"Meet Me in St. Louis..."

Well, we made it home from the convention in St. Louis. Two down, one to go. In fact, we are heading out to Atlanta tomorrow morning.

St. Louis was great though. There are a lot of sights to see. Christina was thrilled when she found out that she could walk to the Mighty Mississippi. That was exactly what we did on one of our dinner breaks. We ate at a nice little Italian Restaurant and then walked half way across a bridge that would have taken us to Illinois. This was the plan but we needed to get to the next general session on time, so we took the picture above and headed back to the convention center.

There really is a lot in St. Louis; the great arch (which is in the background of the picture), the new Cardinal's Stadium, the Might Mississippi...tons I tell ya!

It is fascinating that as you move across the country it is natural for people to work in one state and live in another. This is something this Southern Californian can't fathom. That is why the walk to Illinois seemed so outrageous. Christina wanted to come back and say, "I went to Illinois for dinner. I am back now, here in Missouri." Instead, the conversation went more into bragging rights that we walked half way across the Mississippi.

The Convention itself was fantastic. One of the interesting speakers for the week was Ralph Winter. He is the producer of the X-Men and Fantastic 4 movies. He gave an incredible talk about the power of story telling. He challenged the youth workers tell the story in new ways. Do not settle for how it has been told so many other times. One of the examples he gave was to give missionaries video cameras. Let them tell their story not just though an interview in front of the pulpit. Instead, have someone in the church edit the footage and allow what the missionaries do tell their story. It was also great to hear from a man that is doing amazing work in Hollywood today while living a life of integrity and passion for God.

So...in 12 hours we will be on a plane to Atlanta. Who knows what Georgia has for us, but we'll let you know in a week!