GenCon2009

Greetings from the Convention Center Hilton in Anaheim, California, site of The Episcopal Church's 76th General Convention. I am here as one of nine adults resourcing the Official Youth Presence, a General Convention mandated group of 18 teenagers, two from each of our nine Episcopal Provinces, representing their peers from the floor of the House of Deputies. This will be my second time serving the greater church in this capacity and it is a challenge and a blessing.

Today the blessing was the safe arrival of all 27 of us from as close as an hour's drive away to those from Ecuador, Connecticut, the Carolinas, Switzerland, and many places in between.The challenges included the enthusiastic and exhausted mix of energy as we met tonight, some language barriers, and anticipated anxiety over responsibilities for the days to come.

We are also trying to embrace the opportunities and limitations that technology present. We are encouraged to Blog and Twitter, yet our cell phones don't work well in many of the buildings and we are not to be wired when on the floor of the House of Deputies. That's perfectly understandable and reasonable. Yet the connection costs in our hotel rooms are well beyond our budget for this event.I am looking into the possibility of quickly establishing a Blog for the Youth Presence, but it will be a group process and decision that we will embrace in the next couple of days to come. I'll keep you posted.

In the mean time I ask for your prayers that we be open to all, respectful of all, attentive to where the Spirit is leading us, and that we not loose sight of our call to mission in a broken world in the example and teaching of Jesus.

Thank you.