After a week on the road, I have just returned from the National Missionary Convention. It was one great week but it was also a long and tiring week with fifteen hundred miles of driving with stays in four cities and three states. In order to take advantage of the travel and the time, I began the week with a speaking date in Springfield, Illinois. From there I headed to Indianapolis via the Chicago area, where I visited with friends, supporters, and a dear former professor who is seriously ill. These days were rich in fellowship but the great evenings meant short nights as well. I spent only one day in each place as there were many things to do.
Time passed quickly and by Wednesday I had arrived at the convention center hotel and checked in. The rest of the week was a flurry of activity as I set up my display and attended various functions at the convention. I spoke once and attended several business meetings as I am on the executive and continuation committees for the convention. In between meetings I stayed at my booth to meet with friends, supporters, and interested persons who stopped by to visit. As always, I was passing out some of that great Colombian coffee to anyone who stopped by. My days would start early and end late at night. A couple of the days I was too busy to even be able to stop for meals.
The convention was exciting as missionary conventions always tend to be. It was crowded as there were nearly 3,000 teens and 5,000 adults for a total attendance of seven to eight thousand people. The display area was huge and there were workshops of all sorts. The only complaint that most people had was there was too much to do and too many really neat workshops. All of that made it impossible to take in everything that was of interest. By Sunday noon most people were showing the fatigue of the very busy week. Yet everyone seemed thrilled with what had been a great time of inspiration and fellowship.
As the convention drew to a close, I packed up my display and loaded the car. Soon we all were headed home; tired but content with having been to one of the greatest and most inspirational events on the planet. If you missed it, you missed something really great. The missionary convention is something everyone should plan on attending whenever possible.