Last weekend, McClean Bible Church in the Washington, DC area held its annual Accessibility Summit. The conference reaches out to the special needs community – families, professionals, and ministries. Last December my proposed topic, Managing Your Time Without Losing Your Mind, was accepted as one of the Family Track workshops. Ever since then, I looked forward to attending. Not because of what I had to share with others, but because of what they had to share with me.
Who Was At the Accessibility Summit
Even though my plane was delayed 6 hours, which meant I missed all the Friday happenings, there was plenty of time to meet oodles of people on Saturday. Barb Dittrich of Snappin’ Ministries was one of the first people I met Saturday morning. She’s in the yellow shirt in the above photo. The two of us shared a booth in the Exhibit Hall. Thanks to her, A Different Dream for My Child and Different Dream Parenting started selling Friday evening!
Lots of people stopped by the booth Saturday, including Shannon Dingle who blogs about special needs ministries at www.theworksofgoddisplayed.com.
Harmony Hensley and Katie Wetherbee of Key Ministry strolled by on the way to their booth, too. So did two people I interviewed by phone while researching Different Dream Parenting. The first was Lainie Byers, creator of the famous Lainie’s Chart which in one of the appendices of DDP. The other was Stephanie Hubach, author of Same Lake, Different Boat, one of the best books available about the theology behind special needs ministries. Unfortunately, lots of other people were visiting the booth then, too, so we never had a chance for photos.
Who Attended the Time Management Workshop
During my workshop session, over 50 parents eager to learn more about managing their time made our hour together fly by. Here’s the left side of the room,
and the right side of the room.
Even though I took their pictures with my new iPad 3, warned them they might show up on this blog, and made goofy expressions like this one during the presentation,
they sat through the whole thing. Some of them even visited my booth later to talk. Those parents were the very best part of the weekend, and many of them shared more time management tips during the Q & A time at the end.
DifferentDream.com Bloggers Were in Virtual Attendance
DifferentDream.com guest bloggers Laurie Wallin, Amy Stout, Rebekah Benimoff, and Melissa Gamble were in virtual attendance, too, when the time management tips they sent to me were shared, along with their photos, in the Power Point. Their tips were such a big hit, they will run in a time management series here at Different Dream. The first installment will run on Friday, May 4 so stop by again to hear what they have to say.
Leave a Comment
If you also attended the Accessibility Summit, leave a comment about your impressions. Or if you attend a different conference, tell us about it and share your reasons for attending. I’d love to hear from you!
Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.
Meeting you was a joy, Rachel. Maybe we’ll can see each other again next year. Hopefully, my flight will be on time next year so we’ll have time to really talk.
Jolene
Meeting you was a joy, Rachel. Maybe we’ll can see each other again next year. Hopefully, my flight will be on time next year so we’ll have time to really talk.
Jolene
I LOVED the Accessibility Summit and I’m so glad–and thankful!–I was able to attend. I feel that I benefited greatly from going and learned through so many aspects: helpful information from sessions, building relationships with other parents, receiving inspiration and hope from keynote speakers–the list could go on and on!
I particularly enjoyed hearing you speak and the opportunity to meet you in person! =)
Overall, the entire experience of the Summit was wonderful.
I LOVED the Accessibility Summit and I’m so glad–and thankful!–I was able to attend. I feel that I benefited greatly from going and learned through so many aspects: helpful information from sessions, building relationships with other parents, receiving inspiration and hope from keynote speakers–the list could go on and on!
I particularly enjoyed hearing you speak and the opportunity to meet you in person! =)
Overall, the entire experience of the Summit was wonderful.
Jolene, it sounds like it was a wonderful conference! Your idea is such a needed one for all of us… sometimes we just spin our wheels and don’t even THINK about how we’re doing all we have to do. So glad the tips were helpful!
Jolene, it sounds like it was a wonderful conference! Your idea is such a needed one for all of us… sometimes we just spin our wheels and don’t even THINK about how we’re doing all we have to do. So glad the tips were helpful!