I held off on writing this morning, simply because my emerging head cold was at the forefront of my mind and I couldn’t think of anything else to write about. Unfortunately, now it is 4 pm, my head cold is still bad, and I still don’t have a whole lot of inspiration regarding what to write about. If it weren’t so late in the day, I think I’d call it quits. But why waste sick leave when I’ve already stuck it out this long?

Of course, I always feel bad coming into the office sick anyway, since I know that I’m a hazard to all the other employees. Perhaps it comes from my days in college, when I never, ever skipped class for illness. I could have been on death’s door and I would have still drug myself out of bed and limped in for a lecture. Even today, there’s just something in me that revolts from taking sick leave, even when I know I should. Especially when I only have three weeks left in the office!!

That’s right, only three weeks left until I go home and get married. And in those three weeks, there are all sorts of things going on that need attention. So perhaps in my uninspired writing day, I’ll give you a brief summary of what’s going on in the NNPCW offices right now.

For those of you who were interested in the NNPCW scholarships, the deadline has passed. Now we’ve got the applications in the mail to the selection committee, who will be meeting soon to decide how to award the scholarships. We had several great applicants this year for our scholarships—I hope all the applicants will get involved in NNPCW, too!

Actually, I’m swimming in applications right now! We had a ton of high quality applicants for the NNPCW Associate position, and we’re now soliciting more material from them. We also have intern applications to go through. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to do interviews for those positions until after I get back from my honeymoon, which should spice things up quite a bit right before General Assembly.

And for those of you who don’t know, NNPCW always has a strong presence at General Assembly. This year, Brianne, me, and six NNPCW women will travel to Birmingham, Alabama for a pivotal year at GA. If you know a bit about internal church politics, hot items this year will include the final Peace, Unity, and Purity Task Force Report, as well as more discussion on the Assembly’s controversial 2004 decision to investigate the option of divesting of stock from companies that profit from the occupation of the Palestinian Territories in the Middle East. The Peace, Unite, and Purity, or PUP Report, relates to the church’s ongoing battles about the ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women and men to ministry.

Of course, we’re also moving full-steam ahead with the Leadership Event, which you can still register for! “Women Among Them Astounded Us: A Celebration of Women in All Generations” will bring us to Louisville on July 7-11 for dialogue with older women about the issues facing the church and society today.

Frankly, it is about time we started talking, too. NNPCW has become well-known for addressing the other justice-oriented “isms” in our church, but even we often refuse to acknowledge how we perpetuate ageism in our attitudes toward others. My hope is that this event will challenge all participants, young, old, and in-between, to critically examine their own age biases and work to tear down those barriers. I hope the event will also be an opportunity to honor the contributions of all women to the work of the church, regardless of age.

Well, that’s my office. And now I’d better get up and move around before I fall asleep at my desk. Ah, illness—so much fun.

“Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.” --Luke 24:22-23

Kelsey