Monday, December 3
“Wow”, said Cliff, over and over…
I’m sitting in the Knoxville Airport getting ready to fly to Boston for a couple of days with the New Thing Network guys from all over the country, (more on that later).
I just finished some lunch and I keep finding myself just staring off into nowhere in particular. I’m pretty stinking tired, but rightfully so…it’s been an amazing weekend.
Part I, Saturday… We started Saturday around noon with a ‘unique’ Leadership Community. (Leadership Community is our monthly gathering of people who serve in a multitude of places around Crossings.)
We met at the DTW Theatre and I had devised a ‘car rally’ for everyone to participate in…(Think the movie ‘Cannonball Run’ without Burt Reynolds and Dom Deluise or The Amazing Race without well, I have no idea who is actually on the Amazing Race.) We had close to 50 people in about 13 different vehicles total.
The idea is simply to follow clues around the city of Knoxville. At each place you get a new clue and once your figure it out, you continue… Each place designated on this particular ‘Crossings Run’ was significant in some way to the past 9 ½ months of Crossings’ existence. (For example, one stop was a Children’s Hospital to represent the multiple births in our community in the last few weeks…)
We only traveled a total of about 15 miles in just around an hour. Everyone ended up at Market Square in downtown Knoxville. (this picture is of Market Square)
The groups met up at a building under construction. Address 4 Market Square. Steel beams were everywhere, saw horses with materials laying on top, temporary lighting throughout the building, and right in the middle…were a couple of tables with slices of Eli’s Cheesecake for all our people. (Yes, it was the same cheesecake from our launch in February. It keeps well in the freezer)
We then proceeded to announce and celebrate the fact that Crossings has been invited to join in with this project, 4MS, and begin meeting in Market Square come August of ’08.
Cliff Brown, a part of our community for a few months now, had this wide-eyed look on his face the whole time, and he just kept saying over and over, no matter the question, when thinking about the gift of God this place appears to be…”Wow”. Nothing else, just a simple and sincere “wow”.
That’s pretty much how we all feel.
I will share Part II of the weekend when I get some time in Boston to write.
I just finished some lunch and I keep finding myself just staring off into nowhere in particular. I’m pretty stinking tired, but rightfully so…it’s been an amazing weekend.
Part I, Saturday… We started Saturday around noon with a ‘unique’ Leadership Community. (Leadership Community is our monthly gathering of people who serve in a multitude of places around Crossings.)
We met at the DTW Theatre and I had devised a ‘car rally’ for everyone to participate in…(Think the movie ‘Cannonball Run’ without Burt Reynolds and Dom Deluise or The Amazing Race without well, I have no idea who is actually on the Amazing Race.) We had close to 50 people in about 13 different vehicles total.
The idea is simply to follow clues around the city of Knoxville. At each place you get a new clue and once your figure it out, you continue… Each place designated on this particular ‘Crossings Run’ was significant in some way to the past 9 ½ months of Crossings’ existence. (For example, one stop was a Children’s Hospital to represent the multiple births in our community in the last few weeks…)
We only traveled a total of about 15 miles in just around an hour. Everyone ended up at Market Square in downtown Knoxville. (this picture is of Market Square)
The groups met up at a building under construction. Address 4 Market Square. Steel beams were everywhere, saw horses with materials laying on top, temporary lighting throughout the building, and right in the middle…were a couple of tables with slices of Eli’s Cheesecake for all our people. (Yes, it was the same cheesecake from our launch in February. It keeps well in the freezer)
We then proceeded to announce and celebrate the fact that Crossings has been invited to join in with this project, 4MS, and begin meeting in Market Square come August of ’08.
Cliff Brown, a part of our community for a few months now, had this wide-eyed look on his face the whole time, and he just kept saying over and over, no matter the question, when thinking about the gift of God this place appears to be…”Wow”. Nothing else, just a simple and sincere “wow”.
That’s pretty much how we all feel.
I will share Part II of the weekend when I get some time in Boston to write.
Mark Nelson at 7:58 AM 2comments
2 Comments
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at 9:36 AM
michaelCODY said... This is going to be a really, really good thing. I'm pumped to be a part of it.
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at 12:45 PM
jason said...
I also recall Cliff saying "done" quite often....
Mark: "It may cost a little more money each week"
Cliff: "Done"
Mark: "Attenders will probably need to walk about 300 yards from the parking garage to get here"
Cliff: "Done"
Mark: "We'll need to store our equipment here and use the elevator to bring it up."
Cliff: "Done"
Mark: "We'll probably require people to bench press 300 pounds and eat 8 hot dogs in 2 minutes before they can come in the door."
Cliff: "Done"
Thanks for your excitement Cliff!