Don't ask me what you can do.. Write a check for a Fuller Center house in Haiti!

Field Notes:  Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, June 24-25, Charlotte, N.C.

The Fuller Center was highlighted as a response and Charles Ray said he closed one of his workshops on disasters by saying "Now you have heard from me so don’t ask me what you can do.  Write a check for a Fuller Center house in Haiti."   So the end was at hand for our time in Charlotte, but as Dianne and I drove back to Americus, we knew that our work with The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship had really just begun.

I was home for a few days with just enough time to attend two loan closings for our new Americus-Sumter duplex homeowners.  I pulled the new Land’s End Fuller Center shirts out of the dryer and put them right back in the suit case for my first visit to Minneapolis for the Presbyterian PC (USA) General Assembly. 

Reporting on the Presbyterians will be a challenge because anthropologically I can divorce myself from my upbringing.  Not that I would want to, mind you, but because both of my parents are ordained Presbyterian ministers, I’m what people affectionately call a “PK,” short for “preacher’s kid.”  Yep, we are the ones that always got in trouble.  I swore off church for a few years, but somehow let my father talk me into going to seminary at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary which is the oldest Presbyterian seminary in the nation.   Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood is one of our more famous alums.  But I digress.  Writing about your own religion is somehow a journey into intimacy and there are certain rules of etiquette when discussing family.  I have some strong feelings about Presbyterianism, and as a Steelers and Pirates fan, I also harbor some strong prejudices against Minneapolis.  This journey is going to whip open some long forgotten memories and be a challenge in the land of Vikings.

Next stop:  The Minneapolis Convention Center