Saturday & Sunday at conference

I barely know where to begin. I’m home, but I’m not yet unpacked nor have I taken the pictures off my camera…I’ve been doing errands most of the day and then have been trying to putz around taking care of things at the house, with several distractions. I don’t want to forget how these days went, so I thought I’d sit down and try to write a bit now…

Saturday was a great day. We spent the entire morning listening to Ray VanderLaan, and if you know him, you know that it was great. He is so knowledgeable about the Bible and has insights from his many, many visits to Israel that one would never otherwise know. He’s a teacher, and I would probably do just about anything to have him teach our girls. He’s that good.

After lunch I went to a workshop on Threading the Theme throughout the season, which was also packed full of ideas, which was good, since I have to teach that same class at 3 GEMS workshops this fall!

The rest of the afternoon my partner, Tami, & I worked on planning those workshops. It was SO good to have some time, face to face, to plan, instead of doing it all over email! I know that August is going to be very busy with planning, but I feel ready enough for now. Both Tami & I will be unavailable to plan for a couple weeks, but we’re much more ready than we were last week at this time!

Saturday evening at conference is always “Women’s Night Out”. We had a BBQ dinner, some great talks with old acquaintances, and then we went shopping in Old Town, Ft. Collins. We had such a great time! We shopped at a few boutiques and then had some delicious Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It was so relaxing and such a beautiful night. But THEN came the really fun part!

In the town square there are some old pianos painted with funky designs that anyone can sit down and play. Our GEMS worship band was downtown and they started playing some fun “oldies” on the piano. Soon, a crowd was gathered, singing along. There were mostly GEMS counselors, but other tourists as well. Eventually, our GEMS pianist sat on the bench and started playing “Amazing Grace.” I’m not kidding…we were an impromptu flash mob out there! The crowd grew, and there were people there singing along and raising their hands in praise and they were not with the GEMS! We also sang “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In!” It was a riot. And it was so special and memorable to be a part of that!

On Sunday we had a workshop (mine was so-so) and then more time with Ray VanderLaan and the celebration of communion. Just trust me when I say that this was a moving service. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place. I can’t even describe it in words. It was a beautiful thing.

I left on the 12:30 bus to the airport, caught a 4:30 flight to Seattle, and was home by 9:40! All the travels went extremely well and I am grateful. It was great to be home with the girls. I still want to process more of the conference and concretely put things into action, but that may have to wait.