2,600 kilometers in 8 days. Here is the visual: we're driving a Plymouth Breeze, How to Learn Polish tapes (yes, an actual cassette) playing loudly, windows down, hair blowing in the wind, cooler full of V8 and nuts in the back - for almost 40 hours!
Every 2 years PAOC has a General Conference where pastors, global workers, support staff etc. come together from across Canada and around the world. This was the first one we've ever attended. For an organization that is so geographically spread-out, it is amazing how unifying a little time together can be.
This conference was in Edmonton. We shared on a Sunday morning, drove home, had lunch and then began the drive to Edmonton. It is a little overwhelming to be in a place with so many people you know, kind-of-know and might have seen before. Sometimes walking down a hall felt like running the conversational gauntlet. It was great to see friends, have some time with Matthew's dad, tackle some practical business with reps from Head Office and listen to the thoughts of our main leaders. It is surprising how sitting in services, meetings, workshops and then talking to people can be quite exhausting. We absolutely missed the directness of the Slovak language as English speakers seem to have a way of saying the same thing 4 consecutive times, but in different ways.
On the Sunday following the conference we were able to connect with a great Christian community, have lunch all together and then began the 10 hour drive back to Surrey (which we somehow did in 8.5 hours).
Overall, we got to connect and re-connect with good people and interesting thinkers, see the scope of what our organization is doing, cover some beautiful terrain and make some new Canadian memories.
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