Urbana: Power trip

I got my Wii today, after service.

The sermon was actually pretty good.. or had some great potential. I always find that the premise of sermons at TCCC are really good but then they fail to close it out. I think that's what I find most unsatisfying about the church, it's the sermons. The topic was "Unanswered Prayer". Pastor Kinson started it out by sharing a story in his childhood of praying for someone who was sick but they ended up dying anyway, and as child, being challenged with this idea that maybe there was no point in praying because it didn't make a difference.

To me that alluded to a very challenging message and something that really hits the core of being a Christian and the struggles and challenges that we face. But then he watered it down and just went into these 4 points about unanswered prayer, about how it protects us, strengthens us, deepens us, etc.

Anyway, about Urbana. I feel like these people are on a power trip. Since it's no longer on a campus this year and just random hotels, I want the comfort of living with friends. Urbana is different this year in that there are several different tracks to choose from and each track is quite different. All the friends I'm going to Urbana with are going on the "Open for Business" track. This is for business people, like finance, business administration, entrepreneurs. It's totally not me. But in order for me to be able to live with them, I need to enroll in the same track.

So I did. As soon as I got registered in the room, I changed my track to what I wanted, which is "Slum Communities in the Developing World".

Then, they moved all "Open for Business" people to another hotel, making everyone re-do the housing. So we did it all over again, I switched back to the Business track and got re-invited into the hotel. Then I went to register for "Slum" again, and it said the track was full! What the heck, so I picked the "AIDS" one instead.

Couple days ago I go back in and notice that they're letting people sign up for Slum but it's a waiting list. Since that's what I wanted to do, I switched to that one.

It kicked me out of the hotel room that I had been reserved for, saying this is a Business hotel and no one else is allowed to stay there. What the heck..

So I registered back in the Business track, got reinvited into the room, and send a complaint letter to the Urbana people.

What gives? I paid $450 to go to Urbana, spent another $300 on flight, and further I'll have to pay for my own lunches, and housing. And they won't even let me choose who I get to live with or what seminars I get to attend? What's the point? Certain individuals have a particular conviction to attend certain plenary sessions or seminars, and instead they decide to force everyone to go a certain way. It just doesn't make sense.

Urbana 2006 is completely chaotic. I hope they will get their act together, I am slowly losing interest.