Hey all!  Surprise post.  I found a computer lab here on the campus of College of the Ozarks and am able to post briefly.

Hand update:  Not broken.  Just deeply bruised.  Kind of like my ego after Sunday’s basketball game. Good news is that I can totally bring my game on Thursday night as volleyball begins.

Conference update:  Intense conference and long days.  8 am – 9 pm with a couple of hours down time at lunch and supper.  This is a little challenging for me as an introvert who needs alone time and processing time.  It should be a very beneficial experience though.  This is week one of four weeks spread out over the next year on developing young pastors for leadership in the 21st century church.

Accomodations:  The lodge where we are meeting and staying is great and top-notch.  The meals are definitely not going to help me lose weight and with no downtime to exercise this may not be the most stellar fitness week.  Maybe I can do a bunch of butt-squeezes while sitting in my chair during the conference.

Unexpected blessings: 

• I get to have lunch with Kailey on my way home on Thursday. 
• The bakery here has "to-die-for" chocolate chip cookies.
• Some good introspection on my calling to ministry and how to develop better boundaries if I continue in this field.
• A very nice and comfortable hotel room where I can relax and get wonderful rest.
• Some forced silence as part of the conference to really listen to God’s spirit.
• A diagnosis for how I’ve been feeling for a while:  burnout.  Although burnout is not the unexpected blessing, naming and claiming it is.  More on this later.

Alrighty – time to head out again for the afternoon session.  Hope everyone is doing well this week.  Leave me a comment telling me how much you miss my witty and humorous posts each day.

Great weekend.  Friday night I had dinner at my parent’s home with the family and Igor and Natasha – a couple from Belarus that have been friends of the family for awhile.  They are in the US for a couple of months for various reasons and will be staying with my parents one night for the next three weekends.  It was good to catch up with them and to hear their stories.  One of the most delightful and beautiful stories was the story of how they met and fell in love.  They are tremendous people of faith.

Saturday I had several friends over for the MU/Texas game that was televised.  We ate a lot and tolerated the game.  Started out okay but went south quickly.  But it was fun nevertheless.

Today has been an eventful day.  I played basketball this afternoon with friends and suffered a couple of minor traumas.  Brad pegged me in the head with the basketball and sent me to the ground.  It hurt but nothing major.  I’m smarting a little headache tonight but it will be fine.  Later on, I fell while guarding Amy and now it appears I either broke a bone in the lower part of my hand or really bruised it. It is pretty bruised up and sore.  I showed it to a doctor at church and I have an 8 am xray scheduled now before I can get out of town.  Loverly.  So, I’m staying up tonight to try and get everything ready tonight in case the doctor’s visit is longer than expected.  If its broken, I’m asking for a nice cast or wrist guard so that I can play volleyball on Thursday night.  No way I’m missing that after waiting all this time!  Despite the war wounds, it was a really fun afternoon of basketball.  Great turnout and despite some cheap moves by other players (you know who you are, you shirt-tugger), it was a great workout and fellowship.

Alright – I still have bills to pay and to pack so I’m calling it for tonight.

Personality quizzes . . do they really capture us? Can 30 questions really give an accurate portrayal of me?  Are we really not that complex that 30 simple questions can sum us up?  Those of you who know me can read below and vote.

I had to take an online personality quiz for the program I am participating in next week.  Here are the results:I’m a O53-C69-E31-A79-N11 Big Five!!

Wrapping up a work day here. I was out late last night.  I went with Amy to Columbia at 9:30 pm for a concert at Mojos. She has been a follower of the band, Happy Endings, for awhile and saw they would be in Columbia.  Great band and great sound.  Check out their website and listen to their tunes.

Today has been a great day.  I had a great lunch visit today that was delightful and received a Smurfette glass as a birthday gift – and it had chocolate candy in it too!  Perfect.     It reminded me of my childhood.  I use to have a bunch of these glasses growing up and we got rid of them.  I’ve kept my eye out for them but haven’t found any.  This one is in perfet condition!  A beauty – and the glass isn’t too bad, either.

I also got a smurfette t-shirt from Cari for my birthday!  Looking forward to wearing that soon for everyone to enjoy.

Alright – need to head out. Got much to do before a bunch of friends come over tomorrow for the MU game plus dinner tonight with family and a couple from Belarus that are visiting.

Have a great weekend!

Wouldn’t foreknowledge be great?  Wouldn’t it just be swell to know before you make a decision what the outcome of that decision would be?  Wouldn’t it just be nice and comfortable to know you are always going to make the right choice or take the right step because you’ve gone ahead and you know what the right choices are and which are the right steps to take?  Wouldn’t that be just grand?

Unfortunately, most decisions have to be made without that foreknowledge.  Its not the little decisions that bother me.  Its the big ones.  Its those big, life-changing, heart-risking decisions that I wish I could foretell.  That I wish I had a video to fast-forward through and see what my lines should be in order to bring about the ending I want.

I know, I know . . . to know such things takes all the joy and spontaneity out of life.

But wouldn’t it be nice . . . just once or twice . . . to know where you are going to end up before you get there rather than after you arrived?