54 of My Closest Friends by, Tom Letts

What has 54 voting Presbyterians, meets two floors underground, has no cell or internet coverage, and makes its own coffee? That's right! How did you know? Its committee 15 'Church Growth, Education, and PILP.'

Early morning prep meetings, late night prep on our own, and lots of coffee and dark chocolate have drawn the leadership team of C15 close. I love these four friends and partners! For those of you who follow temperament and management style profiles, the three women are devoted, hard-working 'Beavers' who don't rest until the work is done (in triplicate!). Tim is a 'Golden Retriever' who quietly keeps us together ('You doing, OK? What can I do for you?'). And I make cool power-points (I got on line and downloaded pictures from everyone's home churches), keep the coffee and snacks coming, mingle like crazy with the committee members at break and...got us a FIELD TRIP! [That would make me an 'Otter.' PS-no 'Lions' on the leadership team but we have plenty on the committee. Lions make big noise, and expect things to go their way a lot. They really don't like being told 'no' even by a meticulous otter who has done their homework. It is after a 'lion attack' that otters (that would be me) bring a cup of coffee and make a quiet lion joke to the beavers to loosen them back up.]

I've been asked to lead some prayer times and have introduced Committee 15 to guided prayer like on Sunday mornings. Lots of, 'Thank you, Tom. That was great after this long day...'

Tammy is spending her time between the PFR guest booth in the exhibit hall and visiting committees dealing with controversial topics. She leaves Tuesday to join Megan Holiday and the Kid's Fun Week staff out at Kincaid Park.

These are the three sites I use every day:
pc-biz.org [following the work of the committees of GA]
ga219.pcusa.org [the official site for news and information]
pfrenewal.org [you can register for updates or just click on the articles you want]


More later.

Peace, tl