I helped out with the music so I was literally singing for my supper. And my board. And my transportation. The first couple of worship sessions, the band consisted of me and Brent on guitar, Kevin on mandolin, Godswill on bongo or whatever that thing is, and Rachel as the female lead. Oh, and Becca on Powerpoint. Then Brent went with the gang one afternoon to check out downtown Atlanta and his car broke down, and it was a Sunday. He had to fix it the next day, and Kevin had to drive him there, and Rachel and Becca had gone home (which they had planned to do) because it was a workday. Godswill was still with us (phew!) and I dragged Lydia into the worship band, and asked Jane Slay to work the powerpoint. A Japanese girl named Sayaka from the University of Alabama volunteered to help too. She was kinda cute, and very talented (she played piano and clarinet the night before... there was a talent show deal) and I admit I enjoyed that she was helping us.
I couldn't hear Sayaka sing during worship, though, which was a pity. I couldn't hear the crowd either for that matter... it's not that they weren't singing loud, it's just that I sing loud too and I'm also stone deaf. The worship session turned out well enough, since they clapped when we were done... I take it that means they got something out of it. It's happened at YAMs before, too, and since I was raised Catholic, it always struck me as strange that you would clap after worship. But that's just me. Brent and Kevin were back in time for the final worship session later that morning, and all was good then. We ended on a slow, mellow note, which automatically excludes any sort of clapping that Catholics may find unnerving.
There were some very good talks given by wise folks past the age of 40. Nate and Abu are two I'll mention just so I won't forget their names. Abu is actually Singaporean, and I got to hear, as I was sitting at the table for lunch on Sunday with him, an alternate version of why Singapore secceded from the Malayan Union that is not found in our Malaysian history books. He also had several things to say about living and principles (and I'm just going to be vague like that) which I hope I can truly take to heart.
So that was the Nav conference... now I still haven't blogged about Dayton. I think what I'll do is do a segmented feature-like deal, and just show a photo or two at a time from my time there.
Dayton Pt 1
Matt and Gretchen, the son and daughter-in-law of my hosts, my good friends, and very photogenic people in general.
The Forsthyes in Tom Forsythe's backyard. Tom is Matt's father's father. He's in that picture somewhere. So is Matt's father's mother, mother's father, and mother's mother, sister, sister, father, and mother.