Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
AAAHHHHH!!!
I'm going to start a new blog for Project Burning Bush ... but not tonight ... i'm beat
~Maggie
~Maggie
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Final Day :-(
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. Hopefully we'll be out of here by midnight.
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.
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. Hopefully we'll be out of here by midnight.
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.
3:00am ... taking a break from packing ... need to rest, still not feeling well. Please pray for everyone as they travel tomorrow, and that they all feel well enough to do so ... I can't imagine flying when you're sick.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Longest Day Yet
So this morning I woke up. I got breakfast (starbucks). I went to plenary. I’m dragging today.
Now (9:00am) I am sitting in plenary. We just voted on the candidate for advisory committee on the constitution. Stewart Pollock won. We then proceeded to vote on about 20 or so more people to positions that we know almost nothing about. It was great. People would stand at the podium and give a three minute speech in advocacy of someone to fill some position that we literally know nothing about. We didn’t know what these people would do, how they would do it, and therefore could make no appropriate decision on which one could fill this position. It was also around this time that I began to feel the lack of sleep from last night.
Now (9:00am) I am sitting in plenary. We just voted on the candidate for advisory committee on the constitution. Stewart Pollock won. We then proceeded to vote on about 20 or so more people to positions that we know almost nothing about. It was great. People would stand at the podium and give a three minute speech in advocacy of someone to fill some position that we literally know nothing about. We didn’t know what these people would do, how they would do it, and therefore could make no appropriate decision on which one could fill this position. It was also around this time that I began to feel the lack of sleep from last night.
After this, we heard reports from committees 3, 8, and 13. There wasn’t much commotion on anything, but I was a bit taken aback by how quickly we passed the acceptation of the Belhar Confession.
Lunch.Worship.
Again with the picketers giving their opinions. On the way to dinner (our presbytery went out to eat) we were again spoken at by a few men with large signs who informed us that we should be so taken with the lord that people look at us in awe. I truly wanted to say “people sure look at you in awe … because you’re making such fools of yourselves” but I don’t have a death wish and I don’t intend to give them the satisfaction of knowing that someone is actually listening to them … so we just walk past.
Dinner was pretty alright, and it was great to get to know more of our commissioners. It’s just sad that this was really the only time that I’d be able to do so.
Picketers still there after dinner. Now (10:00pm) I am dying in plenary. We have been sitting down for so long … I had to take medicine because my back hurt so badly. I’m in desperate need of fresh air. We have just begun on church polity and have a lot more to go tonight. We are going to be addressing the gay marriage overtures tonight, and there is undoubtedly going to be a lot of controversy. Also tonight we are supposed to hear from the committee on health issues which brings about the issue of abortion. To say the least, we are going to be here for a while.
Not too many exciting moments today. We’ve been in plenary since this morning at 8:30am with only three hours for both meals and about four small breaks. I’ll try for more excitement tomorrow.
Speaking (thinking) about tomorrow … it’s a sad day. One of our group members is flying out tomorrow morning so this is our last night together as a whole :-( and we are now constantly reminded about how tomorrow is our last day together :-(
These crazy kids are like my family now, and I feel like we’ve know one another for a month. I’m going to miss them terribly, but we are already planning our reunion! No worries here … we will be together again. It’s just been so amazing to have the opportunity to come here and find my way alone. I have been myself with this group from the beginning and I feel no reason to be embarrassed about being who I am. We are totally and completely open with one another and that is perhaps the best feeling in the world.
AAAAHHHHHHH! We are now(11:45pm) still in plenary.
12:10am and we have said our goodbyes :-(
12:20am and I guess I’m getting ready for bed
12:40am and I’m still sad and not in bed … but it’s an early morning tomorrow so …
Funny story of the day … oh shoot … I can’t remember
Mom: I’m working on it
1:22am and saying goodbye
Thursday, June 26, 2008
I'm out of witty headlines
Day five … or is it six? Technically it’s seven for me … they all sort of blend together.
Today we got to sleep in!!! The first thing on our agenda for toady was lunch at noon … which was wonderful considering people were in our room until 3:30am. AGH!! I was so tired that I just rolled over and went to sleep around 2:45am, knowing they would leave eventually. It was fun though!
After lunch we wandered around in the Exhibition hall for a little while, and then headed back to our hotel for mission presentations and a mini YAD worship.
Now (3:45pm) we are sitting in plenary listening to and voting on the reports from different committees and their overtures. We are scheduled to be here until 6pm. YAY! But we are planning on dressing up and going to P.F. Chang’s for dinner, so that’s exciting.
OK … made it to dinner and it was amazing! We got a myriad of different entrées and just passed our plates! Delicious! On the way back, however, we J-walked back to the convention center, and were confronted by picketers who shouted at us “Break man’s law, get a ticket. Break God’s law, go to hell.” They were there to show their disapproval of homosexual rights in our church. Not more than 50 feet away, however, a group of people who were promoting the rights of homosexuals were handing out cookies. It’s disappointing to see how separated people are on such issues and the lengths to which they will go to get their views across. These Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ but seem to be so blind to that fact that they are feuding so harshly and have resorted to these (for lack of a better word) animal like behaviors. We’ve been told that it will only get worse from this point forward so I guess the fun has only just begun :-/
We have just finished “speak out” (an opportunity for people to get things off of their chests or offer suggestions) and have now (8:05pm) returned to the business from before dinner. We have been debating the majority of this time about whether or not our God and the Gods of Jews and Muslims are in fact the same God. Now I’m not sure if any of you can answer this question, but I know that I sure can’t and I’m not really sure how anyone can truly know about another’s God. I don’t believe that the God you worship is the same as the one I worship, because I believe God is what you believe him/her to be, and we all see this God figure in a different way because not a one of us believes the same exact same thing in the same way as any other. And that is not to say that we don’t share in this religion, because we all worship this higher power as one and come together in this faith as people who believe in God regardless of how we see him/her individually. A representative just stood up and actually said almost the same thing that I just typed so I guess I’m not the only one who thinks this way.
We are actually ahead in our docket so they have moved a few committee reports up to tonight instead of leaving them for tomorrow. We are now (8:30pm) on a short break as we wait for the amendment to be put on the screen. I believe that the running feed of our meeting can be found on the PC(USA) website (if anything can be found on that site) for all of those interested in exactly what is happening. It is in real time (pacific coast time) however, so we are three hours behind.
The natives are getting restless … it was just suggested that we move a little slower (because pc-biz doesn’t move as quickly as our moderator and by the time the overture pops up on the screen, we’ve already voted on it) and there was a huge uproar of disapproval. They don’t make that much noise when we vote.
Alright … now (9:05pm) we are watching a video about our stated clerk … but it’s not so much a video as a medley of pictures put to music. Not gonna lie … it’s a bit awkward, and I don’t necessarily see it’s relevance to the committee that brought it into question.
YAD caucus is officially over and we are now (12:30am) sitting in Nate’s room watching Scrubs. We got Ben&Jerry’s ice cream in the lobby and we are not just chillin’.
Tomorrow starts bright and early with plenary ALL day long.
I want to add a special thanks to my parents and all of parents who allow their children to be who they are and accept them no matter what. We heard a lot of testimony today about people whose parents disowned them because of choices that they have made, and people whose parents didn’t take the time to inform them of the natural happenings of life. It just makes me appreciate so greatly how wonderful my parents are. So thanks to them and to all … it’s great to know how much I am loved. Love you too mom and dad … and to all others who are like parents/mentors to me!
Today we got to sleep in!!! The first thing on our agenda for toady was lunch at noon … which was wonderful considering people were in our room until 3:30am. AGH!! I was so tired that I just rolled over and went to sleep around 2:45am, knowing they would leave eventually. It was fun though!
After lunch we wandered around in the Exhibition hall for a little while, and then headed back to our hotel for mission presentations and a mini YAD worship.
Now (3:45pm) we are sitting in plenary listening to and voting on the reports from different committees and their overtures. We are scheduled to be here until 6pm. YAY! But we are planning on dressing up and going to P.F. Chang’s for dinner, so that’s exciting.
OK … made it to dinner and it was amazing! We got a myriad of different entrées and just passed our plates! Delicious! On the way back, however, we J-walked back to the convention center, and were confronted by picketers who shouted at us “Break man’s law, get a ticket. Break God’s law, go to hell.” They were there to show their disapproval of homosexual rights in our church. Not more than 50 feet away, however, a group of people who were promoting the rights of homosexuals were handing out cookies. It’s disappointing to see how separated people are on such issues and the lengths to which they will go to get their views across. These Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ but seem to be so blind to that fact that they are feuding so harshly and have resorted to these (for lack of a better word) animal like behaviors. We’ve been told that it will only get worse from this point forward so I guess the fun has only just begun :-/
We have just finished “speak out” (an opportunity for people to get things off of their chests or offer suggestions) and have now (8:05pm) returned to the business from before dinner. We have been debating the majority of this time about whether or not our God and the Gods of Jews and Muslims are in fact the same God. Now I’m not sure if any of you can answer this question, but I know that I sure can’t and I’m not really sure how anyone can truly know about another’s God. I don’t believe that the God you worship is the same as the one I worship, because I believe God is what you believe him/her to be, and we all see this God figure in a different way because not a one of us believes the same exact same thing in the same way as any other. And that is not to say that we don’t share in this religion, because we all worship this higher power as one and come together in this faith as people who believe in God regardless of how we see him/her individually. A representative just stood up and actually said almost the same thing that I just typed so I guess I’m not the only one who thinks this way.
We are actually ahead in our docket so they have moved a few committee reports up to tonight instead of leaving them for tomorrow. We are now (8:30pm) on a short break as we wait for the amendment to be put on the screen. I believe that the running feed of our meeting can be found on the PC(USA) website (if anything can be found on that site) for all of those interested in exactly what is happening. It is in real time (pacific coast time) however, so we are three hours behind.
The natives are getting restless … it was just suggested that we move a little slower (because pc-biz doesn’t move as quickly as our moderator and by the time the overture pops up on the screen, we’ve already voted on it) and there was a huge uproar of disapproval. They don’t make that much noise when we vote.
Alright … now (9:05pm) we are watching a video about our stated clerk … but it’s not so much a video as a medley of pictures put to music. Not gonna lie … it’s a bit awkward, and I don’t necessarily see it’s relevance to the committee that brought it into question.
YAD caucus is officially over and we are now (12:30am) sitting in Nate’s room watching Scrubs. We got Ben&Jerry’s ice cream in the lobby and we are not just chillin’.
Tomorrow starts bright and early with plenary ALL day long.
I want to add a special thanks to my parents and all of parents who allow their children to be who they are and accept them no matter what. We heard a lot of testimony today about people whose parents disowned them because of choices that they have made, and people whose parents didn’t take the time to inform them of the natural happenings of life. It just makes me appreciate so greatly how wonderful my parents are. So thanks to them and to all … it’s great to know how much I am loved. Love you too mom and dad … and to all others who are like parents/mentors to me!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
what's sleep?
so we are now (1:45am) all sitting in our room watching infomercials and doing things on the the computer ... sleep is no more.
we don't have anything to do tomorrow until 12pm!!!
i can't contain my excitment
must sleep ...
we don't have anything to do tomorrow until 12pm!!!
i can't contain my excitment
must sleep ...
more fun stuff
gas prices $4.96
body slam
the beach!!!
bumper cars
Sky thingy
new KISS shades
bus ride
my committee's representations of peace
Palm Trees ...
the mountains that enclose the city
**ERIN DON'T LOOK** ... my feet in the Pacific Ocean
Arcade GamesA disfunctional game of volleyball
Rollercoaster Fun!!!
Swinging Dragon Ride Thing
lemon eating concert
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
what's today?
(In committee we have wireless internet, but the only website able to be accessed is pc-biz so I type my blog in a word document during free time throughout the day and post it all at night)
Sleep …
This was an early morning again with worship at 8:30. Worship was great, but it released late so we didn’t exactly have time for breakfast before we had to go to committee. Nutrigrain bar and pretzels it was.
Now (11:49am) we are now discussing overtures pertaining to human rights in Zimbabwe and Columbia. We got through the hearings smoothly (although they took forever, I think we had twenty) and moved to pass the first overture quickly. After that, however, the pace slowed to a crawl (and a slow crawl at that). We’ve been stuck on our second overture for more than an hour :-o We actually managed to get so tangled in this overture that we had an amendment to the amendment to the amendment to the amendment … this is not a joke. I wish there were something funny about it, but once again I’m out of luck. We heard testimony from suffering people living in these countries that was disturbing, horrifying, sad, and scary all at the same time. These countries are full of so much hatred and violence that it’s hard to imagine. It’s trying and difficult to accept that there could be so much pain in other countries, and that we don’t even see the tip of the iceberg from here.
Lunch time … be back soon.
Oh! Lunch was delicious! We had only a short time (our committee decided to meet early) so a small group of us headed to Johnny Rockets (American food today). We got there, sat down, and got things going, but after a few minutes, our numbers doubled and we ended up squeezing 13 people into a booth for 6. I was stuck in the middle, and it’s not that I don’t love these people, but it’s difficult to function when you are basically sitting on top of one another. Because everyone else showed up, the process of food making slowed drastically and we ended up having to get our food to go and hurry back to committee. So we ate while we debated, but it was still delicious.
Now (1:30pm) we are going over commissioners reports pertaining to the starvation caused by flooding in Korea. Motion passed … now onto the afternoon docket!
I should be paying better attention, but I’m sitting here debating what I should do. The YAD’s are invited to go to Santa Cruz tonight, but that will take us away from committee. I truly want to go and stick my foot in the Pacific Ocean, and have more YAD hang out time, but at the same time I feel called to be present and have my voice in committee (that is why I’m here … to represent the youth of our presbytery and this is the only place that my voice truly counts). So I’m dreadfully torn between the two :(
We now (1:50pm) have 47 hearings on the overtures related to Palestine and Israel.
YAY! We are now (3:15pm) done with hearings … now time to get started debating.
Still torn …
Ok … I eanie-meany-miney-moed it (the fair way of course) and ended on the beach. So … it was so great! There was like a pier with a carnival on it (like in the movies) and the beach was like home. It was so great to smell the salt air … like getting a natural fix or something. I can now openly admit that I have seen, been to , and been in the Pacific Ocean!!!!
It was a lot of fun … we had a cookout on the beach, got free tickets to ride the rides, played on the beach and continued to get to know one another. On the way home, Luke and I fell asleep so it was nice to get some rest.
Now (11:30pm) we are back at the hotel and getting ready to hit a dance party.
Now (12:15) I am sitting in my room typing these last words so I can put them on the blog and hit the hay.
Sleep …
This was an early morning again with worship at 8:30. Worship was great, but it released late so we didn’t exactly have time for breakfast before we had to go to committee. Nutrigrain bar and pretzels it was.
Now (11:49am) we are now discussing overtures pertaining to human rights in Zimbabwe and Columbia. We got through the hearings smoothly (although they took forever, I think we had twenty) and moved to pass the first overture quickly. After that, however, the pace slowed to a crawl (and a slow crawl at that). We’ve been stuck on our second overture for more than an hour :-o We actually managed to get so tangled in this overture that we had an amendment to the amendment to the amendment to the amendment … this is not a joke. I wish there were something funny about it, but once again I’m out of luck. We heard testimony from suffering people living in these countries that was disturbing, horrifying, sad, and scary all at the same time. These countries are full of so much hatred and violence that it’s hard to imagine. It’s trying and difficult to accept that there could be so much pain in other countries, and that we don’t even see the tip of the iceberg from here.
Lunch time … be back soon.
Oh! Lunch was delicious! We had only a short time (our committee decided to meet early) so a small group of us headed to Johnny Rockets (American food today). We got there, sat down, and got things going, but after a few minutes, our numbers doubled and we ended up squeezing 13 people into a booth for 6. I was stuck in the middle, and it’s not that I don’t love these people, but it’s difficult to function when you are basically sitting on top of one another. Because everyone else showed up, the process of food making slowed drastically and we ended up having to get our food to go and hurry back to committee. So we ate while we debated, but it was still delicious.
Now (1:30pm) we are going over commissioners reports pertaining to the starvation caused by flooding in Korea. Motion passed … now onto the afternoon docket!
I should be paying better attention, but I’m sitting here debating what I should do. The YAD’s are invited to go to Santa Cruz tonight, but that will take us away from committee. I truly want to go and stick my foot in the Pacific Ocean, and have more YAD hang out time, but at the same time I feel called to be present and have my voice in committee (that is why I’m here … to represent the youth of our presbytery and this is the only place that my voice truly counts). So I’m dreadfully torn between the two :(
We now (1:50pm) have 47 hearings on the overtures related to Palestine and Israel.
YAY! We are now (3:15pm) done with hearings … now time to get started debating.
Still torn …
Ok … I eanie-meany-miney-moed it (the fair way of course) and ended on the beach. So … it was so great! There was like a pier with a carnival on it (like in the movies) and the beach was like home. It was so great to smell the salt air … like getting a natural fix or something. I can now openly admit that I have seen, been to , and been in the Pacific Ocean!!!!
It was a lot of fun … we had a cookout on the beach, got free tickets to ride the rides, played on the beach and continued to get to know one another. On the way home, Luke and I fell asleep so it was nice to get some rest.
Now (11:30pm) we are back at the hotel and getting ready to hit a dance party.
Now (12:15) I am sitting in my room typing these last words so I can put them on the blog and hit the hay.
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