Cloud of WitnessesThis is a cool shot from an activity in Doug Fields’ message on Saturday night. Everyone wrote a “faith blocker” and tossed it into the air. People were asked to pick up one of the papers that landed near them and pray for that person and their faith blocker. It was a cool, interactive community experience.

Hey all-thanks for tons of great evaluations! We’ll be drawing for the IPOD soon, and might even through in a free conference registration for 2009 for the best comments received! I’ll keep ya’ll updated on the comments and trends we’re hearing. I’m loving the big dreamers out there–suggestions for Bono as a keynote speaker.  Hey–maybe Bono will cut us a break and speak AND bring in a little U2 concert. We’re in the brainstorming phase…right? (I can’t imagine the technical riders on some of these suggestions, that’s enough to send me to a padded room!)

You can’t have a conference with 100 Sack Chairs and not catch some air. Ken Compton and his buddy sent me these…I’m waiting for the video!

still on a high from the most amazing time at the conference. Awesome speakers, unbelievable affinity groups, and most of all–the best group of dedicated, loving, committed youth workers on the face of the earth. It is an honor, and a humbling privilege to have walked alongside you for those 4 days. You are heroes.

Between the pace of the conference, and a sketchy Internet connection in my room, I win the lame blog award!!!

 But–Josh Griffin, and a whole bunch of other bloggers have been on it–check out Josh’s blog, More Than Dodgeball for all of the videos, photos, and links to other conference blogs!

The first crew is here, and the rest of the staff arrives tomorrow. Tons to do, but so fun! Three important observations to pass along:

1. Parking is best in the 6th street parking garage, on the top covered floor. It attaches directly to the Duke Energy Center, totally convenient and is $8 per day vs. $20 per day in the hotel parking lots.

2.  Not all of the rooms in the Millennium Hotel have free wireless that’s strong enough to actually count, in my opinion. Bring your own Ethernet cord, and hook straight in. It’s free and works great.

3. Skyline Chili rocks, and we’re now heading over to the Montgomery Inn for the world’s best ribs…

There are a TON of new happenings springing up at the conference–lots of organizations and denominations are looking forward to meeting with their members for connection. Check out the info board at the conference for exact locations and daily updates, but here’s a running list:

2/22 Friday afternoon: Affinity Groups will be hanging out all afternoon in various locations for conversation

2/22 Friday Late night: around 9:30 or so…Group Magazine Reader & Author Reception with Rick Lawrence and Group Magazine Authors; the National Network of Youth Ministries Gathering with NNYM president Paul Fleishmann; Group Workcamp Foundation 1st ever volunteer reunion

2/23 Saturday 5-6:00 pm Various denominational gatherings: Catholic Church; United Methodist; Lutheran (Missouri Synod); Salvation Army, Christian & Missionary Alliance (dinner)

2/23 Saturday Late Night 10-11:00 pm  PDYM (Purpose Driven Youth Ministry) Community Gathering 

arrrrrgh. There are days the details kill me. It’s Valentine’s day, I’m working from home with a sick child, still in my pj’s at 6 pm, have not showered in 2 days and our team is working like mad to do all of those “little” things. From name badges, evaluation forms, participant manuals, signs, and logistics, logistics, logistics. My email is making that “new email noise” (is there a word for that?) so often it’s actually comical.

Amidst the chaos of it all, there is a certain excitement that comes with this pace. Maybe its a touch of hysteria mixed with sleep deprivation and adrenaline, but I like to think I smell God in this. (or maybe that’s my “earthy” scent, not sure.) Anyway, despite dozens upon dozens of emails back and forth with speakers, staff, volunteers–and even attendees…there is a common thread in it. We’re all in the final stretch–it’s in full view…we’re almost here.

It reminds me of the time I ran a half marathon. It started out down the mountains, which was so thrilling–running fast with the pack, completely energized. Towards mile five we’d all thinned out, the sun was blasting, and I was getting grouchy. By mile 7, I was running down an empty stretch of back country road, and not a person was in sight. (except for a larger middle-aged woman lumbering along about 50 yards in FRONT of me) I had to turn off my mp3 player–I’d filled it entirely with worship music–as this was going to be 13 miles of running, prayer and worship, and my newfound cursing felt akward amidst praise-filled lyrics. By mile 9 I was so numb I didn’t realize I’d lost bladder control until I felt my shoes sloshing with every step. (unfortunate overuse of B vitamins was also apparent.)

I was actually sobbing into mile 11, but reduced it to a whimper as I noticed that there were suddenly a lot more runners along the road (the big 10K race merged into the marathon course for the final leg, and the really good full-marathon runners were now overrunning us.) An older gentleman ran up along beside me and just said 3 simple words, “stay with me.” I’m not sure what happened then, but I got stronger. He and I stepped up a hearty pace, the course turned into the city and the crowds were cheering. It was a sea of faces–all yelling, encouraging, clapping, and there was a huge pack of us running until the finish line.

There was kinship in the humanity of that last mile. I feel that this week. The co-runners in this journey to Cincinnati are all of us who have strived to get here. I’ve talked to youth workers who are making this journey despite incredible hardships and sacrifices, and speakers who have endured some of the most gut-wrenching months of their lives. It’s heart-breaking and inspiring.

We’re in the merging zone now…it’s where we all run this last mile in together. I love this part.

Thanks to Josh and his blog, More then Dodgeball, there is growing list of bloggers that are going to be at the conference.

Check out the list building in the comments of that post. Are you blogging? Hit that post (or the link below) and let Josh know.

Check out some of the cool things they are doing for the bloggers at the event and for bloggers’ respective sites. A lot of it involves food and prizes…can’t beat that!

We got a call from a company called Sack Chairs that makes those HUGE bean bags. It’s a Christian family owned company, and they stumbled onto our website after hoping to connect with youth workers with their awesome sacks, and saw the couch…and thought we looked like fun furniture people. We are…it’s all about kicking back for some renewing conversations! Anyway–this company is now stocking up the conference with over 100 huge sacks for massive sack chair lounge areas.

Kind of overshadows the whole red couch thing–but hey–we can’t turn away comfort! We’ll be doing some fun contests with giveaways of some of the sack chairs–and the red couch, of course! Clear out your youth room…new furniture may be headed your way!

The red couch is going on a road trip soon…Josh and Jake are taking it to Cincinnati. Hope it makes it. Just in case they run into problems, I decided to order a few more red couches to be shipped ahead straight to the convention center. On Friday I stopped by the local furniture store where we’d originally found the red couch, and saw the owners had posted the conference brochure on the wall in honor of the couch. They said they are starting a contest about stories inspired by their furniture. It’s a little weird, but it could be cool. We could do that at the conference. Hmmmmmmm….