Dan Roth - Pastor of Disaster

It recently struck me that, despite having only been there once, I have several significant Jamaica connections - and I need to visit again sometime.

My Jamaica Connections:

Cecile Smith - my aunt's college roommate at University of Pennsylvania in the early 1960's.

T.A.D. Smith - Cecile's dad has been one of the most prominent developers in Jamaica over the years, and was founder of its professional builders' association.

Since I never use it, I thought it would be a good place to start a repository about me. Egotistical? Yeah, I guess. But it's the one thing I'll probably remember to do.

Theme Song by Bill Eckhardt under a Creative Commons Liscense

I promise, this is the LAST one of these that I'll inflict upon you. (For now, anyway.)
This was taken in front of Notre Dame during a spring vacation in Paris a few years ago.

While I'm working on this image gallery thing, and at the risk of appearing vain and egotistical, I thought I'd upload one more picture I may want to use in the future. I've used it before as an online icon.
This was taken doing Kids Club in the park in summer of 2003.

My wife and I were given the wonderful gift of a week at a resort in Fort Lauderdale. I made the post-hurricane call today to make sure everything's up and running.

I can hardly wait to get to the warmth, and it's barely even starting to get chilly here! (Every year I like the cold, and the uncomfortable bulky layers of clothing that go with it, less and less.)

Check out the above picture... it's me hoisting a sail on a Florida vacation a year ago.

I've sometimes refused to state exactly what I believe, because often people look at statements of belief as something in which you say, "I'm better than you, because I believe these things and you don't."... even if you don't mean it that way at all. Likewise, other people look at statements of belief as something in which they can find a reason for division between us.

So even 'though I embrace the Apostles' Creed & the Nicene Creed & other creeds, I've usually preferred to say WHO I believe in.

However, surfing around the Youth Specialties website in remembrance of Yac's death, I found this statement of belief. It's YS's, but you can call it mine too. (Although, if I'm honest, I'd want to emphasize the Father & the Holy Spirit just a tiny bit more than this statement does... without reducing the emphasis on Jesus one bit!!!)

>>> Important Stuff YS Believes (a.k.a., Statement of Faith)

This will be my last post related to the 2005 National YouthWorkers Convention in Pittsburgh. I promised I'd write about some of the great new people I met, and among these are the World Vision crew (esp. Mike & Shawn whom I worked the most with) and the IMJ crew (esp. the Leggs whom I worked the most with). I've also mentioned a few other folks elsewhere, and there are undoubtedly many who I will fail to mention. (A special thanks to Alex Roller for letting Judy & I come out and serve.)

However, I'd be lying if I didn't say I found one person's story catching me the most... not only because of his story, but because he didn't want to tell his story. His story only came out because the others who worked with him were eager to share it as part of getting to know each other before we spent a week working together.