I'm back home again after the 1st Indiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. It was an incredible weekend! Incredible! Rev. Adam Hamilton of the Church of the Resurrection in Leewood, Kansas wowed the Conference with his down to earth, practical, useful, creative, and out of the box ideas for worship, preaching, outreach, and leadership for the church. I took a lot of notes, so be ready to hear a lot about what he had to say!

Friday and Saturday morning, Dr. David Bell spoke to us about Extravagent Generosity as it relates to our faith journeys and what Jesus calls us to be. On Friday afternoon we debated health insurance issues for our retirees, inclusiveness, structure changes in the church at large, and d.s. parsonage issues as we move into a 10 district system.

Saturday afternoon was the highlight of conference as 1000 Indiana United Methodists took to the streets, food pantries, nursing homes, and homeless shelters of Muncie to work, paint, pick up trash, visit nursing home residents, and prayer walk the streets of the city. As Rev. Karen Powell said in the incredible worship service Friday evening celebrating our mission work, "Jesus left the building!" As the hands and feet of Jesus, we took the love of God to the city of Muncie. I was on a "clean up team" and spent the afternoon picking up trash along the roadside in Muncie. When we got back, our DS, Rev. Chip Gast, accused all of us "roadies" of taking our water bottles and pouring them over our heads so that we would look like we were drenched in sweat from working so hard! CHIP - we look this way because we ARE drenched in sweat from working so hard! Our soon to be DS, Rev. Dave Michaels, told us we had to go back and shower before worship or we wouldn't be allowed into worship. HA, HA. Actually we were dirty, stinky, wet with sweat, and joyously happy because we were able to serve Jesus in such a profound way. The shower swept away our stench and dirt, but it sure didn't sweep away our joy! Worship was incredible!!!!

And today we ordained (well, God did the ordaining!) our newest pastors in the Indiana conference. I was humbled and honored to be able to lay hands on Rev. Kathy Newton as she ordained an elder this morning. What an awesome experience........

So, I'm tired and filled with joy. And proud to be a United Methodist. Very proud. Bishop Mike said to us on Friday night with a catch in his voice, "I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you."

As Bishop Mike said in his sermon this morning, "It's hard to be a pastor. Sometimes it seems like we die with "a thousand paper cuts." " It is hard to be a pastor - lots of long hours, standing beside people in the most painful moments of their lives, offering Christ to the world and even the church that is sometimes indifferent if not downright hostile to Jesus' message, and the reality of those "thousand paper cuts." Rev. Hamilton eloquently expressed to us his story of discouragement in ministry three years ago. I cried as I listened (and I'm not much of a crier) because last year I was at that same place of discouragement. But then Jesus showed up with a vengence at Seminary Church during our worship services and our fellowship times together. And He showed up again this weekend during our mission work, the worship service Friday night and this morning's ordination service. And that has made all the difference!

God bless you all. More later. I pray you are well. Peace, Kathy