"I had to wear my Patagonia today because Sarah Wright is here."

Years ago, when I was leading Young Life in Carmel, we had an annual Committee/Leader Ski Weekend at TimberWolf Lake. I would take a day off of school to go up with Jon Houghton and other leaders to get stuff set up early. Jon would always say that we had to make sure the day was, "Personal Day Worthy" or PDW. Today was another Houghton inspired PDW.

KCraig will be giving the Club Talks at a Winter Weekend next month and then during Session 1 this summer. She will be awesome-- I have no doubts about that. But first, she's got to put in the hard work of planning and writing and praying and practicing. We were dreaming big a couple weeks ago and hoped that part of that work could include sitting around a table with Annie Houghton.

Dreams come true.

KCraig and I drove up Chicago late Sunday night and snuck into the Houghton house. In the morning we got to take Kylie to breakfast at George's for strawberry chocolate chip pancakes and then drop her off at school.

And then bit by bit, Annie and KCraig went through her four talks. I was mostly there for moral support, but I had the best seat in the house watching these two rock stars do their thing. These two have inspired, shaped and supported me like few others ever have. 

Lucky for us, we were also joined by Lucy, the youngest Houghton, all day long. She's a hummus eating, playground climbing, pajama loving champ. 

By the help of blueberry goat cheese, Diet Coke, afternoon lattes and a whole lot of Jesus, so much progress was made. Annie is an expert in all things YL, especially Club talks, and was an invaluable help today. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be there to get to hear KCraig deliver these talks to a room full of hundreds of teenagers this summer. In all kinds of ways, God has been preparing her for this and will show up to speak through her.

The icing on top of an already perfect day was getting to see our friend Rachel Phillips before we left. She's been my friend since she was just a tiny 7th grader in homemade overalls and is now a freshmen at Depaul. She's on Student Staff in the city and gets to learn from Annie all year long-- she's so lucky. But it was so good to just be together and hear about what her life looks like these days and how she's already growing so much.

Thank you Annie for letting us sit at your table with you. Thank you KCraig for putting in the hard work and being real with us. Thank you Wendy's for being the best road trip food. Thank you Johnna for being the best sub ever and taking care of my class while I was away. Today was absolutely PDW.