Memories of IHC

Once again we survived another year at IHC. I have noticed that things change totally after you become parents. I can recall all those years as a single person and attending IHC and seeing these hagard looking people called parents. They looked frazeled and starry eyed. You would really notice these people when they caused a traffic jam with all of their strollers and wild kids going in every direction. They often times obstructed your view of the crowd as they would take out their noisey brats in the middle of the service. Could these people not control their own children????? And then it happened...........

I became one of those stroller pushing, frazeled looking persons with wild kids. I found us taking our kids out due to fits and terrible odors coming from their diaper. I think the best was when Jonathan Walden picked his child up in the air and took a wiff and then smiled....not his kid must be someone elses (ours). I ask Angie to pass Kent down and ask him to give him a freshness test. She only held her breath and ran like a crazy woman out before they evacated the convention center. Let me add here that as she passed me I leaned forward to say something to her (I am sure it was loving or informative) and as she made her quick exit her hair somehow got caught in my glasses and I nearly went down the steps with her dragging me behind her by my glasses. IHC seems so much different than it did just a few years ago.

I will have to say that one thing that I appreciate more is the fellowship. Now let none of us kid our self. One of the primary reasons that we attend IHC is the time to reconnect with friends. It was so good to see so many people that Ihave not seen in years. To name a few: The wonderfully sweet and charming Donahey's ( I will have to say that Bro and Sis Donahey and Dwight are as nice in person as they are on the blog. It was just like we have been friends forever and was just happening to meet up again and not just our first time to meet). The Spears (I have not seen Randal and Carolyn Speer since the last IHC in 2001). The Shockleys (Bro and Sis Shockley and Tonya along with Greg Wolfe and myself went to Isreal together and created some great memories). Sis Thacker ( a saint of a woman who we got to know and love at UBC). The Tim Cole family (boy have those kids grown up into some beautiful and handsome young men and women). There was Jen Byer and her husband Joel (she is a really saintly woman who has a husband that pastors in Canada...we don't hold his nationality against him...God save the Queen....did he really yell that at IHC)? There was Charles and Mary Jane McGuire (some of my old friends...well Mary Jane is not old but Chuck is a different story...now folks these people have the dirt on me). Harold Killinger (I have the dirt on him). John Manley ( a hero of mine and a man I followed in my ministerial internship). Bro and Sis Hight (Bro Hight is a very nice looking young man...I owe that to him). There was Darin and Amy Shear (old fiends), Jonathan and Karen Walden (Karen won the award this year for the most graceful), Eric and Rochell Heimlech (old classmates) and so many more that I can not begin to mention. If I failed to mention your name please forgive me I am one of those frazeled parents who survived another IHC.