a conference by any other name...

busy week...

We have an outreach conference next week. It's called the Summer of Service, which causes some confusion. It's often asked, "isn't it just one week?" to which I respond, "well, actually it's only five days" but that doesn't really speak to their point.

"Why is it called the SUMMER of service if it's only five days of serving?" Actually, it's not really five full days. They're at concerts and listening to talks as much as they're serving. They go out for about an hour in the mornings and an hour and a half to two hours in the afternoons.

"So it's only 15 hours of service?" Well, no...because they don't go out on Mondays....Tuesday through Friday they go out and serve 2 1/2 - 3 hours a day.

"So it's 10-12 hours of service?" Yup, that's about right.

And that's ok. An entire summer of service conference would cost thousands of dollars and be a nightmare to put together logistically. We could never pull it off. It's called the summer of service because we'd like to see this be a springboard to students seeing the rest of their summer as an opportunity to serve those around them. It's a launching point. It's merely the beginning.

People come back from short term mission trips changed people. This isn't exactly that, but it's close. It's a mini-short term mission trip.

When people fully give their lives away on mission trip, I think they experience a bit of what this is supposed to be all about....not them. This is a glimpse at that.

"So we should call it 'lifetime of service'?" Yup, that wouldn't be so bad, although "SOS" is a little catchier...but you get the point now?

"So how's the food?"