Day 118- 4/29/11 Royals & Georgia On My Mind!

Day 118: 4/29/11
New Thing: Royals & Georgia On My Mind!
Inspiration: FTE, Georgia, The Royal Wedding         
Cost: $10 (seriously!)
Time: All Day                   
Bottom Line: God Save the Queen!

It's a good day to be Anglican!

Reflection: What a day! I flew to Georgia yesterday with loads of flight delays, but otherwise smooth. When I got in, I had a different kind of lamb that I had never had over a very fruitful and deep conversation with my fellow FTE grant readers, so there is another new thing for yesterday.

When I work up to go to the hotel gym at 6am, I had totally forgotten that the Royal Wedding was today! Thankfully, they were watching it in the gym, so I saw most of the good bits. I thought it was very beautiful, faithful, and tasteful. I have certainly never watched a royal wedding while working out. I was able to pry myself way from the  gym's television long enough to go swimming for a half hour in the hotel's really nice indoor pool. They had classical music playing and it was very serene. A perfect way to start the day.

FTE's Logo

From there, I went over to the Fund for Theological Education (FTE) office to be a part of a wonderful committee of grant readers for the first time. FTE's mission is to "call and cultivate a new generation of leaders to serve the church and world," and I have really grown to admire the work that they do. The are committed to helping initiatives succeed not only with funding aid, but with step by step mentoring. I was lucky enough to be trained in their VoCare Model last year and it has forever changed the way I will design retreats and small group work. The grants were for proposed start up ministries from several different denominations and it was really inspiring to see the work what will be done in Christ's named all over the county. The group's discussion was very rich and I was so grateful to be a part of it.

After our meeting, I had an hour to kill before my flight and I spend it on the hiking trails of Emory University where FTE is located. What a beautiful campus! I had some much needed processing time along a little river in the woods.

Beautiful Emory

My final new thing in a day full of new things was to arrive in Kentucky for the first time in my life to visit my Dad and the Step-family. I was greeted by Alison, Ben, and his really nice girlfriend, Carrie and then headed back to the homestead for Maddie's 12th birthday party. Kentucky is beautiful and I am loving being with everyone. All-in-all a wonderful day of new things! God Save the Queen!