On the Road Again with the Friday Five

Mother Laura took time from planning for the AAR meeting in Chicago to give us this week's Friday Five:

1. Does your job ever call for travel? Is this a joy or a burden?
I do travel for campus ministry, and thus far it's been a joy. We have a yearly CM Staff conference and I definitely enjoyed meeting my new colleagues in Nashville this spring. In a few weeks I'll be driving to Chicago for new staff orientation, and in between I've been planning retreats and our trip to the Lutheran Student Movement National Gathering in Chicago over New Year's. Spring Break trips and other service trips will also be part of our ministry here. I enjoy meeting new people and exploring with students; the only burden is recruiting these busy students for trips; they never have enough time.

2. How about that of your spouse or partner?
Kristin also travels in her work as a Youth Ministry Director. She'll be doing mission trips every summer and likely will be heading to the ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans this summer (last estimate had some 25,000 kids registered). She enjoys travel also, but for different reasons than I do.

3. What was the best business trip you ever took?
I'd have to say my three week trip to Germany my senior year of seminary. Yes, I know, it's technically not a "business" trip, but I learned more about myself and managing completely foreign situations than I ever imagined possible, and it's made me a much better pastor, so I'm going to count it, and will this sentence ever end? :-)

4. ...and the worst, of course?
Probably the Senior High Gathering I went to a few years ago. Two high school kids who just wanted time away from home, sharing a room with four boys from another town who didn't really want to get to know me, a dreadful conference that wasn't particularly well planned, the WORST praise band I've ever heard (and that's saying a lot, because pretty much every praise band I've ever heard has been only marginally more enjoyable than disemboweling myself with a melon baller), and to top it off, Kristin miscarried our first pregnancy while I was gone. Not a good weekend at all.

5. What would make your next business trip perfect?
1. No flight required.
2. Comfortable private room with a bath tub big enough for a good long soak.
3. Good beer.
4. Time for golf.
5. Good food.
6. Good beer.
7. Good company.
8. A comfortable bed.
9. Access to a park for my morning run.
10. Good beer.
11. A great audiobook to pass the travel time.
12. Did I mention good beer? :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Pictures are from the aforementioned trip to Germany in 2003. From the top: Me in the woods west of the Castle Church in Lutherstadt-Wittenberg (the church where Luther posted the 95 Theses), a plaque identifying the location of the Berlin Wall, the altar and choir of the Castle Church, a statue of Martin Luther outside a church in Erfurt, a shot of me at the Wartburg, where Luther stayed for almost a year following is refusal to recant at the Diet of Worms. Good times.