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.