I've just returned to work after spending a week assisting in the Upper Room event, SOUL
feast. This was my first experience helping to staff this event, which occurs every summer at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.
It was a great event on the theme, "The Heart of Pilgrimage: Living by the Spirit." Marjorie Thompson led morning plenary sessions on the theme. Rudy Rasmus and Juanita Rasmus preached in worship services led by worship artist, Marcia McFee, and musician, Elise Eslinger. Five hundred adults, youth, and children participated in workshops and programs.
I received an unexpected gift from SOULfeast -- I got to be with my Upper Room staff colleagues in a different setting, each of us functioning in different roles than we usually hold. It was a special experience to be together in that way.
I served on the worship team. We worked each day to set up the worship space, including dynamic visuals designed by Karla Kincannon. I'm usually caring for the web page, but during SOULfeast I was pulling out fabrics, lighting candles, hauling boxes, and running to the store for supplies. Pam, who usually edits Weavings and Pat, who talks with customers each day, were at my side creating the backdrop for each day's worship through colors and props. Greg, who helps to lead the Emmaus and Chrysalis movements, drove one of the trucks that hauled all our supplies to North Carolina. He showed up early and stayed up late, doing whatever was needed: putting together and taking down boxes, setting out bowls, moving tables, and (perhaps most impressive) blowing up the world (a large beach-ball version). George usually edits books, but he was there, too, recruiting all the ushers, communion servers, taking care of the offering, and pitching in to build a wall for the Tuesday night service. Melissa, who works in new marketing, spent hours typing in prayer requests and used chisels and a sledge hammer to break a salt lick into pieces. My web and video colleagues, Justin and Cary, played and sang in the band for the plenary sessions and all the worship services.
There were so many more staff people there contributing their unique, special, and hidden gifts -- the marketing managers working with children, the editors working with youth, all of us hauling boxes, assisting conference attendees, and stepping in to contribute whenever something was needed. What a gift this week was for us as staff -- to know each other in new ways, to serve together as a team to make the SOULfeast event a successful week.
I look forward to next year's experience and hope that you will join us there -- July 12-16, 2009. Next year's event will feature keynoter Trevor Hudson and the theme, "Show Me Your Ways, O Lord." See you there!
Beth A. Richardson is the Editor of upperroom.org. She lives and works Nashville, TN.
