10 days in the USA

Well for those who are interested, I'm finally finding time to update the blog. I don't have long so I'll give a brief update of where I've been and where I'm going. Really keen to post some reflections however on the leadership, ministry and ecclesiological models I've been exposed to and reflected upon. The real challenge will be the processing and contextualizing, then composing the imagination that continues to develop as I consider vision and direction in my context of ministry back home.

I've been in the USA for the last 10 days with 17 other ministers from Churches of Christ in Australia. Many may ask 'why USA?' which I admit has also been my question. Why on earth would ministers from from Australia want to travel to the other side of the globe to be inspired by churches and ministries in a completely different culture and context. Now on day 10 of the trip my reflection is, 'is has been worth travelling to the other side of the world for the experience and the conversations.

Anyway, more on that later, here's a basic run down of where I've been and where I'm going from here before heading back home.

We arrived in LA Thursday week ago. We spent 5 days there checking out churches and talking with the pastors. Some of the facilities and conversations were mind boggling. Of course we couldn't visit LA and stay right next to Disneyland and not take a look, so we squeezed that in. Then we drove to Las Vegas for 2 days and checked out 2 amazing ministries. While in Las Vegas we 'walked the strip'. What an experience that was, those casinos are monstrosities. It was so hot in Las Vegas, even at night. Then we moved onto Flagstaff, Arizona for 2 days, checked out another church. Went to the Grand canyon for half a day, hard to really explain a site like that. This morning we woke up to a blanket of snow over everything. What a contract to Las Vegas, and it's not even that far away. We wound our way through the mountains to check another church on our way to Phoenix. It snowed while we were standing in the church car park. I'm now in Phoenix and back into shorts and t-shirt. It's hot here. We're only a few hundred miles from Vegas and the fluctuations in weather have been amazing.

We'll be in Phoenix for 5 days checking out churches and more conversations before driving back to LA where the tour ends. On Friday I fly to Seattle to catch up with friends for the weekend. Touring a couple more ministries while there and speaking at a friends church. Sunday night following I fly back to LA then the next morning to Hawaii for some relax time. I'm hoping to fulfill a life long dream by standing on the beach of Pipeline. i don't care what the surf is like, I just want to go there. Then I'll look around for a wave I can handle and fulfill another dream to surf in Hawaii. I have 2 days there then i fly back home.

I look forward to seeing all back in Oz soon.

Shalom
Mark