Since I graduated, you may be wondering what I have been doing with my time. As I mentioned in an earlier post, for a few days all I did were things that I never found time to do when I was in classes – like doing my taxes and going to the eye doctor. But now that most of that is taken care of, how am I spending the month of May?

Well, last week I had a great opportunity to attend the 2008 Regent Pastor’s Conference. They have a conference in May every year. I wasn’t planning on going (because I couldn’t afford to pay for it), but I was asked by the conference coordinator to help out by doing the sound for it. So I was able to attend all the sessions for free, and eat lunch for free, all because I sat in the back of the room and fiddled with knobs on a sound board all day (well, it was more complicated than that, but the point is that I got to attend the conference because I did something that wasn’t terribly taxing).

The theme of the conference this year was With Eyes Lifted Up: The Pastor as Pray-er. There were three speakers: Bruce Hindmarsh, Marva Dawn, and Darrell Johnson. I was particularly excited to hear Marva Dawn speak, because both Bruce and Darrell are on the faculty at Regent and I have had classes with both of them. But Marva I had heard good things about, but had never heard before. It turns out she is a very engaging speaker. She does like to go off on tangents, but I find that I don’t mind speakers who go on tangents if they’re not teaching a class. I mean, it’s one thing for a professor to only get halfway through an outline and then hold you responsible for the entire thing, and it’s another for a conference speaker to tell inspiring and entertaining stories every now and then. She never got through what she wanted to get through in any of her talks, but I didn’t mind so much. Bruce and Darrell were also quite good. I’m so thankful that I was able to go; it was a real blessing to be a part of the conference.

So that is what I did last week. This week: painting. My roommate Tony is painting a house, and he would appreciate help, so this week I’ll be painting with him and a couple of other guys. We’ll be enjoying the lovely Vancouver spring weather, which has just started getting warm…

• Autobiography