My Trip to Faith Alive Publishing in Grand Rapids

On Monday, January 12th, I attended a meeting in Grand Rapids at FaithAlive Publishing. It was held at the Christian Reformed Church Denominational office. I was part of a Youth Advisory Board comprised of 12 or so individuals who were asked to give advice to the youth publishing division [I was on a similar advisory board back in my Sarnia ministry days].

Most attendees were from around the Grand Rapids area, but two of us were from Canada. Karen from Kitchener, and myself.

In order to attend this event, I had to fly out Sunday afternoon, January 11th. That happened to be Joycegina's birthday, so I had to do some sucking up to be able to go. (We celebrated on Saturday AND part of Sunday).

I figure I'd give you a chronological time line this time around, just to change things up. So, read on and enjoy.

January 11th 1:30 pm - Leave home with family and go to airport. 2:30 pm - Passed through security and customs and took a seat at my gate to await my plane's departure.

2:45 pm - Took out my computer to do some work and realized, to my amazement, that I put the wrong power cord in my computer bag. I was not impressed with myself to say the least (computer battery was almost dead too). Oh well. I took it as a sign that I was to relax a bit.

2:55 pm - I decided to use the old fashioned method of pen and paper (Sorry John) to jot some notes down and realized that I had also forgotten a pen. Two for two. I wasn't going to buy one for $2.50 so I just chuckled to myself and pulled out a book I'd brought along.

3:30 pm - I boarded a tin can of a plane for my trip to Detroit via NorthWest Airlines. Two seats, aisle and two seats. VERY small.

4:00 pm - Plane took off and I observed my home from the air. I also noticed all the cookie-cutter homes in Kanata. I settled down, closed my eyes and rested for the 1 hour flight.

5:15 pm. Arrived in Detroit airport and transferred from terminal "C" to terminal "A" via the underground tunnel (see picture below). A long tunnel with calming music.

5:30 pm - Ate supper @ National Coney Island Diner. A nice retro 60's diner with some great food. Every waitress calls you "honey" or "sweetie." I took that time to review the work assigned to me for the meeting the next day.

7:15 pm - Board a much larger plane for the 22 minute flight from Detroit to Grand Rapids. The plane was only 2/3 full and three flight attendants were on board. One for 1st class, the other two for us commoners.

7: 45 pm We pushed off from the gate to de-ice the plane due to snow that was gently falling.

8:15 pm - The plane was de-iced. I love watching all that stuff go on. I'm like a little boy in a toy store.

8:55 pm. - FINALLY take off for Grand Rapids. (We spent almost 2 hours in the plane for a 22 minute flight). As we turned to take off, it was beautiful to see the runway all lit up like a long Christmas tree.

8:55 - 9:15 pm - Once we were airborne I watched as two flight attendants did the 50 yard dash in the plane to try to give everyone water or orange juice in 10 minutes. They finished JUST before we touched down - literally. A site to watch.

9:25 pm - Touched down and taxied to our gate. A light snowfall in Grand Rapids. Beautiful to see out the plane window.

9:45 pm - Waited for the shuttle for the hotel I would be staying in.

10:00 pm - Shuttle arrived and myself and a female stepped in. We ended up having to wait for another flight to come in because that flight crew was using the same hotel. I met Karen in the van, (the other Canadian in our meeting) and we began to get to know each other.

10:30 pm. - Checked in to Grand Plaza Hotel. The room was HUGE as you can see from the pictures below. : )

Bathroom - for those interested : )

I could have fit my whole family in this room, and then some.

A small TV with a desk.

A king sized bed. I could have slept either way on this bed.

10:35 pm - Called Joycegina to let her know I arrived ok (and to make sure she had a good rest of her birthday day).

10:45 pm - Logged the days events on PAPER (yes John, I used paper).

10:55 pm - Did a quick channel surf and discovered once again that with all the TV channels out there, there isn't much on TV.

11:15 pm. Set my alarm for 7:00 am (yes, you read correctly Ken) and then off to sleep. Monday, January 12th

7:00 am - Woke up to the alarm and decided to sleep for another hour (I can hear all those who know I'm not a morning person laughing right now).

8:00 am - Got up and dressed for Breakfast. Picked up the USA today and walked down to the breakfast location (see below).

I was the ONLY one in the room for breakfast. It was a slow week apparently. A nice young man made me a delicious omelet and I ate as I read the paper.

8:30 am - Back to my room to change and take a morning swim.

The pool wasn't very big, and the water slide was closed, but the water was nice and warm.

It was a good sized water slide too.

Here's the hot tub I spent some time in as well. I came out and my pores were singing!! : )

9:15 am - Back to the room to take a shower and wash off all that chlorine.

9:45 am - Sat down and watched Discovery Channel for a while. Saw "How it's Made" and watched how you make Dryers, chewing gum and fireworks. It was cool!!!

10:15 am - Devotion time

A picture of the hotel lobby. VERY comfortable.

11:30 - Checked out and Lynne came to pick me up for the meeting. It's been about 7 years since I've been in our denominational head office. Renovations are being done now. It has changed inside a great deal, but looks nice.

This used to be where the printing presses were for the publications. Now it's office space. Nicely done.

Here is the book store. It used to be in a separate room. I like the open air concept.

The always recognizable flags from Home Missions.

Some rooms are still under construction.

12 noon - 3:30 pm. This was our meeting room. Set up and ready to go.

This was a youth meeting, so, of course, Pizza is the order of the day. It was GOOOOODDDDD. Here Karen is ready to grab 3 or 4 slices : ) Just kidding Karen.

Here we are getting to know each other over lunch. I only knew Jolene from other meetings. The rest were new acquaintances.

Here we are reflecting, and of course laughing. What's a meeting without a bit of humour?

Some of the many things we talked about were:

• What kinds of approaches work in youth groups.....what don't?
• What are the most important features of courses for youth?

Draws from current culture? Reformed? Includes video, music, fun games, etc.

• If you could create the ideal curriculum for youth/church ed, youth group, what would it look like? ETC.

We did a walk through of the FaithAlive catalogue, youth section. There's some good stuff in there. The catalogue as a whole has many things I never even saw before. You should take a look online at their store sometime.

3:30 pm - Left the denominational office and travelled to the airport (making one stop at a mall for Karen to exchange something......shopping, shopping, shopping...enough said : ) )

4:00 pm - I was scheduled to leave Grand Rapids at 7:00 pm, but wanted out earlier due to snow coming, so I tried to change my flight. The ticket counter wanted $50 to just change a flight. I didn't want to do that, but when I went to the actual gate, they changed it at no cost. I then spent some time talking with Karen, as she was taking this flight too.

4:30 pm - Boarded the LARGE plane. I lucked out and got seat 5A. Right behind 1st class. Extra room for the legs. Got to remember to get that row again.

5:09 pm. Taxied off the gate and took off. Again watched the mad dash to give us OJ and water.

5:39 pm - Landed in Detroit and taxied to gate. 5:30 - 6:39 pm - I walked all the terminals to get some exercise before eating. I find airports fascinating. Even though people are busy trying to get somewhere, it's almost like time stands still while you are in an airport. Waiting is the name of the game. If it's not for your plane, then it's for a meal. People walking side by side, each with a cell phone in their ear talking to someone on the outside; not talking to each other. A sense of quiet, yet panic as people scramble to meet connecting flights, find departure gates, or change flight plans.

6:39 pm - Sat down for a meal and watched the people walking by. 7:15 pm - Walked to my gate, sat down, and read. 9:07 pm - Boarded my plane and taxied off the gate. As I looked out the window I saw this large piece of luggage sitting on the tarmac. No one seemed to notice it, or care it was there. Interesting. Our sole flight attendant ran through the emergency procedures (her heart wasn't in it). After that was done, she demonstrated the latching and unlatching of the seatbelt, and deployment of the oxygen masks - in complete silence. I found that humourous. 10:35 pm - Landed in Ottawa and made a mad dash for customs only to find a long lineup. Only three customs agents too. 11:05 pm. - FINALLY through customs and out the gate. As I walked out, who do I see waiting for his wife? The bodyshop man from Arnprior Chrysler (I don't know his name). It's a small world. I then took a taxi home and arrived home at 11:35 pm. A whirlwind tour, but a good one. I give FaithAlive credit for hosting these focus groups, and trying to get a variety of opinions from people who use their curriculum. They don't have an easy road as they plan to produce products that hopefully I, and other youth workers, will purchase. Their marketing targets move fast, and sometimes they succeed, other times they don't. We may not often think about what goes on in our Denominational Head offices, but lots does. There are many people there who desire to serve our denomination. I can forget that at times. This was another reminder that they are doing their best to do just that. Pray for them often. I hope you enjoyed this chronology. I was fun to reflect on it. Blessings to you.

Ron Hosmar.