Meeting People Is Easy

One thing I love about my job is meeting new people, and subsequently, meeting with people. I love hearing other people’s stories, their ideas and convictions. And, as is fairly obvious, I love to share my own ideas and passions with people too. Every meeting invites the  opportunity to learn something new, something about God, something about humanity, and make connections previously unmade. I find that after a good meeting with people I always have more energy, I feel inspired, and I want to talk about my experience. Today was one of those days.

This morning I finished writing out my sermon. Well, I finished at least my initial draft. It ended up being about five pages, a little long so I need to spend some time cutting it down (I usually try for four pages). After that was done, I plowed through about 35 emails with the determination of an Olympic skater. I knew if I didn’t deal with them today it wouldn’t be till next week that I’d get to most of them (I try to stay offline as much as possible on the weekends). Finally, at 11:45 I headed out for my first appointment of the day with T. Vail Palmer, Jr. Vail is a good friend and Quaker theologian who lives in Oregon. We get together once a month to discuss life, ministry and Quaker theology. I am basically trying to learn as much as I can from him. I first met Vail last year when I interviewed him for my research project with Freedom Friends Church. When I learned that we were moving to the NW I emailed Vail and asked if he would be interested in meeting with me regularly and we’ve been doing it ever since. After Vail and I had lunch (at his wife’s pizza shop!) I drove to Vancouver to meet with Eliacin Rosario-Cruz from the Mustard Seed Associates and Kevin Hiebert from Out of the Desert. I’ve been friends with Eliacin online for some time and met him this past summer in Portland, so it was nice to connect up again. But this was the first time I’ve ever met Kevin, though I just realized I’ve linked to his blog in the past and he told me he’s commented on mine before too! Kevin seems like a great guy and I’m glad to have made the connection. The three of us hung out at the fantastic Paper Tiger Coffee shop and had lots of inspiring talk about our different ministries. I left inspired. I couldn’t wait to call Emily on my way home and tell her all about the day.