Post Boot Camp 4

I returned from California on Monday after 9 days (as my 6 year old kept reminding me) at two Salvation Army events in Pasadena. The first event, Boot Camp 4, was put on by Roy Wild and Jim Sparks in the Territorial Youth department. It was awesome. 4 days of great music, really great teaching, and hanging out with cool people. Boot Camp was one of the best conference experiences I've been to. I got an opportunity to teach (on apologetics no less) and I learned a lot. I learned a lot about teaching actually. Jon Acuff, in his main session presentation, advised us that we should never compare our beginning to someone else's middle. I am constantly guilty of this, as I was last week. Jim Burns, Doug Fields, and several others just wowed me with their public speaking skills. I want to be like that. I want to be able to speak with that kind of ease and mastery of the subject. It got me sort of depressed at one point, but Acuff's reminder is a positive one. I am almost two years in to my occasional public speaking career. I love doing it, and I am hopeful that I will continue to do it more and more. I hope that means I'll get better and better. We'll see.

Boot Camp was followed by a Salvation Army Congress, called The Gathering, of which I will remark later.