What I Did With My Summer Vacation, Part 1

What are you really looking forward to this summer? That was the subject of discussion at our dinner last night (sidebar: Ethiopian Diamond is a fantabulous restaurant!), with friends of Luke's from school. Asking people what they're excited about is a great ice breaker- my husband is awfully smart that way. So, here are a couple of my answers for today. First, Luke and I are going down to Mississippi for a couple of ordinations this weekend. The second floor is a very lonely place without our southern neighbors, so I'm really looking forward to the trip. The next weekend, Luke and I head to Michigan. We'll be helping out with a Leaders-In-Training program at a camp near Mackinac. The director is an old friend, and I'm really excited to be working with her. I'll be leading Bible study and some worship, and Luke will be doing some teambuilding and workshops. We're using a book called Learning Leadership by Michael Brandwein. I like what he has to say: Leadership is really a set of skills, and those skills can be taught, developed, learned. He is not a fan of "gifts" language however, basically because it a) doesn't give credit to the hard development work most leaders do, and keeps us from stuyding that development and b) it lets the rest of us off the hook... if we aren't already leaders, it must be because its just not our gift. I think Christian leadership really needs to be able to talk about gifts, without falling into those traps. The younger kids at the camp will have a Baptismal Covenant theme. I'm going to try and tie all this in together. Thoughts, ideas, and prayers from the peanut gallery are always appreciated.
Enough from my report. What is everyone else looking forward to this summer?