Super Bowl!!!

In my high school creative writing class we used to have spontaneous assignments during which we were to write our thoughts until Mr. Mitsui told us we could stop. I plan on doing that right now. I think that the point was for us to be able to grade ourselves afterwards regarding grammatical instincts and our ability to replace trite phrases with new words as we type. So feel free to give me any pointers.

Tonight's motivation is not an assignment from Mr. Mitsui. Tonight's motivation is making room in my head for other things. I will explain and I apologize in advance if it makes no sense.

I am sitting in a hotel room in San Diego by myself. Eric will be joining me in the morning and my friends from work are just down the hall, but I am here by myself. The following things are on my mind:

1. I miss Katie. She is in Belize. She is having a great and challenging time. No matter what happens their there is nothing I can do about it. Except pray all the time. And share with her all that I am doing while she is gone. And listen intently during the few special moments we get to talk every few days.
2. I just read my brother Ryan's blog entry about our friend Ryan Willson and his family and it was humbling and moving and exciting and made me proud to know both Ryan Willson and Ryan Henderson.
3. I am at the National Pastors Convention. My boss Gregg and colleague Steven are here along with Paul and Becky Tindall, my brother Eric and a few thousand other attendees.
4. Today I sat in a seminar and listened to four very interesting pastors talk about what things are like in their world.
5. This past Sunday we had the biggest youth event since I have been working at Mountain Park. 68 kids! There are so few places that I can articulate how exciting and validating and fun this day was. So I am using this blog. The picture above is our pop supply for the party. Don't worry we didn't drink all of it! 68 kids is huge for Mountain Park. 68 kids is 400% more than the 13 that we there when Katie and I moved to Portland. 68 kids is critical mass. 68 kids means we have a shortage of staff. 68 kids means if they all brought one friend our next event could be 136! 68 kids is 68 families that may soon have an additional source of hope and help and answers and joy. 68 kids means I have some serious work to do. Some real calls to make and addresses to learn and names to get straight and stories to hear. And I can't wait to get started!
6. I wish I was a better blogger. I wish I chose to run just a little more often. I can't wait for Katie to be back.

Maybe now I will have some room in my head and heart to learn a new thing or two tomorrow.