I hope to keep track of the time my wife Elaine and I spend over the next few weeks. Elaine is a pastor, and her church (St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran in New Cumberland PA) has agreed for her to take a sabbatical. I work for Messiah College. The college has graciously granted me some administrative leave in order to be able to travel with Elaine. We had a rather hectic start, due mostly to my responsibilities at Messiah. One of the most interesting (and challenging) things was the Compassion Forum, which was structured as interviews with the presidential candidates about faith and caring for disadvantaged people. Messiah was chosen to host it, which meant that my department (Information Technology Services or ITS) had to care for all all of the technical details. CNN brought most of what they needed, except for phones and an internet connection. There were a couple hundred (rough guess) press there for whom we provided WiFi connection to the internet, cell phone coverage, and televisions and video projection of the actual event since they were not allowed to be in the venue. It turned out that the cell phone coverage was the most challenging. We worked with Verizon and AT&T to boost the signal in the locations where the press and others were located. There was an anxious moment or two, but everything ended up working very well.

At the same time as all of this (plus me just getting ready to be out of the office) Elaine and I were getting ready for the trip. We moved the travel trailer to our first camping location on Friday, and I came back for the weekend to see the forum through to the end (and to pick up a number of things that were left behind).St. Paul's Jesus Doll At The Camp…St. Paul’s Jesus doll relaxing at the camp. Did Jesus ever do any camping?

On Monday, Elaine started her pilgrimage on time… but we’ll leave that for other posts.