What's with the sweaters?

Last week we were in Boston for our annual Boston Winter Conference. The highlights included spending time with some of our students, messages by Bret Ogburn and the day of outreach. I don’t have too many pictures of the week yet because Edgar took most of them, and he is currently in Haiti right now.

Edgar and Nic are serving in Haiti with a team that left directly from the Boston winter conference. They are serving alongside the Campus Crusade ministry there just like our students who went this past summer. Please pray for them as they serve the people of Haiti!

One picture I do have is this one of Steph and I in our “ugly sweaters.” It seems over the past year ‘Ugly Sweater Parties’ have become popular, but unfortunately, at our New Years Eve party ugly sweaters were very unpopular! Stephanie and I were the only ones sporting these tacky things –we ended up flying totally solo! It was New Years eve, and we were getting together with a number of staff the night before the conference, and Stephanie had sent out an email a couple weeks before to encourage everybody to wear a cheesy sweater. But most people either didn’t get the message, ignored it or failed to be inspired enough to take a trip to the Salvation Army and pick out something terrible! Thanks for nothing my fellow staff friends J

Here’s the worst part about being in that situation. Since no one else is wearing ugly sweaters and since some people didn’t get the email –there are people who look at you think that you are wearing a hideous sweater simply because you lack fashion sense or a functional mirror! And if it’s people who don’t know you at all –who really cares! But it’s the people who should know you better who do a double take, and for at least a few seconds, ponder whether or not you are really that much of a sad sap who would wear an ultra feminine knit jobber (in my case) or a truly pathetic Panda Print sweater vest (in Steph’s case!) You can see the uneasy confusion on their face and then later, when they realize it was all a joke they say things like “Yeah, I didn’t really take you for a vest person….” Hurting!