Complicated: American Airlines & The Emergent Church

i s'pose you've heard about all the american airlines flights that have been canceled this week? We were heading up to Chicago Tues. night with some students, a couple of student workers, and our brand new middle school minister (yay!) when we got word that our flight had been canceled. Our new ms guy had already checked his luggage (he was taking a different flight)when he got word that his flight had been canceled, too. long story short, it was a real pain in the posterior. Especially for ms guy (hereafter referred to as db) who had to stand in line for hours w/ many other disgruntled passengers waiting to talk to more disgruntled employees who even resorted to cursing..."you'll get your *^$&**@!! luggage when you get to Chicago."

So we got booked on a United flight Wed. early morning and spent the night in a hotel up by the aeropuerta. When we got there to check in that morning, we met more disgruntled employees, this time working for United. They were ticked off that AA wasn't handling the problem well at all and wasn't easy to work with. They had to call them to get some kind of number to find our boarding passes. idk, but i'm very thankful for the one woman who was patient and persistent enough to get us checked in.

We've had a nice time here at the conference, except none of us are quite sure how all this "Emergent Church" stuff has come to the forefront of seemingly every "talk." it's definitely a buzz word and sometimes i think that people (who all seem to wear square, black glasses and a goatee)are trying way too hard to seem intellectual and relevant. Jesus' ministry strategy sure seems more simple than any of these people want to believe.

BUT there have been a lot of good things we've heard, too. And, as always, Chicago is a fun place to go. I am ready, though, to sleep in my own bed tonight...539 more flights canceled so far today...hope we can get home!