Monday, Monday!

Today we drove up to Knoxville, to the Holston Conference Center. We met with Jim Sessions, who had been [hyper]active in social justice issues for the last thirty years. He spoke with us about grass-roots advocacy and coalition building around labor and children's issues. He currently works for the Children's Defense Fund, and told us about some exciting things they are working on. In February, a bill will be introduced in Congress to guarantee health coverage for all children in the United States--documented or not--until they are nineteen years old.

I immediately began thinking about ways I could get involved in making this happen. Two things are needed: the votes are needed in Congress and the President must not veto the bill, if it passes. I've done some personal letter writing to my representatives in Congress. I've started wondering about doing that on a larger scale. I'm going to find out what's required to get a petition going. If I want to take a page from Mike Feely's book, I'll start looking for groups with whom I can partner on this issue. Jim Sessions recommended local health concerns (doctors, nurses, etc...) as potential partners, as well as other churches. I've got good relations with our neighbor church, maybe I need to reach out when I get home.

We also spent a few hours with the Bishop of the Holston Conference, James E. Swanson, Sr. and three District Superintendents in the conference. We had a rousing conversation about preaching, life in ministry and what we might face as pastors in the twenty-first century. Bishop Swanson told us of the exciting things going on in the Holston Conference--he made it sound pretty enticing, I must admit.

Lots of time in the van today, two-and-a-half hours each way. When we finally got back to Camp Lookout, we were tired and hungry. Fortunately, an excellent dinner was waiting for us (I can't seem to get enough mashed potatoes). I'm getting ready to turn in for the night. Tomorrow, we're starting our day serving in a local soup kitchen, followed by meetings in the afternoon.