Orange Conference

Practicing right before our performance.

We never got to rehearse on stage-just ran up

for the real thing!

"Vinny", V (the creator of the robots), and "Gordo"

Notice Vinny's hair matches his robot's hair!!

The people at the hotel must have thought we were crazy!

Waiting to board for Atlanta. Finally got my makeup on!

Getting our rental. Nobody would jump with me....

Looking at my script

Our "robots" made from supplies bought at Walgreens!

Typical interaction between Cammie and Vinny

Rehearsing at the hotel. The seat cushion is a "robot"

The volunteers!!! So funny, we found this huge

robot outside the arena. Not planned, but our sketch

was about robots :) It was the story of Solomon and

the 2 women fighting over the baby. Cammie

threatened to have a robot cut in half!!

One of the big sessions at Gwinnett Arena

I don't really know where to begin....

I'm processing a lot right now, spiritually speaking. Maybe trying to write it will help organize it in my brain.

First off, the Orange Conference was a blasty blast. Jesus woke me up at 4:45 on the morning we left. Seriously. We were supposed to meet at Greg/June's at 5 a.m. to carpool to the airport and I rolled over and looked at my clock at 4:45. They live 15 minutes from us, so B and I got ready in 3 minutes. No joke. I put my makeup on at our gate at the airport! What a way to start the day.

Once in Atlanta things went more smoothly. There were 13 from our church, 5 "staff" and 8 volunteers. It ended up being funny because the 8 volunteers had a huge Suburban and we rode together everywhere. Staff had the other car and it ended up being a "staff vs. volunteer" thing every time we raced to get somewhere. We felt like we were on the Amazing Race, taking different routes to the arena, etc.

Our days consisted of 2 large sessions (a.m. and p.m.) at the arena and then a couple of "breakouts" in- between. The large sessions had great speakers like John and Nancy Ortberg, Perry Noble, Reggie Joiner, etc. There were funny skits and hosts and worship/singing time too. The breakouts I personally attended were, well, boring only because our church already does what they were trying to teach.

*how to recruit and keep volunteers

*how to get parents and kids united in what they're learning (Rush Hour)

*how to do a "family experience" (Rush Hour)

etc.

We felt good about how much of it our church is already doing, thanks to our staff implementing the concept of "Orange" several years ago. "Orange", by the way, is the concept of having the church (yellow) joining together with families (red) to grow spiritually. The church should not be the only way kids learn about Jesus, and the family needs support and other adults backing up the values learned at home, so when they collide, it makes "Orange". Cute huh?

The whole reason we went to the conference was to perform a Rush Hour at one of the breakouts. There was pressure, though, because just the night before at the arena, Northpoint put on a "KidStuf" show in front of everybody! Our job was to do the exact same script, on a smaller scale.

We didn't bring any of our vocalists or crew (kid dancers) to perform because they "supplied" them for us. Big mistake :) Once we saw theirs, we wished ours could have come!! Our kids and singers are so energetic and help engage the audience so well that it made theirs look dead. In spite of that, our breakout performance went great! There were probably close to 400 people watching and most of them had seen the bigger show the night before. As a result, they were analyzing the differences, thinking about logistics at their own churches and whether or not they could pull something like this off.

The cool idea is that they CAN pull it off, with smaller sets, cheaper costumes, no special lights, etc. We opened it up for questions when we were done and had lots and lots of people come up to ask about time commitment, resources, rehearsal schedule, training, etc. People were so excited to figure out how to do this back home. I spoke for quite a while with 2 gals from a church in MN who were DYING to get this launched at home. 2 other churches south of Denver plan to shadow us for the next few months to figure out how to do a family experience of their own.

I found myself wishing we could take Rush Hour on the road to show other churches that it can be done and that it is so amazing for families.

Ok, on to the spiritual growth part....

One of the speakers was Donald Miller, author of "Blue Like Jazz" and "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years". He spoke of the Million Miles book at one of our sessions and he stated that our lives are like a movie and we need to choose risk and excitement or our lives will be dull. (That's the super-shortened version of it.) He states that the reason for risk is not merely to live an exciting life, but to do it because the reward is greater.

He gave an example of traveling to South America to see the ruins of Machu Picchu. As a tourist he was given a choice of how to get there; he could travel by car for several hours up a winding road, OR he could go on a 4-day hike, over several large mountain passes to get to the ruins. He chose the hike. Why? Because after 4 days of difficult sleeping, hiking, and climbing over the mountains, the panorama of the beautiful ruins as crossed over the last ridge was breathtaking. It was worth the trip. It made the exhausting 4 days that much more memorable and the descent to the ruins more rewarding.

The bottom line? When given a choice, choose the HARDEST thing. The biggest problem in America is not depression or suicide, but "LANGUISH". The definition of languish is "to lose strength or energy, to be weak or feeble, to have lack of motivation, to be melancholy". Americans don't have to suffer like the pioneers did or even suffer like people in other countries. Life is extremely easy. There is no "fight" for what we have. We live a nice life. That's it. It's simply NICE.

The author had a friend who asked him if he wanted to bike across the U.S. with him. "Sure!" he said. He'd never been a biker, but he went out and bought himself one and began to ride, a little at a time. After several months, he signed up for a couple of local rides/races, and got himself ready for the 3000-mile trip. He then rode with a group of riders from Portland to Washington D.C. on a trip of a lifetime.

Challenging? Yes. I've got much more to process, but in later posts. Brian and I are talking about how to change our family's "story". To do more "hard" things.