ATL

so last weekend i was in atlanta for the National Missionary Convention. it was tim, nate, hank, and myself representing Sojourn and The Boston Partnership in our very own booth! exciting times for sure. hank tagged us as "the most irreverent booth present." many would probably agree. i mean, not only were we from the evil East Coast, but we were young and kind of loud. no one actually came out and said any of this, we just figure these were the thoughts behind the many stares we got. especially the booth next to us, where the people were roughly 4 to 5 times our age.

anyway, bobby drew out a sweet "Boston" sign on canvas for us since, sadly, he did not join us in ATL. upon arriving, nate and i constructed a frame for said canvas, about 10' X 9'. then, the four of us painted it over the course of the convention, inviting others to paint as well. so the canvas served a few purposes: advertisement, interaction, and entertainment for us when we got bored. so, some pictures... [click to enlarge]

tim with a staple gun = terror.

i'm such a pseudo-artist!

good work hank.

the final product!

ATL was good times. on the canvas, we had some fun facts about Boston written above "Boston," things like "1/2 of world leaders study in Boston" and "95% of population will not attend church this weekend." then at the end, we painted over those facts with "God is in..." the canvas was this "work-in-progress," much like Sojourn and The Boston Partnership are.

other highlights: my friend lindsay lives in ATL, so i got to hang out with her a bit...and, my "second dad" Rob was at the convention from my home church in Indiana. it was wonderful to see both of them...i was very encouraged.

it was nice to get away for a few days, but it is so good to be home. and tomorrow is Thanksgiving! it will be a "very Sojourn" Thanksgiving, looking forward to it. plus, i just made two pumpkin pies, my first pies ever! all without the smoke alarm going off.

to copy from an email i just sent: life is good. jobs, tutoring, running, everything. i love boston, and i love where God has me right now. lately i've felt completely overwhelmed by who God is, and the personality traits of Jesus, and the needs of people, and where i fit into all of that. i've been trying to absorb and learn all i can...about ministry, about people, about God. i wish i could absorb more, but i think i'm learning a lot.

a few other things:

• i've been thinking about and researching the U.S. National Debt lately [random, i know, but $8.1 trillion is ridiculous].
• Don Miller rocks my world.
• i can be a big idiot sometimes. i hate that.
• we got new nametags at work [harvard] today...they are pretty sweet.

that's all. Happy Thanksgiving!