Orange Conference
Last night, a group of us from church returned from the Orange Conference in Atlanta. There were 3 days of worship and classes focusing on the best ways to help our kids learn about and love Jesus. It was very uplifting, to say the least. There were over 5,000 people in attendance from countries all over the world. It was really amazing. The music was incredible and the classes were very insightful. One of the classes I attended focused on "Mobilizing the Next Generation." Having a boy that is almost a teenager, I found this to be particularly helpful. It seems that we tend to repeat those things our own parents did with us, without even realizing it. We have been pretty adamant about making Jake do the things that we want him to do, when he would rather be building his website, making movies that he creates with his brothers, and drawing. Of course, we have encouraged the drawing and we love the short movies he makes, but there are always things that we push him to be involved in that he is not necessarily interested in. Then, we are surprised when he does not excel at those things that he never wanted to do in the first place! The speaker for this class was Stuart Hall and I am told that he has written a couple of very helpful books on dealing with youth in ministry. If you get a chance to look up the Orange Conference, you can get an insight into what it is all about.  I am uplifted right now, and I hope to stay that way for a while!