August 15, 2004

Ati, Indy style.

This is the first installment in a multi-part series telling of my recent expedition to the Indianapolis ATI Conference.

Sunday, August 1 -- Dean and I arrived at my brother's house in Indianapolis, IN.

Monday, August 2 -- Partied with my brother (David) and his fiancé (Wendy) until his departure for San Francisco then proceeded to drive around the city learning our respective routes to our respective conferences in and around Indianapolis.

Tuesday, August 3 -- My brother loaned me his BMW convertible for transportation to the RCA Dome/ATI Training Center and back. However, upon starting the car I noticed the gas light was on. Worse news was on the way in the form of a phone call from Wendy informing that I'd left my wallet in her car the previous evening. So, now I had to drive to her work at a hospital in downtown Indy before I could get gas for the car. Worked out okay, eventually. I obtained my wallet and a bit of gas then headed off to the RCA Dome to register. Registration took about 10-15 minutes once I was in the convention center. That combined with my morning wallet/gas antics left me at about 11:00 a.m. with nothing to do until 6:30 that evening. So I proceeded to fill the time harassing unfortunate ATI employees with impromptu Q&A sessions until they offered to let me ride the shuttle to the training center with them when they went over for lunch, hoping to pawn me off on some other unsuspecting victims. As we were sitting outside waiting on the van that would be transporting us to arrive, a (dark blue) minivan pulls up and who should step out but Mr. Gothard himself. That was kind of cool... I'd only ever seen him from a distance before, and he's always seem larger-than-life. Still does for that matter, but it was nice to hear his voice unamplified and see his smile, natural and life-size.

Once we arrived at the training center, I discovered that lunch was provided only for ATI personnel that day, so I wandered about until 1:28 or so when I noticed the one person at the conference that I actually knew beforehand... (Or thought I knew, anyway. She now had shorter blonde hair instead of the long, wavy, brown hair I remembered, but I recognized her nonetheless.) Said, "Hi," to her and proceeded upstairs to a conference on Life Purpose Planning. It was a pretty good session, except when Mr. Novotny kept referring to a book that I (as a non-ATI induhvidual) had never seen. When he was just speaking, it was quite interesting and provided thought-provoking insight for parents as they help their kids plan ahead and allow the Lord to direct their lives, and for young people on learning to lean on parents and Scripture for life direction. But there were times when he got tied up in attaching his talking points to the printed materials and I felt that that fragmented the flow of his thoughts (for me). I would meet him briefly later and he seemed to be a very nice fellow.

After that session, I headed back downstairs and wandered to a table that had an empty chair. Those present granted me permission to sit, so I did. The longer I sat, the more out-of-place I realized I was. There was Gina, Jaryn, Andy, Daniel, Mandy (and later, Grace) -- all volunteers or ATI staff closely involved in the operation of the conference. And then there was me, hideously jean-clad and trying to make humble conversation with these amazing individuals. Even at that time, however, I didn't realize that Andy was actually Mr. Gothard's personal assistant, nor that the bubbly Grace who would arrive later would soon be off as an emissary with Mandy and others to China. Wow. At any rate, Grace informed me of the Eternal Impact Summit in late September and invited me to attend. I'm definitely considering it.

I managed to catch a ride back to the convention center in the same bus as Mr. Gothard and a number of other administrative personnel. The evening session began with ALERT youth respectfully carrying the flags to the front of the hall, and us saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the Star-Spangled Banner. Mr. Gothard spoke that evening, and was followed by a video presentation by Dr. Adrian Rogers on Kingdom Authority. Interesting presentations, both, that taught the differences between power and authority and what authority we as Christians have, as well as how and when to exercise it.

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