Harvest of Hope, Part 1

   This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend my first National Missionary Convention in Lexington, KY along with my wife and kids. I first found out about this event 4-5 years ago when looking to do some new things with our youth group instead of the typical CIY conference, camp, or mission trip ideas, and since that time have always wanted to go. Something about the idea of a gathering of thousands of people from around the world who either live on the mission field or support those who are seemed very unique and intriguing. I went expecting to hear a new perspective on some things, and that's what I got.

   Before I get to far into it, let me answer your curiosity concerning my teaser comment about winning an iPad drawing. When we arrived in Rupp Arena on night #1, everyone had a card on their seat from a particular booth that was giving away an iPad as a way to attract people to learn more about their organization. Apparently it was a big hit and the guy in the booth next to the ones giving away the iPad decided he would have an iPad drawing of his own in his elective, which I attended. Out of the 30-40 in the elective I was picked as the winner, and for the rest of the story a picture will be worth a 1000 words:

     If you don't get it yet, notice I said I won an "iPad drawing" not a drawing for an iPad. Either way I was pretty excited to win! I took one of those cheesy hand shake photos with the workshop leader that may be up on their website or facebook page soon. If so I'll post a link.

     Since I'm in photo posting mode here's a few photos from the convention to give you an idea of how big it is:

The main sessions, exhibits and workshops were spread out among Rupp Arena, the Lexington Center, and the Hyatt and Hilton hotels right in downtown Lexington

Booths were literally all over the place representing organizations that work in nearly every corner of the globe.  I'm not sure the official number but I would estimate there were at least 200.

There were lots of workshops (which I'll say more about in a minute), free activities for our kids, and lots to do in the downtown Kentucky area (which was filled with plenty of proud UK fans). I'll add that we had some good meals at local places like Joe Balogna's (a nearby pizza place in what used to be a Presbyterian church and later a Jewish synagogue) and Triangle Grill (which is where we had the Florida Christian College Alumni lunch)

     All around we had a great time bumping into old friends and enjoying all the things we could see an do in Lexington and at the convention. It would have been much like any other vacation or convention we've been to in the past were it not for some of the excellent messages we heard and workshops we attended which spoke directly to some unique opportunities that are in front of us right now. I'll tell you more about that in part 2 of this blog post, hopefully a little later tonight. :-)