Monday, January 27, 2014

Las Vegas 2014

continued from I hate the Journey

If you are ever in the position of needing to use Fox Rental Cars as your rental dealer be sure that you approach their facilities on a full stomach. To do otherwise is to invite hostility and anger into your life. They will take forever. Hungry people are not happy people.

When staying on the Las Vegas strip, be aware that there are different buildings for the same hotel and if you get the cheapest room you will be staying in a dingy 3-story building behind the enchanting tower you envisioned yourself in. I stayed in Circus Circus so the tower wasn't that enchanting to begin with...

Make sure that you book your hotel on the appropriate side of the strip or you'll be riding the interstate all day to the exact same exit and wondering why you rented a room 10 miles from where (seemingly) everything else in Vegas is.


More to the point, we had four major To-do's in Vegas as enumerated below:


  1. Speaking at All People's/New Horizon Church
    All People's has partnered with us in our ministry with Pioneer Bible Translators for a number of years. Recently they merged with New Horizon's Church to form one of the most welcoming congregations I've had the pleasure of visiting. We got the chance maintain our relationship with All People's, grow our relationship with New Horizon's, and develop relationships with a number of members of the congregation. 
  2. Meeting with an executive pastor at The Crossing
    Formerly a pastor at Forefront Church in Virginia Beach, I had the pleasure of enjoying a delicious Thai lunch at Archi's with him and his wife. It was an opportunity to catch up on a personal level and work to make ties with The Crossing church. 
  3. Attending Verve
    Having been planted by the same person who planted Forefront, Verve was a familiar place where I was able to worship in the way I grew up worshiping. Additionally, I was able to catch up with people I had met in previous trips to Vegas in addition to meeting new people, including but not limited to a MACU alumni. My alma mater is so small most people I meet traveling have never even heard of it, let alone have graduated from it! When we briefly covered our life's story we found a peculiar amount of overlap, which I think will let her be an amazing source of networking!
  4. Sharing at a micro-group
    Right before we flew out to Portland, I got the chance to share with a woman's mirco-group at Verve. I love the chance to share my work in a time frame that exceeds 5 minutes. It really gives an opportunity for the audience to lead the discussion, inquiring about things that are important to them. And it really gives me an opportunity to communicate why the mission of Bible Translation is so important. 
Partnership Development or fund-raising can be a daunting task. Getting in contact with people, hearing the word "no" about 80% of the time, having plans fall through, it works out to being a job that is very very draining. But when the foot work has been done and all that is left is coming out to Vegas, sit down with people and sharing, and having new plans and opportunities pop out of the wood work, it makes PD a pleasure rather than a drudgery. 

Keep an eye out for "Portland 2014" to hear how our multi-city PD trip continued. 

Monday, January 20, 2014

I Hate the Journey

I hate traveling.
Like a lot.
I am 100% a destination girl.
I compulsively need to arrive at the airport two hours early, despite the fact that I have never ever needed that much time.
I pop a Xanax an hour before departure, because I'm terrified of flying.
I preform breathing exercises during take off and landing, because I'm anxious the Xanax won't work. (It's called meta-anxiety, being anxious about being anxious and it's my cross to bear...)
When we've finally stopped rising drastically and taking sharp turns and other acrobatic feats in the air, I spend about 3-5 minutes looking around. I turn on my phone and then turn it off. I glance at my Kindle and then away. And then I say to Jacob: I'm bored...
I'm a watch checker. Every 10 minutes until I realize I'm about to drive myself crazy (which would be quite anxiety inducing), until finally I find an arguably horizontal position a little less than totally uncomfortable and drift in and out to an every half hour watch check.
I try to make my flights 2 hours or 16 hours and avoid anything in between. It needs to be over soon or long enough for me to accept that this is my existence now.

Really, I wish that security was the only part of flying. I'm good at security. So good. Like a TSA ninja! I walk up to the buckets and suddenly there is a flurry of buckets all over the place. Outwear! Liquids! Laptops! I fly into the tube of detection and FREEZE. arms over the head.... And GO! And stop! wait for the signal.... DONE!
Ninja.

But then I emerge off the plane. stupid flying box of improbable doom. I rarely check baggage so I don't have to bother with baggage claim. I just try to leave the airport as quickly as possible.
I'm a destination girl.
But there are some days, some fateful days, where there is no one waiting for me and I have to navigate....
Airport Transportation!!!
Dun dun dun.
To be continued.