Kairos & Ambiguities

Berlin Day #2

It was a great day in Berlin with the Global Young People's Convocation.  Today most of the participants arrived from around the world.  Polly and I helped with registration and passed out the name tags we sorted and gave out the medical insurance cards and welcome packets.  Learning what African countries spoke French or Portuguese was challenging, but fun.  We got to greet just about everyone!

Polly was very happy to move out from dad's room and into a room with another youth (good bye dad and ear plugs at night she would say).  It didn't take Polly to find and fall in with her soul mates with the crazy (read fun-loving) Austrians.  If they find out about Karaoke we are doomed.

I managed to catch up with Michael Airgood from Kane (via Mission work in the Ukraine).  We swapped some good tales and had a Fassbursste (Carbonated Apple Juice and Lemonade) with Shane Hinderliter and talked about Wesley Woods (they have both been on staff there). 

The evening worship was in five languages and Rev. Dr. Sydney Cooper reminded us that we are one in Christ.  May we live that out and model it for the world.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

New Gear

    I have to sport some new gear on my right wrist.  I was goofing around with the youth during our lock-in last Friday night and dinged up my wrist pretty bad.  Manage to keep from breaking it, but I have a pretty bad sprain.  I will be wearing this brace for a week or so at least.

    I tried to go without it for the Sunday Service, but I forgot about shaking hands.  If it feels this way next Sunday I will have to wear the brace.  It is amazing what pride makes us do.

    So I hope you are dodging the balls better in your life than I am in mind.  But remember in all things Christ walks with us.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Heading to Nashville

I am heading off to Nashville today for Finance Committee Meeting of the General Board of Discipleship.  The recent financial events has caused an critical need to restructure the finances of this board.  It will be a difficult task to bring the finances of this board into a stable situation and it can't be done with out some pain.

Already there has been a cut back of staff positions.  I hope we can hold the line here as we have already lost the Small Church staff person (small churches make up a majority of the churches in our denomination).  At the board meeting in September there were pages and pages of General Conference directives to the board and I think many of them will go unfulfilled.

Probably the most critical item on the agenda deals with the Board's planned meeting in 2010 in Germany.  This meeting was planned so that the board would meet with the Global Youth Convocation of Young People.  As the contracts are about ready to be signed for this event my hope is that even if the funds can't be found to have the board present at this event, that we would find the funds to still allow the Division on Ministries with Young People to remain a global presence.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Until next time...Grace and Peace

Indiana District Youth Retreat

We had a great trip to Wesley Woods for the Indiana District Youth Retreat.  Jericho was a great hit from Wesley UMC in Erie leading the Praise and Worship and Randy Roda was our speaker.  My favorite part is the testimonies that the youth give during our Sunday morning Communion Service.  It was such a joy to see the Spirit move in a powerful way.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Heading to Wesley Woods

Heading to Wesley Woods this evening for the Indiana District Retreat.  Should be a great weekend.  Please keep us in your prayers.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

DMYP Duties & Facebook

The end of the world is near!  That is at least how some people put it as I joined facebook for the first time yesterday.  It is one of my duties as a new member of the Division on Ministries with Young People.  I had over 250 emails in my inbox this morning related to facebook, so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do.  Here is a list of some of the top things we will be working on at the Division over the next year.

1. Looking at writing By-Laws and reviewing the internal organization.
2. Dreaming about Youth 2011 and the Global Convocation
3. Looking into a Youth Worker Award and Service Program.
4. Identifying resourcing needs for Youth Workers around the world.
5. Developing an internal communication system (hence facebook)

Pray for us as we venture out in these areas and pray for me as I enter the new world of Facebook.

Until next time....Grace & Peace

Repairs and DMYP

This late blog is due to major repairs at the parsonage.  While I was away in Nashville at the Division on Ministries with Young People I think everything broke, from the refrigerator to the garage door.  We still have to get the water meter changed out and that will happen next Thursday.  Thank you Amy for once again holding the fort!

Anyway, I have made it back from the Division on Ministries with Young People in Nashville and got all the repairs finished.  It was the organization meeting, so we spent a lot of time getting to know one another and electing our leadership.   The elected co-chairs, Earlie Passion a youth from the Philippines and Will Green a young adult from the South Central Jurisdiction.  The chair of the Adult Workers network is Charlene Zuill from the Western Jurisdiction.

Only about half of the people who should of been there were able to attend due to a variety of reasons.  Some from the Central Conferences were not able to obtain a Visa, others were not elected.  The most heart felt loss for me were the youth from the Western Jurisdiction.  The Western Jurisdictional Youth were unable to hold a convo due to lack of funds, so there youth were not elected.  They are trying to put something together over a conference call/email, but for a denomination that is soul searching for a way to get youth, young adults, and young pastors connected with the church this is not a good sign.

The Associate General Secretary for the DMYP is Mike Ratliff.  He put together a great organizational plan and the week went really well.  There are a lot of committed staff members who really helped make that happen as well.  Great job and I look forward to working with them in the future.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Catching Up From the Weekend

Just catching my breath and thought I would catch you up on this weekends activities.  Robert's football game was cancelled as they would not let us on the Bellefonte High School Field, it looks like this game will be made up on November 1st.

The good news of this was I got to stay for the entire YMT meeting at Greensburg.  We were at Charter Oak UMC getting ready for Leadapalooza.  This looks like it is going to be a great event at a great facility.  Leadapalooza is on November 15 from 9-4.  There will be worship and three great workshops times to choose from 13 different workshops.  The cost is only $20 and it includes lunch.  Don't miss out and register today!

Sunday we had Indiana District Youth Council.  We had to change the date for the YSF fair to October 26th due to scheduling conflicts at the Scarlet Cord.  Save the date, $5.00 and of course we will have the dunking booth.  The District Youth Retreat will be at Wesley Woods November 7-9 and our speaker will be Randy Roda with the theme "Thinking Inside the Box."  Don't miss out on this great event register with Deb Decker, 861 Hughey Road, Brookville PA  15825 (cost $85 before Oct 15, $90.00 after Oct 15).

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Summer Journey: Interlude

I wanted to take and break and share maybe some more interesting news of the summer.  My 25th reunion is coming up from Virginia Military Institute so we have been catching up over the summer on each other's lives.  One of my brother rat's (class mate) son, David Neville got a bronze at the Olympic Games it was great to cheer him on.

David dove across the finish line and put it all out on the track.  I was very happy for his family and the country.  What I enjoyed most is that he gave glory to God for strength in victory and as he serves in youth ministry will have many stories to tell to attract young people to the light of the gospel.  This has certainly been one of the highlights of the Olympic experience for me this time around.

Here is a link to the race and interviews:  click here for race.

I hope that your Olympic experience has been enjoyable as well.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Summer Journey: NEJ Convo

After a short journey to Amy's family reunion last weekend in Virginia, I thought I would try and catch up on the rest of the Summer Journeys (at least before school starts and the leaves change).

NEJ Convo was a real change from my experience with Uth 4 Missions.  In some ways it was coming down from a spiritual high to a close encounter with the institutional church.  It was like going back in time to how the Youth Ministry Team operated in the mid 1990s. There were some great high points:

1. Being nominated as a member of the General Division on Ministries with Young People.
2. Hearing Polly's interview for the General Division, how well she articulated her faith and how she shares her faith.
3. Seeing old friends (Shane Hinderliter, Ted Anderson, and Rich Hogg).
4. A day a Hershey Park.
5. Meeting some great new people & our small group.

There were also some low points:

1. The Sunday morning worship, where the speaker's message was that it doesn't matter if God is real or if he died for our sins, or if Jesus is the Messiah.  What matters is that we follow Jesus' teachings (Thanks Rebekah Swineford and Rich Hoffman for addressing this in a loving, caring and truthful way).
2. Not many youth & adults focusing their talk about kingdom things, but rather institutional things.
3. Not sharing meals together as a convocation.

All in all it was a good experience that challenged and matured the youth leadership from Western Pennsylvania.  I hope that I will be able to carry their concerns to the General Board.

Until next time...Grace & Peace