I learned a new word today: egocentricabstraction. Apparently this means we all have an abstract way of influencing the way others think and behave, but we don't care.

How reckless is that? Here we are as adults with the ability to influence the life of a child, teenager, young adult, yet we act so carelessly with our words, actions, and emotions.

It may seem odd that Brad and I are gaining so much knowledge from people named Tic, Chap, and Marko, but it's true! So far the conference has proven to be uplifting, enlightening, and refreshing - just as I anticipated. Our spirits are being renewed as we are encouraged to "JUMP" (the theme of this year's conference) back into youth ministry with the same young heart we had at the beginning of this incredible journey.

The next General Session is about to start and I've just agreed to let Brad go ahead and find us seats, when finding him will now be quite the challenge in a theater filled with approximately 7500 other zealous youth workers and their undoubtedly committed entourage of volunteers or spouses...

...there are others waiting in line for the limited access to the hot commodity of internet access here at the conference center, so I will leave this post "as is" and write again tomorrow. Tonight we venture to ROCKETOWN here in "Music City, USA" to see a Thousand Foot Krutch/Hawk Nelson concert. Funny how both of these bands have been in Rockford within the last few months, but we finally get to rock out to them here in Nashville...