Archive: May 28th, 2008

the pre-blog blog

I have an amazing amount of things on my mind and an amazing scarcity of time in which to blog about them. So right now I'm mostly just going to list off some of what's going through my mind, with the hopes that one day soon I will be able to actually process this stuff.
Thursday morning - great new client whom I adored right from the start. Reminded me why I do the work that I do, also made me think of Romania
Thursday afternoon - my last session (probably) with one of my favorite clients
Thursday evening - dinner with friends, including a friend I once considered marrying and now haven't seen in several months
Thursday night- picked up my Romanian friend Vasi at the airport, caught up on life with him
Friday day - played tour guide all day - showed Vasi the Botanical Gardens, Phoenix Zoo, Mill Ave. and ASU.
Friday night - first night of Romanian convention. The best preaching I've heard (and understood!) in Romanian so far. Plus a really powerful moment where we were singing an old hymn and I thought back on the journey God has taken me on thus far since I first sang that song as a non-believing kid in a Methodist church
Saturday - after breakfast with friends, Vasi and I headed up north. Gorgeous weather, good conversations, a nice time in Sedona and fun with my friend Bekah in Flagstaff
4 hours of sleep that night, then up at 3 to go to the Grand Canyon for sunrise - absolutely incredible
Hiking and exploring for the morning at the Canyon, then back to Phoenix
Sunday night - home from the Canyon just in time to go to my church with Vasi - so fun to have my 2 worlds collide and to show him off to church people and my church off to him. Then we went straight to the Romanian Conference downtown. I enjoyed it again but had a few theological objections to some of what happened and experienced a Pentecostal gathering like I never have before. I was really overwhelmed by the fact that I was surrounded by so many Romanians - 2200 or so!!
Monday - Brunch with church friends. Really good discussions about Romania and missions in general with a family from church, then Vasi joined the discussion and gave some of his opinions as an "outsider" in the American church. Fascinating stuff
then off to a Romanian picnic in Glendale as the last even of the conference. So bizarre to walk through a park and hear Romanian from most passersby instead of English or Spanish. Several people assumed I was Romanian and spoke to me under this assumption, which rocked my world.
Dinner that night with Vasi and two of his friends who live here and attend the Romanian church that I attend. Intense theological conversations that I was able to follow in Romanian and participate in in English - gave me a lot of stuff to think about and left me thoroughly exhausted.
Jumped right into work yesterday, even with Vasi still here. Took him to the airport on a break and now am trying to return to life as usual.
Off to work again now - and seriously considering taking some paid time off just to sit and process this crazy life.