Fall Leadership Conference
// October 25th, 2008 // No Comments » // Elevate Update
I thought I’d share some of the TwitPics (taken on my cell phone cam) from our trip to the Fall Leadership Conference this week. I just got back this evening. It was a quick trip, but definitely a good one. I had a great time connecting with district youth leaders and hanging out with my Destiny friends. I drove down Wednesday morning with the Waldrops, the Laabs, and Glennis. Here we are making a stop at the Black Eyed Pea restaurant on the way down…
The best part of the conference is always the relational part — connecting with friends and networking is what it’s all about — at least for me. We got to hear from Pastor Jack Hayford the first three sessions (Wednesday evening and Thursday morning). It’s always a joy to get to hear him share, even though he uses some big words that no one seems to understand at times. “Don’t diatribe me, bro!” — sorry, inside joke. Here’s a snapshot of the sanctuary filling up before one of the general sessions…
My favorite sessions this weekend were the times I got to get away with other youth leaders. Thursday afternoon, the national youth director, James Craft, met and spoke with us at the Old Chicago restaurant. It was my first time eating there. Good pizza! I was really encouraged by what James had to share. So thankful for his leadership.
At the evening session, Pastors Brent and Tani were ordained through Foursquare for all of their dedicated years in ministry. So proud of them!
Later on that evening, I got together with Jeremy Pummel, our district youth director, Patrick from Omaha, NE, Corey from somewhere in Kansas (sorry, I forget), and Caleb from Salina, KS to discuss the direction for next summer’s camp and various other events. Great guys! Always fun to hang with them. Good news, too… Lion Mendoza showed up for the end of the evening and is confirmed as our camp speaker for 2009 — so excited about that!
Friday morning, we got up for our last general session, this time breaking up into our districts to discuss upcoming changes to district lines and supervision. Check out this pic taken just before the morning session…
…and then read this Twitter-comment from my friend Steve Lowe – so funny!
On the way back home, we stopped at this fabulous restaurant…
This was our last rest stop on the way back home (at a Lusk gas station)…
The drive home went fast enough. I had lots of fun listening to music and sharing stories with Brent and Ken. The Waldrop’s van clipped a dear on the way home, but nobody was hurt and the van wasn’t too badly damaged (from what I understand). We got back to Rapic City around 9:00 PM; Deanna picked me up at the church. The girls were still up when I went downstairs and rushed to hug and kiss me. I always love coming home to THAT! So good to be home.
