Our team handing out the packets !
