Power Outage!

Online Bible Study Wednesday night . . . about halfway through and the power goes out! What to do?

No power? No problem!

Connect to the internet through your phone as a mobile hotspot, break out the ol' flashlight, and keep going! :-)  It took me a couple minutes, but at least some of the people hung in there and finished Bible Study with me. I don't know if everyone did, since my monitor which was showing who was logged on had no power. But on we went! That was a first.

Higher Things - Day 4

The last day of the conference! It is only a half day to enable groups to get on the road back home. So after breakfast is the final plenary session followed by the closing Divine Service. This closing service is great for me as everything is done, now we get one more time to receive the gifts and rejoice. 

In this last plenary session, we find out which tetramorph team got the most points and so won the team competition. Here are the results:

Yes, the team our group was on won! The kids were quite pleased. We'll see how we do next year.

So after the closing service, time to get everyone lunch, packed up, checked out, and on the road. As our cars pulled out around 1:30, I went back to work to pack up all the chapel things and help get the truck loaded to take everything to Nebraska for the next conference. That took a good part of the afternoon, after which I had a couple of hours to work on a sermon for Sunday before dinner!

A few more pictures of the week . . .

The dorm we stayed in, Gorman Hall.

The Lego Masters team.

Foods!

And some Pastor pics . . .

The scooter I got to use for the week to get around. ;-)

Before the start of Evening Prayer

Higher Things - Day 3

Day Three at Higher Things is much like Day Two, except that the routine is now easier, things are flowing a little better, and the kids are more excited (and tired!). Two breakaways again today, and I taught mine for the second time - which went better, as it always does. :-)  The kids also have a little more free time in the evening this last night, and are busy earning points for our tetramorph team.

One of the ways to earn points was in the Talent Show. Robert played a piano piece and Cyrus and Dan performed a rap written by Cyrus about the four tetramorphs! It really was quite good. The performance was a bit timid (hard to do in front of a lot of people and judges), but the judges gave them an honorable mention (aka 4th place) for the inventiveness of the rap, and with that, 50 points for our team. I must say, the level of talent was high and the competition stiff. 

A few more pictures . . .

With the three Executive Directors of HT - Patrick, Crysten, and Harrison.

Dr. James Lee, professor at Concordia-Chicago.

New England District President and long-time friend Bob Beinke.

Scott, our A/V guy extraordinaire!

Robert playing his talent show piece.

Dan and Cyrus rapping.

Higher Things - Day 2, Post 2

Day 2 was the "Conference Shirt Day" - the day everyone (almost) wears their conference shirt. So we took our group picture that day:

 

I also preached at Wednesday Vespers. Click here to read that.

Higher Things - Day 2

Today was the first full day. Matins, Vespers, Evening Prayer, and Compline services. One plenary and two breakaways. I taught today in one of the breakaways. It went okay. Had a room full of youth and stayed extra about 20-25 minutes to answer questions afterward. We had a few other matters to deal with, but all-in-all a full but good day.

One of the free time activities in the evening was painting. Here's some of our group taking part in that:

Some other friends (old and new) I got to see today:

Pastor Peter Gregory. He served as the Catechist for the conference.

Pastor Dan Freeman, one of our preachers, from Washington State.

Pastor Jeff Ware from Charlotte, NC, dressed as one of the tetramorphs, Vir, and also a member of the Board of Directors for Higher Things.

Another popular free time activity was the Lego Masters challenge. A group of our youth took part in that as well. They were give a set of bricks and had one hour to create something to reflect the conference theme All Things New. Here's their creation:

They build the New Jerusalem with water flowing out and over the side of the table. :-)

And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Higher Things - Day 1

Monday night was hot. HOT! The dorms did not have air conditioning. Many brought fans. Some bought fans after they arrived. And some of the youth . . .

. . . slept on the floor of the lounge in the dorm to escape the heat in their rooms. (Note: These are not our youth!) I felt bad for them. I did not sleep well either. But the conference starts today, so just suck it up and get to work!

The Opening Divine Service was at 2 pm, preceded by a Leaders Meeting. So the morning was for setting up for the service, making sure all the pastors vestments were steamed and ready to go, and double checking everything. 

Some of my assisting pastors.

After the Opening Service was the first plenary speaker, then dinner, followed by the first breakaway session, Evening Prayer, and then time for the youth to have Private Absolution. So it was a busy first day. The youth had free time after that - lots of games and fun activities to do. I lead Compline for the Staff at 10 in their dorm, and then head over to our dorm for Compline with the youth at 11. 

Got to see a good friend again, Jocelyn Benson, Founder and Head Teacher of Wittenberg Academy.

And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Higher Things - Set-up and Arrival

So first, apologies that I did not keep up with posting this week! I really was just too busy. Every day was full, and what little downtime I had was spent trying to get sermons written for Sunday and Monday's funeral. But I'll try to catch up and tell you about the week . . .

Monday morning: unload the truck and set-up. 

Higher Things has a box truck and it is FULL of stuff! Pretty much everything we need, we bring with us. So there's a lot to unload and sort and get to where it needs to go. The nice things about this conference is that almost everything (chapel, plenaries, breakaway sessions, merch, and HQ) was in the same building, so the truck didn't have to drive from place to place - which is the way it often is.

After unloading, the rest of the day was spent unpacking, sorting, finding what we needed, figuring out how to set-up a chapel space, thinking through logistics, and getting things ready for the Opening Service on Tuesday. All this was because we didn't actually have a chapel to use - we had to use the auditorium and turn it into a worshipful space. 

Oh, and we also had to move me down from the Staff dorm to the dorm where my group would be staying. It was a full day!

I was assigned a CCV (Conference College Volunteer) who worked with me in the chapel all week. Her name was Magdalena and - bonus! - I knew her father at the Seminary and she is friends with my daughter! She was a BIG help, since I didn't have any summer vicars or deaconess interns this year. She, the organist, and I pretty much ran the chapel for the week. (Sadly, I did not take any pictures of the chapel set-up to show you!)

After dinner was an Evening Prayer service for all the Staff to bless the room and the chapel space and just to end the day right. I also ordered a bunch of pizzas for our group so it would be here for them when they arrived - which was around 9 o'clock or so, I think. I got back to the dorm around 10:30ish I think, and helped them settle in. Then I had to move into my room and turn in. 

Oh, and did I mention it was HOT! And the dorms were HOT! No AC. Fans blew hot air around, which helped a little . . . but pretty brutal heat the first few days. but more on that tomorrow . . .

Matthew Machemer

Associate Kantor at our Fort Wayne Seminary

and our Organist for the week