7.24.2006

Been Awhile...

Ok, so I know is has been a long time...Sorry...I really have been thinking of everyone, but life has gotten away from me. Since my last posting I have had many guests to NYC, hired 8 new US-2 missionaries for the UMC, traveled to Los Angeles, Nome, Alaska, Denver, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ohio, and Michigan, tranistioned the 2004 class of US-2 missionaries out of their time of service, facilitated a seminar for 20 women, and am now training the new US-2 I hired. So, I am now helping this new class set up blogs for themselves, so I thought I better add a post myself. All of my adventures listed above were wonderful. I had a great time, saw beutiful views, visited family, and have had a wonderful time being with all of the US-2s. It was in May that all of the travel occured. In Los Angeles, I attended the Women's Assembly of the UMC where 7000 women from around the world came together for 3 days. The pagentry and connectionalism was wonderful. After this conference, I went to Nome, Denver and Albuquerque to visit US-2s. Nome is beautiful and I completely understand why people move there and stay (granted it was not 30 below when I was there--but it did snow!). The organization the US-2 in Denver works at is amazing! And in Albuquerque I saw the clouds sit on top of the mountains. Ok so it really is the small things in life that make me smile. I attended another conference at the end of May in Michigan where I was able to make some other wonderful connections and present about the work I do. In the midst of all of these adventures there have been some challenges. One of my supervisors, Mark Masters, passed away. His wife Kathleen is my other supervisor. Mark was a UMC missionary and currently serving in NYC at the General Board of Global Ministries. He was traveling in Southeast Asia when he had a cardiac aneurysm. This has been a great loss for his family and for our office. Most recently, one of my missionaries was serving in Lebanon when the violence broke out. He has now arrived safely back in NYC (today) but it has been a long, hard journey. I will rant later about my feelings regaring Isreal and the US... Well now all that is said...I will try my best to update more often. I will post some picutres of my trip so enjoy the pretty views! Peace and blessings, Lauren