well its been a busy few days. Please forgive my lack of punctuation and capitalization as I'm writing on a tiny cramped keyboard. A couple highlights from the first 24 hours.
Last night was Opening Worship and it is always the highlight of the Conference. We sang God of Grace and God of Glory which was very appropriate for our work together. At one point I was moved almost to the point of tears as we sang that great hymn of the church. It turned into a long night as we had to establish the Rules, and that turned into a long process. After about five hours of sleep we were back at it this morning. Today turned into a great day! We spent most of the day hearing from the Bishops, which turned out to be great. The Bishops have beenmore vocal than ever before and seem to be providing excellent leadership. They are proposing four major areas of focus which could have a tremendous impact on the way we work as a church. The four areas are congregational starts and re-development, a focus on raising up young leadership, a focus on eliminating poverty and a focus on global health. These areas where proposed with measurable ideas of success and accountability. Really exciting to think what we could do!

Probably the most disappointing thing so far was the Young People's address. The five individuals chosen to speak did not represent well young people well, as they advocated for things that are much more liberal than most. I was disappointed that they did not lay out a vision and dream for the Church. A missed opportunity.

Committee meetings about to start! Keep praying!