Tag: Travel

  • Support my Haiti trip

    I would greatly appreciate any financial support you can help us with as we head back to Haiti to lead a team on July 19-25. As I mentioned in the video– we are trying to offset these expenses so we can not only honor God with our service but also our financial stewardship at the same time. If you’d prefer to mail a check, here is a link to our Chip page which has our address.

  • Some pics from my trip

    Here are a few iPhone pictures from my trip to the Pacific Northwest.

  • Back to Minneapolis

    Minneapolis, Minnesota
    Photo by stevelyon via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    This week I’m headed to Minneapolis for a week of meetings and team building. Since YS is a now part of YouthWorks, we get to be a part of their semi-annual gatherings where they come together to celebrate all that God is doing. I’m digging that.

    Here’s a couple of fun things I’ve been learning about YouthWorks.

    1. The missions team has more than 36,000 people registered for mission trips this summer. Most of them are middle and high schoolers.
    2. We are in the process of hiring about 350 summer staff.
    3. We have about 65 full-time, year-round staff. (Including the YS staff)
    4. YouthWorks has a foundation which gives back to the communities which host missions trips.

    This week I’m hoping to connect with some folks and figure out what people do. It should be big fun in the frozen tundra. Since I’ll be back their at least quarterly– my sidebar hope is to find some fun, funky places to explore.

    Yes, more fun than Chingy and Snoop at the Holiday Inn.

  • Off to Minneapolis

    If going to Alabama is the dirty south, does that make Minnesota the “clean north?”

    Regardless, I am missing church this morning as I begin my trip north (and east) to Minneapolis for a few days of meetings with the YouthWorks team.

    Here’s something fun about heading to the clean north. I kind of like the cold. Don’t get me wrong– I love winters in San Diego where people wear ski jackets when it hits 50 and pull their kids out of school because of a rain storm. But I’m not one of those people who hates a hard, cold winter. In fact, there is a freshness to the cold air that invigorates the soul. (That could also be the freezing of ones lungs resulting in a shot of endorphins and adrenaline, but those are little details!) I’m looking forward to a little snowstorm tonight and it getting progressively chilly in my time there this week.

    I plan on laughing and listening a lot this week. As we continue to mix our organizations together into a new organization we are finding that we share so much in common. And we definitely share the “we don’t take ourselves too seriously” quality that is a hallmark of YS. Al0ng the same lines, so much of why we are passionate about what we do lies in our story. So I am jazzed to listen and get to know people beyond the giggles and hear their hearts.

    I’ll leave you with two pictures from my iPhone– the humor is all-the-more funny now that everyone is getting to know one another.

    November 6th – I wore this to work to lighten the mood. The previous day we had been told to dress appropriately when YouthWorks came to town and to make a good first impression. This is about as opposite of YS attire as I could get. Is that enough Bibles? I love the Bibles.
    November 23rd – The YouthWorks recruiting team hung this sign on the bulletin board next to convention headquarters in Atlanta. We were all glad they were hiring for something!

  • Christians are Bad Tippers

    Photo by garryknight via Flickr
    Photo by garryknight via Flickr

    The other day I was reading Steve Dublanica’s blog, Waiter Rant, in which he had a post entitled “Who are the worst tippers?“ Essentially, Steve was querying his reading audience… people who make most of their money from tips… who are the worst tippers.

    And the comments were revealing.

    There seem to be two kinds of bad tippers in the United States.

    1. People from countries where they don’t tip.
    2. The after church crowd.

    But the worst? Sunday Church goers who sit for hours and hours and leave 3 bucks on a $40 bill.

    What does that say about believers that we think so little of the people who serve us that we, as a people group, are known as cheap?

    ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Matthew 25:45

    Let’s review. Here’s a link to some tipping ettiquette. This is what is expected, to not do at least this is rude.

    If you are going to go to lunch after church and hang out for an extended period of time, it is also customary to double tip on your table since the server is actually losing another table because you’ve stayed so long.

    Let’s presume that we, as a people group, are doing this because we just don’t know any better. But now that you know that “we” are known as bad tippers, I’d hope “we” adjust our behavior accordingly. I’d hate to presume that we really are cheap jerks!

  • The weeks to come

    This is convention week. For the 5th time this year I will travel to a convention center to run social media. Two DCLAs (for students) and this is the third NYWC. (for youth workers)

    I have the best job in youth ministry. I get to meet youth workers from all over the world and remind them that even though their jobs are hard and thankless… they are being used by God to further His Kingdom.

    Awesome.

    What’s different about this week is a little pre-convention trip to Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Host of NYWC 08) There I’ll be hanging out with Travis Deans and a bunch of youth workers in the Pittsburgh area. Travis is hosting two meetings of youth workers and I’ll have the opportunity to speak to them and with them. Such a blast! Travis and I lived on the same residence hall floor at Moody. That seems like about 10 billion years ago but I guess it was 1994-1996. We reconnected last Fall in Pittsburgh and I was stoked to learn that he’s been doing youth ministry since graduation! I will see if I can muster up a story about Travis to embarrass him. I may have to make one up.

    Wednesday night I fly down to Atlanta. The last U.S. convention is always the largest so that will make it a lot of fun. Since Thursday is normally my travel day to convention I will be working from my hotel room all day on normal work stuff. That said, I do have one detour planned! I’ve been a user and fan of Mailchimp for a couple of years. Their offices are in downtown Atlanta and I hope to pop in on them Thursday to see where they keep the monkeys.

    Friday through Monday… you won’t hear from me but I’ll be covering NYWC. (lots of live streaming of our rich line-up of speakers) Typically at convention, I’m busy all day with convention work and meal times are dominated by lunch with people I only see once per year. It’s hard to explain working through a convention season, it goes by fast and slow at the same time. I’ll blink and it’ll be Tuesday morning.

    I fly home on Tuesday the 24th, picking up a rental car, and heading home to do some laundry. Wednesday through Sunday… we’re headed to San Jose for Thanksgiving! My cousin and his family live up there and we thought it’d be a blast to hang out with them over the holidays. (And see the Notre Dame vs. Stanford game.) The last time Kristen and I were in San Jose was 2000! So I’m looking forward to that.

    The crazy thing about the next 2 weeks of travel? It’s my last scheduled trip. Last year, I had a similarly strangle travel schedule before the holidays… then didn’t leave San Diego county for almost 6 months!

    Blog posts during the next two weeks will be typical. Sporadic and random.

  • Warp Speed!

    warp-speed

    That’s how I feel about the next 90 days. This week starts the first of three National Youth Worker Conventions. For me, it’s a huge honor to be able to go to the three U.S. conventions and to play such a cool role. On site I am in charge of capturing the story of the convention for our internet audience, snapping a couple thousand pictures, filling a years worth of blog content, co-leading a seminar on social media and video, plus a whole littany of other normal stuff the whole staff does on site.

    What this really means is that this is my busy season. Between now and the end of the year I’ll be gone about a week a month for work. Of course, while I’m gone doesn’t mean that regular work doesn’t get done, it just backlogs. And I stil need to use a weeks vacation in there. So the pattern is go away for about a week. Rest HARD on the travel day. Push through as much work as possible. Rest HARD some more. Get everything together to go back on the road. Repeat.

    The point of this post isn’t to lament about the next 3 months of my life. Not at all. Trust me, I consider this insanity to be a blessing. I am thankful to God for the opportunity. The point of this post is to think about the question, “How do you find sanity when your life hits warp speed?”

    Here’s how I do it. I’d love to hear how others go through similar times.

    1. Embrace some insanity. This might be super unhealthy, but when I’m on site at a convention, I focus on what needs to be done. If these trips were a sport I want to make sure I leave it all on the field.With thousands of attendees coming I want to do whatever I can to make their experience awesome.

    2. Schedule rest when on the road. The attitude of #1 above will kill you if you aren’t disciplined. Last year, I was so wide-eyed about the whole thing that I barely slept, said yes to everything, and allowed my schedule to get out of control. This year I’ve blocked out times for meals, rest, and “me time.” I’m an introvert– this is for my sanity and everyone else’s safety.

    3. Schedule rest when at home. I’ve gotten better about not working on weekends, I need to keep that pattern going through this busy time. I also need to look at holes in my schedule and stay home to work a bit during the week, leave early when possible, stuff like that.

    4. Do fun stuff with the kids. My travel stuff is hard on the kids. Sure, they don’t express it. But I can tell when I come back that it hasn’t been easy without me. I’m cooking up some evil plans to spend time with them.

    5. Accept that some stuff won’t get done on time. As much as it drives me insane to know that I need to do that, I just need to decide which things get done on time and which things are less important and get pushed off until later.

    6. Take notes. My mind swells with ideas/thoughts/reflections during these times. This year, I’m going to capture so much more with Evernote on my iPhone.

  • Launching Beyond The Zoo

    As I’ve talked about here a few times, Kristen and I have collaborated to create a new website. In truth, it’s just a convergence of two great passions for both of us… blogging and eating!

    The whole point of BeyondTheZoo.com is to help people discover hidden gems in San Diego County. We know that when people come to visit they will automatically check out the zoo. And we love the zoo! Our hope is to help visitors (and locals) discover unique and fun hole in the walls.

    Of course, Kristen and I have always loved finding unique places! Wherever we’ve lived we have hunted for special places to take our friends. So, BeyondTheZoo.com is really just fulfilling a lifelong passion and pursuit.

    Anyway, this is what we’ve been working on for the last month. So far, it’s been a blast working with Kristen on the design. We’ve taken a lot of what we learned by starting YMX and applied some wisdom, too.

    And… we waited to launch it until January 1st so I could fulfill my only New Year’s resolution of 2008. No new websites! This is our first.. I’ve got a few more I’ve been dying to launch.

  • Off the Nashville

    It’s butt early, but I am freshly showered, packed, and waiting on an airport shuttle to take me to the airport. This morning I’m taking the dark flight over to Dallas for my connection. Anyway, just in case I wasn’t clear enough… my blogging will likely be convention-centric for a few days. Don’t worry, I’m back next week to push theological and political buttons.

    Now, onto live blogging and daily recap videos.

  • Off to Pittsburgh

    As I write this I am in the San Diego airport on my way to my second NYWC as a YS staffer. It’s still pretty cool! Yes, I am going to NYWC as a YS staff person… how cool is that? Yes, the travel away from family end of things stinks… but I still count myself as one of the luckiest men alive to have this job.

    For the next 5 days I get to do what my soul aches to do… tell youth workers from all over that their work is important to the Kingdom. Here on my blog you’ve witnessed my recent deconstruction of some of the things I don’t like about church. This is because I love the church enough to want to see her adapt to the world we live in to reach the people of this day.

    I’ve got a lot to do so I can make no promises about keeping up on my blog. As I write this I’m working on about 4 other hot projects. Everything from booking future episodes of the YS podcast to trying to figure out why Bluehost bricked our websites earlier today. Of course, once things kick off on Friday you’ll be able to catch all the action at our live blog page… but that’s not really the same, is it?

    So, if I miss a few posts it’s only because God is doing amazing things in my midst. To sound extra important, “I’m busy doing the King’s business.”

    I’m fully aware of what I’ve given up in order to do this gig. For some reason hanging out with thousands of youth workers reminds me that I’m not a full time youth pastor any more. And so I invite your questions. Those of you who gave up their “Pastor Adam” for this… what do you want to know about my work in Pittsburgh this weekend? Ask anything and I’ll be as transparent as I’ve always been.