Made My Way to San Jose

It has been an interesting and wonderful day. As soon as I get this posted, I'm headed to bed. It is now 9:31 pm San Jose time - 11:31 KCMO time. I've been up since 2:30 am or so. I never sleep well the night before a trip.

I left my house at 4: 28 am this morning and made the 45 minute trek to MCI, which is half way to Iowa (it's an exaggeration) but the airport in Kansas City is a bit of a ways from the city and I live in suburb that is as far southeast from the airport which is in the north west part of the metro.

My dear husband drove me to the airport and we got to singing and missed the exit so had to go and turn around. Of course I made it to the airport on time and had no problems going through security. I printed my boarding pass in advance too.

One of the other Minister Commissioners was on my flight so we were traveling companions and had a good chat on the flight. The KC to Las Vegas leg was a bit turbulant. The Las Vegas to San Jose leg was better.

The Committee on Local Arrangement (COLA) did a great job of running the shuttles and we got ourselves checked in at the hotel and four of us went to lunch at a local Italian place noted for its burgers (they were huge) but I had the daily special of Sirloin tips.

After lunch we got our tote bags and looked at the exhibit area. I ran into a ton of people I knew from my days in Louisville and my work with POAMN and had a wonderful time.

It is difficult to grasp the honor and task before me these next eight days. The other two General Assemblies I have attended were as staff. Now I'm a Commissioner. The role is completely different. I, along with 750 others are delegated the awesome responsibility of making descisions for the church. It will be interesting to watch the group discernment process. It will be interesting to watch God's spirit at work. I am humbled to be here in this role. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever thing I would be a Commissioner to General Assembly.

I have recevied some wonderful words of encouragement. My Presbytery's Stated Clerk left me a wonderful phone message on my cell phone. I stopped by the Presbyterian Elders in Prayer booth, which is being staffed by a minister in my Presbytery and she prayed for me one of the most powerful prayers and prayer times I have experienced in years.

The Anit-Racism training was good and I will post on that at a later time. It was a good use of 3 hours and I'm glad I participated in it. The video they showed was excellent.

I promise to post pictures sometime during this Assembly. San Jose is a lovely city, very walkable, great public transportation. It's just unseaonably hot today and supose to the same tomorrow. Sunday and the rest of our time here are supose to be normal temperatures.

Well its off to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.