Skip to main content

RELOAD: Bay Area


Yesterday we participated in the Reload conference for the Bay. Reload is a urban youthworkers training event hosted by the Urban Youthworkers Institute. Check them out here.

The Bay Area represented! We had over 400 leaders in attendance - the largest in the country! Dimas Salabarrios from the Bronx was the main speaker - he was awesome. I was able to plug in some of our local partners - Andy Hartwell, Katie Fantin, Doug Fort. All of them did workships. Pastor Bains somehow landed Dimas to speak at St. Samuel COGIC this morning.

This event was a ton of work - but worth it. When I was standing in the back I thought about the other similar events that we've tried to do over the years. Marvin Jacobo and I attempted to do a training event in Modesto in the late 90's, Angel Ruiz tried one in 2000. Both were fine - but never took root. What a blessing to have this event in our region. We're praying for unity and revival in the Bay.

I'm off to Grand Rapids for BCM tomorrow to recruit for summer interns. Looking forward to seeing the brothers and sisters there.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

YWAMers Praised for Faith and Leadership

The Denver Post reports on the memorial service at the Denver YWAM base: "We're going to celebrate a life, we're not accentuating a death," said Faith Bible Chapel pastor George Morrison, in opening a memorial service today for two people killed at a missionary training school in Arvada . The service is called "A Celebration of Life for Tiffany and Philip." Philip Crouse and Tiffany Johnson died Sunday when a gunman opened fire at the school's dormitory. Youth With a Mission director Peter Warren said today both Crouse and Johnson embodied the spirit of the group. First the service focused on Crouse . "Phil gave his life to Jesus Christ and was never the same again," said Zach, a friend of Johnson's who met him years ago at a youth ministry in Alaska. At the time, Crouse was tough and wouldn't let people get close to him. "Over the years, Phil became a humble, teachable, sweet guy" who was able to reach kids with rough e...

Book: White Man's Burden - thoughts for Labor Day Weekend

I'm reading a fascinating book that has some of the same themes that run through Bob Lupton's recent writing. It's called 'White Man's Burden" by William Easterly. (I get the feeling some of you have read this already.) You can find it here. The title of the book is somewhat unfortunate, it's meant to be sarcastic. There are some amazing points here, stuff NCUD and others at CCDA have been talking about for years. I encourage you to check it out - here's a couple of great excepts from the first chapter: "But I and many other like-minded people keep trying, not to abandon aid to the poor, but to make sure it reaches them. Rich countries have to address the second tragedy if they are going to make any progress on the first tragedy. Otherwise, the current wave of enthusiasm for addressing world poverty will repeat the cycle of its predecessors: idealism, high expectations, disappointing results, cynical backlash." "Let’s call the advocates...

GE Patterson on MySpace

Bishop Patterson has a MySpace page... whoddathunk? I guess it says something about the man. Whomever put the page together did a good job. They posted some of his messages on video from youtube. Good stuff. Being a new 'elder' in the COGIC world, I'm still becoming familiar with some of our leaders. Bishop Patterson was a great preacher - and I'm not one to say that often. I particularly like the message he did on a communion Sunday. There is so much wealth and history in COGIC. Great preachers, great music. I still feel blessed to be part of this great church. Please pray for our denomination. With Bishop Patterson dying there will be a whole process to decide on the new presiding Bishop. Some say our local Bishop Hamilton is a viable candidate. Either way - this is a critical time for the Church of God in Christ.