Entries Tagged 'Travel' ↓

We’re going to visit family and friends in Tennessee for the week of Thanksgiving. Due to a pretty crazy year (in a good way), it’s a long overdo trip!

It’s been just over a year since we’ve been to Tennessee. The last time we were there, we received the first photos of our baby boy from Korea (see It’s a Boy!; we also wrote about our First Baby Shower).

We’re looking forward to a week in Tennessee, where some of our family and friends will get to meet Ethan in person for the first time.

While we’re there, we’ll try to eat at an authentic Korean restaurant in the Chattanooga area (like the one in Carisle where we ate following the finalization of Ethan’s adoption last month). I’ve done a little online research already to locate one.

Interestingly, when we ate at the Korean restaurant in Carlisle, where I (along with Dave Norris, I believe) used chopsticks, Ethan picked up some chopsticks and emulated what he saw us doing with them. Perhaps one of these days we’ll have to teach Ethan to use chopsticks. In Korea, children begin learning around the age of 3, we were told (we actually bought a set of children’s chopsticks and soup spoon when we were in Korea).

We go to Tennessee in two weeks. We’ll rest. We’ll spend time reconnecting with friends and family. And I’m sure we’ll relive some of the special memories of the things we experienced the last time we were there, things like going to the nearby Panera Bread to open the package that contained the photos of Ethan.

We’re looking forward to it. We’ll probably document the experience and share some of the highlights here on the blog, so watch for that as Thanksgiving gets closer.

Tonight, as I rushed out of COR’s sanctuary at the conclusion of Leadership Institute, I found myself having a familiar conversation with God …

I want to change the world!

That conversation was reawakened in me at a Chris Tomlin concert last year in State College.

Well, since it’s late and we have to get up in 4 hours to head to the airport, I’ll make this quick.

You can’t be at the Church of the Resurrection and not get a sense of the impact they’ve had on their city. COR, started by Adam Hamilton in 1990, currently has 9,000 people who attend services/ministries each weekend, and there are many incredible ministries that take place there.

As I’ve said before, we’ll need to take some time to process what we’ve heard and find ways to implement what we’ve learned in our lives and ministries. But for now, I’ll just share a couple quick things …

First, the worship experiences have been amazing — the music, the words, and the multimedia. It’s been quite emotional. In fact, I could hardly even sing this morning due to the intensity. It’s always intense to gather with so many people, particularly leaders, who love God and want to make a difference in the world.

Second, the closing worship and prayer time tonight was incredible. We sang about being the light of the world as more than 1,600 of us from 500 different churches representing 200,000 people held lit candles in the once darkened room displaying our desire and our prayer to change the world.

May God indeed empower those of us who’ve gathered here this week in Kansas City to change the world through transformed local congregations!

More later after we’ve had a chance to process what God is saying to us in Kansas City. But first, a few closing thoughts …

We’ve enjoyed traveling with colleagues and friends from our conference to this event in Kansas City, ad spending time with them. We’re new to the district, so it’s been an opportunity to meet and/or get to know some people better.

And, finally, Joleen and I look forward to seeing, holding, and reconnecting with Ethan in 12 or so hours from now!

From today’s marathon day, three concepts stood out from today’s sessions, which all come out of a desire to impact non-religious or nominally-religious people.

Adam Hamilton, in some of his final thoughts, talked about his approach to preaching. While many of us were taught in seminary to follow something like this:

1. Start with Bible
2. Exegete the text
3. Apply
4. Illustrate

Preaching from the lectionary would be an example of following this approach. While Adam still uses this approach about half the year (although he doesn’t follow the lectionary, except in December), he follows a different approach for the rest of the year:

1. Start with the human condition (e.g., marriage issues, etc.)
2. Exegete the human condition (what are the root causes? etc.)
3. How the Bible speaks to the condition
4. Illustrate

While this model isn’t new to us, it validates it. Some people find fault with this approach, but there is biblical precedence. In fact, Adam said, Jesus virtually always started with a story about the human condition; only once did he use what we’d call the lectionary (i.e., his first sermon where he read from the scroll, Isaiah 61).

Another area that struck me was Adam’s talk about 21st century evangelism, which he calls “service evangelism.” Adam suggested an alternative view of Rick Warren’s illustration of the four bases that culminates with mission. Adam suggests that this cycle is now reversed. Today the model starts with mission, which helps people discover their passions/spiritual gifts. People begin to understand Scripture and they eventually accept Christ, before ultimately becoming in mission. Adam drove the point home, saying, mission and service comes first, not last.

The other major thing that struck me came from keynote speaker, Jim Wallis. Wallis, pointing to the great awakenings, talked about revival and said it’s not revival until it changes something in society. This comes from his study of the great awakenings. Revival needs to be both personal and social.

In talking about repentance, Wallis asked what might repentance mean for us. What about simplicity, stewardship, putting economic values above family values, the sin of covetousness, cultural values of worth versus kingdom values, living beyond our means, etc.?

Finally, Wallis encouraged us to be the change we want for the world. Also, he said our congregations need to be the change, to be responsible for the neighborhoods in which they’re located.

Now that Leadership Institute is over, we have a lot to process!

Yesterday, we spent nearly 12 hours getting from Clearfield, PA to our destination in the greater Kansas City area. While our two flights were short (45 minutes to Dulles, then 2 hours to Kansas City), we had a long 4 hour layover in DC.

After our State College District group rented 2 large SUVs, we had a 45 minute drive from the airport (located on the Missouri side of the metropolitan area) to our hotel (in Kansas) where we arrived around 11:00 pm (central time).

Well, our first day here has been a long day so I’ll keep this is short as possible. Today began with pre-institute workshops. Joleen may share from her perspective later, but I went to the “Leadership Essentials” workshop, which addressed practical tools for leading change. It was led by Carol Cartmill and Yvonne Gentile, who wrote Leadership Essentials: Practical Tools for Leading in the Church, which we received as a gift from the publisher (Abingdon).

There were a lot of practical tips and tools in this workshop and I’ll need some time to process them, but in the meantime, my favorite statement from this workshop was by Yvonne, who said, referring to many people’s resistance to change in the church …

Sometimes we get so comfortable in our safe zones that we make stability our idol.

The Leadership Institute officially began this evening with an inspiring worship experience followed by the first of three plenary sessions featuring Adam Hamilton. Adam is talking about 16 leadership principles that he’s learned/experienced in the past year at COR.

Tonight’s presentation centered around the areas of ministry focus, first communicated by the United Methodist Council of Bishops (see the list on this page) and how they are fleshing them out at COR. There was a whole lot to chew on, but just a few quick quotes for now …

Leadership is influencing people to accomplish a common goal.

Being a pastor is the coolest job in the world.

Find the best and the brightest and ask them to consider the call.

Adam believes that the best days of the United Methodist Church are ahead of us. That’s saying a lot for a denomination that has been in decline for more than 4 decades. It’s also a huge statement considering something else Adam shared that blew me away (and inspired me at the same time!): over a 50 year period in our history, more than 18,000 churches were started — that’s one new church every day for 50 years! (you may need to pause to let that sink in). Wow!

Amazing things are happening at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. I’m grateful for their commitment to, not only influencing Kansas City, but also the world, and the mainline church, and the UMC, in particular.

As I said, there’s been a lot to chew on from our first several hours of the institute. We have an even more full day tomorrow before we finish up tomorrow night.

And, as much as we’re enjoying the institute, finishing up tomorrow night will be a good thing — Joleen mentioned at dinner this evening that she was getting homesick. We head out of here pretty early on Saturday and expect to be home around 3:00 or so (thanks to a much shorter layover this time).

Feel free to post comments or questions. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your prayers!

A few months ago, we wrote about attending Leadership Institute, a 2-day conference hosted by The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (COR). Well, the has come for this event.

Tomorrow, we travel to Kansas City (we’ll return Saturday). We’re excited about attending this event with a group of pastors from four districts in our conference.

While we look forward to spending a few days in Kansas City at COR, unfortunately, Ethan will not be with us (thankfully, though, Grammy and Pappy are going to stay with Ethan here on his familiar turf while we’re away). Were it not for this being the first time being apart 3 nights, we’d be a lot more excited about this trip!

But we expect this event to contribute to our ongoing personal development, and we want to share the experience with as many as we can. So we invite you to follow along here on the blog over the next few days as we reflect on some of the things that impact us most.

More than likely, we expect to publish posts (as we’re able) (1) Thursday night, (2) Friday night and/or Saturday morning, and (3) sometime later after we return home and have a chance to process the whole experience.

As always, we invite you contribute to the conversation by clicking on the “comments” link underneath any post you wish to comment on, then fill out the form to submit your comment.

Well, let’s get started!

Ethan made his first trip to the beach on Wednesday. Ocean City, NJ is just a quick one hour drive from where my aunt and uncle live. We arrived late morning and spent the afternoon there.

Ethan really enjoyed playing in the sand. We took a wagon of sand toys we had purchased earlier this summer when we got his inflatable pool. His favorite part was shoveling. Wanda and I enjoyed using the molds to make assorted shapes in the sand. Ethan enjoyed knocking the tall ones over!

Ethan did not take to the ocean water too well. He didn’t want in it, but was okay to be held while we stood in it. When we got back to the house I gave him a bath first thing and he cried … he didn’t want in the tub water either, which has never been a big deal before.

We all had a fun day, except for the sunburn that Randy got on his feet and I got on my back. Thankfully Ethan was well covered in sunscreen.

We’re finally taking some much-needed, long-overdo vacation time. Our last vacation time, spent packing in Mooresville, moving, and unpacking in Clearfield, certainly wasn’t restful or renewing!

We’re in Woodbury, NJ (east of Philadelphia) visiting Joleen’s aunt and uncle, Jim and Wanda, whom Ethan is meeting for the first time.

This morning, Wanda, Joleen, and I played mini golf.

On the way to the mini golf course, Ethan fell asleep. We put him in his stroller where he slept through the first several holes. After he woke, he was content to watch us play from his stroller. The all-terrain stroller came in handy today as the golf course had a lot of hills and steps. It was fun.

Tomorrow, we’re planning to drive to the eastern side of the state where Ethan will see the Atlantic Ocean and play in the sand on the beach for the first time.

Since we brought Ethan home from Korea in mid-February, we’ve made two trips to Wilmore, Kentucky — to defend our dissertations and to graduate. Tomorrow, we head back out on the road for our third trip in as many months.

This time, we’re going to our conference’s annual conference (the yearly gathering of United Methodist pastors and local church representatives to do “worshipful work,” or what John Wesley called “holy conferencing”), which will be held at Messiah College.

But, first, we’ve gotta take a time out to thank God for his protection!

A couple weeks ago, as we began the long drive to Kentucky, we noticed a warning light on the dashboard of Joleen’s car. As we continued to make our way to Hollidaysburg, PA where we planned to meet up with Joleen’s mom and step-dad, Joleen flipped through the pages of her car’s manual to find out what the warning light meant.

After some searching, we learned that the light indicated that one of the tires’ air pressure was too low. We pulled over and did a walk-around of the vehicle but didn’t notice any obvious problems. When we arrived in Hollidaysburg, we increased the air pressure of the front right tire from 27 to 34 psi (following the manual’s recommendation).

After driving over 500 more miles to Kentucky, plus the return trip, the warning light never returned. In fact, we sorta forgot about the problem. However, while driving home yesterday, the warning light came on again.

Today, I went out to the garage to check the tire pressure. But I didn’t need to check the pressure because the tire was flat!

We called Dix Honda in State College, PA and I made a trip to the dealership to get the problem solved. BTW, the service department at Dix is the best service department we’ve ever worked with!

As it turns out, the tire had a puncture on the edge of the tire wall, which was not repairable. The service manager told me after the tire was replaced with a new one, “This is the kind of puncture that can go boom anytime!”

Well, after having driven well over a thousand miles, most of which were at Interstate speeds of 70+ miles per hour — and on the eve of making another out-of-town trip — that was a sobering moment!

Anyway, back to annual conference: we always enjoy annual conference, and this year should be especially interesting as Ethan joins us. There, Ethan will meet a number of our friends and colleagues for the first time.

We expect it to be a bit overwhelming for Ethan, though, so we’ll have to use some wisdom in making sure we incorporate enough down time for our family. Tentatively, we’ve scheduled Ethan to be in child care Thursday and Friday mornings (that could be an experience in itself) while we try to keep him with one or both of us during the afternoon and/or evening sessions.

For the past several years, Joleen and I have written for the Daily Link, the newspaper that reports on the events of annual conference. Since we don’t know what annual conference with Ethan will be like, we’re cutting down our involvement a little this year. We each have volunteered to write one article each day.

It looks to be a good few days! Annual Conference begins Thursday morning and concludes Saturday afternoon.

And, for the first time, we *should* have internet access while at Messiah College, so please check back later this week to see how annual conference is going and how Ethan is doing. Also, look for a report on our second (of three) post-placement visit with our caseworker regarding our adoption of Ethan, a visit that will take place in Camp Hill on our way to Messiah College on Wednesday.

On our way home from Asbury, we stopped in Huntington, WV for a couple days. While there, we checked out some of the memorials related to the plane crash that killed most of the players on 1970 Marshall University football team.

Ever since we saw the movie, We are Marshall, we’ve noticed the exit signs for Marshall University on I-64 near Huntington, WV. So, on our final trip from Asbury, we finally got to stop.

Last November, we watched the movie, which is based on events surrounding the plane crash, and particularly, the rebuilding of the team in the months that followed. We enjoyed the movie and I wrote about it in this post (one of the more popular topics from search engine traffic, especially when the movie was still fairly new).

The story is a great example of leading during times of immense adversity. Coach Jack Lengyel, who was hired to rebuild the program, did a magnificent job!

For more on the 1970 tragedy, see Marshall University’s memorial page, which includes a number of links, including a link to the newspaper article that appeared on the front page of the local newspaper the day after the crash.

What we did …

• We ate lunch at the Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe.
• We visited the memorial at Marshall University.
• We traveled to the Spring Hill Cemetery to see the memorial and the burial places of six of the players whose bodies were unidentifiable (as seen in the movie).
• We saw the memorial at the football stadium.
• And, finally, we visited the site of the plane crash on a hillside near the Tri-State Airport.

It was an interesting experience, especially after having watched the movie. Now, I want to see the movie again!

Twenty-seven photos from our adventure to and from Korea (a small sampling of the 250 photos we took) have been posted on our photos page (there’s also a link at the top of the page).

Most of these photos are in addition to photos we posted while we were in Korea. Probably the best way to find those is to click on Cross-Cultural Experience in the sidebar (under categories) and browse through the posts in that category.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to/from Korea. Something that turned out to be one of the biggest blessings was the computer in our room at the guest house — being able to connect with others and share the experience was a highlight.

That computer also allowed us to post photos while we were there, although it did take us a couple days to be able to do so. To use our card reader, we needed a USB slot, which was located on the back of the computer. I had to find the slot with my hand because I couldn’t pull the computer out far enough to see the slot.

Anyway, we hope you enjoy the photos and that they give you a greater sense of our adventure to/from Korea. You should be able to click on any of the photos, then click “Next” or “Previous” underneath each photo to click through all 27 photos.

Let us know if you have questions about any of the photos or about the trip, in general.

Thanks again for sharing the experience with us!