A hurried trip

Wednesday night we (the Coyne 5) drove to Phoenix to spend the night in a hotel. We had to catch a 6:20am flight. Things went fine, we ate dinner and played as a family. We swam in the hotel pool until 8:30pm. Just before bed we were looking for some medication for Austin and realized it was in the diaper bag for Jordan, back at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen), so I run get it.

We crashed about 9:30pm for one of the worst nights sleeping in years. All 5 slept poorly. Jordan wakes Lori at 2am to poop (let me just take a moment to say that potty-training is going well). We were getting up at 4:30am to leave at 4:45 for the shuttle. At 4:30 we got a call and the shuttle was going to leave. We quickly got ready and ran downstairs in 5 minutes...the shuttle left!

Well, we made it to the airport and our flight on time, but that was crazy! By the way, people are not very engaged at 5am at the airport (apparently that fact escaped our Jordan). He was talking so loud and being wild that it was hard to not be noticed. The whole flight was great and the kids are doing amazing. We look forward to another adventure on Saturday.

Letting Go

Over the past few weeks we have been discussing new things and upgrades to camp. UCYC is an amazing place, but we always needing to retrofit and improve.

I love the process of meetings and discussions. To think creatively about how to get something done, who can/should be involved in the direction is fun as well. I consider myself a decision maker at times and want to see the projects brought to completion...I am normal!

We have been working on one such project and it occured to us (Greg, David and Jim) that we need not hold so tightly to this project. We decided (rather unlike us) to let things happen as they will. We decided to not influence this project buy allow God to decide. It's fun to "let go" and see what happens. The project will be complete someday (I think), but it's freeing to allow things to happen without having to control it all!

Enjoy the journey...

We met a "non-Christian"!

During a recent conference we were discussing how to talk with people and our relationship with Jesus Christ! The question posed was, "Do you know anyone who is not a Christian?". Great question to a group of camp directors. I do know some, but not very many...so I was bothered.

Fast forward to that night, we drive down to Ruby Tuesdays and sit in the bar for about 30 minutes with a guy named Gil. You know what???? We found people who don't know Jesus, we found people at a bar who don't follow Christ. What a revelation! During that 30 minutes, we (David, Greg and Jim) were reminded that it's easy to find, engage and journey with anyone (Christ follower or not). The question is: Are you looking for someone and then doing something about it.

We must stop GOING to church and start BEING the Church everywhere.

Lightning Rod & Idiot Boy

We just returned from Tinning Symposium (fancy name for camp directors of large camps in a meeting together). During the time Greg and I made a presentation that was a "little" controversial. You know, when you threaten a concept of the Church, people will react!

Two days later, Greg made another suggestion that seemed to create some additional "fire" about our National Conference for camps. So, Greg and I have been renamed Greg= Lightning Rod and David= Idiot Boy. Look for our next adventure on Comic Book stands everywhere!

Walking with others

Here are a few people that I got journey with this week.

Katie (on the plane). She is a Bar Tender going on a month long vacation in Europe. Looks like fun traveling with friends from London all these historic places. I did not say anything about Jesus, I just talked and listened to her story.

Jay (with some coffee). We met and talked about what God is doing in our lives. He is working through some tough issues at church and doing great. I am going to continue to follow up and ask him how things ae moving.

I am learning to pay more attention to every person I meet with the opportunity to be used by God to listen or meet a need.

At the "Glen"

Yesterday (Sunday) was a travel day from Prescott to Colorado Springs. We arrived at Glen Eyrie or the "Glen" and it's beautiful. It's kind of a combination of Sedona's red rock in a small canyone with a slot canyon that leads to a waterfall.

Yesterday, Greg and I hiked/ran up to the waterfall and beyond to some pools. The rock was slick and that created some tense moments. No one fell in, luckily! Again I am amazed at God's beauty and creativity.

On the road

It's 5am and I have to make a flight this morning to Denver, then on to Colorado Springs. These are always tough, because I love to travel, but I don't like leaving Lori and the kids behind. So if you read this, say a prayer for my family.