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Good morning! This morning we were running a little late because we stayed up much too late last night saying goodbye to our friend Pat and neither of us feel very well. My roomie and I ran by Starbucks in the lobby, grabbed a muffin, and headed up to plenary. We didn’t miss anything, though. We started with budget reports and moved into stated clerk elections.
Gradey Parsons has just been elected as stated clerk! Installation service now (10:30am)
I’d like to ask your prayers for another friend of ours who got really sick this morning. He went back to bed, and intends to come after lunch, but it’s the last day and I’m sure he would like to be enjoying it. It’s the last day … hummm :-(
Would it be really selfish to request to be a YAD again for the next GA? I really want to, but if I’m not a YAD then I’ll be a volunteer or an observer; either way I am coming back in 2010 (hint*hint* Mrs. Jen). Lol!
We are about to delve back into the real fun … today holds Church Orders and Ministry, peacemaking (WOOT, WOOT), Health Issues, Social Justice Issues, and Church Polity. It’s going to be a long day. A woman in the Starbucks line, who’s been to General Assembly twenty two times, said that she predicted that we would be leaving the plenary at 2am. That’s hopeful, right?
I have to leave at 6:30am tomorrow, and it’s going to take an eternity to clean our room. It’s so messy, there are piles of papers everywhere, clothes erupting from suit cases, power cords strung up like spider webs, and little trinkets cluttering all table tops (aside from the lack of organization, it reminds me of Dumbledore’s office). It’s not pretty, but we’ve been too busy to worry about how it looks. It’s actually funny because everyone’s rooms have begun to look like this.
We are now (3:20pm) going over my committees reports. I was, again, on the committee of Peacemaking and International issues. We got through the first overture easily with little discussion, but the second one got us stuck. We have many more to go, and we still have Health Issues, Church Polity, and Social Justice Issues to go tonight.
Lunch was delicious … we ate at a small European bakery and I think I fell in love with the Panini that I got. I was scrumptious. Nate’s still sick however and Addie wasn’t feeling well either, so they just sat there while Meredith and I ate. We got Addie some soup on the way “home”, and just chilled in her room while she ate.
We are now (4:15pm) still on peacemaking, but Addie and Nate have gone back to the hotel, and another has fallen out of the ranks. Not gonna lie … I’m not feeling so hot myself. I’ve hand sanitized after everything I’ve done. Nate thinks he has food poisoning, but about a third of the YADs feel sick right now. (Shannon: I think I’m dying again … like Montreat.)
Oh my goodness … I think I am dying … it’s so cold in this room, I feel so nauseous (sorry if you didn’t want to know that), and these wonderful Christians, that I love, are arguing over such unintelligent things that my head might explode.
We have now (5:30pm) moved from Peacemaking to Church Polity. I just had to inform “mom” (one of our advisors) that another of our group got sick and had to go back to there room. She informed me that 29 YADs are sick.
Just got back from dinner. It was ok … no real appetite. More people are sick and Nate is getting worse. We had to say goodbye to another member of our group :-(
Before dinner we started the discussion on homosexual marriage. We kind of ended right in the middle of our discussion, so everyone had time to write their opinions down, and are now (7:35pm) sharing their opinions with all of us.
Now (8:00pm) the question has been called … this will be interesting. Nope … more amendments. I wish these ridiculous people could hear themselves. Nope … It got shot down.
My mom has bugged me, every time I speak to her, to talk about where God is here in this place. Well mom, the truth is that God is everywhere. I prayed at dinner the other night, and I just asked that everyone feel God’s presence surround them and to imagine a Jesus bobble head sitting beside their computers, and to know that he is constantly with us … because he is, when we vote, when we sleep (or don’t), when we argue, and even when we get sick … God is there. I see him as part of our group (the splendid number 11), and even when I am disappointed with my brothers and sisters here, God is a reassurance in that he is still here with us, even with them. I don’t agree with everything that has been voted here, and perhaps neither does God, but he will never abandon us, he will forgive us and keep us moving in our faith so that we may mold it to fit the new ways o our church.
8:45pm … we have moved on to discussing something to do with leaving the PC(USA) (pc-biz is not working so I’m not really sure)
9:00pm … pc-biz is back up and running and we are moving on to Social Justice Issues.
We have just now (9:15pm) voted that every PC(USA) member give up one meal a week in efforts to give the money saved to those who are hungry and/or homeless.
9:30 … and they’re dropping like flies. The number of sick YADs in racking up … this is not good. There were only 140 of us who voted on that last one (and there are 175 of us)… and most of us abstained because we don’t feel well and have been distracted … there were twenty more people that abstained then voted no.
10:30pm … we have finished Social Justice Issues and are breaking before Health Issues. I think I may very well have a fever. Fever confirmed … strongly considering leaving.
10:45pm … YAD count down to 118
11:30pm … We have voted on our final overture!
11:45pm … must pack up … we are FINISHED!!!
Final YAD count: 98
Now (2:05) I am sitting in my room with Cate (roomie) and Luke … sad because everyone went to bed because they’re sick … and I leave too early for goodbyes :-(
I must go now and start packing. See you all in two weeks! Hopefully I can continue the blog if any are interested in hearing about Project Burning Bush!
I love you all and thank you for your support, prayer, and love.
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Posted by lcob on 2008-06-28 05:12:30 | Rating: | Views: 29
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