Western New York's Where's Waldo?

In this case it isn't some goof in a striped shirt but your Youth Missioner who is wandering widely.  Right now I'm in Estes Park CO attending the "Everyone, Everywhere" conference on Missions, sponsored by various organizations of the Episcopal Church.



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What, you may ask, is there in Estes Park CO?  Well just outside this small town is the YMCA of the Rockies  which is this amazing retreat/conference center set in the midst of Rocky Mountain National Park.  The view is stunning but we're also over 8,000 feet above sea level.  The air here is thinner than back home and it takes a couple days to get used to it.  I feel a little out of breath most of the time right now.  At the same time there is less humidity up this high so there's no haze.  The view is crystal clear the whole way to the horizon.  Needless to say the views are spectacular!

 Yeah, THAT kind of spectacular.  This is looking west towards the Rockies.  Just amazing.

So why am I at this conference?  A couple reasons: First because it's a chance to bring back more information on mission trips and the resources that are out there.  I've signed up for workshops on:

• Transforming Worship: Energizing "Everyone, Everywhere" in Mission
• Communicating Mission: How to Share Your Mission Experiences
• Engaging Young Adults in Mission
• The 4 P's: Building a Strategy of Mission in the Local Church
• Infusion: A Model for Engaging Youth in Social Justice Issues 

There are 48 workshops being offered but I tried to pick the ones that I thought had the greatest value for our mission work as a diocese and as congregations.  I'm hoping to have a variety of good ideas and resources to bring home to everyone in WNY.

The second reason I'm here is that through my work with Province II my costs for this trip are being picked up by outside funding sources i.e. NOT the Diocese of WNY.  So for us it's a freebie learning experience.

In the meantime I've already had two close encounters with wild animals.  Mule deer and a herd of elk are wandering around on the campus of the YMCA.  Elk are enormous but they make this rather peculiar high pitched tiny little noise.  I'm told the male elk can be quite loud and aggressive so I've given them a wide berth.

Well at this point it's only 9 PM local time but my internal clock says it's 11 PM and I've been up since just before 4 AM.  So I'm going to call it a day. 

See you next week (I'm HOME all week!)
Peace