Although I only got to go for 1 day, causing me to miss a couple of the speakers I had hoped to hear, I had a great time at the Awaken 2008 Conference put on by Mosaic in Pasadena.  Erwin McManus did the hosting and I did get to hear an evangelism panel discussion with Lee Strobel, Mark Mittleberg, Rick McKinley, Dan Kimball and Eric Michael Bryant.

And speaking of Eric, he was kind enough to get me in at the last minute unexpectedly and he made sure my registration was covered because I could only be there for the day.  And he reminded me that he's  making a special offer at his website on his book Peppermint-Filled Pinatas – if you buy a case, he'll give you a case free!  You can find my interview with Eric about the book here.

I was also able to visit a couple of booths.  I got to talk to the Sermon Spice folks whose beautiful media resources you've read about here.  I also got to meet the founder of a prayer application called Kindle Joy.  I hope to look into this product further and if you've used Kindle Joy let me know.

I also got to share time with Mynhardt & Lisha Van Pletsen who were wonderful to connect with.  Timely, too, as they only have months left in the US before returning to South Africa.  More on the launch of their the bread & wine.org soon, I promise.

By the way, Dan Kimball – who I practically ran into jumping out of a PT Cruiser (I know, so appropriate) – wrote a good Awaken wrap up here with a photo of wired DJ Chuang in all his orange-ness.  My wrap up can't complete with his and neither can my iPhone photo of DJ.

Erwin McManus & the red sofa

  Mark Batterson out of the pit & onto the big screen

  Me, Mynhardt Van Pletsen, DJ Chaung, Lisha Van Pletsen