This summer I have the opportunity to attend the 222nd General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Portland, Oregon.  This is an exciting opportunity.  I realized in conversations with others it is uncommon for the majority of the members of our denomination to attend this national gathering.  I decided since many of the people I know have not attended GA, I could include them in this experience by posting reflections.

Posting reflections on a blog is a practice typical for a mission trip among our community; and even though I will not be traveling with a team from our congregation, I will be going with a team from our presbytery (regional collection of congregations united in work and worship).  The work before attending GA is following the same pattern as before a mission trip – study, conversation, prayer, and organizing all types of details – which makes me feel as though I am headed off on a mission trip.  The only piece that had been missing was the blog to record the adventures of the team.

Though the idea for this blog came from the upcoming trip to GA, the more I reflected on beginning it, the more I began to wonder if maintaining a blog would be a good practice for me, as well as an opportunity to help others learn about life in a rural congregation.  At this time I have decided to try an experiment of keeping this blog for the rest of 2016.  It is my hope this blog will spread joy, peace and a bit of laughter.

Thank you for reading.