from the censorship bureau

This blog formally had a picture of a random guy. The guy was not naked....there have been reports that we're taking pictures of nude men! He was wearing something and he got a laugh from literally everyone that walked by him. We'll go ahead and not make the picture available anymore. If anyone wants to see it again, I'll email it to you:)

As of today, however, the festival is over. The stages outside our flat have been taken down and the street has resumed the normal characteristics of a street and is no longer a flooded venue of performances and tourists.

We had the phone-repair-man at our flat today to fix our phone line, which is the first step in us getting broadband! So, we're one appointment closer! We are hoping that we'll be hooked up by the end of the week...but, we wouldn't be surprised if it took longer...

We've had some great meetings over the past couple weeks with Tony and Mike Laberge about Eikon. We have bought a domain and hosting and will have a site up sometime soon...will post a link when it's up. We've been talking a lot about the ideology of Eikon, mainly that it will be a grace-space emphasizing acceptance, discipleship and love while implementing creativity in every facet of the church and utilizing multimedia to the full extent of our capability.

We've agreed that we don't want the church to be Sunday-driven. We want true community to be formed in small groups throughout the week, which will (eventually) lead to a larger gathering on Sunday morning. As a group of core leaders, we've established that we believe that we, as Christians, are all on a journey and that one of our main priorities and responsibilities is to affirm the goodness of God in people. Thus the tagline: "There's something in everyone that God wants to grow."

We've also been talking about the Calvary missions team coming out in September, which we're all really excited for! Though we don't have a facility in need of painting or anything (unless we get offices between now and then...), we're looking forward to sharing the vision of Eikon, sharing the city of Edinburgh, and sharing really intentional times of prayer for what the Lord wants to do here...Not to mention it will be really nice to see some faces/friends from home!

Right on the Front Page

I was walking around a few weeks ago and saw this on the front page of the Daily Scottish Mail, a prominent paper in Edinburgh. There is new legislation that will essentially go into effect this school year, whereby missing out gay issues in sex education and relationships lessons will be unlawful. "Primary school children will be taught about lesbian sex using dolls in a lottery-funded project." Two years ago, it emerged that children as young as four had been handed explicit gay sex advice by their teachers.
I've been trying to do some research on this today, and can't find anything related to this type of government-sponsored program. It is an unprecedented era when a country can allow the detailed teaching of this activity. This is where this country is at, they're what you would call an open society……very, very open.

On a related note, Senator Gordon Smith from Oregon has been attacked recently for making the comment that if state-sanctioned protection of marriage between man and woman is defeated, gay sex will soon be taught in public schools. Most blogs I've gone to on this issue have somewhat mocked the idea that this would ever be the case. I entered into the blog and linked them to this article......I've gotten like 20 responses from my link alone in a matter of minutes! Bloggers of the world unite! Marx would be proud.

This is a difficult one for me, to be completely honest. I've always disagreed with how the church has treated the homosexual community, and understand why many would be outraged by the church and it's behavior towards them. There are ways, and I've seen it, to have solid relationships with the gay community. This type of legislation is really pushing it though.

As a christian, I often times encounter questions from people about what I think of gay people(are they going to hell?) . There is no specific type of person who asks this question, it's seemingly become almost anyone from all ages. Perhaps it's become such an issue because of the lack of mercy, or downright hatred that our culture perceives from the Christian community towards gay people.
So, in an environment where article's like this make front page news, it's probably important to have an idea how to answer this extremely sensitive topic.
It'll be interesting to hear your thoughts, but some things I've experienced is that there's a tension that scripture says every person matters to God, has the hope of God's grace and forgiveness, and should be treated with love as my neighbor or friend, which includes gay people. Pulling against this truth is that scriptures indicate that homosexual sin is wrong.
I don't think“gay" is who one is in God's eyes. He created us for a purpose, and that's more than the sum total of our sexual attraction. I think our culture polarizes the issue.
I think a gay person can instantly recognize whether a Christian genuinely cares for them, sexual preference and all. Unfortunately, we've lost their trust. We may be genuine in the abstract sense, but the whole "loving thy neighbor" is tougher in practice.
But don't we need to save them? Christ saves people, not me. It's not my responsibility to save someone, but love them unconditionally regardless if they turn towards Christ or not.
I think you can be a Christian and homosexual. Why? Because sin can often times be an addiction that takes a long time to resolve….and when I mean resolve, the feelings often times never go away (ask an alcoholic or someone addicted to pornography). I can never change a person, and even though God can, he doesn't usually take away all temptation. Instead, he changes the heart and strengthens the will as a person is willing. The only way forward is if anyone who lives in sin is willing. Unless I grow to love and trust Christ, I won't be willing. How God does or doesn't change people is up to him, not me.
My perception of the gay community changed in college. As a music major my first year of university, I lived on an arts floor that housed a large majority of gay people. I was so curious to talk with them because I hadn't met many gay people in fairly sheltered childhood. I can remember students thinking I was gay cause I was around them so much. It was one of the first times when I actually had the chance to sit with them and listen. It wasn't just listening to that particular topic, but everything. My“gaydar”slowly shed flaws in the Christian lens I had formed throughout my life. I began to look beyond their lifestyle, and in many ways, didn't care anymore. They were just as confused and trying to understand themselves as I was. That year stripped away years of misperceptions of the gay community.

At Eikon, it'll go something like this:“look, you might be gay, and guess what, that's ok. We're not hear to judge but accept…..come on in.” They'll know if it's the real thing.

How bout you, any thoughts on this article, or the Christian-Homosexual debate?

Meeting with AOG

Had a gathering with the Scottish Assemblies pastors all day in a town called Perth, about 1 1/2 hours north of Edinburgh. We were so into conversation with Tony that we drove an extra 20 miles past the exit, reversed, and drove past the exit again:) I wasn't driving but Tony is the slowest driver I've seen in a while. He makes my mom look aggressive. He's one of those drivers who's constantly unaware that he's accelerating every 20 yards so you're regularly feeling the movement of the car.....arghhhhh!

There were about 30 Scottish pastors present, minus a few that weren't available. I think that shows the status of AOG presence in Scotland. It's fairly minimal and there were no young guys, literally none. I was the only person in my 20's there. That's a scary thought, but only confirms our call and need to be present in this country. Even outside of the Pentecostal movement, there are literally no young people entering the ministry and it's freaking the leadership out, and rightfully so. The crisis became abundantly clear this afternoon.

I enjoyed sitting next to Andrew Smith, the Scottish General Superintendent, who has been the Calvary Church in the past. He's a great guy with an addictive enthusiasm for God and golf. He's currently balancing his Superintendent position with being a full-time local pastor, and golfing.

Tony and I had a great conversation with the guest speaker, a pastor of a large church in London (Doug Fields), and Andrew Smith. We talked about Eikon's philosophy of church and really got both Andrew and Doug excited about where this is heading. Tony really knows how to articulate the vision of the church, and he naturally captivates his audience (this time being an important supporter:).

For the first several weeks, the leadership team is just spending time with one another, with the Lord, and just philosophizing what the church is, what it means to be christian, and how to create a context for those seeking something genuine.

We need your thoughts, insight, and prayers during this important time in the process of Eikon.

It's a race

It’s a very competitive thing to get an apartment in the location we were searching for: the heart of the city. Not only is it difficult to find something within our budget, but it's also a challenge to be comfortable enough to have people over on a consistent basis.
When we arrived the first day a few weeks back, we immediately went to see an apartment Tony had picked out for us. He was fairly confident we’d like it. The apartment was dreadful. When it came down to it, we’d live there if we absolutely had to, but the furnishings were that of an 18th century Victorian house. You think, that’s not so bad. The painting above the bed was that of a nude woman, so lets not go any further.

So we started searching for another option. Kate called a woman about a property for rent but wasn’t available to show us for a few days, but happened to have a viewing on High Street that afternoon if we wanted to go along. We said yes and showed up early because past experience had led us to believe that it was a mass viewing, and the first person to the letting agency following the viewing would have the apartment.

I just happened to have my camera on me:) Here’s a picture of Kate and Yvonne running to the letting agency after we viewed the apartment we’re now in because there were two other very interested couples at the viewing.

It was a great laugh afterwards because we literally ran to a taxi and begged him to speed to this place.

The Lord really opened up this apartment to us. The person who previously lived here had been here for 10 years and it went on the market that afternoon. Most places this time of year, if they’re nice are available for a day or two if that.

This will be so vital for small groups, meetings, and having the ability to be so close to where everything is happening. Simply put, I would be less motivated to walk to a bar or meet up with people if I had to take a bus or walk a half hour to meet up. This takes that issue out of the equation.

Schmidgall Hostel

Got our first visitor, a random European travelor by the name of David Russell Ellis. The young lad has been touring Europe this past month and is saving the best for last:) He'll be heading to Northwestern this coming September, what a stud.

So it finally gave us an excuse to be tourists for a while. The picture of us is at the top of the "crags" overlooking the city. Literally, it takes about 15 minutes to walk to the foot of the lookout (the hike up is another story).
Here's something you probably wouldn't know about Edinburgh: the city is perched on a series of extinct volcanoes and rocky crags which rise from the relatively flat landscape of the Lothians (surrounding areas of the city). It also overlook the Firth of Forth, an outlet to the Ocean. In other words, the topography of the city is quite unique relative to other striking European cities.


We went to experience some festival life last night and heard some stand-up comedians. I've been to a few shows in the past, but this was by far the worst set of comedians. I will say though, my "New and Used Thongs" (sandals) was a hit with the comedians. Their material was terrible so they resorted to making fun of the audience.....they seemed to love to make fun of me for some reason:) Poor Kate got her fair share and Dave just mocked the comedians all night. All in all, it was a good experience, though we wouldn't do it again.

Making home homey

Here are a couple pictures of our flat! I know they've been long awaited, since we've been here now for 4 whole days! There is just one little corner of our apartment that we can pick up one bar of someone's wireless internet signal...and even then it's only sometimes! But, we're working on getting our internet hooked up asap...definitely looking forward to that!

Still working on sprucing up the apartment, honestly, until now, there's not really been much to take pictures of...just boxes, random furniture left here by previous tenants, etc. We're trying to make it "home", though we know that takes time. Tony and Yvonne have been very very supportive, offering to help in any way they can--they've really taken us under their wing and have made the transition much easier.

For instance, they took us yesterday to a retail park (outlet mall) where we bought some paint to paint our place and introduced us to ASDA (the UK version of Walmart). They also took us to IKEA the other day to buy some furnishings/decor...really just a rug, a futon, silverware, etc. Nothing too exciting, just enough to make our place feel like a home. No matter how hard we try to not spend much though, it's just a fact: things are more expensive here. Even at ASDA, we were shocked at prices...we've found that what would normally cost 3 dollars in the States costs 3 pounds here (nearly $6!) so we're just blown away by our grocery bill when we do the mental conversion!

MY BROTHER IS COMING TO VISIT TONIGHT!! Ha ha, can you tell I'm excited?! He has been backpacking Europe for a month now, my older brother, Justin, met up with him a couple weeks ago in Spain, so the two of them have been enjoying an awesome journey--I'm so excited to hear some of their stories, reflections, etc. Even though we've bought some new decor and furnishings, and painted the walls, and unpacked our boxes...it's really hard for this to feel like home without family. Again, all in good time I'm sure...

Friday night we enjoyed the company of two couples interested in discussing Eikon with us and the Foleys. First, we saw a show called, "Joy Observed", a play about the life of C.S. Lewis' wife and afterwards went for a really nice dinner and enjoyed conversation spanning the topics of kids, work...universalism, the church's approach to homosexuals...you know, the usual. :) It's been very very interesting talking to various people about their experiences and opinions on what a church should and shouldn't be...this is certainly a pivotal time for us in terms of structuring Eikon, framing core values/beliefs and creatively implementing it all into effective service/small group/church models.

Progress

Here's a view from our window looking down on a street performer that we literally watch everyday due to the festival. The streets are packed below us all day and evening and will continue for the rest of the month. The atmosphere is electric and so active. Musicians, actors, street performers, comedians....all right out our window. It's rather surreal.

Sorry for the delay, it's been impossible to get consistent internet right now. Again, we've learned quickly that you can't get something done very quickly around here. It all takes time, including installing internet, buying furniture, etc. This week we've moved into our flat, just on the Royal Mile (city centre). The views out our windows (2 in living room, 1 in kitchen and two in our room) overlook the walking street with spectacular views. We're within a five minute walk of the University and right next to possible church locations. This place is small, but a great apartment.

I finally received my computer yesterday....it took over two weeks to get and it was only supposed to take 3 days......We video-taped the opening of the box and viewing the computer just in case......What do you know, it was slightly damaged. There is a spot on the screen now that won't go away.....some sort of malfunctioned pixelation, but it's right in the middle and drives me nuts. It functions fine, but filed a claim with Fedex and they were impressed we video-taped it. We also got pictures, so hopefully we can get something resolved out of this. No suprise, it'll take a few months though.....oh well, at least the computer works!


I've got an article I read today in the newspaper entitled, "schools to teach about gay sex according to new equality legislation." I look forward to commenting on that, and hearing your thoughts out there.

We won't officially get internet for another 2 weeks in this apartment, so we're resorting to expensive purchasing of it in cafe's. We look forward to inputing some video we've taken, as well as more pictures of some things we've experienced thus far.


Also had our first meeting with Tony and Mike about the church-plant. It went exceptionally well and look forward to detailing some of our most recent thoughts. We've got an exciting group and Tony continues to impress me the more I get to know him. He has very unique insight into the status of our culture as well as fresh perspectives in the word that has only inspired me to continue to search the scriptures.

I can't tell you how excited we are, and I was telling Tony the other day.....there isn't anywhere else we'd rather be right now doing what we're about to embark on.......wow we're pumped, and not in an overemotional, flippant sort of way. We really sense such a connection to the Lord's timing right now.


Sorry for the random thoughts, don't have time, it's late and need to sleep.

1 Degree of Separation

The Sanders live on this ridge overlooking Glasgow, and this was the sunset this evening while I sat and read, not bad huh?
Kate and I spent the day with Mike Laberge, the Master's Commission director for the Edinburgh team. Himself and the 7 students will be helping out with the Church-plant when it begins so it was a fruitful time of getting to know one another. They are going to be important in terms of creative thinking, lending a helping hand, and more young people to relate to college students.

Ever heard of 6 degrees of separation? The theory that you're connected to everyone in the world through 6 interconnecting relationships? I think in the Assemblies, it sometimes feels like it's 1 degree of separation.
For those who have grown up in the Assemblies, anytime you meet someone from another Assemblies church, you're bound to have many connections with one another. The Americans we've met here have not been an exception.

Mike Laberge grew up in Normal, Illinois, which is not far from where my Dad grew up. The Children's pastor at Mike's home church in Normal has now become the Children's pastor for Calvary in Naperville. Mike went to Master's Commission Rockford, and knows several people from Copenhagen Masters (where I was involved 5 years ago).
The Sanders recently spoke at Dan Betzer's church in Fort Myers Florida, where kate and I went to school, and met up with Brad Liebe, who was the missionary I worked under in Denmark. They are really close friends to Alton Garrison(Assemblies Director of Home Missions), along with Alton's daughter Lizzette, who just happened to recently stay at kate and myself's apartment in Naperville because she is dating one of my best friends. They also spoke at a church recently in Little Rock, AK who is pastored by Rob Loy, who happens to be one of my Dad's cousins.
WOW! Assemblies is really freaky sometimes.

Church-Plant in Glasgow

This evening we had the great opportunity to be a part of Mike and Andrea Sanders' second service ever in their church-plant here in Glasgow. Kate ended up helping out with the lyric slideshows, and I took care of the soundboard, which was actually enjoyable for me because i've always had a hidden frustration with bad sound-men, and just knew I could do a better job:) My wife says I'm so humble about myself......

The service went great and had some wonderful conversations with people during and after the service. Andrea was telling the story of the girl who they prayed for at the end of the service (the first picture). This woman lost her husband several months ago to a robber that broke into their house in the middle of the night and stabbed him to death.

Glasgow is the crime capital of Europe, home to many gangs and constant stabbings. The most recent phenomenon is called "happy fisting", where a gang will mug a person and videotape it on their cameraphones for later satisfaction.

Mike and Andrea have a great calling.....Andrea noticed one day in the Pentecostal Evangel the front page saying "Has God Left Scotland?" and her heart felt convicted. About the same time, Mike was feeling convicted about going to Europe, of which neither had ever stepped foot in their entire lives. They confirmed it with each other and resigned at their church they had been senior pastoring for 7 years to go to Scotland and plant a church in the poorer area of Glasgow.

Pray for Mike and Andrea and their 3 children.......they started services last week and have amazing hearts and will do great things here.

We got together for Pizza Hut following the service.......leave it to us to go to Pizza Hut in Scotland

Living on the High Street

So we're moving into our apartment on Tuesday! We're really looking forward to it, in large part just because it will give us more of a homebase and allow us to feel a bit more like we have our feet beneath us. From there we can start really making this home and more freely indulge in the culture and explore the festival...we did tell you there is a festival going on, right?

Edinburgh is home to one of the largest, if not THE largest, international arts/entertainment festivals in Europe, if not the world. The city's population doubles to a million people, all walking the streets going from show to show, venue to venue. It's not like a popping-balloons-with-squirt-guns-or-darts type festival though, it's more the sophisticated side of the entertainment industry: lots of theater, jazz, symphonies, comedy shows and plays...not to mention street performers everywhere you look: live statues, acrobatics groups doing routines on moving vehicles, bagpipers, jugglers/clowns, lots of merchants...you name it really, something for everyone...and it's going on for another 3 weeks!

We are loving the scenery and views of the city; also all the very kind and generous people we've met so far! At the last B&B we stayed at in Roslin, we met Louise and Derrick Turner (our hosts) who have so far been living in that location for 44 years! They were so incredibly sweet and good to us...it was a joy to sit with Louise a bit and help her get pictures off her digital camera, email them to friends, and create greeting cards with software she bought a while back...they've invited us back for a classic "Barn Supper" in January, which we're looking forward to.

Tony showed us the location he's chosen for Eikon; we'll be renting a room at the Carlton Hotel on North Bridge (for the few who might know where that is...). It's a fantastic location, we're excited about it. We'll have a private entrance right off the street, with a (coffee) bar just inside the doors and a nice gathering area for after service...our wheels never stop spinning, we just keep bouncing ideas off each other...Tony is very graciously letting us find our feet and get situated before we really dive into planning/organizing, etc. but we are still brainstorming and are really excited about Eikon and what it can be.

just barely

It appears kate and I just made it out of Heathrow airport a few days back. We missed the complete shutdown of one of the busiest airports in the world by a day. I talked to someone yesterday who spent 15 hours trying to get out, and finally gave up.
Whether you choose to see it as coincidence or God's timing, our plans would have been massivly delayed by who knows how long.

So now you can't bring liquids on planes, at least for the time being because the terrorists were apparently using some form of liquid expolosive. .......I'm waiting for the day to come when all we can wear on an airplane are the clothes on our back and no luggage because it's just not safe anymore.

Today we'll make the journey over to Glasgow, the second largest city in Scotland and according to Kate's grandfather (born and raised there) is where we should have planted the church originally. Mike and Andrea Sanders, a missionary family from Arkansas have offered a room in their "inn" for a few nights, so we look forward to some consecutive nights in one place and getting to know a great family.

Anyone out in the blogosphere have any traveling story nightmares? please, indulge.

Also, kate and I have discovered our addiction to our mac computers and internet. I'll be away from my sweetheart, I mean my imac G5 20inch beautifully designed machine for 2 weeks and we barely have access to internet. I guess our patience and heightened awareness of addictions have been great lessons already. Though I hear that the house we're staying at has wireless........we're living 5 star now:)

Old World New World

I wish I could post pictures, have some sweet ones already. I don't have my computer yet and the fedex said it'd be another 5 days, $£*%:) Anyways, because of the festival that is going on the entire month, and the fact that we can't get into our apartment till the middle of next week, we're staying in different places each night. Every hotel, B&B or hostel or completely booked right now.....the cheapest we've found so far is nothing under $200/night! That's insane....so after a number of calls outside the city, we found a B&B in a town called Rosslyn about 45 minutes oustide the city. Again, pictures are so needed right now, but it was this adorable little house with the sweetest scottish woman I dubbed Grandma Buchanen. We could only stay for an evening, which was quite lovely.
We stumbled upon two things in this tiny little town:
1) It was home of the Rosslyn Church, which if anyone was into the DaVinci Code like I wasn't, would know that it was one of the church's where they discovered who the holy blood line was.....anyways, Tom Hanks had been there filming the movie obviously and the tourism has gone crazy since then....thank goodness for really bad popular movies. The Church was amazing, built in the 15th century and still barely standing due to time and ravages of past conflicts....it's held together by scaffolding
2) This town is where Dolly the sheep was cloned....we all remember this a few years back? I guess it's a state-of-the-art facility in this tiny town that is now controversially in the process of human cloning and stem-cell research.

It's amazing how this small town in Scotland has so much connection to the past and present. I've always marvelled at this very deep connection one feels to thousands of years of history in cities all over Europe....it's a sensation I can't quite describe, and one of the reasons I love this city of Edinburgh and Europe so much. I'll have much much more to say about this idea of recognition of the past later...

Anyways, we stay in the next door neighbors to Grandma Buchanen tonight since she couldn't house us anymore.....these are great times and the Lord is blessing us with great hospitality, places to stay and wonderful conversations about why we're here.

We're Here!

So we've actually been in Edinburgh now for 48 hours...sorry for the delayed post! Since the moment we arrived we've been going non-stop trying to find a place to live, get mobile phones, open a bank account...and generally just get our bearings and our feet beneath us. We've SO many stories for you already, but will have to hold off on the long posts/pictures until we have access to internet for less than a pound a minute... :)

There've been a few things that have struck us right away though:
1. The city is absolutely beautiful. The apartment we're in the process of leasing is right on High Street (aka the Royal Mile)--we are literally across the street from St. Giles cathedral, down the road from Edinburgh Castle, and two blocks north of "The End of the World" (an old belief now marked by a pub).
2. The festival is going on and the streets are just PACKED with people, tourists and performers...Tony took us around the city today and helped us get the lay of the land; SO much to do and to see...we can't wait to get our apartment and start making this home.

...there are so many other things that we will expound upon, observations, feelings and stories, but it's been a long day of walking and we're eager to get back to our beds to relax for the evening...again, we're hoping to move into our apartment this weekend and get internet connected as soon as possible...then we'll get pictures posted and give you all a bit more of a look at where we're at.

Cheers till then! :)

Tonight is the Night

This is it folks: August 7, 2006. We received an email this morning from the AG confirming that we have financial clearance. We are planning to fly out tonight at 6:00pm; we're flying standby though so please pray that we make it on the flight. Also, Tony and Yvonne called and said that our boxes have arrived (everything we shipped that didn't fit in suitcases)! That is very good news!!

We will be taking lots of pictures along the way and posting them as fast as we can! This weekend in DC was truly absolutely awesome...great time with the small groups on Friday, lots of family time on Saturday with the DC Schmidgall clan plus a great service that night with Zeb Mengistu as the speaker! Sunday attended a great service at NCC and soaked up more time with family at a Mengistu/Batterson/Schmidgall lunch.

Ed and Judy are with us and will see us off tonight; our final (very bittersweet) farewell! The Lord has provided for us every step along this journey; we're trusting in His continued provision and pray for safe travels.

Arrival time: Edinburgh 12:00pm August 8, 2006

...and we're off!

It's hard for us to believe that in only 3 days we will be puddle-jumping the Atlantic and landing ourselves in Edinburgh. We flew to Washington D.C. this morning to be a part of National Community Church's Missions Program, will visit here through Sunday, then fly to Edinburgh Monday morning. Praise God; we're on our way!

It is quite amazing to look back now on the past couple weeks and all that has been accomplished. Just today, as we stepped off the plane in D.C., we got a text message from the Foleys saying that the letting company has approved our application for an apartment and the keys will be waiting for us Monday! Tony and Yvonne have been a tremendous help in the apartment search process; viewing and calling on multiple places almost daily for us. They've even thought of going ahead of us and stocking the kitchen with some food and preparing the bed for us...they've been so great; we're really very excited to see them again!

This apartment that we got, they say, is an old victorian house with three levels (we'll be renting the ground floor) with a very spacious living room, large bedroom, washer and tumble dryer, fully furnished, nice decor, right smack dab in the middle of the city...all for 550 pounds a month! God is SO good...He has provided for us everything we asked in an apartment. Thank you for your prayers as well!

So, visas in hand, we've packed virtually everything we own into six suitcases (shipped some extras) and have begun our travels to Edinburgh. This time in D.C. will be awesome; it already has been! Just this afternoon we had lunch with Joel Schmidgall, who had also arranged for us to meet with a couple key figures at NCC: Heather (heading up Small Groups) and David (media...mastermind?).

Both David and Heather were extremely helpful and let us ask questions about their experiences, explaining some of their vision and methodology, sharing some of their tools and resources and overall giving us the opportunity to absorb their insight. There is a lot more planned for this weekend here in D.C.; we hope to connect with lots more people and really take in these last days in the States!

P.S. THIS MARKS THE BEGINNING OF A MUCH MORE ACTIVE BLOG!! KEEP CHECKING BACK!