Geez… Well to say I’ve been slacking is definitely and understatement. As you can imagine, I’ve been immersed with activities all week long, and things are only going to get busier. Since school has ended, my time has been primarily focused on work and NCSC. Our leadership conference starts on Wednesday the 28th, and between getting things ready in my region, getting things ready on a technology perspective, and finally getting things ready personally, I haven’t really had time for pretty much anything else. I’ve had a chance to mix in some good time with Bethany, social time, fun time – those things that keep me sane, but unfortunately every time I sat down at the computer to blog all of these priorities kept popping up in my head and I used my computer time for other things…
Things are going well.. On the J23/NCSC Renewal Drama I am happy to say that things have taken a dramatic turn for the better. Following up from my last entry, we finally did get a meeting scheduled between the University Ministry staff, the Pastor and myself. This was held on Thursday. Going into the meeting, I was not sure what to expect, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised. The meeting was very respectful, and for the first time I truly felt that a genuine dialog was taking place. Our Pastor surprised me by asking some very relevant and poignant questions, and because our Pastor took a genuine interest in NCSC the Campus Ministers reconsidered the positions they have previously taken. AT the end of the day, our membership was renewed (it was actually done prior to the meeting – a pleasant surprise), and I think there is a lot of opportunity for the J23 students attending Conference to engage in a healthy discussion and supplement our Campus Ministry programming – one giant weight lifted off my shoulders.
That being said, there are still 23 other weights on my shoulders about NCSC Conference Prep for my region and all those other developments. Unlike the J23/NCSC weight, this feels like a very healthy, positive weight and the energy behind this is extremely life-giving. I am blessed to have a proactive and involved regional team that is actually doing most of the work, my role has simply been to coordinate the activities and make sure they have all of the resources that they need. Still, there is quite a bit that I need to do and looking between now (Christmas Eve) and the 27th when my flight heads out, there is a ton to do.. It’ll get done though
So that’s the gist of it for now. I could go on longer, but as time permits I’ll definitely add more.. However, there are two big thoughts of the day which I thought I’d reflect on.
#1 – UPS Sucks! I did a lot of my Christmas shopping on-line this year, and thankfully most of it has come on time. I wish I could say "all" but as of right now there’s a package that was supposed to be here yesterday that did in fact arrive, but I wasn’t home to get it. Apparently it needed a signature – which the shipping company didn’t tell me… No problem, they’ll be back before 10:30… Except I call the # and find out they mean 10:30 on Tuesday the 27th. Two problems: 1) It’s after Christmas and most of these are presents!! 2) I’m flying out at 6:15am on the 27th, so I obviously won’t be home… So I"m screwed. I call UPS and get their stupid run-around automated system that really doesn’t tell you anything or help you. So when it asked me what I want to do, I yelled "I want to talk to a real person!" Funny thing is that it understood me and was going to connect me to their Customer Service… I’m in luck, until I get this stupid recording – due to the high volume of packages their customer service is all hiding under their desks.. Thanks, way to be there in the moment of need! What the heck is this? Christmas comes on December 25th of each year, it’s not like it’s a holiday that moves around and you can’t plan around this! Department stores hire seasonal workers, why can’t freaking UPS staff their call center so they can explain to me why I can’t go to their place and pick up my package on Saturday. So now I’m down to my last resort: go to their warehouse/pick-up thing and if necessary break in to get my package…. We’ll see how this goes… I’ve never had this problem with FedEx! Thanks for nothing UPS!
Last thing for today: Today I finally squeezed in time to go shoe shopping to replace my brown sketchers. Over the last year, these have been my favorite pair of shoes. I wear them at least 6 days out of the week during the cold months (when I need to wear pants). Unfortunately over the last few months they’ve began to ware down and show some visible wear on the outside of the shoes, so I managed to find a new pair of black sketchers to add to my shoe wardrobe. I was figuring out how I’d effectively break these shoes in and still be able to use my old brown shoes as well… So I get home, and take my shoe off the lazy way – I take my other foot and place it on the heel while lifting my foot out of the shoe – this is how I take my shoes of 9 times out of 10. Well no sooner than me bringing home a new pair of shoes, the entire bottom sole (or whatever that part of the shoe is) rips of the shoe, and now my right shoe is in two different pieces… Maybe it’s irony, but I’d like to think that God has an amazing sense of humor