in no particular order…

had a great mtg with our main person at world vision about the future of the one life program. great stuff – i’m really excited about the changes this year. and i saw mock-ups of the leader’s guide and student guide that are going to press this week; they’re gorgeous and so full of great stuff. we haven’t produced these for the program in the past.

had a coffee appt with a nice youthworker named tim fox. no real reason. he just asked to chat, and we had a really nice, breezy chat.

spent on hour on an emergent village board meeting conference call. always nice to hear the voices of tim keel, brian mclaren, ivy beckwith, tony jones, chris seay, and other friends.

had coffee with natalie stadnick, the amazing 17 year-old high school senior who wrote an amazingly articulate post several months ago about why she stopped going to her youth group. i invited her to the convention and comp’d her reg, and she came with a couple female youth workers from her area. she’s a sharp cookie. she needs to be a professor, i think — either of theology, or — it would be cool — youth ministry.

met with tic (our pres of events) and shelly (our vp of events) and darian kovacs, the director of canadafire, from vancouver, bc. we’re planning a ‘canadian youth ministry conference’ next december in vancouver, partnering with darian, and needed a ‘defining the roles’ meeting. i’m way excited about this!

did two interviews — one for ‘steel roots’ (a christian music video countdown), who are here for the whole weekend: the interview was at the one life experience, and we really talked about that and the one life program; then, a second interview with charlotte weekly, a local once-per-week newspaper, again about the one life program. the women from charlotte weekly asked fantastic questions, and i really enjoyed the interview. tomorrow is world aids day, so i assume that’s why there were interested in coming out for this interview.

had dinner with about 10 of the fine regulars from ymx (a great youth ministry forum — well worth the $5/yr to join) at a great irish pub/restaurant (mmm, had a salad and a big bowl of potato leek soup with irish potato bread, which i haven’t found too many places outside of ireland).

wandered the exhibit hall for a bit.

decorated my hotel suite (the hotel gives us free suites, and i have a pretty small one in this city) for my son’s 9th birthday tomorrow — a couple ys staffers helped me, and we put up streamers all over and happy birthday signs. and i wrapped his presents. jeannie and the kids arrive late tonite.

that’s the basic summary! tomorrow is opening session day. can’t wait!