While the goal was ‘getting to the conference,’ what was in abundance with every mile, every turn, was God’s handprint. The greenery, the vistas, the crazy climbs to mountain peaks followed by equally crazy descents into valleys. Plenty of rivers accompanied us as we made our way to brightly painted bridges – a serendipitous touch, but a visual treat (I loved the lemon yellow one!). Skies were mostly brilliant blue, only interrupted occasionally by menacing black clouds sending brief, cooling showers.
Pulling into the Cincinnati Vineyard parking lot was the first clue that others had decided to come, too. Stepping inside, we were cheerfully welcomed and directed to the registration tables. To say the area was teeming with people doesn’t do the scene justice. It looked a bit like a shopping mall on Black Friday, only here, everyone was smiling and laughing and hugging and, right in the middle of all that, oblivious to those around them, some were praying! Despite the loud chaos (we’re a noisy bunch), the entire atmosphere was joy, like a family reunion (because that’s what it is, with everyone scanning the crowd, looking for those special long-time-no-see folks.
Opening night, as always, powerfully set the tone for the week. Our main speaker, our own Robb Morgan, was accompanied on video by Jay Pathak, in conversation with Andy Crouch. These guys pointed us to the fact that Melody & Harmony (the week’s theme) were by God’s plan (His Plan ‘A’). He obviously desires structure with great diversity. It was pointed out that all the music we know is made from just 12 notes! Twelve notes, yet we’ve not yet run out of possibilities of combinations from those 12 notes! Sounds like God, no? Really looking forward to what today holds. More later. Gotta run. PD
ps Our hotel to church route crosses a railway. Last night, we were stopped by a train but the gates wouldn’t go back up! We went to the next crossing – same thing! About 15-20 minutes later, success! Please pray for smooth crossings this week.
