Various Vacations: departures and returns

[FencerforJesus]

I have two more days with all of you for a little while. I leave Wed, July 7 for Atlanta for a week. This is a huge trip that could have a life changing impact for me. The main purpose of the trip is to compete at the US Fencing Summer National Championships. I'll be competing in four events Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday (next week) with an off-day on Saturday and traveling back on Tuesday, July 13. I've never had so many events in one tournament before so I am entering new territory, but also, my fencing this past semester has truly been the best I've ever had in all 12 years in the sport. So I am expecting some pretty good results.

But the competition is just part of it. Just days after I qualified for this tournament, I got a contact through a mutual friend, who is a professional pool player, to the director of the Arts and Performances Division of Operation Mobilization. OM is a huge missions organization like WYAM, but this particular division has a focus of using unique talents and abilities to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ all over the world. Among their current things are unicyles, magic/illusion, and the pool player, who uses trick shots to illustrate life lessons and the Gospel. The pool player had met me before this, and when he met the director in Atlanta that week after I qualifed, they talked about how I have a vision of using fencing for ministry. It was a God-put-together thing and on Friday, I will meet with the director of this division of OM and brainstorm about how OM and I can use the sport for much greater purposes than competition.

It's going to be a truly spectacular week and internet access will be very limited due to time if not at all (I'm not bringing my computer.) I'll report when I get back.

[sandyentersNarnia]

Good luck and take care FenceforJesus! I know you can do it!

[adamie]

Well, this night we'll leave for carcassonne, France. I'll be gone for two weeks. It's a 2 day drive, so I've uploaded a lot of films, including LWW and PC to my Ipod. Sort of stupid I did not get the chance to finish my trailer analysis. this way part 5 will be really dated when I finally upload it :S anyway, not that bad, everyone understands why.

Goodbye everyone, have a great vacation.

[Liberty Hoffman]

^^ bye! we'll miss you! have fun!

[DamselJillPole]

On Friday I leave to California at 6:18 pm CST and I don't return home until the following week on the 17th at 5:00 pm. So I won't be hanging out on here as much. I'm going to try and sneak my way on here with my friends laptop but only for a few seconds and minute to see what's going on.

[Queen Susan]

Leaving to Idaho from the 10th to 17th! Family vacation, should be lots of fun! I'm excited.

[MissAravis]

I'm going to a harp program tomorrow for 2 weeks. I should be back online by the 25th. See you all later! (and don't let the Favorite Music thread die! )

[Liberty Hoffman]

bye Queen Susan and MissAravis! I hope you both have fun!

[220chrisTian]

France, California, Idaho: sounds nice! Traveling mercies -- be safe and have fun!

I don't know how many of you have taken a car from New Jersey to New York, or vice-versa. But coming back from our vacation two weeks ago, my mom and I took a long and pointless detour through Stony Point, NY (20-25 miles north of NYC) to avoid a toll we thought we would have to pay in New York City. We were wrong. A bridge or tunnel from New Jersey to New York is $8. But it's only one-way. If you go east, it's free!

[FencerforJesus]

I"M BACK!!!!!


WOW! Atlanta was truly an awesome trip and worth every minute of it. The city is really easy to navigate as long as you are on the MARTA train system and NOT on foot. I was able to get around from my hotel to the the fencing venue and around with ease, but on Saturday, when I went to explore a mall and a theater, I got turned around five times, and ended up walking an estimated 10 miles. That affected my later two days of competition.

Summer Nationals was huge, and very top heavy. Each of my events had an average of 160 competitors and all of them were strong. The field was tougher than it was last year, but in two of my events, I had personal best performances, even though my placement results were not what I would have prefered.

But the real reason and decided factor for my trip was meeting with the directors of Operation Mobilization Arts Department. They came to meet me just as I got knocked out of one of my events, and we had 2 1/2 hours over lunch to talking about my ideas on how to use fencing as a ministry tool. They absolutely loved everything I had in mind, gave me some feedback on how to take a next step, and are going to explore options on how to get my presentation out from my local groups to a larger scale show. They are fully on board with seeing this take shape, something I have not seen from anyone else until now. I'm really excited about seeing how the follow-up takes place and what happens down the road.

I wrapped up my trip with a dinner with a former teacher of mine that just so happened to be in the area at the time and I got home at midnight last night after 15 1/2 hours in an airport/airplane. It's so good to be home.

[fantasia]

Oooh, been a long, long time since I posted in this thread....
I will be gone from the evening of July 22nd to the evening of July 29th. During that time I will have little to no internet access.
FYI!
Going to Oshkosh Wisconsin to see the planes.

[wild rose]

I'm back, goodness that was an eventfull trip, the sea was great, very clear and pleasant. We had rain for the first week, but it was terrible hot the last week though. My back is all sunburned it is nice to be back though, I missed you all here

goodbye fantasia_kitty, we'll miss you

[sandyentersNarnia]

Welcome back FenceforJesus and Wild Rose! Missed you a lot! .

[Narnian_Archer]

Hi, everyone!!! Like wild rose said, we're back from vacation! Missed everyone tons! Glad to be back!

[Liberty Hoffman]

welcome back, Fencer!
welcome back wild rose and Narnian_Archer!

[DamselJillPole]

I got back from California, Los Angeles this Saturday and I was happy to be able to come on here around breaks for a few minutes or so. Now I miss California because it was just so fun, but glad to be home and can get the chance to come on here whenever like those good times. lol!