This year’s staff conference was entitled “Beyond the Skyline” and was held in Whistler, BC. As Power to Change has set its sights on the cities of Canada and the world, it was time for us to look beyond the high-rise towers and see the individuals that live and work in them.

Normally, we bring in individuals like Erwin MacManus or Mark Driscoll to speak to us but this year we stayed within the Campus Crusade for Christ family and were blessed to have Holly Sheldon and Doug Pollock as speakers. We were led into worship by Chet Ingram and his excellent band from Ebenezer Baptist in Saskatoon.

There was a different feel to this years conference as there seemed to be more unity between ministries. President Leonard Buhler has spent the last five years changing the entire organizational structure of the ministry and we are seeing the results as people are now free and able to work together to reach the domains of society without a corporate org chart getting in the way.

I took Kristin and Ava to Whistler with me this year. Kristin had joined me last year but after talking about her time for the last six months, I realized that Ava would have been devastated if she wasn’t able to come as well.

They really enjoyed their time in the childcare and with Kristin going into Kindergarten this fall, she was in with the big kids and had a blast.

Last year the leadership of Power to Change began the tradition of honoring individuals with Staff Excellence awards. This year, something went wrong in the nomination process and I was awarded one of the awards. Seriously though, it was a great honor and extremely humbling to hear my name called. I even had to make up a quick thank you speech on the fly.

Dave Beck caught me in the middle of trying to think fast and talk at the same time.

I’ll try and write a bit on what I learned from the speakers over the next few weeks.