this morning we have representatives from world vision and compassion in our office. we have partnerships with both of these wonderful organizations (one life revolution with world vision, and child sponsorship with compassion) and promote them both at our conventions, among other places. but being in partnership with two organizations that have highly overlapping ministry empases, yet slightly different approaches to how that is carried out, has not been without a few bumps and bruises and misunderstandings. so we thought it would be good to get us all in the same room for a half day to think about this fall’s youth worker conventions, making sure we’re all stacking hands and working together for the greater good. the people who represent their organization’s partnership with YS have become great friends of mine over the years, so i’m looking forward to our short time together.

then, at noon today, most of the CORE presenter team come to san diego for our yearly debrief. we’ll spend three days critiquing this past season’s CORE material, planning the basic planks of next year’s content (ooh, i’m really excited about what’s on the docket), and celebrating together. laurie polich is stepping off our team this year, so we’ll be celebrating her 14 years of contribution. we’ll be staying at the town & country resort in san diego, where we’ve held so many conventions over the years (and will return to for one of the youth workers conventions in fall of 07). jeannie will be with me — which is wonderful. but i’m really missing my kids, and — other than taking them to breakfast this morning — haven’t seen nearly enough of them, or they of me, in the past week. i’m really glad i’ll be home this weekend.

june is my worst month of travel this year, with trips to tahoe (if you include this past weekend, which was actually may), a hotel in san diego (which is local, but i might as well be out of town, since i’m staying there), birmingham alabama, lima peru, vancouver, and washington dc. i’m really glad i was able to cancel a trip to grand rapids that was right in the middle of the month, giving me a couple more days home.