Life. Leadership. God’s Mission.

Tired, sleep-deprived, and worn out.

That’s an odd way to begin a post called “Re-energized!” But while annual conference is physically tiring (and not just annual conference, but annual conference with a baby for the first time), it is still very energizing, spiritually and missionally!

Of course, while spending hours together with a community of Christ-followers in worship and worshipful work is always impacting and re-energizing, it is also a time to refocus on the mission — the main thing, why we do what we do.

Everyone, including leaders, need these kinds of times renewal and refocusing. Leading on the front lines of the mission is challenging. In every organization, including churches, there are strong forces at work to simply maintain the status quo (or go back to the way things were at some point in the past), to take the easy road, or to seek the comfortable way.

The temptation for leaders is to grow weary of the journey of leading people in mission and to allow these forces to inhibit them from fulfilling their God-given task. Leadership *always* involves challenging the process (to use the language of Kouzes and Posner in their landmark book, The Leadership Challenge). It’s certainly not for the fainthearted!

But we all get tired. We all battle doubt and despair, at times. We must regularly find ways to fan the flames, to stir the passion, and to keep moving forward. For us, annual conference is one of the ways that keeps us focused, encouraging us to stay the course, and to lead with courage.

These times of renewal serve as reminders that this is ultimately God’s work. God always gives us the equipment we need for us to complete the work he’s given us. The journey is never easy, but because of God’s power and presence, it is always do-able!

BTW, Ethan did well today, his third/final day of annual conference. He was obviously tired, though. We are grateful for Jean, our district superintendent’s (Dave Norris) wife, who cared for Ethan during the closing ordination service in the afternoon. And, Ethan finally got a much-needed nice long nap during that time!

The big story this weekend is Ethan’s endurance. Ethan continues to grow as he experiences new things.

In the recent past, highly social activities seemed to have (emotionally) taxed and drained Ethan. But no social event that we’ve participated in so far is anything like annual conference. For two entire days, we’ve been immersed in a sea of people. I’m pretty sure we’ve interacted with more people this year than in the previous 9 years combined.

Early this morning, a little sleep deprived, Ethan was a bit clingy (but not too bad, really). We were a little concerned about dropping him off at child care, but once again, he did very well.

While Ethan was at child care, Joleen and I both wrote for the Daily Link (our articles from today’s edition are currently published on the main page, but you may have to scroll down for previous articles after tomorrow’s edition is added). The articles are a goods way to find out what’s taking place at annual conference. (Someday, I suspect worship services at annual conference will be streamed live over the internet. It’s probably not a question of if, but when.)

At lunchtime, I fed Ethan baby food while Joleen went through the lunch line to get her food and some food for Ethan. But just about the time she got through the line, I had to take him out of his high chair because he was falling asleep! We put him in his stroller, where he slept for the next hour (actually, yesterday, he didn’t even get to eat anything — he fell asleep by the time we reached the cafeteria — he hasn’t been napping during child care).

We spent the afternoon and evening together. In the midst of the “worshipful work,” we heard two great sermons — one by Rev. Dr. Ron Parks, pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in Harrisburg, and the other by Bishop Sally Dyck, bishop of the Minnesota Area of the United Methodist Church. (Perhaps we’ll say more about these messages later, maybe even after we receive them on DVDs.)

The worship has also been great this year. Mark Miller (who led worship here in 2005 and 2006) returned this year along with Marcia McFee. Mark and Marcia teamed up to lead worship at last month’s 2008 General Conference.

But again, the big story for us this weekend is Ethan’s endurance. Through two long days, he continues to do well. We still have a long day ahead of us, but we will head home Saturday evening.

But who knows, Ethan may end of sleeping much of next week!

Wednesday morning, we drove to Camp Hill, PA where we met with Cindy, our caseworker from Adoption Horizons, for our second (of three) post-placement visits. Basically, it was an opportunity for us to talk about Ethan’s progress. It went very well.

That leaves only one more post-placement visit. Sometime in the fall, we will go to court to finalize our adoption of Ethan.

Later Wednesday afternoon, we checked into our room at Messiah College. We are assigned to a dorm room with a living room, kitchen, private bath, and a bedroom with 3 twin beds (2 of the them are stacked). The room also includes a pack-n-play, which Ethan is sleeping in (it’s the first time we’ve travelled away from home that he is able to sleep in his own bed!).

Annual conference started this morning at 9:30 and ended a little more than 12 hours later. The big test today was leaving Ethan with total strangers for the first time when we dropped him off at child care for the morning session. We didn’t know how Ethan would handle it, but he handled it very well!

We kept him with us for the afternoon worship service. Then, while Joleen wrote for the Daily Link during the afternoon’s “worshipful work” session, I wheeled Ethan around in his stroller while he slept for well over an hour (mainly in the hallway where I was able to catch most of what was happening in the main auditorium).

After dinner, it was my turn to write for the Daily Link while Joleen hung out with Ethan for the rest of the evening.

Ethan has certainly changed the dynamic of annual conference for us. Simply put, Ethan is a huge attention getter. As Cindy (our caseworker) told Ethan yesterday, “You’re going to be a big hit at conference.” Indeed, he has been!

We’ll try to take some photos tomorrow — today, being the first day at annual conference with Ethan, and having a lot of extra stuff to carry with us, we just didn’t want to bother with the camera. But we should be ready tomorrow.

For now, here are some photos of yesterday’s arrival in our dorm room …

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.

No surprise here, but as you can see, Ethan likes to get into everything!

Now that graduation is behind us, it’s (past!) time to start packing. As we pack, we’re hoping to do some streamlining by getting rid of some things we’ve accumulated that we no longer use or need. It’s especially during times like these when I become more interested in creating a minimalist home.

In the photos below, you can see that we’ve kept all of our boxes (a must for itinerant pastors!). Over the next 3.5 weeks, most of our spare time (and then some!) will be spent carrying down empty boxes from the attic and filling them up. You’ll also notice the remnants of Ethan trying to help us pack our books!

BTW, our moving dates have been set by the conference moving coordinators. We move out on 6/25 and move in to the new parsonage in Clearfield on 6/26.

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!

It may be a corny play on words, but it’s one we’ve heard a couple times already — by one of the members of my dissertation committee and also a fellow student at the doctor of ministry dinner last night — both saying that we’d be a “pair o’ docs.”

The weekend began with a dinner for D.Min. graduates Friday night, and continued Saturday morning with an early morning rehearsal for the commencement ceremony which took pace this afternoon. It was a great day to complete a major chapter in our lives!

We feel gratitude — we’re grateful to God for his guidance and blessings throughout this part of our journey. We are also grateful for all who have supported us with their words and/or prayers. We also feel a huge sense of relief as this part of our journey comes to a close.

It was a wonderful day. We were happy to spend it with family members — Joleen’s mom and step-dad, Randy’s dad and step-mom, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. In fact, this weekend has been Ethan’s first time to meet and spend time with Randy’s family.

We *may* add a new graduation-related photo gallery to the photos page after we collect photos from family members, but in the meantime, here are some images from the day …

Today marks the 100th day since Ethan joined our family!

In Korea, families traditionally celebrate a child’s 100th day (from birth). Historically, a child’s first 100 days were the most critical. If a child lived that long, they were more likely to survive. While modern medicine has changed that, Korean families still continue to celebrate the day.

Well, we checked the calendar and today, May 22, 2008, is the 100th day we’ve had Ethan.

And how did we spend our 100th day together? On the road!

We drove to Kentucky where we will graduate from Asbury Theological Seminary this weekend.

We made good time, except for the last 20 miles, which took us about 2 hours, turning a 9 hour trip into 11. Traffic on the Interstate virtually stopped. We eventually made a U-Turn and took a detour following the back roads. While Ethan handled the trip fairly well, it was a very long day for him, strapped into a car seat! (You can read about the last trip to KY here: Setback.)

Sometimes it feels like we were just in Korea, and that “the meeting” (February 11, 2008) and “gotcha day” (February 12, 2008) were only yesterday. But in other ways, though, it’s hard to believe that it’s only been 100 days — it feels like Ethan’s been part of our family for much longer!

To review and/or relive those early moments, check out these posts …

• 1,000 Words (a photo from the morning we first met Ethan in his foster home in Korea).
• The Meeting (a description of our one-hour meeting with the baby).
• First Hours with Ethan (a painful report of the first few hours after “the takeaway”).

Of course, you can always click on Adoption (under categories) to read posts about our adoption experience or even Cross-Cultural Experience to read our posts from Korea.

Today, we celebrate 100 days with Ethan, as we continue to thank God for him!

Wow. It’s been a long journey, but we’re finally reaching the finish line!

The home stretch of the dissertation-writing process involved preparing the final draft of our dissertations after we received the last edit from the editor at Asbury (see The Rest of the (Dissertation) Story and One Step Closer to see recent lists of tasks in the final stages of our dissertation work).

We received our drafts from the editor last Thursday and completed our revisions Monday and Tuesday, printed a copy, then dropped them off at Staples to be copied (we’re required to submit multiple copies). We picked them up today and will deliver them to the D.Min. office at Asbury on Friday.

Tomorrow, we make our last 9-10 hour trip to Kentucky (as part of this program, anyway), and will have most of Friday to relax before kicking off graduation activities Friday evening with a dinner for Doctor of Ministry graduates.

Saturday morning, we have rehearsal for the commencement ceremony followed by a worship service in the historic Hughes Auditorium on the campus of Asbury College (across the street from the seminary). After lunch, graduation activities will conclude with the commencement ceremony, beginning at 2:00 pm.

We’re excited about celebrating this milestone. We’re also excited that my family (dad and step-mom, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew) will get to meet Ethan for the first time as they join us for a few days in Kentucky (they live in Tennessee). Joleen’s mom and step-dad will make the trip with us as well.

We’re tacking on a few days of vacation after graduation in order to get some rest before coming back home to jump into packing!

You might be interested in going back and reading this post from last October (a couple weeks after we learned Ethan would be joining our family) — If Baby Willis Could Speak. Amazingly, things pretty much played out the way we hoped they would (and needed them to)!

Here’s the photo again from that October post (which was a tweaked version of a photo from the first set of photos we received; Ethan was just over 3 months old in the photo).

And there’s a new photo of Ethan, who was a huge motivation for us, especially during the final stages of this journey. The new photo, taken this evening, is a photo of Ethan helping us celebrate the final products.