Kelly and Connie's Place

I will be your tour guide on this trip. Bring your name tag for the team meetings, an appetite for Uno’s Pizza, your best exhibitor’s smile for the conference and your suntan oil for a nature walk on the beach

30+ New Missionary Candidates

The week before our church festival, (mentioned in the previous post) we had a full week at work. It was our 5th and final Candidate Orientation Program (COP) for the year. This was The another large COP group, 30+ candidates. So once again, we needed 5 committees to cover all the personal interviews. I facilitated committee number 3 and was really excited about the caliber of young people going through the orientation. All 30+ received and accepted an appointment with Pioneers.

We had our full Church Partnership Team in for the week to meet with the new candidates. When we weren’t meeting with new candidates we were having team meetings, until Kelly was just about meeting-ed out. We were glad to see Friday come even though we knew we had a full weekend coming up.

Mission Conference On The West Coast

As soon as we finished our Saturday volunteer work at PCUMC’s “Pioneer Days Festival,” we headed home to pack for our next trip. One of our PIONEERS’ church partners in New Port Richey, Fl had invited Kelly and I to participate in their mission conference. All display tables had to be set up Sunday morning at 7 AM (ugh!) before the 1st of their 3 church services started. Since it was a couple of hours drive to the west coast, we decided to get there Saturday evening.

On the way over to the gulf coast, we stopped to have pizza with a pastor and his wife who were friends of ours from Bible school. It was great to see them and catch up on their news.

A Very Full Conference Schedule

The mission conference at CCWC lasted through Thursday so we were prepared for a full week of activities. The church also has a Bible School and the Missions Pastor, Dave, had asked Kelly to speak to the students during their Monday evening class. Wednesday evening we met at the Dave’s house. He wanted us to meet with a select group of church members who had a specific interest in missions. They were able to ask more in depth questions in this setting and we all had a great time.

A Break In The Action

On Tuesday we had a break in the schedule and Kelly treated me to a trip to the beach. Those of you who know Kelly well, know that relaxing at the beach is truly out of character for him. As a matter of fact, in the 4 years we have lived in Florida we have been to the beach probably 2 times and not for longer than a half hour each time. But Kelly surprised me, and maybe himself…we spent the whole morning at the beach.

A Tarpan Is A Coastal Fish

To reach the beach we drove south of Tarpon Springs; a city of just under 25,000 that is known for having more Greek-Americans than any other city in the U.S. These Greek immigrants came to dive for the prolific sponges offshore. The Sponge Boats line the marina and traditional Greek restaurants can be found everywhere.

Our destination was Honeymoon Island State Park which is part of Caladesi Island. The weather was ideal, the four miles of gorgeous sandy beach was sparsely populated by sunbathers. There were more shells along the shore than we had ever seen in one place. It was perfect. One can stroll along nature trails, kayak through the mangroves, hop a ferry boat on over to Caladesi Island (named America’s #1 beach in 2008) or scout out the exhibits at the Nature Center.

A Taste of New York

Kelly actually went 36 hours without checking his email even once. Now that is a record! On the way back to the church we found a great restaurant called, Lucky Dill Deli. It is a New York style Deli and we had the best corned beef Rueben sandwiches ever!

We wrapped everything up on Thursday and took a leisurely drive back to Orlando using the back roads. This week we are back at it in the office, but with a spring in our step…that one Tuesday morning at the beach was a real rejuvenator.

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