UM General Conference 2008

It's travel day.

Early this morning I boarded a bus for O'Hare Airport for my flight to Fort Worth, Texas. It's only a travel day, to get organized with the delegation from Indiana. We met this afternoon at the hotel and then downtown to register and share a meal together. it was good to get our team together and begin the prayer process that is so important to this conference.

Already I've been surprised by the action of God. On the bus to the airport I encountered a woman named Susan traveling back home to Oklahoma after staying with her grandchildren for the past week while her daughter and Son-In-Law went on a trip they had won through work. Susan and her husband moved to OK to work at a presbyterian ministry and they remain there in other things. It was a great spiritual conversation.

But at the very next stop, our District Superintendent Michelle Cobb joined us. It is good to catch up with Michelle, she has so much insight for the church, a real prophet with a heart for Jesus. I truly appreciate her partnership with us, she is a blessing more than many know.

Then I met Joe, an aftrican-american who was going to California to be with his brother who was dying.They had been estranged through their mother, but had been reaquainted through his illness. Both are Christians so the time is bittersweet. We parted with mutual blessings.

On the flight I met Terry, an account executive at Caterpillar. A devout Christian who grew up Moravian, father of one 15 year old daughter who loves volleyball and is learning to drive. We had many things in common. Our conversation included the relationship between the UM Church and Caterpillar Inc. after the recent use of Cat equipment by Israel to destroy homes and lives in Gaza and the West Bank. But we didn't end there, we also discussed many things: world travel, flying, family, world history and contemporary issues of world politics, and faith. Terry also had a son, Michael, who died at birth, a pain he still bears deep within.

On the shuttle I met several people from California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, and Michigan. They included Rev. Dr. Andy Langford, who edited the 1989 UM Hymnal and is working on the proposal to update it. He is also good friends with Riley Case, my clergy mentor and fellow Confessing Movement Member. Brendon is a District Superintendent from W. Mich. and was instrumental in putting the plan together for the uniting of the Michigan Conferences. While the vote failed (by only 13 votes in one conference and an overwhelming victory in the other.) he is still working on the details to bring back to the conferences later. Many fresh ideas went into this plan that we in Indiana may want to look at more carefully.

After dinner we ended the day with a long bus ride back to the Hotel, where I am staying with Rev. Dr. Frank Beard. Frank is a dear friend and colleague who will be up for the Episcopacy this summer at Juridictional Conference. (He may become a Bishop).

it has been an exhausting day, but a day filled with little nudges from God. In fact, all of our days are that way if we only pay attention. It is the place we are praying we remain, right in the palm of God's hand and will.

Pray for us...
Peace ><>
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